Bought a 2000 4WD Tundra...What now?

Having just purchased a 2000 Tundra 4WD AC...
Wondering what I should look out for.
It's got almost 200K on the 4.7 V8
Meant as a farm truck, I don't care about cosmetics and am not focused on off road use.
It's lived in Southern California so it's clean of rust.
The PO said he did these:
•New driveshaft
•New sway bar links
•New serpentine belt
•New idler pulley
•New radiator
•Fresh oil change
•Transmission fluid changed

 

Welcome! No mention of timing belt. Read this post a few times, it’s really great.

Edit: oh and add your cab type to your truck description, RC/AC/DC.

 

As mentioned, if no proof of timing belt recently, then plan on doing a timing belt + water pump job very soon.

Driveshaft probably has greaseable u-joints, so don't forget those every oil change.

Good luck, sounds like a solid truck.

 

Lower ball joints. Make sure they were replaced under the recall history.

Maybe spark plugs if they haven’t been done in addition to the timing belt, water pump and thermostat.

Don’t tow in overdrive due to the weak planetary gear.

 

No need for new driveshaft unless damaged, Just do the U-joints (if they need it)
Timing belt.
Make sure the rear parking brake system is working. It's important to overall brake function.

 

Nice I have a 2000 with over 356,xxx miles 4x4 AC as well. Like people have said timing belt and lower ball joints. I’m from Southern CA as well.

 

The thread @JasonC. linked covers everything I'd say

Meanwhile, "new driveshaft"? Wonder why the hell the PO put that one in. Looks lifted, I'm assuming they were trying to suss out some weird vibrations? (Bet it was the rear brakes or they didn't shim to fix drive line angles)

I'd really take a minute to figure out what they put in for lift/suspension. Because chances are it's f'ed up. Post some pics of what you've got up front on the top half and bottom half, and the leafs and axle out back.

Can't stress enough to read up on here how to properly grease the drive line in your 4WD. And confirm 4WD is actually working, shifting into 4HI is sufficient, just don't use 4HI on dry pavement unless you're going in a straight line.

Welcome to the forum.

 

What’s the specific issue here? I’ve seen this said many places but (1) what is the Bad Thing and (2) what components could that affect?

 

Unless you have a Sequioa or other model with Torsen or some other type of limited slip diff up front, the moment you turn, and the wheels are spinning at different RPMs, the front axles will begin binding. POP POP POP. Something has to give, somewhere. If the tires are gripping the asphalt tighter, they're not going to be the first thing to give way, it'll either be an axle, splines on an axle, or something internal to your front diff/TC

EDIT: I've wondered how tough it'd be to migrate one of the Torsen diffs from a Sequoia into an AC/RC. Curious if the 4WD ECU is agnostic to what's inside the diff itself, if there's anything to manage with the TC, etc. If I'm going to eat extra gas just by having a 4WD, I'd at least like to be able to keep it engaged any time I want.

 

When you turn your truck, the wheels on the outside of the turn go faster than the inside. A differential allows this to happen. In 4WD, the front wheels also have a differential, HOWEVER, the front and rear differentials are now connected to each other through the transfer case. When you turn in this scenario, the front wheels travel at different speeds than the rears, causing binding in the transfer case. In the extreme case, the internals of the transfer case break, failing somewhat dramatically. A better solution is AWD, which is achieved by inserting a third differential between the front and rear.

 

This...



And this...

 

Where's the turbo encapsulator?

 

Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator

​

 

https://youtu.be/Ac7G7xOG2Ag

 

I've never had mine pop. It just skids in tight turns, especially backing up on dry pavement in 4wd. But other than in parking lots, I don't worry about it and usually keep in in 4wd.

 

Dunno. The one time I left 4HI engaged in a torrential downpour, then pulled into a parking deck that was dry as a bone, I turned my wheel and heard a couple pops before I realized "oh f@$#! i'm an idiot" and punched out of 4HI. It didn't feel like a skip, there was definitely a popping sound involved. But I've put several dozen or even a couple hundred engaged miles on it since, and nothing weird.

The only weirdness with my 4WD, and it's been like this since I bought the truck, is if I disengage while coasting, there's a singular 'thud' like I'm running over one single road reflector. But I found about 2 dozen people with 1st Gen Tundras and T4R in the same year range with the exact same symptom. No clear cause, no clear solution.

 

I wouldn't say its a better solution....its A solution....that comes with other problems....namely a less effective 4wd.

At least a locked center diff means than one tire on each axle will always be turning on our trucks. There is a reason people put lockers on their vehicles after all.

 

True that...ultimately it depends what you use your truck for. Full time AWD is great for on road driving in nearly all conditions. Off road, rock crawling, and other more demanding applications require more flexibility. My 4Runner has 2WD/4WD with a center diff, AND the ability to lock both it and the rear diff if need be. My Land Cruiser is full time AWD, with elockers as well. All of this is wasted on me, however, as I'm 99% on road, and only care about performance on wet, snowy, and/or icy roads.

 

My Land Cruiser has full time AWD, and my Tundra has 2WD/4WD. Both have the same 4.7 2UZ engine, yet the Land cruiser gets ~ 2 mpg more than the Tundra in 2WD...AND, the land cruiser weighs almost 1,000 pounds more than the Tundra.

 

Crazy. Aerodynamics, maybe?

 

Yep, what vehicle you need, depends on what you do.
I'm on roads 99% of the time....

But the road to my house requires at least AWD, 75% of the time. Even in summer, I can easily get stuck in my parking spot in 2WD.

My other car, is a subaru with AWD, but the Tundra in 4WD does a lot better. Without lockers, you basically actually only have 2x4 on a 4WD, and 1.5 x4 and on AWD.

All of which are an order of magnitude better than a 2wd anything.

People don't belive me when I say I need 4WD just to get out of my parking spot, so a few years ago I took a short video of me just trying to get out of my driveway in 2WD, vs 4WD
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KNYNeQg8zY