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Glad to hear the new combo seems to be better balanced.
Sounds like Dave got a good deal on the install assist.Well we all know that smell… gear oil. Noticed the smell from the rear end and wouldn’t ya know it, a leaking rear axle and a patch of oil on my right rear wheel on the passenger side. The was no excessive noise or grinding from the rear so I figured it was the axle seal so I picked up 2 rear seals from Heffs. $32.00 for two! Anyhow, I decided to do both seals and a gear oil change at the same time seeing as generally when one goes the other isn’t to far behind. For those that don’t know, you do not have to remove the parking brake assembly to do the job. So anyways here’s a couple of picks of the smelly mess that’s involved!
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Not a bad life on those original seals eh! And $32 and some gear oil is not a bad repair bill either.
Are your wheel bearings still original?If any of you folks own an FJ Cruiser you’ll be quite aware of the blindspot dilemma for sure . Well I think I’ve solved it do a degree that I’m quite satisfied! Picked up a WolfBox 900 mirror cam with hardwire install kit. The install went pretty much as planned though a little longer than I’d hoped but overall most people could do it themselves. Here’s an overview of what the unit brings to the table and a couple of generic pics to give you an idea of what the kit contains as well as a representation of the rearview that I now have.
WOLFBOX 900 Rear View Mirror Camera, Mirror Dash Cam Front and Rear 4K+2.5K for Car with 12″ Full Touch Screen, Waterproof Backup WDR Camera, Night Vision, G-Sensor, Parking Assist, Free 64GB Card & GPS
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It was time to get the wrenches out again and get ahead of the game by replacing both of the front wheel hub assemblies. Bearings, brake dust plates, oil seals, bearing bolts, O-rings and hubs. At 335,000 Kms it’s just a matter of time before they do give out and be forced to pay more. All parts besides the bearings which are NSK(Japan) are OEM. Total cost in was about $900.00 where the stealership would be in at about $2300.00-$2500.00(est) for parts, labor and taxes of course. The brake dust plates I gave 3 coats of rust paint so hopefully they will last a long time. Shout out to Ryan(came through in a pinch) for pressing the bearings for me, as usual a top quality job! I’m going to rebuild the old assemblies as I ordered 2 extra bearings by mistake and for the sake of 2 oil seals for about $60.00-$70.00 and have them on hand, they also fit 4th/5th gen 4Runners and Lexus 470 as well.
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In for penny and in for a pound as they say! The biggest issue for any IFS suspension system is the limiting factor of sway bars, you can either remove them or keep them and live with it. Toyota now offers a KDSS system that alleviates the issue but is and never was available on the FJ Cruiser. So I stumbled across a company(Apex) that offers an actual sway bar disconnect(kwikLYNX) but at $750.00US that was out of my price range but they do offer a more affordable solution. The Apex AirLYNX is not a true disconnect but it does provide the best of both worlds at $380.00US. I went with the iarLYNX.
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So having ordered the Apex airLYNX I’d realized that I had ordered the wrong one as the one I wanted was for an OEM upper control arm balljoint and not the Icon uniball. I quickly tried to cancel the order but for some reason the order had already processed and shipped. Customer service at Apex was great and they tried to have the order returned but much to both our dismay UPS could not track it down and it would be delivered to me. So rather than go through the whole process of returning the one I had and the costs associated with it, not to mention the aggravation involved I ordered a new set of upper control arms from Icon that were on sale through Amazon.
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Here is the new system installed.
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Fortunately or rather unfortunately(for my pocket book) I continued shopping and ended up with a few more items in the shopping cart, sigh! An RSO adjustable trackbar, adjustable rear upper control arms, adjustable rear lower control arms and rear adjustable swaybar ends links. To say this past year has been an expensive one would be an understatement, LOL. There is one shining light for the benefactor(Dave) of my used parts parts that will fit either his 02 4Runner or his new to him 2014 4Runner, I foresee some wrench days in his future, LOL
Sweet collection of parts. As always, your truck is kitted out properly. Hope they installed well.
Never seen a sway bar link like that before, will have to youtube it later.
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