Builds My "new" 2007 FJ Cruiser (1 Viewer)

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Do you use the A/C a lot? Might be an evaporator drain is plugged. Again guessing. But the A/C dries the air as is cools, and the A/C runs any time the knobs are set to defrost, too, and the condensation generally drains to the ground through a short hose. The hoses can plug on some vehicles.

It was making the headliner wet so well above the ac components. Looks like a tiny bit of water on the a pillar, more on the b pillar, and then a lot behind the b pillar. Like I said though, it’s bone dry now???
 
Yeah - water physics is fun. Water moves around. Water can come in through the firewall, and then evaporate only to condense on a rear quarter panel.

Next time you see a damp spot inside; run the A/C on recirculate - 15 minutes should do it - and then look for a wet spot on the ground outside the truck.
 
Yeah - water physics is fun. Water moves around. Water can come in through the firewall, and then evaporate only to condense on a rear quarter panel.

Next time you see a damp spot inside; run the A/C on recirculate - 15 minutes should do it - and then look for a wet spot on the ground outside the truck.

This was definitely a roof or window leak. I’m talking completely wet roof liner. I’m thinking it was either the door seal or windshield and some one in a million angle that I parked at. It’s been like Seattle here for the last 24 hours and it’s bone dry...... so weird. I wish I had taken a photo of it now.

The ac works as it should; I always have the condensation under the vehicle. Nothing on the floor wa wet either. Maybe something got in between the door seal? No idea, I’m baffled. I know the roof was the issue before because it happened every time it rained befor I pulled the rack off and changed the mastic washers.

I might get a hose or and blast it when the weather clears up.
 
We've had tons of rain. No leaks to date. I am still puzzled as to what was causing the issue. Oh well! as long as it's done with. I got some silicone spray and wiped down all the door seals. I have found this helps keeping your door rubbers from sticking to the metal door frame in the winter when we get the freezing rain, snow, etc.
 
Serviced my rear diff and t-case yesterday.

T-case was pretty clean, looked almost new.

The rear diff however was fairly nasty. Not a lot of metal on the magnetic drain plug, but the fluid was dark. It was a little bit pressurized when I opened the fill plug so I knew the breather wasn't working properly. I ended up having to replace the axle vent.

I would recommend you all check this vent bc if it's not working it can cause pressure build up and cause gaskets to fail.
 
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I don’t have seat airbags so tossed these on. Brand new so still a little wrinkled, but fit excellent.

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That driver side looks like an ill-fitting hairnet. Does it not tuck into the plastic molding like the factory seat covers?

Haha I didn’t try. It doesn’t bother me as long as the seat portion is tight and not slipping around. I’ll investigate and get back to you on that once I look more.
 
Ran down to Georgia this weekend and decided while I was at my place and had all my tools I may as well swap the brake pads My FJ Cruiser always had a bit of sketchy feeling brakes at highway speed, but I just assumed it was due to it being short wheel base and an FJ Cruiser. Well, as I tore the brakes down I notice only one pad on each side was being worn (outside pad on both sides worn, inside pads almost as thick as new). I couldn't compress the inside caliper pistons so I went ahead and swapped them out with new calipers. Luckily the local NAPA had two in stock on a Friday afternoon. My brakes are amazing now! Brand new caliper and brand new pads are sweet. I also averaged 21-22 MPG coming back up running 70 mph on the highway.
 
Ended up having to replace my turn signal housing after a board flew up on the road and broke it. I think I got lucky there wasn’t more damage.

Separate event, I had the windshield changed with $0 deductible recently. Less than a week later the top roof trim flew off; it wasn’t installed correctly so they had to come back and replace it.

No leaks and the job looks good otherwise

Got this off amazon and it was great quality. $50
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Power steering leak started this week. I got hoses and the metal return line from advance auto for $60 and swapped them out.m so she’s all good now!

I decided to change the plugs while I was at it. Man they were rough looking!! One plug had a little oil on it as if the valve cover gasket wasn’t fully sealing. It wasn’t much and I found the 3 center bolts on the valve cover to be extremely loose. I tightened them up so I don’t think I’ll have an issue.

I went with ngk iridium plugs. The old ones were toast and were mismatched....who does that? What do you think of the old ones?
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Still waiting to see the mpg, but I can see a noticeable difference already. It was a little over 20 mpg after my first fill up from half a tank, but I was also on the highway for about an hour of that tank. I was at 16 mpg mixed driving in town before so curios to see.
 
Went ahead and fixed the wheel bearing on the driver side. While I was at it I decided to go ahead and do the passenger side too. I ordered new brake dust shields from Toyota, complete hubs with bearings, e coated rotors, and ceramic brake pads. I had replaced the calipers this past summer, but the rotors were in pretty bad shape.

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I was getting a little bit of oil in the spark plug tube last time I change the spark plugs so I decided to go ahead and tear the valve covers off and replace the gaskets. While I was at it I decided to go ahead and paint the valve covers (An online search didn't really produce anything, so I'm not sure why it hasn't really been done yet). I might do a write-up on the valve cover gasket change because there are a lot of little things that if you don't do correctly will cause issues. One example is you need two dabs of RTV on each head or else oil can leak out. Anyway, here are a couple pictures of the valve cover. I still need to pull the other side off and do it. It was a ton of cleaning and prep work, but I think it came out great.

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