I’ve had it with having to muscle my tailgate open and close every time I get in the trunk. It’s about time to change out those 100k+ mile struts with some new ones. OEM ones can be expensive, but these aftermarket options work pretty well.

My car finally hit 200,000 miles! There are some crazy 500k+ mile 4Runners out there, which is seriously impressive. I’ve been doing tons of maintenance on the car and I’m confident it can continue going strong. Next stop will be 300k!

I decided to finally replace these old hood struts on my Toyota 4Runner after the hood came crashing down on my head. These parts tend to wear out over time; but luckily the fix was a simple replacement.

Because of my old hood struts, the hood came down on my head several times. However, one time it came down, closed shut, and would not open again. I finally did open it, but I had to fix it so it wouldn’t get stuck closed again.

I’ve been dealing with a Check Engine Light, P0031 & P0051 engine trouble codes, and the VSC TRAC and VSC OFF lights for the past year. I FINALLY fixed it–here’s what I went through this past year…

After getting my Fastrak Transponder, I decided I wanted it hidden out of sight yet still work at the tollbooth. After setting up auto-pay, there’s really no reason to even mess with the bulky transponder. I hid it away inside my dashboard!

For the past six months, my speedometer on my 4th Generation 4Runner has been working intermittently. Some days, it will operate normally…some days, it won’t budge from the zero mark. Here’s how I fixed it without having to shell out big bucks for a new instrument cluster.