2012 Sequoia Platinum

I bought a used 2012 Sequoia Platinum last year from CarMax with 88,000 miles on the odometer. I swore I'd never buy a black car again (due to how hard it is to keep clean) and the color I really wanted was MGM but this came up at a good price, low miles and close to home so I jumped on it.

This is pretty much how the Sequoia sits today.


A small list of mods I did:
2020 Sequoia TRD Pro Grille
50% Ceramic Tint on all side windows
LED Pod lights on Rago Fabrications mount
3M Gloss Black vinyl wrap chrome mirror caps
Duplicolor painted door handles
AEM Dryflow filter
10" Stainless steel BAMuffler Standard System

This is how it looked when I bought it:
One of the reasons why I wanted to buy from CarMax is the 30 day full warranty and MaxCare (one of the industry's best aftermarket warranties available based on my research). Yes, although Toyota's are suppose to be bulletproof but you never know what the history is with the previous owner so the MaxCare gives me piece of mind.

I went to change the oil since I have no clue when the last oil change was and found out the center thingymajig for the oil filter is missing so I went to the auto parts store and picked up the dorman kit


Few days later, I noticed oil leaking. After reading the cam tower leak issue on this forum, I brought it back to CarMax and they told me to bring it to their CarMax Toyota dealership. They fixed both sides of the cam tower leak, in addition of replacing and calibrating the laser cruise control sensor since I received an error while using it. All of the repair was done free of charge due to the 30 day full dealer warranty.


402 miles to empty! The last time I remember seeing my mpg that high!

 

Bought a TRD shift knob during last year's 40% off sale. Got TRD Oil cap and radiator cap.


Removed center console storage for easier access to third row since I have two car seats in the captain's chairs.


Started to change all the lights (except turn signals) to LEDs. Mostly all from Amazon

These Hikari LEDs were a lightning deal for less than $30 so I thought I'd try them. The cutoff seems pretty decent on stock housings.


Ebay LED puddle lights. Pretty darn bright for less than $20.


LED pod lights! Amazon lightning deal again.


These mounts are terrible and I do not recommend them.

Ended up getting Rago Fabrications mount for the 2nd gen Tundras. They fit the Sequoia perfectly even though Rago cannot confirm that they do.

 

Here is a picture of the Rago mount with the led ditch lights


Installed Viofo A129 duo dash camera


Tried my hand at wrapping the chrome mirror caps with 3M glossy black vinyl. Not a great job but got rid of the chrome and it was cheap.



Bought AEM dryflow filter because I didn't want to deal with oiling. I have an OE filter for when the AEM one is being washed and drying.



Installed front camera due to this being a new car to me and difficult to judge how much space is left in front of me. I used the rear entertainment system to test the view of the camera before buying a 5" screen for the camera.




Bought CQuartz 3.0 Ceramic coating and tried it out. This was only one coat and it rained a few hours after I applied it.

 

A deer decided to run out and I didn't react in time.

Bought a bike rack for our family bike trips. I have a burley trailer in the trunk for the kids.

Brakes were pulsating when I applied them at speed so it was time for new rotors and pads. Decided to get TRD pads with OE rotors over the Powerstop Z36 option. I followed the TRD break-in prodecure, stopping power is pretty decent for a 6,000 lb SUV. Lots of brake dust though.




Had some leftover vinyl wrap so I decided to try the door handles. Not bad but it didn't last long.


So I ended up buying some Duplicolor adhesion promoter, Perfect Match paint, and clear coat to paint the chrome ones.

A picture of the LED tail lights and stop lights. Different brands but the color is not too different.


2020 Sequoia TRD Pro grille in attitude black! Love the look.



Was able to get in on the dirtydeeds group buy last year and bought myself a 10" Stainless steel standard system. Resonator pre-welded and took it to a shop to install since I didn't have the tools or energy to deal with rusted bolts which I couldn't get off. The shop had a lift, grinder and air chisel which made easy work of the overly rusted exhaust bolts. I'd probably spend 5 hours on my back trying to get it off but the shop only took an hour to take off the old and install the new.


A little bit of drone at low RPMs, around 1800-2000 rpm mark but once I downshift a gear for it to go to 2200 or above, drone is gone. The sound is amazing and I think that is why I don't see great MPG anymore.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cy1j89-1qhA

I think I'm done with mods for now.

 

Nice rig

 

Nice truck! I was thankful my wife didn’t get a black one I’d have to keep clean.

Any issues with people being blinded by the Hikari LEDs? I had them in my wife’s 2012 Sequoia, but had to take them out. People were getting pissed at her on the road. Since the Sequoia doesn’t have auto adjusters there wasn’t an easy way to mitigate it.

 

Coming along nicely.

 

Nice but yeah black, must be way up North, eh?

What no front window tint? How about an eyebrow? Tailgate Sequoia name overlay? Bushwacker fender flares?

JK it'll work as is, but really need front window tint....matched to rears....odd it came with no factory tinted rear windows...thought they all did....

 

Haven't had issues with blinding others. They haven't flashed me. Also I stood about 20 ft in front and looked directly into the headlights. Didn't get any glare until my vision was at the headlight level.

Yup, up in NY area. The rears are factory tinted but wanted more sun/heat protection so I did 50% on top of that. Fronts are tinted 50%, not too dark so I don't get bothered by the cops.
I thought about getting the rear chrome Sequoia painted or swapped to black one but seems like a bit of work and I don't look at my rear much do I decide to leave it alone, for now.
fender flares look nice though!

 

Nice truck and great build page! Keep us updated with the projects, I'm always looking for new things to do to my rig!

 

The inner fast and furious fanboy was channelling me. Had some led strip lights and put them around the border of the Toyota logo. Not a huge fan but I'm going to leave them on for now. Have a remote that I can use to turn on or off the light when I'm outside of the car since the module is under the hood. There isn't a lot of real estate on the grille to get a good look.

 

Got some AVS in channel vent visors. Fits like a glove!

 

Decided to pull the trigger on the Diode Dynamics SS3 Pro fog lights. Lightwerkz was fast to ship it out but the post office are baffoons. Should have went to go pick it up myself but whatever, it was worth the wait. The brackets fit the Sequoia like a glove and looks great. My eyes hurt from looking directly into the lights. It was easy to install, probably took less than 30 minutes. Need to wait now to adjust it to proper height and need some heavy fog to come down here.

 

Do you have the link for the Front Grill?

 

https://www.tundras.com/threads/2020-sequoia-trd-pro-grill-conversion.55533/#post-1453213

 

Installed a 32" light bar for the rear. Also have a 18" traffic warning light. I have it wired to switches that I installed on the center console.

 

Did you have your grill painted to match your black? I have a black limited that I want to upgrade like yours, but not sure if the attitude black color match.

 

No, I did not paint the grill. The attitude black is almost the same with the exception that it has metallic flakes. You can't really tell the difference far away, only when really close.

 

So basically all I need to do is buy the two parts and the screws for the bump and I'm good to go! That is just too easy to be true! Lol

I got the morimoto headlights on order.. This seems like the perfect mood to go with it.

Thanks!!!!!

 

Last question.... Am I correct to assume you attach the buldge to the grill prior to installing to the hood? The old peice is one part so that is throwing me off.... Plus with clips...I only want to do it once . Parts came yesterday!!

I was looking at the raptor lights... But not sure if that is legal in bklyn.

 

Yes, I installed the bulge first. Be super careful and take your time.

 

So buldge to the hood. Then attach the grill to the hood.

Stay tuned .

I have the limited... Wish I had the puddle lights... But I lost my side mirrors a few times already... So it less expensive not having the platinum mirrors.

 

Where did you order the grill from? My wife's is a 2013 platinum and she wants to do a full chrome delete.

 

Sparks Toyota....I think there was a link.

Also I believe you need 2 #8 screws 1/2 inch to attach the buldge to the grill. Our current gross are one piece .. This is two but you make into one.

I'm going to try installing it today (car is out dropping of the kids at school). . It looks pretty straight forward.

 

For me, it seemed to make sense to clip the bulge onto the grille first then install the two pieces onto the truck. I took two screws from the old grille as they look to be the right ones and fit perfectly.

 

I attached how I set up the grill and pointed to where one of the two screws are placed.

 

For me, I did a google search of the part number and added both parts to the cart to get a price quote with shipping. Shopped around a few different dealerships but ended up ordering from TRDSHOP since they had free shipping and the lowest overall cost. https://trdshop.carlocktoyotaoftupelo.com/

 

Thanks Omgpost! It was pretty straightforward. I took off the wrong part for the latch initially... But very quick and simple upgrade

Now to wait for the headlights.

I upgraded the stock stero to the kenwood DMX with a 10" display and was able to keep the dvd player (well only the aux in which I connected a roku too).

 

Just ordered both of these! Thanks for the info!!!

 

Hey Omgboost, got my lights!!
No wiring harness......what did you use?