2018 Limited 4x4

...Takes sip of bourbon, sets down glass...


Hey all,

I wanted to document and give back to the community on what they have provided me in helping me build out my 2018 Sequoia Limited. I've read and reread several of the threads here to learn and understand what works and doesn't.

This is my first time modding a vehicle. To this point, they've just been a means to get around until I was planning a family vacation and one of the locations I was looking into said 4WD required to get to it. It then dawned on me, WTF am I doing, I need a 4WD vehicle to take my kids to the remote destinations I grew up visiting. At that point, I started looking into trading in my 2006 Tundra double cab 2WD. It was a good truck, drove it for 15 years, but I needed something my growing family of 5 could be comfortable, safe, durable, and long lasting. As I looked into potentials vehicles, enter Land Cruisers. I've been pretty vehicle oblivious up until now. I would absolutely love to own one of these things but they just don't fit the needs of my family and the cost. The third row on those beasts just don't cut it for my day to day travels. Maybe someday when the kiddos get their own rides. A new Tundra was not going to fill the family needs either, nor would a 4Runner, and a Highlander AWD was out of the question even with a mini-van in the arsenal now.
The more I looked, the more I wanted to stay with Toyota. I've owned my trucks for a while. I went from a '93 Chevy S10, '98 Ford F150, '06 Toyota Tundra. I had numerous mechanical and electrical problems with the S10 and F150, and that turned me off to new vehicles from those makers. During my search the Sequoia kept popping up. It checked several of the boxes for my requirements. It was spacious, safe, durable, and 4WD. The Sequoia is capable and much more than a soccer mom's car. And this is when I stumbled across Tundras.com and my mind was blown. A wealth of information about mods, improvements, and personalization's I had never even considered. I became a car guy at that point.
I knew I wanted a Sequoia but I needed to find one. With the pandemic and the car market, it was going to be tough. I searched online and physical dealerships for probably a year before I found one at a price point I was comfortable with, used, yes.

In April of 2022, I traded in the 2006 Tundra I had been driving for 15 years for a 2018 Sequoia Limited White 4WD and I am very happy with it.

Thank you for sticking with me through my story. I've always been a tinkerer and what I have learned here has been a great deal of help. I don't always get on my computer since I'm on one all day for work and posting from a tablet or phone sucks...

Current state:


More photos coming...

 

Work done so far:

• TRD Prod Grill Swap
• Interior LED light swap
• TRD Sway Bar swap - front/rear
• Dobinson IMS Suspension - Front 2.5in Coil Over, Rear 1.75in Springs
• AFE Dry Drop-In Air filter
• SCS Ray 10 Wheels
• BFG KO2s 275/70/18s - Got these on sale from Costco.
• WeatherTech Floor Mats
• SPC UCAs
• 12 Volt Solutions Remote Start
• Rear Air Bags - Firestone Coil-Rite (air bags placed, still need to connect them)
• Debadge/Chrome delete - In Progress: Removed badges and chrome side striping. Still working on door handles, mirror caps, front fog surroundings, and lower grill surrounding.
• Fluid Baseline - Oil, Transmission Fluid, Transfer Case, Differentials all with Amsoil Fluid

 

First thing first, get that TRD Grill on. The 2018 Limited already comes with the color matched bulge. I reused it with the TRD Grill. It was a pain to try and pull it off the Limited grill and attach it to the TRD Grill. Trying to pull the clips and reattach them to the new grill was fairly difficult. If I had to do it again, I'd probably just opt to get a new hood bulge.

 

Next, I swapped out the sway bars. I followed some previous post about getting the rear on in dropping the rear propeller shaft to swap out the rear. I replaced the end links and bushings. After replacing these, the previous end links could have been reused as they were still in pretty good condition. Same with the front, they were still in good condition so I reused them. I missed out on taking some photos on the rear but got a side by side of the front.

I did a test drive between each of the sway bar replacements. I was able to tell a difference between the before, the without, and with the new. Much more confidence on turns, it's nice. To describe the difference, I would say the feeling without feels like when making a hard turn, you tend to lean against the turn and then when you are at the end of it, you have this momentum pulling you into the turn and then you have to adjust yourself for the built up pending roll to bring you back to center. With the sway bars, you don't fell that. I felt more of an improvement with the front swap than the rear.

 

Very nice! It’s so fun to mod these trucks and personalize them! What’s next???

 

Next up was the suspension. There are enough options out there for the Tundra that can translate to the Sequoia, but I looked into it a bit further for something that was designed for the big tree and that is how I ended up with the Dobinson IMS setup on all four corners. I wanted to level out the ride. I don't tow but wanted to be prepared in the off chance that I do need to at some point. Being new to the suspension installation, it was a bit of trial and curse words. The installation is not overly complicated, but some of this shit is a bit heavy and awkward to install.

I ended up installing my front coil overs twice. The first time as they were delivered. And again after seeing I wanted a bit more lift in the front. The IMS shocks for the Sequoia sit on a C clip with 3 notches. The lowest notch is suppose to equal stock height. The above notches grant you .5in - 2.5in of lift. After installing them as they came, on the bottom notch, I removed them and moved the C clip up to the middle notch.

Adjusting the notch on these coil overs was a bit of a task. I needed to compress the spring, remove the top hat, and carefully remove the compressed spring from the shock. In anticipation of working with the front and rear springs I had purchases a fork style spring compressor from Amazon and it worked like a charm.

$120 8MILELAKE Macpherson Strut Spring Compressor Kit Interchangeable Fork Coil Extractor Tool Set

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01DP2CDJU?ie=UTF8

Back in the coil over went.

The first time I installed it, I had disconnected the outer tie rod from the spindle. I had seen this in a few other videos and walk throughs. You don't really need to do this. You do need to disconnect the spindle from the UCA and position it out of the way. You will need to push the LCA system down quite a bit to get the longer coil over in place. I used a pry bar and had to stand on it a bit to make space.

 

Getting the rear springs in were a nightmare. I thought it was a good time to get some air bags in the rear springs while they were out in the off chance I ever needed to tow anything of had some heavy cargo. I do anticipate ruffed up and weighed down in the future, so I added some coil-rite bags to the springs during install. I have still yet to connect them but at least they are in and I just have to add the air lines when I have time and it's not hotter than a giants ball sack outside.
Getting the rear IMS shocks in place was pretty easy peasy, no complaints there.

The fork spring compressor worked wonders for the front struts which built confidence for the rears. Compressing the springs wasn't an issue. Positioning them in the seat during install was rather difficult.
It's important to get the bottom of the spring to align with the spring cradle perch or you could have issues down the road (literally). Again, sorry for the lack of install pics. I'll add more when I get a chance.

 

I forgot to mention that in between all this that I swapped out the interior lights with LEDs. I had originally order these LEDs based on part number, but they don' fit in the vanity lights. They work, when held and forced in, but are not made to stay in the vanity light location.

$12 SIR IUS LED N3 DE3175 LED bulbs Pure white Super Bright LED Festoon 300 Lumens 3030 Chipset for Car Truck Interiors Dome Map Door Courtesy Lights 1.25” 31MM Festoon Pack of 6 Bulbs

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08FCX3FFN?ie=UTF8
Lesson learned. I found some replacements, I'll post them later when I find the link.

The interior lights I did not account for are the parking light footwell and the center console cup holder area light. I need to find corresponding bulbs to fill swap these out.



Sorry, the rest of the bulbs were camera shy (I didn't take pics of those).

 

Solid build so far, looking forwardt to more progress pics. It sounds very simar to the thread I will be starting soon for my own build

 

I have a question about the Dobinsons,
I want a 1 or 2 inch rake ,with 2.5 in rear , should I get 1.75 or 2.5 ims in fronts ? You wrote that the 2.5 fronts lowest clip was stock ,so how does this compare to the 1.75 springs ? Is the top clip in those stock ?
Thanks

 

I imagine if you went with 2.5 on both, you'd retain some of the factory rake. I intially installed the fronts at the lowest C clip setting. I didn't leave them on long enough to let them settle but knew I wanted a bit more. I moved them to the top setting and have had them there for the past 4k miles. I'll have to get a new pic up but I think I'm pretty level with the 1.75" springs in the rear and 2.5" top setting in the front. I would the think the 1.75 would allow for that rake you are looking for with the 2.5 in the rear.

Check with Mike at Exit Offroad. I reached out to him when I was doing my research.

 

Thank you , appreciate it !

 

Hello, for the rears is there a major difference between the regular shocks and the ims , except just a better quality shock for extreme off roading ? I know the front ims allows different settings, also do you think I need top plates , ? Thanks

 

The IMS is kinda like the mid grade. It's montube, bigger diameter, better oil and valves, rebuildable, and they can have the remote reservoir as an add on but I haven't seen that actually available. Dobinsosns does have a MRR line which is considered to be a step above the IMS. They are similar but the MRR have the remote resis. The MRRs aren't available or our trucks.

The extra features appealed to me so I ponied up. It's probably more than I need for my applications but I'm super happy with them.

As for top plates, I dont have the air bags. I did opt for new top hats. Most retails have the option of adding those on. Ain't nothing wrong with some new bushings ith you new suspension.

Some Dob links to struts and IMS links.

 

Thanks

 

Was checking on something on the under carriage and noticed the drain plug on t pan was weeping. Sure as shit, on my last drain and fill I over torqued it and stripped it. Probably gonna do a new pan as I don’t want metal shavings from trying to drill it out in the pan.

 

Oooof, that stinks!

 

Been a while since an update. I've been on the site, just hadn't sat down to update the thread.

I got transmission drain plug weeping sorted out. Probably my fault over torqueing the drain plug after a drain and fill.
I ended up swapping out the pan, drain plug, and gasket for new. Didn't bother with the t filter. It's been running just fine since. No more weeping.

No pics of the removed pan. There was more sediment on the T pan magnets than I had thought there would be.

 

I installed a new head unit. Kenwood DMX958XR. Wireless AA is awesome. I didn't realize how much it sucks your battery. Game changer tho.

 

I swapped out one of the 12v adapters with a

BATIGE Micro HDMI Male to HDMI Female & Type C 3.0 Male to Female Car Flush Mount Cable for Car Boat and Motorcycle - 3ft

HDMI USB C plug from Amazon. I was able to route the HDMI and USB C to the HU.

 

Replaced the old USB A and Aux input with a

$23 Cllena Quick Charge 3.0 & PD USB C Dual USB Port Charger Socket Power Adapter for Toyota

USB C and USB 3.0 plug made for Toyotas. It displays the voltage as well.
I reused the 12v connection from the 12v location I put the USB C/HDMI plugs. The 12v adapter plug is a right angle. I just split the plug in half and connected it to the new USB slot.

 

Got a Yakima Skybox, used. Still in great shape.

We used it on our 5,000 mile road trip this summer, on the mini van tho. It worked out very well. Durable. I was surprised how little it impacted MPG on the road. The wind noise is hardly noticeable when the moon roof shade cover is closed, a little more noticeable with it open.