What have you done to your 1st gen Tundra today?

Today I adjusted my headlights for the hundredth time. Buying cheap projectors and housings is one of my biggest regrets. The output is dog shit and every time I drive on a gravel road more than a few minutes they come completely out of adjustment. I can barely touch the housing and the whole thing jiggles. At night I often have to use my yellow Baja fog lights for additional support. I feel bad blinding people so I have them aimed really low.

Also, the driver side headlight only comes on 50% of the time. I have to flip them on multiple times to get it to work.

Let this be a lesson.

Here is what they look like after my Arkansas trip.




After adjustment:




Here is me touching the housing.


https://youtu.be/peRgdEAzu7U?si=Q8dam355AhLXxel4

 

Dave Matthews does not approve, and Tim Reynolds is looking at you crossly.

Are these the projectors you bought pre-made?

 

Nice! Did you make that bracket yourself?

 

Yes. And initially the output was so bad I couldn't see at night. Literally couldn't safely drive without the yellow fogs. So I bought some much better bulbs and ballasts. That helped some but they still aren't good. The ballasts are made by Hylux. I suspect the driver side ballast has an issue which is why they only turn on half the time.

 

Is this to eliminate a rattle?

 

Mine does that every day warming up in the winter. Power steering pump bearings are the issue with mine. It’s fine in the warm weather.

 

Nice

 

May I suggest raising the spare tire mount

ignore the Orange. That didn’t happen

 

Oh my, looking good!

 

Are you riding bedless for that. Pretty cool.

 

Yes. I mainly had a rattle at the access door at the top. It’s now gone. The front doors close tighter now too

 

No just lifted the spare higher for more clearance.

 

Gonna try this. Get a sporadic rattle on passenger side I’ve never been able to locate.

 

It only takes about 3 wraps with the tape. Any more and the latch will get stuck on the tape around the striker and cause the door to be difficult to open

 

I blame all my rattles on my fire extinguisher. Even the ones from the dash.

 

Perhaps bake em and pop the lenses off and fix em?

 

How are the projectors mounted? Screwed to the reflector bowl or is it a threaded shaft mount? If threaded maybe you just need to tighten the shaft nut. If they are bolted to the bowl, the nuts may be coming loose in which case it would require baking them apart and separating the bowl from the backplate to tighten the nuts on the mounting bolts and JB weld over them so they don't loosen again.

Which projectors did they install for you?

 

I don't think that's the issue or even worth trying.

 

Finally got tired of the musty smell in the bed. Brushed, vacuumed, foamed and scrubbed, then wiped clean, before vacuuming again.

Hopefully this helps. If not, I finally bought an ozone machine this week and I’ll slap that back there. My smeller doesn’t want to work anymore after doing all this so I can tell if it helped.

I think I’m about to Seafoam-spray the intake and 303 the interior. Got a fan inside the cab to air it out. The stuff I used apparently has a penchant for smelling like astringent cucumber if you don’t let it fully air out. It sure as hell worked though.

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Math from fill ups at same station/pump. I also check actual mpg with the torque app while driving but hand calculate as it is more accurate.

Mine is an 05, so VVTi, 5 speed trans and uses wheel speed sensors, so dash is accurate still.

That was hand calculated over 225mi trip to SF and back at 10.9gal, late at night so no traffic and doing 60mph. It was both ways so not just downhill. BUT it was at a very boring 60mph on cruise control.

225/10.9=20.6mpg @60mph
249/13.1=19.0mpg @65mph

I have some older cooper tires that need replacement soonish, so less rolling resistance. Stock 265's on stock wheels. 2wd not lowered (yet).
Mods: 4.10 gears w/lsd, tonneau cover, AFE washable dry air filter and a TRD velocity stack in my fender to airbox (meant for a 4.0.4runner/tacoma).

Otherwise stock motor with new radiator (koyo) and denso fan clutch. 175-180k miles on the motor that trip.

Gears was the biggest difference. The tonneau alone was .5mpg gain in town and 1mpg on the freeway iirc.


When I get some time, I have a set of 12-hole injectors to install. I wonder if I'll see anything additional.

 

Maybe it was a dumb idea to top-end clean and TB clean right after cleaning the cap carpet….

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You need to order new plastic bits the straw is running in between before they're unobtanium.
They've got the early signs of the brittles.

 

I drove it! I have a knack for buying high mileage Toyotas, throwing a few parts at them, then expect them to perform flawlessly on an aggressive drive through Colorado. I have yet to be disappointed. The Tundra did perfect powering through the Rockies! Unexpected snow and all. Sitting at about 278k miles.

 

@NUDRAT ehicb parts specifically?

Maybe I need to 303 it. I just 303’d the interior plastics.

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So what sort of thin enough and strong/rigid enough item have people here used to pop their overhead map lights off without mangling the plastic around it?

 

You don't think that would give you the needed access to tighten em for good? I do.
I know on mine I loosened one side to adjust the cutoff and now it's not as tight as it should be. The only way I can see fixing it is to remove the lense so I can use one hand to put pressure on the projector, while the other hand tightens the nut on the backside.

Edit: unless you meant adjusting the housing

 

Haven't gone after the map lights yet, but but would something like this work? Got a set for like $5 IIRC when on sale.

 

Ordered $1260.20 of parts at retail for $664.78 during 25% off online pricing with free shipping. OEM at 47% off = good.

 

Is 303 different/better/worse than Armor All-type products? I kind of hate Armor All and haven’t bothered to try anything other than baby wipes, haha.