My 04 Grande Build-up!

[jhiace Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close jhiace]

Hey guys,

I thought i would start a build up of my Grande which i picked up last Thursday. The Prado is an 04 Model, Automatic, petrol, long rego, good tread on tyres (albeit crap tyres), pretty good condition with 140000k's. The plan with this is to not do anything too drastic like my last Hilux but make it a little more comfortable for a little off road adventuring and camping. I have horses and mainly wanted the Prado for Towing and being able to carry large bags of feed etc with ease.

This is my old Hilux, which sadly in February this year was written off after being rolled 4X4ing.. I was pretty gutted to say the least and bought a new Honda Accord Euro Luxury Navi after the Hilux because i was pretty shaken and thought i could do without the 4X4 but i was wrong so that's why i'm here today.

The hilux had a 4" lift overall, 32" Maxis bighorns, canopy, full respray, ironman bull bar, ironman 12000lb winch, 2 X LED light bars, upgraded head lights with HID, fully retrimmed interior with WRX bucket seats (saved our lives in the roll over), full sound system, sound deadened, two UHF's, towbar, on board air compressor and tank, diff breather kit and a few more things.. It was fairly well equipped offroad and did quite well for an IFS truck.

[jhiace Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close jhiace]

And sadly this is how it ended up, the three of us escaped unhurt and not even a scratch.. We owe the WRX seats for saving our lives, as you can see the whole weight rested on the passenger seat!

[jhiace Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close jhiace]

And this is the 120.. First thing i did to it was strip it as best as i could as it had never been washed and was in need of a good degrease, wash, clay block and polish! I removed the 'grande' badge, the 4L stickers and the side steps (still undecided on this but they were faded and looked pretty ordinary, plus it isn't high enough to need them to get in..), new slimline flexiarm wiper blades, iPod and bluetooth integration with the factory GPS unit and put my personalise plates on it. I am pretty happy with how it has come up, it has a few minor dints and scratches but nothing major, may one day get them all fixed up.

My mods so far include;
iPod & Bluetooth integration into the standard Navigation unit
New leather retrim
Floor mats
Spare tyre telescopic LED work lights
LED autolamp flood lamps for rear
4 custom rocker switches
2" EFS suspension lift
Airbag spacers
Hilux washer jet upgrade (parts on order)
LED 'submarine' lighting
LED lights throughout interior
New front rotors and pads
22" LED lightbar in front bumper
LED reverse lights mounted in rear bar
Sea master MFM70 battery
LED lights all round
Side awning
Maxxis Bighorn 764 265/70/17 tyres
Drawers
Re-Trimmed steeringwheel (in progress)
On-Board air
TRED Recovery boards

Future mods include (but not limited to);
Head light upgrade
UHF
Auxilary battery
Fridge
Upgraded speakers and install amp/sub
reversing camera
Rated recovery hooks
Front bash plates
Roof top tent
Snorkel
New window tint
Roof LED Light bar

And that's all i can think of for now...

[jhiace Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close jhiace]

And after a bath

[jhiace Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close jhiace]

[jhiace Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close jhiace]

ipod connectivity and Bluetooth




Cheers, Josh
(sorry about all the posts but as you know, limited to 4 per post...)

[berniebgf Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close berniebgf]

Welcome, and sorry to hear the circumstances in which you had to purchase the Prado.

However! Lucky for us as I feel this is going to be an interesting build up. First mod being ipod connectivity, interesting.

Keep the surprises coming!

Bernie.

[craigm Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close craigm]

Looks like your on your way to a nice tourer jhiace. And you'll love the Grande for towing with the airbags in the rear! Have a look when you get time in the 120 section suspension threads as there is some good oil on lifting the Grande easily...

[jhiace Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close jhiace]

Thanks Bernie and Craig,

I have been lurking around these forums for some time and eyeing off a few interesting threads, funny that now i have the prado i can't find all the threads i did before.. I think this will be a great rig for touring, i was planning a trip in August with the Lux but for obvious reasons that didn't happen so mi might plan for another 12 months to do the Alice trip in this.

Also, does anyone know exactly how the fuel gauge in these things work? I completely filled it up yesterday and it only said a range of about 950, but it just seems to drop quickly and then it flicks over to the secondary tank (or is there no seat 1st and 2nd tank?) and it confuses me a bit why it changes over before hitting the E mark.. Can anyone shed a little light on this for me?

[Guest Close Guest]

Also, does anyone know exactly how the fuel gauge in these things work? I completely filled it up yesterday and it only said a range of about 950, but it just seems to drop quickly and then it flicks over to the secondary tank (or is there no seat 1st and 2nd tank?) and it confuses me a bit why it changes over before hitting the E mark.. Can anyone shed a little light on this for me?

http://www.pradopoint.com/showthread...ing-fuel-gauge

[jhiace Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close jhiace]

Thanks AMTS.. Explains it but it's still confusing..

I programmed my Ebay key today, was pretty easy to do first go and works a treat!

Does anyone know why the original key that came with the car will NOT manually unlock the drivers door OR lock/unlock the glove box?

[craigm Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close craigm]

I programmed my Ebay key today, was pretty easy to do first go and works a treat!

Details please jhiace... trying to find the correct programming procedure. What did you replace? The key and remote, or just the key and empty shell...

[Guest Close Guest]

Craig,
Have you seen this one? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WF__zxnTw5k

[jhiace Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close jhiace]

Craig,

I followed the instructions from the ebay seller, here is the ebay ad of the key i bought which is the whole key blank and transponder as my car only came with one.

Follow the videos at the bottom of the ebay page and make sure on the last step in programming you presse both lock/unlock buttons like he says on the ebay ad.. Hope this helps
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/271052892...84.m1497.l2648

[jhiace Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close jhiace]

I ordered the leather to retrim the seats as they are a bit worn.

Ordered a couple of custom rocker switches as well for my work lights that i am going to mount on the back. I also ordered a heap of LED's to replace all globes inside the car as well as parkers/number plate lights.

I am wanting to get a reversing camera but apparently the head units have two plugs which need to be used but a normal camera has one RCA cable which is not compatible with this unit directly. I think i remember reading somewhere about there being an adapter which means you can use any camera you want with the head unit, also does anyone know how to get into the 'maintenance' side of the head unit, i mean the one that you have to press buttons on startup to get into?