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Your post reminded me of our Bhutan road trip with friends in their Toyota Innova in end 2019, of course it’s a beautiful place and relatively cheaper than travelling to other countries abroad and it has very friendly people.
The one thing which I loved was, the roads were so quiet as honking is not allowed and, it felt so beautiful when you didn’t hear that constant honking which we get here in Mumbai and, the people there seemed much more relaxed and didn’t seem to run after money and were enjoying their simple lives.

Putting the legality issue aside for now, coming to the car, it’s just WOW :loveit. Literally wow. The new Fortuner sure looks contemporary and imposing with immense road presence, however, the first gen Fortuner is straight up BUTCH. If you have the time, can you please write more about the mods you’ve done? Suspension upgrades? Remap? Brakes? Would love to know. I’m sure you’ve had a lot of adventures with her, maybe write a travelogue and add more pictures please :)

Coming to the huge bull bar, two risk factors. One is the pedestrians would be seriously hurt in case of a collision and the second is your airbags might not deploy in an emergency scenario.

Cheers!

A hell of a beast right there. Whenever I see a Toyota Fortuner with suspension lift, off road tyres and off road bumpers, it looks as if the vehicle is made for the apocalypse. It looks indestructible and it should be considering it's a Toyota. Would love to read about the whole mod list and the stories behind it.

After a repair work on the tail gate, the tail-lamps are not working on one 2013 4x2 5AT owned by a relative.

I believe it is a result of a connector left loose or unclipped while the repair was carried out. Peculiarly, the brake lights are working fine.

Can someone tell me how the tail-gate / tail-lamp wiring is routed so that I can check it myself.

I didn't understand the issue. What do you mean when you say brakes light are working fine and tail lamp is NOT working?

Are you saying indicators or reverse lights are not working? May be bulbs would have conked off. Please check the bulbs before analysing anything else.

Next step is to check the wiring route. There are two tail lamps. One on tail gate and one on body(corner. Tail lamp)

Body tail light should be working because it's routing is no where related to tail gate. However, the tail lamp on the body is routed inside the car through a cable on mid top of tailgate. Both spoiler brakes light and tail light (on tail gate) are taken inside the roof through this route.

Cross-posting from the Fortuner 4X4 A/T review thread as didn't get any reply to my query there.

My car just came back from the 1,20,000 kms service and I have been told that the front rack end requires replacement, hatch shockers have become weak and also heater coil needs to be replaced.

I wanted to know more regarding the front rack end and hatch shockers and whether all this should be done at the ASC or can be done outside since my car is out of warranty now.

Thanks,
sv97

The tailgate gas springs are simple enough to DIY so any garage can do it with aftermarket replacement gas struts.

If you have a reliable and trusted independent workshop you can get the steering rack and heater core looked at by them. It may also be worthwhile to check whether the rack can be overhauled reliably. If replacement is inevitable and if there is no major cost advantage you may as well get it done by the dealership.

Toyota is charging quite a bit Sir.

Around 25 K for the rack end, 13 K for the heater coil and 5K for the gas struts IIRC.

And I had already spent around 29 K in the last service because of front brake pads replacement, disc skimming and rear brake shoes replacement.

In my opinion you should get the brake pad change, rotor change, rear brake liner change etc done from a competent independent garage. Because rotors, pads and liners you get quality aftermarket items outside and there is no need to spend exorbitant amounts on such items from the dealer workshop.

Steering related jobs is best handled by the dealer even if its rack ends. If it were tie rod ends you can get it done by any competent garage, but if its more than that dealer workshop is better. In case of Toyotas dealer workshops do a thorough job.

You can get the heater core replaced by a good car HVAC specialist if he comes with reference. Otherwise dealer is the best. You also get a chance to escalate and get it re-done if things were to go wrong.

The tail-lamps have two separate bulbs usually.

The tail-lamp bulbs which light up when we turn on the headlamps are not working. These are supposed to be lit up as long as the headlamps are on.

Additionally, when the brake pedal is pressed, the other set of bulbs that light up in tandem are working fine.

So basically, the rear of the car is un-lit, unless I press the brake pedal.

Mostly it is burnt out bulb issue. You may need to change the bulb unless both left and right sides you have the same problem.

Yes, ones on both sides aren't working. Both stopped working after the repair on the tailgate was carried out. And they are a set of aftermarket LED tail-lamps, so there aren't any bulbs. I am pretty sure some connector has been left loose/unclipped.

Will go through the suggested route of wiring soon.

Separate Issues:

1. I did find a connector unclipped under the front passenger seat while cleaning the car recently. But that seemed more like the seatbelt warning wire.
   
2. The buttons surrounding the HVAC display, don't light up and the auto climate function doesn't seem to function (no increase or decrease in fan speed is noticed).

Tail Lamp (corner lamps on body):
The indicators work. The brake lights / tail lights do not work.
Wiring has all connectors clipped and its routing is alright.

Two out of the 4 wires on the connector (both LH and RH corner lamp) are spliced and a aftermarket wire is leading to the bumper. Possibly to the aftermarket LED markers. My theory is that if the bumper LED markers are unclipped or fused, the tail lamps would not function since the circuit wouldn't be complete. The un-spliced wires leading (based on assumption) to the indicator lamps are working fine. But isn't the splicing done in parallel? In which case it should function.

Am I on the right track?

Unclipped wire under passenger seat:
Need to get to that next weekend.

HVAC controls illumination:
Opened the panel. Checked some videos of the 4AT model from Thailand which has replaceable bulbs and was sure that this would be the issue. However, on opening up the panel, found out that the PCB has LEDs soldered onto the board instead of old school replaceable lamps. So this could be a fuse / harness issue.

Gear selector illumination:
The bulb is alright. Seems to be a fuse related issue.

Will get to each of them in the weekend.

On a separate note, I hear a faint metal ringing sound when the car is in motion. Sounds like a bearing made to run without lubrication. Not a squeak, but a high frequency ring of those mosquito repellent electronic devices which have a high frequency speaker in them. It comes from the underside. Audible when driving next to a wall with the windows down, as the sound can reflect off the wall and enter the cabin. Stops when the vehicle is stationary. Assuming that it is related to the prop shaft and / or its bearings. Can anyone confirm? Or is it just the AT gearbox characteristic?

I have a 2010 Fortuner and I have decided to give it a new lease of life by getting it repainted & overhauled. I plan to use it for 3-4 years more. Now I am keen on keeping the original color but want to get rid of the Chrome bits including emblem, strips etc all across the car and replace it with something more subtle and rust friendly, may I request folks here to chip in with their ideas as to what can be done for this? Hopefully the car should reach the "Tastefully done mods" page rather than the "weird & wacky mods" page. Thanks!