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What have you done to your RAV4 today?

303K views 1K replies 234 participants last post by  JWILSON 
#1 ·
I saw this on another site and figured to give it a try here at R4W. Pics are nice but not required. Tell us what you have done to your RAV4 today!

I'll start off first... I saw cat foot prints on my hood today. Decided I need to wash it this weekend.
 
#312 ·
I did a lot over the weekend. I picked up a horn relay to complete my fog light upgrade (I stole the horn relay for the fogs...), detailed the interior, polished the headlights and tail lights, waxed the windshield (Rav will be clay bar'd and waxed soon) and snagged a cargo net from a early 2000 Chevy Malibu at the wrecker and got it to work with the Rav. :D:

This is before:

Here is the after:

A coat of wax to make it easier to clean bugs off this summer:


I found a couple carabiners around the house and installed this cargo net I got for free from the wreckers:

 
#317 ·
Sandblasted the rims (rusting) and painted with black high-gloss engine enamel. This ought to work for a little while until I buy some new ones. Also finally ordered and installed underglow lights. This is just a crappy pic with the phone; I'll put some good ones in my album soon.

 
#325 ·
I had the windows professionally tinted. There's a lot I'll tackle on my own, but this would have been tragic for me to try! I'm quite happy; it really looks nice! Here you can see the windows, the rims, and the underglow. I'm considering doubling up on the underglow to have a more uniform coverage instead of 4 separate zones.


 
#331 ·
Installed Nerf Bars today! Word of advice: if you're doing BOTH Nerf Bars & underglow, do the Nerf Bars first! I had to uninstall the underglow, install the Nerf Bars, then re-install the underglow. I didn't have to rewire the underglow except in one place, so it went much faster, but it made for some extra work with the Nerf Bar installation. Item purchased:

00-05 Toyota Rav4 S/S Nerf Bars | eBay

It was indeed a no-drilling installation, but it wasn't all Posies and Pansies like they make you believe. I did the installation by myself, but an extra hand from time to time would have been nice. The Ebay listing says each side has a capacity of "about 600 pounds." I gingerly added more and more of my body weight to the bars after the install was complete and I would be very reluctant to put 600 pounds on it. My body weight of 250 caused a noticeable flex downwards. It held me with no problems; I didn't bounce or jump and I'm not going to be adding any more weight than my own. They're mostly for looks anyway (my grandmother may use them when I take her shopping, but she's a far cry less than 250!), so as long as they're sturdy and look nice, I'm happy. And of course, the pics...




 
#333 ·
They're your favorite color! Those are the factory rims; the paint was coming off and a few spots of rust made doing something a definite MUST. I wire-wheeled them to bare metal and used a high-gloss engine enamel. It will allow me to get a few more miles out of them until I can buy some nice after-market rims. The prices of rims, though...:shock:
 
#335 ·
Just got around to changing the cabin air filter. Only 9600 miles but 2.5 years in my possession. I'll now do this on an annual basis since it was so full of crud that you couldn't see light through it. I changed the one in the other RAV too but it wasn't so bad since I had done it once before. Mine was foul! Time to check yours out folks if it's been a while.
 
#337 ·
Fueled up the Rav yesterday with non-ethanol gas. I had been buying non-ethanol gas for another of our vehicles and decided to try it in the Rav. Steady state fuel economy has gone up by nearly 10%. We got two 60 MPH runs across a dead flat bridge and with the cruise control on, it was registering 35-36 MPG in one direction, and 35 MPG in the other direction. Normally, it reads 32-33 MPG. We'll see if the gas consumption over the entire tank is much better or not. It seems to feel a bit more powerful. I'm not used to driving it any more and the whiplash effect I get starting up from a stop seems worse, and it seems to be able to climb slight freeway inclines without unlocking the torque converter like it normally does.
 
#339 ·
Until about a year ago we had only real gasoline where I live, no ethanol tainted fuel at all. How things change..........now there is no 100% gasoline available, it's all E-10. My MPG dropped also but no notice of performance change. This is progress? You're fortunate to have real gas available at all.
 
#340 ·
I have a base model and decided to get better speakers with an 4 channel amplifier, planning to replace the second row speakers next month. Going along with Kenwood and Hybrid Audio speakers. It sounds alot better!!!

Decided not to go for subwoofers, since it does buzz alot. Ended up deciding between:
Arc Audio and JL.
 
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