- ALL-PRO OFFROAD rock sliders
- ARB-Rhino hybrid roof rack rails
- BRC COMP 4WD Breather kit
- OUTBACK ACCESSORIES battery tray and power steering relocation kit
- RICOCHET fuel tank and transfer case alloy skid plates
- DRIFTA mono storage
- WAECO 50L dual zone fridge/freezer
- UNIDEN UH7760NB, +6db 900mm antenna on Bondi mount
- OEM Toyota TowKit
- OUTBACK ACCESSORIES recovery points
- THE LONG RANGER 84L additional fuel tank
- SAFARI snorkel
- DOBINSONS springs with 50mm lift and GVM upgrade to 3T
- KONI RAID shock absorbers (88 series front and 90 series on the back)
- POLYAIRS air bags in rear coils
- MPAC Springtail Cargo barrier
- MATSON dual battery management
- OPTIMA Yellow Top D35
- ARB on-board air compressor
- ECB Big Tube alloy bull-bar
- WARN M8000 winch
- Android 8 Audio/Nav system
- Interior LED lights
- 55W HID spread beam driving lights
- MICKEY THOMPSON Sidebiters 17x9 rims
- TOYO Open Country MT tyres LT295/70/17
- ICON tabular upper control arms
- TIMBREN bumpstops front
- IRONMAN under-body protection
- EXPEDITION ONE rear bar with wheel carrier
- Brakes DBA T3 Rotors and BREMBO disk pads
The waiting period was close to 3 months since placing the order in September 2011 at a local Toyota dealership for a new FJ Cruiser. The car arrived as promised the first week in December.
By that time I compiled already quite a big list of must-do mods and had bunch of various parts and accessories sitting in my garage ready to be fitted.
This is a photo of a 3 hrs old and bare stock 2011 FJ Cruiser.
The project was about...
Imported All-Pro Off Road rock sliders. Entire freight job was taken care by BONVU.COM with no problems whatsoever. The sliders are massive (40lbs each) and can support entire car weight with no issues. I went for bare metal finish due to risk that the finish could get damaged in transport.
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| As delivered |
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| Cleaned |
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| Primer |
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| Ready to go |
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| Fitted |
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| Painted... |
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| ...and fitted |
Another round of import from US. This time it was rear door cargo organiser
Cargo space get sorted out with a cargo barrier from Springtail Solution, cargo mono-drawer system from Drifta and Waeco 50L fridge/freezer
Trip communication got covered with UNIDEN UH7760NB unit and a +6dB 900mm antenna fixed on a Bandi mount.
As a bonus amber colour of the CB radio hand unit matches perfectly FJ Cruiser cluster back light. While having dash console out, I also fitted an after market audio system. EONON 5125 DVD/Audio/Nav unit runs OziExplorer with no problems and allows me to re-use all HEMA maps.
Managed to program Nokia OBDScope with custom PIDs to get readings about automatic transmission fluid temperature from both torque converter and pan. These PIDs are not standard OBDII parameters and have to be custom programmed. I wanted to be able to watch transmission fluid temp while running up to large dunes and generally doing long steep climbs.
Here are formulas I uses to create custom PIDs
Temperature of the fluid in torque converter [C]
PID: 2182
Custom equation: ((((C*256)+D)*(0.35)-3600)/90)
Temperature of the fluid in the pan [C]
PID: 2182
Custom equation: ((((A*256)+B)*(0.35)-3600)/90)
A photo of OBDScope in action (btw I'm using cheap ELM327 v1.5 Bluetooth Auto Car Diagnostic Scanning Tool)
Another shipment from US arrived. This time it was a well proven WARN winch M8000.
ECB Big Tube alloy bull-bar was successfully installed last week together with Outback Accessories recovery points.
The next on the to-do list is to swap the steel rope with a synthetic one to reduce the weight and also make winching easier and safer.
Another weekend spend working in the engine bay. Installed MATSON dual battery charging management system and the secondary battery (Optima Yellow Top).
MATSON battery isolator is a marine grade fully sealed voltage sensing electronic switch that should take care of the new Optima Yellow Top M35 battery.
The same day fitted ARB CKMA12 compact air compressor as well. Although it is primarily designed to feed for example diff. air lockers, it does a very good job inflating tyres too.
Few interior bits added the other day. Front pillar handles and LED interior lights.
Spent few hours on another DIY project. This time it was modifying pair of cheap HID lights sourced from Ebay. Improved the mounting mechanism and did few anti-rattle mods. I reckon they are now bullet proof, all steel, 6" 55W wide spread HIDs for under $100.
Koni RAID shock absorbers arrived to replace Toughdog foam cell. 88 series was fitted in the front and 90 series on the back. Rear ones are monsters with 70mm dia. Should have no issues with these over endless corrugations in the outback.
Calimero had now its GVM upgraded to 3T. Thanks to crew from Malaga Springs and Suspensions who made the entire process so easy and transparent for me. Dropped the car in early morning and the next day it was all done.
It all started few weeks back when I paid a visit to a local weighbridge and realised that the kerb weight after all mods (2430kg) would barely allow just me to be in car and not exceed the factory GVM.
Had to replace springs with Dobinsons but all other parts (tyres, shocks, brakes) already met the requirements. Took the car following day to the DPI pit for the car's registration details update and now it's all done.
Bought new side awning from SUPAPEG. StandEasy ERV model which is 2.5m out and 2m long fits FJ Cruiser perfectly. This is our entire beach setup in action
New tyres and rims just arrived from US. Toyo's Open Country MT 295/70R17 on Mickey Thompson Sidebiters alloy rims in 17x9 with 0 offset and 5in backspace.
This tyre size, in my opinion, has almost a perfect ratio between the side-wall height and the overall diameter. Means that there is still plenty of side-wall to flex when airing down and safely bulge without compromising the bead but not too much to affect the tyre on road performance (ie high speed cornering).
Now I can confirm that all positive feedbacks these tyres received are spot on. Really quiet on road for a mud tyre and such aggressive thread pattern.
Replaced front swaybar links with these greasable ones after one of OEMs got ruptured and leaked all grease out. Imported these heavy duty from USA for a fraction of cost comparing to OEMs. New ones looks much tougher and are serviceable.
Ordered some Teflon based grease that is needed for uni-ball joins maintenance.
Decided to play safe this time and ordered Timbren bump-stops. They cost as twice as some generic brands but there should be no issues with over-compression and extended upper travel that cause shocks to top-out or wheels to hit fenders.
Did, so called, Xmas Tree modification over the weekend and installed blinkers to the rear upper light housings. Few hours of careful Dremel work to make openings for reverse light and then enlarge the existing reverse lights holes to fit new indicator bulb holders in. Tapped the wiring loom which runs at the passenger side down through the grommet in the floor. Picked the indicators wires up next to the tailgate just before it goes through the floor.
Pink wire is driver side indicator (+) and Blue with White stripe wire is passenger side indicator (+)
White with Black stripe wire is ground (-). I ended up using the earth from the reverse light.
Besides of few meters of wire and bit of soldering work, I purchased NARVA's light holders and amber bulbs. These were part numbers used
Quite happy with the outcome
Expedition One rear bumper with wheel carrier has just arrived
Decided to reinforce weld around the spindle as it looked like a possible weak point. This is a before-and-after welding job
Had it treated against rust and sprayed with primer...
...followed by a top coats with matt black
Rear stop/turn lights arrived today. Looks like they were a good choice, a snug fit LED lights for just a fraction of cost comparing to Hella's or similar
Had to modify and reuse some parts of the OEM bumper as per this great fitting manual and reference
Australian rear park sensors required slightly larger opening than US ones (dia 26mm)
Also towbar opening had to be widened as Australian towbar base plate is lot larger than US one. Bought and fitted these licence plate lights to keep the bar ADR compliant.
Very happy with the final result
Today assembled wheel carrier
Very smart swing arm moving design. When adjusted properly no extra force is needed to open the rear door
Had to extend wiring on reverse camera to reach new location. Wanted to move the camera from spare wheel hub and make it useful when caring trash bag or Maxtrax on the wheel.
Local club badge fitted nicely in the wheel hub instead the camera
Decided to upgrade front brakes. I had this on the list for a quite while but waited for OEM pads replacement time to do it. Went for DBA T3 slotted rotors and Brembo pads.
New DBA T3 rotors fitted.
New rotors have 3 colour markings that helps to gauge the highest temperature rotors get heated up to. These 3 coloured stripes change to white if/when the rotor's temperature reach 430C, 560C and 610C respectively.
New Brembo pads have higher temperature rating than OEMs and are less susceptible to fading due to overheating.
Time has come to say goodbye to trusty EONON Audio/DVD/Nav system. Over 6 years of faultless operation even on endless Western Australian outback corrugated roads came to an abrupt end when stopped to play DVDs.
Replaced it with Android 8 Audio/Navigation in car system. Running full Android 8 with built in WiFi, DAB. It came with plenty of preinstalled apps. Added favourite OziExplorer with HEMA maps with no issues whatsoever. The front camera feed as well as factory Toyota connectors for speakers fit with not problems.
First impressions, sound is a great deal better while larger resolution screen take less time to glance maps for position readout.
Hope it will last as its predecessor.
Replaced it with Android 8 Audio/Navigation in car system. Running full Android 8 with built in WiFi, DAB. It came with plenty of preinstalled apps. Added favourite OziExplorer with HEMA maps with no issues whatsoever. The front camera feed as well as factory Toyota connectors for speakers fit with not problems.
First impressions, sound is a great deal better while larger resolution screen take less time to glance maps for position readout.
Hope it will last as its predecessor.
