Since i've owned my 4runner the rear heater has always been inoperative and I've always kinda wanted it to work. I replaced the hoses in the back with napa hoses at one point in time, but the drive shaft rubbed a hole in one of them so I had to disconnect it again. This time I replaced the hoses with toyota ones, giving me the needed clearance, but I have a leak. the metal lines aren't leaking, either where the hoses attach to the rear heater core or somewhere in the heater core itself is leaking. At this point I have decided either I should just replace the core entirely (I don't really want to mess with trying to repair this one) or just take it out and put something neat in the area under the center console. Any thoughts? Are the rear heater setups from the second gen runners the same as the first gen (22re)? And anyone have a spare heater core laying around they want to get rid of?

What I did with mine was to solder on a pair of tube-pipe thread fittings, an elbow and a hose barb top let the rubber hoses run up tight to the floor:



You might pull the heater and inspect it for leaks, might just be those lower tubes and be easy to repair. Also a good time to flush it out with a hose.

i like that setup, have to add it to the list. For the moment I just disconnected it until I have the time to mess with it.