The Toyota Landcruiser Owners Club

[Nasher]

Hi all

New to the forum, and after some advise.

I'm currently looking to replace my 3.2TD Shogun with an Amazon 4.2TD and have about £20K max to spend, so am looking at @02 to 53 examples.

I've test driven a couple and looked at a few over the past few months but have now got serious after getting X-mas out of the way.

Trouble is all the cars I looked at appear to be 100% in all ways, which doesn't give me any idears what to look for when checking a car over.
Obviously all the toys should work, but are there any particular weak spots etc to check.

Thanks

Nasher.

[Google]

[Wandering Willy]

The 100 series has been 'upgraded' to compete with the Range Rovers. This means that it has acquired electric seats and bits like that which do little to increase its off-road ability. However, as a chelsea tractor, it seems essential.

Now there are two domestic models (I am excluding the various sorts of import like the 105 with its solid front axle). Most of them will be the VX which is loaded with everything. The GX is the lesser model - lower spec, lower price but still has the off-road bits.

Weak spots appear to be:-

1. the self leveling suspension where the wiring fails, the actuators need replacing and sensors get water-logged. This seems to happen from 75,000 miles. The replacement/repair cost can be £2-3,000 depending on how 'friendly' your local Toyota dealer wants to be. There are cheaper ways to fix some parts but it can still be expensive. The early symptoms are the suspension is slow or reluctant to go up and down.

2. The electric motor on the steering column fails and a replacement motor seems to be about £250 plus fitting. It can then be a regular thing. The initial symptom is that the motor squeaks.

3. the auto-transmission can fail but this is not common. The cause isn't clear but the early symptoms seem to be a lumpy change or a gap when changing gear.

Now, the benefits of the GX is it can be a bit cheaper and it doesn't have the self leveling suspension or electric steering column. So these things can't fail.

The later petrol models have a clever hill descent setup using the anti-lock brakes (like land rover models) rather than diff locks. The diesels kept the central and rear axle locks. Others can clarify the details as mine is a diesel with the 2 diff locks (and anti-lock brakes).

There are some manual diesels but the petrol models all seem to be automatic. I have an automatic diesel and it is very good even when towing a heavy trailer.

Mine is a 2002 with 53,000 miles when I bought it in July 07. Underneath the back end was already quite rusty. I took off and repainted (Hammerite) the spare wheel carrier, tow bar assembly and rear bumper steel inner structure (not the plastic skin). his allowed me to spot paint the floor and chassis where it looked vulnerable and grease the 'structural bolts to stop them rusting in. I also greased the retaining bolts on the two sump guards which were hard to undo.

I paid £13,000 for my car. It was quite dirty with a few dents and scrappy paint work so it's not a mint car. However, if you look around, with the increases in fuel prices, I would expect to find a late 2003 for under £20,000. It's worth searching on the internet for a few weeks before spending money.


Good luck

Willy

[Nasher]

Thanks Willy

Been looking at VXs, but only because I've not seen a GX advertised I like the look of.

I'll make sure I check the suspension and steering column movement, plus have a better look underneath at the stern.
Could be a good bargaining point if nothing else, as I tend to do everything myself that needs fixing.

I want it for everyday use, and to tow my boat around, which is over 2Tns including the trailer and a full tank of fuel.

The 3.2 Shogun has done all I wanted from it, and more, but I've always wanted an Amazon, and the additional torque of the 4.2 can't do any harm.
Wonder what the new V8 will be like?


Nasher.