Prado 120 series V6 or 1KZ-TE (non CRD motor)

Gotta agree with the cool one. If you go to any forum for a vehicle you will see the common faults. Yes you will see faults about everything from blown motors to dirt on the paint work. What you look for is a heap of complaints to one particular fault, be it design or failure.

This will show if the vehicle is a good buy.

Also have a look at the Pajero. They are no slouch either.

And leaking injector seals is a major problem in the 120's with the D4D. The bull bleep that the 08 models upwards have solved the injector problems is crap. They are still stuffing up and leaking and causing engine blow ups from the oil pick up screen getting blocked. And no its not from lack of oil changes or filter. These people are changing their oil and filters every 5k, don't just check Prado's either. Check out the hilux forums with the same engines. Do I own one, nope. I went for the petrol 4L V6 120 with 5 speed auto and its a ripper. I had two 90 series prados before this one. The 1kz in auto is a slug. Mine was top of the range grande and the head went at 103k. Serviced every 5k with genuine oil and filters, genuine coolant, even down to wiper blade inserts and it towed a box trailer and it still cracked, 4g to repair. This is common in the 90's but not the 120, bigger cooling system but are even more sluggish in the 120's due to the weight of the 120 over the 90. I just finished doing some towing with mine and had over a tonne on the back and managed tad under 15L per 100. Not towing I manage 11.4/11.6 L per 100k doing the speed limits and there is no where near the issues with the petrols compared to the diesel D4D. I could have got a D4D but don't regret for a minute getting my petrol, comfy, heaps of grunt if needed, 179kw with 379nm compared to 96kw and 343nm in the 1KZ diesel, D4D has 410nm. Fuel economy in my diesel was better around town then my petrol by about 3 L per 100 but this is all stop start, running to kindy, local shops no freeway or highway, but freeway driving at 110k both my petrol prados were/are better the the diesel 1KZ. I could get the diesel a tad under ten if I sat on 90k, jump to 110 would see it rise to 13 and if it was a hot muggy steaming day running aircon it would jump to 15 ?? D4D is a total different kettle of fish, better in economy in all area's and go well, but with the money your talking you would only get super high klms. I wouldn't buy one with high klms. I would want low klms and extended warranty before I bought a D4D. Just my thoughts every one has their own opinions on all vehicles. If I was doing just all towing touring constantly I would definitely go turbo diesel but I would be driving a mitsi 3.2 DiD pajero, ripper of an engine and great economy, tad noisier in the cabin but a great tug wagon, hence a lot of grey nomads towing that use them...............

Yeah Steve,never thought I would see the day when petrols deliver better reliability then diesels,but with a fleet of over 200 vehicles we have more problems overall with diesels then petrols.
Glad you like the 120.
Cheers Pete

Jeezzz Kimba I didn't know the D4D's were such a bucket, funny how I don't know of many other then a few that have had problems and we run 5 of them.

Read Lcool, New Hilux Forum, Prado point and with all the members on there with D4D engines I would expect to see pages and pages of failures from a very vocal group of enthusiasts...... how come I don't.

Why would you want to change oil and filters every 5k in a D4D? it's a no brainer.

Maybe they don't have anymore failures then the other brands....... suppose when Toyota sell 4-5 time more diesel vehicle then the rest you would expect more to fail.

I agree 100% with Phil,, go the V6 ,, (mine runs on LPG cost me $30 a week to run )

After owning 3 Prado's, one 1kz 90 series grande, one 3.4L petrol grande, and currently have 120 petrol 4L V6 and would totally agree with Phil's comment 100%............

Good ay Mate how you been ??, yep that was me, cost me a tad under 4k and yes went back to 4L V6 120, ripper of a 4wd.................

I should have mentioned that with the gearstick mod, it WON'T fail again.

this is a good mod toohttp://www.pradopoint.com/showthread.php?25297-120-Prado-shift-lever-repair-kit

Kimba10, that's the kit I used, and it's top quality. The reason I used safety-tie wire is that the holder for the bullet actually cracks, allowing the bullet to fall out.

I figured that while installing the longer bullet moves the stress point further into the holder - there's still going to be a load on the cracked part, which might allow it to propagate later on. So I ran a piece of the wire around the neck of the bullet holder and tightened it *just enough* to close the crack neatly.

That way, any stresses will be shared over the whole of the surface, not just along the crack. I'm confident this will last the life of the car.