Snorkels on 120 Prado's

G'day Mike,
Thanks for the info. As I mainly travel with the window down when on tar, it would have been a pain if they had been noisy. Less dust or water in the filter has got to be a good thing.
Regards,
Bazza.

joe, what do you mean early bull bars? Have they changed more recent design?
jon

Hi Jon,
It's still the same bull bar, but HOPEFULLY the fitting procedure/technique is now upgraded, not to expose the air intake to being feed water by the inner guard.
If you fitted a snorkel you had no problem. I read 2 documented instances when the car was first released that wrecked the engine.I had one out of the first shipment and fitted a snorkel and the Soveriegn bar. My inner gaurd is an example the way it was done, but as I have a snorkel I have not bothered to get Toyota to fix it.
Regards
Joe

thanks for the info joe.
i bought a v6 prado in october 04.(no snorkel).
the soverign bar was fitted by the toyota dealer.
is there any way of telling if they have fitted it in the upgraded manner?
or would you take it back to them? i would guess if they have supplied me with a faulty product, i am entitled to a repair.
cheers.
jon

G'day again Jon,
To help you check your's out I'll describe it...
The problem was once the bull bar was fitted, the leading edge of the right inner guard had an opening, between it and where the original bumper was. The inner guard curves... concave, down toward the front. The gap then acts as a scoop...picking up water and feeding to the air intake.

By all means you should discuss and check it with Toyota dealer to see if he knows about the issue. Those early examples of engine failer occurred in very shallow river crossings. I think the plastic inner guard is very ordinary and if you plan to drive through large puddles and river crossings I think the snorkel is a must.
I'm on the Lcool 120 yahoo group site and I and a couple of others picked up on the problem very early on.
Look at a new unit at the showroom,compare, and then have your discussion with the dealer.
Regards
Joe

a few months ago after hearing about the water ingestion issue i took my prado back to the dealer and asked them to fix it. well they completely replaced the inner plastic guard and this time didn't trim it as 'high' as before ... however there is still a whopping big gap between the end of the plastic guard abd the bullbar. i am not aware of any other fix yet for this problem (other than a snorkel). hence is anyone aware of a fix/modiifcation for this problem yet???