Tuesday, Nov 10, 2009 at 22:30
Timbo,
I can answer your questions from the perspective of an owner of just such a vehicle.
I have a 2002 version of the HZJ105R and bought it at the auctions in Dec 2005 (from memory) with 40k km on the clock. It was ex DSE and used very lightly around the outer suburbs of
Melbourne, so pretty much drove like new.
At the time I decided on the Landcruiser over the Patrol, due to 2 main reasons: they were a little better on the road, smoother and quieter and I felt the Toyota dealer network was more extensive and I felt had a better reputation than the Nissan dealers, particularly after I read the various forums about the 3.0l problems and the dealers almost complete lack of recognition and assistance.
The downsides I felt were the lack of bucket seats, the spare tyre location underneath the rear of the car and of course the lack of turbo, but I felt the overall reliability and simplicity of no electronics, carpet, electric windows etc was a bonus in terms of less to go wrong in remote areas.
In relation to these issues, I have added a Kaymar spare wheel carrier, bucket seats from the GXL version (wreckers $550 pair less $150 sale of original seats), centre console plus a host of other bits and pieces that would have been added to any car.
In relation to the power of the car: in standard trim, with standard size tyres it is fine on the road....no racing car, but adequate. Once you start adding bullbars,
winches, side bars, drawers, fridges, roofracks, dual batteries and lift the
suspension, the power is less. Even with all this weight on the car, I find it a little slow, but adequate, expecially compared to my old BJ40 and even my previous Tdi Discovery.
I have driven this car up the East coast a few times, into Central Australia, across the Nullarbor to WA and up the West Coast,
Gibb River Road, GCR and Gunbarrel Hwy and NEVER have I found it dangerously slow. You have to drive to the cars capabilities and I find it useful to communicate with the truckies if you notice them approaching fast. I let them past when I can.
I have more recently bought a camper trailer which weighs about 750kg unladen and upwards of a tonne leaded for a trip. I find it a little more frustrating at times, but like you I keep reminding myself that it's a holiday....what's the rush? I have also towed a 17' caravan for a more local trip (weight about 1700kg) and I wouldn't really want to tow something this heavy with the 1HZ more permanently.
Given all that I have said above, I am considering adding a turbo at the moment, but my thoughts are that I will need to keep this vehicle for the long term (10+ years) if I choose this path, due to the excessive cost to do it PROPERLY. From my somewhat extensive research, the 1HZ responds best to a Safari Intercooled turbo,larger exhaust and dyno tuned with appropriate EGT's in mind in order to maintain reliability. Even then, there are no guarantees that you won't damage the engine. If you research this yourself, you will uncover that there are literally thousands of 1HZ's with after-market turbos traveling all over the country without problems and a few horror stories of catastrophic failures, usually attributed to excessive performance modifications (over fuelling, boost and advanced pump timing), poor service history, especially oil and fuel system maintenance).
A couple of other 'issues' that you might like to be aware of include a slight weakness with the front diff, breaking the CWP, especially when reverse snatching or steep climbing when a front wheel may lift, spin them come down. This may be largely fixed with the addition of a locking diff and many also fit a solid pinion spacer in place of the crush spacer. They need to be set up by someone who really knows what they're doing. Also, the manual gearbox fitted to the HZJ105 is known as the R151 and is a lighter box that that fitted to the petrol and factory turbo diesel models. It has been known to fail if place under greater strain than that intended by Mr. Toyota, ie heavy towing or with aftermarket turbo.
i know there is a lot to consider, but the basic car is very reliable and I find quite comfortable and excellent for touring, provided you don't want to tow very heavy trailers/caravans and carry extreme loads.
One final point is that what I find acceptable performance, someone else would not tolerate, so there is a large degree of personal preference in selecting the right car. The 105 would have been perfect if Toyota had fitted the heavier duty H151 gearbox and the earlier 1HD-FT from the 80 series. (You could certainly modify the basic car with an engine and gearbox change as has been done by one of the members of the
LCOOL group.
I hope this diatribe will help you make an informed decision.
Cheers,
Mark
AnswerID:
390814
Follow Up By: Member - Timbo - Wednesday, Nov 11, 2009 at 20:22
Wednesday, Nov 11, 2009 at 20:22
Thanks Mark, some very useful info - I've heard of people needing to replace the seats too but, as for the power issue, probably a personal decision.
"NEVER have I found it dangerously slow. You have to drive to the cars capabilities" - I think that's probably the key: after driving it for a bit, you'll get used to knowing how much space you need to overtake someone, it's only going to be dangerous if you try to overtake when you don't have enough space. I managed to survive in a 0.8L Suzuki LJ80 and then a 1.9L 4cyl Jackaroo - I kept both of those vehicles stock-standard.
I haven't heard of so many catastrophic failures due to A/M turbos, just more wary of wearing out the engine faster (which I understand the turbo will do). I think I'll be trying to avoid vehicles with A/M turbos already installed (who knows what boost they've been running previously?!) and if a turbo is needed, I'd probably prefer to shell out the extra $$$ initially to get the factory TD rather than shelling out the $$$ later trying to add a turbo to an engine that wasn't really designed for it - I'm just trying to find out whether the turbo is really needed or not (because the extra is better used going into the home loan).
I've also read a bit about the weak front diffs and will certainly be aware of this (actually I'm very wary of it after having busted the rear diff on my previous 1.9L 4cyl Jackaroo on a steep rocky fire trail). I'm not too worried about towing as I don't intend to tow anything big, and certainly nothing regularly.
Thanks again for your input - I'll keep wondering and reading...
FollowupID:
658743