LC70 76 series landcruiser... Who's done a lot of Ks?

Hi Mat,
My nephew works for a Toyota dealership in a northern state and he informs me that they are still having issues with some Landcruisers.

However, he also said that Toyota Japan have said that any major issues with a motor, swap it out with a new one and send the damaged unit gack to Japan for testing. They are beind their product 100%. Balance that against some of the grenades stories out there and it should make you sleep easy.

Nephew said that they have been advised to tell their customers to just bring their vehicles in for service at the appointed intervals. He said he has seen many a dip stick without oil showing on it. Not to worry as provided you have adheered to the Toyota servicing regieme they are behind you 100%.

Not all units are showing problems but you can rest assured that Toyota will eventually get to the bottom of it.

As a bloke in exactly the same position as you, about to take delivery of his new LC76, said to me in 07 when I asked him whether or not he was worried, he said "Nope, it's a Toyota and it is under warranty".

Nuff said.

Cheers, Bruce.

Mat,

There's a few of this model running around here but one bloke in particular, a contractor, bought one of the early models('06 or '07?)

He is now on his 2nd ute, as the old one has >500K clicks on it. He doesn't have a great deal of "mechanical sympathy" and he had, at times, quite a few problems with it. However, most of these were due to neglect or wear and tear. Pinion bearings, worn rear brake discs were the main dramas.......oh, and he fell asleep, and hit a gidgea tree once too lol.

But over all those clicks, he had no problems with the engine, and he did hammer it. No way would it have ever glazed up!!!

Not much choice these days in a "big" 4wd ute, eh?

Bob.

Mat,
I don't believe it is a common problem and the only one that came close to this was in a very low K cruiser. It did not throw a rod but it sounded like a big end. That vehicle was trucked back to Toyota and came back with a new engine. The old engine was sent to Toyota for examination.

Where I worked many of the cruisers had pretty high engine hours on them. Around 8000 hours and if you tried to guess the klm's and you said the vehicle averaged 40 kph for it's life that would be 320000 K.

Problem is no one knows what has happened to the vehicle during it's life. Low oil level should show as a warning but the use of chips these days opens up a huge can of worms.

RA.

Cheers all for the replies, much appreciated and I'm not so worried anymore, plus it's only money we can always make more right LOL... And funny you should say that mazcan because my philosophy is to break it in the way it's gonna be driven. I'm gonna have it out on the track in it's first week with me (not saying it will be flogged) but it's gonna get a work out, cause that's what I'm buying it for... And people tell me all the time about how engines should be broken in first up, and ask me the best way to do it and how long for, and I tell them well it's my opinion that it's really not that important. The amount the components that are going to be 'bedded' in with each other is so miniscule that it's just not worth worrying about. And if you think about it by babying the engine, you're wearing it in a certain way; then you say well it's worn in now I can go thrash it in the bush or start towing my three and a half ton van - then you're wearing it in a whole different way over the top of your initial wearing in period. That's the way I see it anyway, plus when I build a 10 litre bus engine and chuck it back out with the drivers, what do they do? Flat stick everywhere!
Call me ignorant but it's an engine, not a plastic toy... Or a racing engine.....
And honestly I find it really hard to believe it would throw a rod, what reason has it got? Driver error? It's a 4.5l putting out 150kw, that sounds realistic to me. The turbo's putting in not much boost at all by the sounds, and it feels like most of the power comes without the turbo... Compared to say the new pathfinders with the 3l putting out 170kw... Now if that was to throw a rod I could understand, but ya know? I dunno I don't want to think about this stuff, I just wanted to pick it up no hassle, drive it for the next 20 years without any worries and minimal hassle and effort (if I wanted to be paranoid of breaking down I would've bought a Landrover).... Lol there's always something. Gotta keep us on our toes I guess.