The Toyota Landcruiser Owners Club

[crash999]

I have just had the Aircon checked as it was not working and the Main Dealer tells me the pipes they replaced 3 years ago have corroded.
Has anyone else had this problem?
I make a point of never going on beaches or near the sea and most of my mileage is done in southern Spain.
When I power wash the vehicle I always clean underneath.I just cannot understand whats going on. They charged £1500 last time and now want over £3000 for new pipes.
Any suggestions?

[Google]

[AlPrado]

Find an independent air con garage and ask for their opinion.

[Tractionman]

Agree. Good answer.

[TONYCY11]

I agree also .

[Juddian]

Timely post, mines going in Thursday at the neaby aircon specialist, leaking from the usual spot just above the gearbox.

Two possible solutions for me,

1 they permanently disable the rear aircon unit leaving front aircon only, that'll be around £300 all inc.
2 if rear pipes beyond repair (most likely) then they replace with reinforced rubber pipes all the way to the back, that'll be about a £750 job all inc, obviously assuming no further parts needed.

If it was just us then i'd probably go with the cheaper option, but we have 3 dogs (spoiled rotten) so would like to keep the rear working too, plus if and when we come to sell everything works.

I'll report back on the job if you want to know the outcome.

Toyotas arn't the only ones with this problem, when i booked the motor in Monday afternoon they had a much newer Shogun and Disco4 in having the repipe to the rear jobs.
Disappointing though that Toyota haven't come up with an improved material for replacement  pipes by now, i mean those of us with a bit of nous have been replacing steel brake pipes that corroded badly with Kunifer for 40 or more years.

[Tractionman]

👍 Youre right with the alternative we would use Judd, but there would be no money in it for suppliers (supposedly)

Let us know how you get on mate, always useful to find alternatives to use (read cheap/er).

[lometun]

We purchased a brand new LC5 in 2003 and kept it for 10 years.
The car was 100% reliable in every department except for the air conditioning.
We had constant problems with the pipes that run from the front to the back.
If it wasn't the pipe leaking it was the joint between them.
Always leaking the gas out somewhere. I think we had the porous pipe welded at one time.
A real pain to remove as I recall.
I think the 120 series will always have aircon issues based on the way it is made.
By comparison my new in 2007 100 series and new in 2014 200 series have never had any issues at all.
Another tip is if it is working great then don't let anyone tell you it needs a service to keep it that way - leave it alone if it's fine.
My local Toyota dealer is always saying it needs a gas service but it works as good now as when it was new.

[karl2000]

Do LC3/4/5 all have the same aircon setup?  My LC4 just has normal heater vents in the back - do some (LC5?) have aircon controls?

[lometun]

The LC5 did have rear aircon, not too sure about other models but if you have pipes going under vehicle from front to back I guess it has rear aircon.

[TONYCY11]

When I first got my 09 invincible in 2015 the A/C  worked fine for about a month before it stopped working , I had one of those ezzy chill A/C topup cans from halfords , so I topped it up going by the outside temp and the green zone on the gauge , all was well for about a month then the A/C stopped working as it must have had a slow leak , so  I went to halfords and got some of that STP super seal stop leak for A/C  and as it was 3 for 2 offers on A/C I got 2 more cans of ezzy chill which is now labled STP ezzy chill gas oil mix with added sealer , and followed the easy instructions for the STP super seal then topped up the A/C with just over one can , making sure the A/C running and was on maximum cold INCLUDING THE REAR A/C , my A/C takes about 750 grams to fill from empty the 120s without rear A/C take about 550 grams , you have to add some a/c gas oil mix if completely if using the STP super seal because it needs some a/c gas to get into the pressure container of the STP superseal to mix with the sealer before you can get it into the  a/c of your car , anyway that was august 2015 , I have never had to top it up since , I check at the sight glass next to the radiator every so oft coz according to the label under the bonnet as soon as the bubbles stop you need to top the a/c with gas/oil mix with between 50 and 100 grams of gas/oil mix , I facetimed my son how to do the same fix on his wifes 07 suzuki grandvitara that could not hold the a/c gas longer than a couple of weeks , that was 12 months ago and the a/c on her car still works fine , one thing to remember with a/c is you must run it for at least 15 minutes once a week including the rear if it has a/c so that the a/c O rings do dry up and shrink and leak out the gax/oil mix leaving not enough mixture for the A/C to work as the compressor will not kick in until there is enough gas and you need the oil as well or the compressor will burn out .

[TONYCY11]

Sorry ment to say run the A/C at least once a month so the O rings do NOT dry up and shrink leading to the gas/oil mix to leak , for me I cannot forget as I use the a/c every day , but I do make sure I run it in the rear of the car at least once a week I do that when we are coming back home with the supermarket shopping as its not often we have rear passengers .

[TONYCY11]

Run it once a week not month , sorry I should read my own comments before pressing submit

[Tractionman]

My 2006 lc3 doesnt have rear a/c, and as far as I know these dont, its the later posher lc5 , but there is a rectangular tier of pipes under the rear load area that I've never been able to fathom out.