The Toyota Landcruiser Owners Club

[Nuclear Chicken]

Hi all,

Newbie here to LCs. About to get an LC5 (Aug 2004, 56k miles, auto) for £12.3k. I think this sounds like reasonable value in the current climate. Anyone think differently? It has been on a forecourt for 5 or 6 months and it is a bit grubby accordingly. That aside, it looks fine to me. Started nicely after a jump and a good valeting will freshen it up. I haven't seen the service history yet as it is with the owner so I'm reserving final judgement until I see it. Tiny bit of dor edge chipping on driver's door. Other than that no dings or scrapes and wear and tear seems very much like a 4.5 year old. New Dunlops on it too, including the underslung spare. Need the interior width of an LC for  3 child seats as it is very difficult to find any car, estates included, that will accommodate 3 full seats. Also, I live rurally and my current car, a 5 series estate, is literally being ruined on rural roads. Besides, it has been totally unreliable, hence the main reason for getting rid of it. We have a RAV4 2.0 VVTi also and it has been faultless in over 3 years bar 2 exhaust O2 sensors. 105k on the clock now too.

Any comments welcomed please....

[Google]

[Nuclear Chicken]

OOps.

Repeated this post in 'Newbie' section. Sorry.  

[Desperatezulu]

Sounds like a nice car! The 4x4/SUV market has taken a major hit, so I would think that some reasonably hard negotiation could knock some more money off. I am no expert on the 120 series and their prices but looking at Autotrader suggests that similar cars (albeit in slightly lower spec LC3/4) are trading at a similar price and those numbers will be inflated to allow for negotiation... hence my suggestion that you might be able to squeeze another £500-1000 maybe  
Otherwise, if you're happy with the price, you just need peace of mind with the service history and you're away!

Scroll around the 120 forum and see what problems there are to look out for. Rear difflocks have been mentioned but I think the LC5 has Atrac or some similar fancy traction control rather than a difflock, so not an issue. Other occasional comments are noisy injectors that have been replaced under warranty in some cases. No doubt 120 afficionados like UK Vette and Gary can give you more pointers

That's the $0.02 from an 80 owner trying to encourage you!

Cheers,
_________________
Andrew

'98 LC80 4.2TD VX 24v

[jezza]

Get down to an auction that deals with Lloyds TSB and you can probably pick up my old patrol car or one of it's siblings for a fair bit less. Triple the miles but that's just about worn in for a 120  

[garystockton]

Welcome!!

As a quick few things to look at, get to drive it somewhere on a loose surface, and put it into low range, and lock the centre diff     Make sure it locks up (light on in instrument cluster!!) and make sure it unlocks  

Also - with the engine running, and you out the vehicle, cycle the rear suspension up and down at least twice using the suspension height control - it should take 15 - 20 seconds to cycle up from normal, and about the same to go down to low. Have a look to see it maintains it's height.  Drive with the suspension down - at about 10 mph it should kick back up to normal.  Drive with it on high - at about 20 mph it should drop down to normal.

Drive with the TEMS shock settings at all 4 settings and see if the suspension feels harder when it should.

Check the date of the mapping DVD (in the dvd player under driver seat) - a new map set will cost you about £120, so if it needs one, try and get the dealership to provide.

Try and drive it first thing from cold - some D4Ds make an awful racket when cold (search is your friend on this topic) and if it does, get the dealership to check the injectors for wear - may save you the cost of new ones if worn.

Always put the best diesel in you can get - I've noticed a difference switching from supermarket fuel and cleaning the fuel system out.

Forget modifying the suspension (should you have considered that) - it's not at all easy, although with a lot of searching you'll find it can be done.

Check the condition of the rubber skirt that seals the intercooler (fitted to the underside of the bonnet) - a few have been worn / torn quite easily ...

Check wheel alignment - they sem to be quite finicky, and only the dealership seems to be able to get the front pointing in the right direction properly (there's a series of things they have to do, including resetting the ECU!)

The only other thing I had as an issue when I got mine was the rear power outlet didn't work - since been sorted!

Other than that - enjoy - it's a fantastic vehicle - you may want to chuck the Dunlops eventually though for something a bit more useful - General Grabber AT2's seem to be the current flavour    

Good luck!

[Nuclear Chicken]

Thanks Gary. Useful pointers. See below for what I have done.

As a quick few things to look at, get to drive it somewhere on a loose surface, and put it into low range, and lock the centre diff     Make sure it locks up (light on in instrument cluster!!) and make sure it unlocks. Haven't done this yet while moving. Only when stationary but the light did come on. I'll check this one a bit further.

Also - with the engine running, and you out the vehicle, cycle the rear suspension up and down at least twice using the suspension height control - it should take 15 - 20 seconds to cycle up from normal, and about the same to go down to low. Have a look to see it maintains it's height.  Drive with the suspension down - at about 10 mph it should kick back up to normal.  Drive with it on high - at about 20 mph it should drop down to normal. [color=blue]Did all this apart from actually getting out and checking. It definitely changes settings when driving as you can feel it. I'll play a bit more with that too.[/colour]

Drive with the TEMS shock settings at all 4 settings and see if the suspension feels harder when it should. [colour=blue]As above. Definitely can feel it getting harder and softer.[/colour]

Check the date of the mapping DVD (in the dvd player under driver seat) - a new map set will cost you about £120, so if it needs one, try and get the dealership to provide. [color=blue]This wasn't available as the LC owner had it. However I'm led to believe it's the '04 that came with the LC. A new one is £117 (I checked). What's the latest version available?[/colour]

Try and drive it first thing from cold - some D4Ds make an awful racket when cold (search is your friend on this topic) and if it does, get the dealership to check the injectors for wear - may save you the cost of new ones if worn. [color=blue]Sounds OK to me and started nicely from cold when jumped as the batteries were flat. I did notive 2 different batteries in it though and I might check that one out a bit further to make sure they're the right ones. [/colour]

Always put the best diesel in you can get - I've noticed a difference switching from supermarket fuel and cleaning the fuel system out. [color=blue]Good point.[/colour]

Forget modifying the suspension (should you have considered that) - it's not at all easy, although with a lot of searching you'll find it can be done. [color=blue]No chance. I specifically wanted one with TEMS.[/colour]

Check the condition of the rubber skirt that seals the intercooler (fitted to the underside of the bonnet) - a few have been worn / torn quite easily ... [color=blue]I did notice it and it is a bit tatty and one or two of the clips that hold it onto the bonnet have come off.[/colour]

Check wheel alignment - they sem to be quite finicky, and only the dealership seems to be able to get the front pointing in the right direction properly (there's a series of things they have to do, including resetting the ECU!). [color=blue]From the decent drive I had it seems to run fine and is nice and straight running.[/colour]

The only other thing I had as an issue when I got mine was the rear power outlet didn't work - since been sorted!

Other than that - enjoy - it's a fantastic vehicle - you may want to chuck the Dunlops eventually though for something a bit more useful - General Grabber AT2's seem to be the current flavour    [color=blue]Dunlops will be fine till they die. No major off road trips planned for a while yet!

Thanks for the comments.[/colour]

[Nuclear Chicken]

Hmmm. Why is my text not blue where I want?

[garystockton]

OK - think you've got most of it covered.  The only other stuff I can think of is the usual - torn CV boots, oil leaks (should be zero - it's not a TATA product   ), diff / drive-train vibration etc.

Check the rims for corrosion / paint bubbling - toyota were replacing those that were in a mess, so if yours are, then speak to your dealer quickish....

There may be surface rust on the under-body components - check for anything more severe, and if necessary get the bottom "waxoyled" by someone - takes a bit of a search but you can find someone to do it for you.

There is one other issue also noted on the forum and which seems to be pretty prevalent in Oz is the 'rear tailshaft clunk' - feels alittle bit as though someone bumps into the rear of the vehicle once you're stopped - and this doesn't aalways happen.  There's a lot of info on pradopoint.com about this and when I mentioned it to the local dealership they agreed it was there but though greasing the splines, checking UJs etc. would help.  They did that, and it 'seems' to be better - will monitor for myself.

There are other (more) knowledgeable folk than I on this forum that can also help on things to check.  You may want to check the batteries - mine are both exactly the same (i.e. factory-fitted originals) and have the same rating.

Cheers

Gary

[Nuclear Chicken]

Thanks Gary.

RIms as I recall are pretty good with no damage. No leaks or damaged CVs that I can see. I did notice light surface rust under, thanks to the ridiculously oversalted roads. I intend to waxoyl, easy but messy job that I've done before. Unfortunately it's not a dealer car; simply a small provate dealer that is selling it for a customer of his ( a customer who lost her license), hence the car sitting about for a while. So no warranty or any such luxuries. I know of another LC5 nearby but it is way over priced at £15.5k with 76k miles but is slightly newer at 2005.

No 'clunk' that I recall but I listen out for it now that I know. Sounds by your description it could only be drive-train related.

[amortens]

The latest version for the maps are E11 marked 2008-2009 Ver.1

Regards

Arne Mortensen
Denmark

[Nuclear Chicken]

Thank you Arne