justimaginejack
Looking for a new Cruiser
Ok so I bought an LC when I probable should have bought the LX, working on rectifying that. Seems like all LX's come with complete dealer maintinance records.
Either way there are some very serious maintinance issues that need to be made known for newbies. I would like this thread to become a place where we can all place are experiances to save money and time. My first entry is below.
First, check all the fluids, Slee posted a great list of all this.
If they are not clean, you are unsure, don't have maintinance records replace it. Period! This might have saved my radiator. got a used one out of a 100 the way totoled. 450 new, 275 used installed!
That said, as alway find a reputable mechanic who knows the cruiser. The mechanic down the street owns an 80 series limited edition, and told me he know all about them, his technicians couldn't even find the drain plug on my 2000.
If you are over 90K and don't have new belts get them. Blowing a belt can seriously ruin an engine. Learn the maintinance schedule and stick to it.
I skipped a service and got a pinging noise when I shut off the engine. The dealer wanted more than 198.00 for the induction service. I Don't think any real damage was done. A mechanic friend of mine, helped me poor SEA-Foam in the engine and the gas tank. I will post picks later. It shut down the engine, then we let it soak, for about twenty minutes, and turned it back on. The amount of white smoke coming out of the back was unreal. Didn't look like a cruiser exhaust. Apparently this would not have happened had I done the 198.00 induction service. ??? The sea foam worked great, the the pinging is gone. I don't know about all the services yet, which ones are snake oil, and not. I paid less than $6.00 for the sea foam. More experianced guys feel free to chime in. I have heard good and bad things about both and induction service flush and the sea-foam. Either way, as I have mentioned before the PO said she did all of the services at the Toyota dealer. Which to her was changing the oil.
I bought mine with about 99k on it and none of the belts were new, nor had she ever touched the anything else.The fluids were not in good shape, but the Truck still ran like a dream. the differential fluid even had a bit of silver to it.
Other things I noticed is that in moderate mid-west weather, Mobile 1 Synthetic 5w-30 got me better gas mileage than the PO oil, and the others I tried. Castol was close. I am told that for more extreme wheather 0w-30 is better and Mobile One and Castrol German manufactured, NOT made in the USA is better than others. There are many threads on this.
I have done a great deal of research on the Filters and it appear the larger size mobile one filter, posted on the oil filter thread is great. I have used it with no problems to 11,000 miles. The toyota 40000 is made of some different materials. I am not sure what it is, but as others noted it decreased the service interval from 7500 to 5000 with the change. So I am going to stick with the Mobile One and cut it open at 15k. I will post pics.
Another significant heads up, when you get your first higher mileage 100 check the break pads and rotors, if the are mildly warped you won't feel it until they are to late. Get the specs so you know for sure. When You go to replace the front Rotors use slotted vented, like the ones slee has, the wear alot less, especially in city driving.
When your Antenna breaks, don't continue to let it go up and down. I am not sure what broke mine and I pushed it down for a car wash. Had to take it to a mechanic who wanted to charge me for getting all four small broken pieces out. It will be much cheaper for labor to just get it done. I paid 75.00 for one hour of labor and 50.00 for the part.
When you take your tires to the shop, watch them put them back on, if they don't do it with a torque wrench, can't tell you what the specs are, take it some where else. Somebody over torqed a bolt and it warped my right rear rotor.
leather cleaner, I have used them all and they seem to work ok, but what ever it was that the detail shop used seem to get all the rest of the leather clean. I got it detailed and it looked like brand new. I would't waste my time trying to do it yourself unless you want shoulder pains.
When your steering wheel starts to squeek, it will most likely be the boot at the base of it needing to be lubed. I used a silicone with teflon, and it only worked for a short time. A friend had something called cheetah greese and when he spayed it, all the noise went away and has yet to return.
High pitched noise coming from roof/windshield? Three mechanics couldn't fgure it out and the dealer said they had no clue. It was the PO sunroof bug gaurd deflector. It took about six months for it to finally work it's way loose, on a trip during a snow storm across I-70 the thing detached itself and exploded into little pieces. I got most of it out of the drain sills, but not all of it and I can't open the sunroof all the way. Any I deas on how to remove the rest of the remnants with out removing the headliner and taking it apart is appreciated.
I was having trouble keeping tire pressure after a weekend out, I kept filling it up and finally I took it to NTB where I watched them install the tires and they had to do a complete remount because I broke the seal between tire and the wheel. My dad did something similar, only the summer tires on his LS got a huge bulge on the side and had to be replaced. I can still see where I scraped the side wall, they assured me it was minor. He did his paralell parking, my was a tree stump, but either way, I am glad I got it fixed before it blew.
As for the air filters, I can save about ten bucks by getting them at the auto store(o'reilly's). Still researching this, many people have aftermarket filter upgrades, not sure about this, especially if I plan on putting a snorkal in.
Tire balancing and wheel alignment: I would look for a shop where you know they know what they are doing, I found the NTB by my house to have four guys who are just nuts about this stuff. They really know what they are doing. I was able to buy a policy from them fairly inexpensively. Cover's me for five years at any location nationwide. My ES300 has a similar policy with firestone, and I have used it in several locations, but they quality of the technician's have become fairly poor, more sales, less of everything else. Either way I think I only paid 50.00 more for five years than I would have paid Toyota to do it once.
I upgraded the spark plugs to the Denso Iridium because I was told they went to 100K, I now know that they work great, but even at cost(7) there are many high quality ones that you can get for less sincle most recomendations have us replacing them around 60K. they retail for 17.00 a piece.
The rubber mats thing is on here and there are alot of opinions. I bought Weather Techs for my ES300 and wore holes in them very quickly with just daily driving. They were 80.00 I found some at wal-mart for 20 but they were just to small. Sams and Costco have great heavy duty sets for 15-20.00 and while not a perfect fit they do a great job, and save $60.00 I think I will buck up when these wear out and get the pair Slee recomends.
Rear Wiper Blade. At some point it will get stuck, simple fix. At the base of the arm is a little metal cap, pull this back. I required the the use of a loosening agent. I had to let it sit on the cap itself and then on the rusted out bolt for a while. We still used screwdrivers to pry it open. Once the cover was open and the stuff had worked it's magic, I was able to unscrew it, adjusting it took more time and more stuff. Then I cleaned it off and got a new bolt for like .10 cents.
Dings, scratches and getting keyed. I have a friend who runs the Body shop for a Toyota, Lexus, Honda, Acura Group. He sent me to a window shop that the dealer uses to do custom window tinting and minor paint work. I was waiting for a ridicoulous bill. He fixed the key line on the driverside passenger door, and all four corners which had the paint scraped for $400.00 I can't redo one bumper for that. i was supprised. It beat my buddy's more than 3,000.00 estimate. Yes if you look you can tell, but it is no longer evident. Just suprised to be sent to a place like that. You never know?
I have had it for about a year and a half. Lots of learning experiances. Like many of you I had wanted one for a long time. I just couldn't justify the gas costs. With the miles i do it would be more than $4,600.00 a year. Finally got one and it is my girlfriends dd. She doesn't do nearly as much driving as i do, but how and where she drives seems to have had a significant impact on the vehilce. Rotors are not her friend and neither is carbon. But either way we have been extremely happy with my 100 and am looking for a high quality Used LX at a good price to add to the group. If you see one let me know.
I know this was long and you can find some of this in other places. I just thought we might try to create a one newbie experiance thread. this might consolidate the hours upon hours I spent reading almost every qoute on every thread. Then again I don't think I will stop reading everything. I think My favorite is the LX vs. RX comparison. It gave me a great laugh. Ps my spell check button was broke in 3rd grade and I haven't gotten around to fixin it yet. Sarry,lol!
Either way there are some very serious maintinance issues that need to be made known for newbies. I would like this thread to become a place where we can all place are experiances to save money and time. My first entry is below.
First, check all the fluids, Slee posted a great list of all this.
If they are not clean, you are unsure, don't have maintinance records replace it. Period! This might have saved my radiator. got a used one out of a 100 the way totoled. 450 new, 275 used installed!
That said, as alway find a reputable mechanic who knows the cruiser. The mechanic down the street owns an 80 series limited edition, and told me he know all about them, his technicians couldn't even find the drain plug on my 2000.
If you are over 90K and don't have new belts get them. Blowing a belt can seriously ruin an engine. Learn the maintinance schedule and stick to it.
I skipped a service and got a pinging noise when I shut off the engine. The dealer wanted more than 198.00 for the induction service. I Don't think any real damage was done. A mechanic friend of mine, helped me poor SEA-Foam in the engine and the gas tank. I will post picks later. It shut down the engine, then we let it soak, for about twenty minutes, and turned it back on. The amount of white smoke coming out of the back was unreal. Didn't look like a cruiser exhaust. Apparently this would not have happened had I done the 198.00 induction service. ??? The sea foam worked great, the the pinging is gone. I don't know about all the services yet, which ones are snake oil, and not. I paid less than $6.00 for the sea foam. More experianced guys feel free to chime in. I have heard good and bad things about both and induction service flush and the sea-foam. Either way, as I have mentioned before the PO said she did all of the services at the Toyota dealer. Which to her was changing the oil.
I bought mine with about 99k on it and none of the belts were new, nor had she ever touched the anything else.The fluids were not in good shape, but the Truck still ran like a dream. the differential fluid even had a bit of silver to it.
Other things I noticed is that in moderate mid-west weather, Mobile 1 Synthetic 5w-30 got me better gas mileage than the PO oil, and the others I tried. Castol was close. I am told that for more extreme wheather 0w-30 is better and Mobile One and Castrol German manufactured, NOT made in the USA is better than others. There are many threads on this.
I have done a great deal of research on the Filters and it appear the larger size mobile one filter, posted on the oil filter thread is great. I have used it with no problems to 11,000 miles. The toyota 40000 is made of some different materials. I am not sure what it is, but as others noted it decreased the service interval from 7500 to 5000 with the change. So I am going to stick with the Mobile One and cut it open at 15k. I will post pics.
Another significant heads up, when you get your first higher mileage 100 check the break pads and rotors, if the are mildly warped you won't feel it until they are to late. Get the specs so you know for sure. When You go to replace the front Rotors use slotted vented, like the ones slee has, the wear alot less, especially in city driving.
When your Antenna breaks, don't continue to let it go up and down. I am not sure what broke mine and I pushed it down for a car wash. Had to take it to a mechanic who wanted to charge me for getting all four small broken pieces out. It will be much cheaper for labor to just get it done. I paid 75.00 for one hour of labor and 50.00 for the part.
When you take your tires to the shop, watch them put them back on, if they don't do it with a torque wrench, can't tell you what the specs are, take it some where else. Somebody over torqed a bolt and it warped my right rear rotor.
leather cleaner, I have used them all and they seem to work ok, but what ever it was that the detail shop used seem to get all the rest of the leather clean. I got it detailed and it looked like brand new. I would't waste my time trying to do it yourself unless you want shoulder pains.
When your steering wheel starts to squeek, it will most likely be the boot at the base of it needing to be lubed. I used a silicone with teflon, and it only worked for a short time. A friend had something called cheetah greese and when he spayed it, all the noise went away and has yet to return.
High pitched noise coming from roof/windshield? Three mechanics couldn't fgure it out and the dealer said they had no clue. It was the PO sunroof bug gaurd deflector. It took about six months for it to finally work it's way loose, on a trip during a snow storm across I-70 the thing detached itself and exploded into little pieces. I got most of it out of the drain sills, but not all of it and I can't open the sunroof all the way. Any I deas on how to remove the rest of the remnants with out removing the headliner and taking it apart is appreciated.
I was having trouble keeping tire pressure after a weekend out, I kept filling it up and finally I took it to NTB where I watched them install the tires and they had to do a complete remount because I broke the seal between tire and the wheel. My dad did something similar, only the summer tires on his LS got a huge bulge on the side and had to be replaced. I can still see where I scraped the side wall, they assured me it was minor. He did his paralell parking, my was a tree stump, but either way, I am glad I got it fixed before it blew.
As for the air filters, I can save about ten bucks by getting them at the auto store(o'reilly's). Still researching this, many people have aftermarket filter upgrades, not sure about this, especially if I plan on putting a snorkal in.
Tire balancing and wheel alignment: I would look for a shop where you know they know what they are doing, I found the NTB by my house to have four guys who are just nuts about this stuff. They really know what they are doing. I was able to buy a policy from them fairly inexpensively. Cover's me for five years at any location nationwide. My ES300 has a similar policy with firestone, and I have used it in several locations, but they quality of the technician's have become fairly poor, more sales, less of everything else. Either way I think I only paid 50.00 more for five years than I would have paid Toyota to do it once.
I upgraded the spark plugs to the Denso Iridium because I was told they went to 100K, I now know that they work great, but even at cost(7) there are many high quality ones that you can get for less sincle most recomendations have us replacing them around 60K. they retail for 17.00 a piece.
The rubber mats thing is on here and there are alot of opinions. I bought Weather Techs for my ES300 and wore holes in them very quickly with just daily driving. They were 80.00 I found some at wal-mart for 20 but they were just to small. Sams and Costco have great heavy duty sets for 15-20.00 and while not a perfect fit they do a great job, and save $60.00 I think I will buck up when these wear out and get the pair Slee recomends.
Rear Wiper Blade. At some point it will get stuck, simple fix. At the base of the arm is a little metal cap, pull this back. I required the the use of a loosening agent. I had to let it sit on the cap itself and then on the rusted out bolt for a while. We still used screwdrivers to pry it open. Once the cover was open and the stuff had worked it's magic, I was able to unscrew it, adjusting it took more time and more stuff. Then I cleaned it off and got a new bolt for like .10 cents.
Dings, scratches and getting keyed. I have a friend who runs the Body shop for a Toyota, Lexus, Honda, Acura Group. He sent me to a window shop that the dealer uses to do custom window tinting and minor paint work. I was waiting for a ridicoulous bill. He fixed the key line on the driverside passenger door, and all four corners which had the paint scraped for $400.00 I can't redo one bumper for that. i was supprised. It beat my buddy's more than 3,000.00 estimate. Yes if you look you can tell, but it is no longer evident. Just suprised to be sent to a place like that. You never know?
I have had it for about a year and a half. Lots of learning experiances. Like many of you I had wanted one for a long time. I just couldn't justify the gas costs. With the miles i do it would be more than $4,600.00 a year. Finally got one and it is my girlfriends dd. She doesn't do nearly as much driving as i do, but how and where she drives seems to have had a significant impact on the vehilce. Rotors are not her friend and neither is carbon. But either way we have been extremely happy with my 100 and am looking for a high quality Used LX at a good price to add to the group. If you see one let me know.
I know this was long and you can find some of this in other places. I just thought we might try to create a one newbie experiance thread. this might consolidate the hours upon hours I spent reading almost every qoute on every thread. Then again I don't think I will stop reading everything. I think My favorite is the LX vs. RX comparison. It gave me a great laugh. Ps my spell check button was broke in 3rd grade and I haven't gotten around to fixin it yet. Sarry,lol!
, if they are bad the fire them since they can't afford to have bad people.
