23 yo cruiser.. How soon will I need a rebuild? (1 Viewer)

[Lumpskie]

Thanks again for all the very informed replies. It means a lot

The only unique advice I can add is this:

Make friends with the WI MUD members on here... like in person. With the experienced eyes and hands of the MUD community, your rough idle can be fixed in an afternoon, rather than over the course of weeks. These are good guys. I'm sure the locals will help you keep your 80 on the road.

Now... post up some pictures. That way we can see what this beater looks like.

 

[pawnthatdude]

Might not be the most popular opinion here, but sell it and get a mid-2000s Subaru Outback with the head gaskets replaced, put snow tires on it, and call it good. We all obviously love our Land Cruisers quite a lot here, but an 80 is just not a practical vehicle in your situation. The preventative maintenance on an 80 is all around more expensive than a smaller, more common car. Every replacement part is more expensive in a Land Cruiser because they are bigger and more over-built (and if you believe Mudders, there is always some esoteric version of the part/fluid that you should buy). You need more of every fluid when you replace it. There just isn't a situation where a Land Cruiser is the cheapest/most practical car to own. It just happens to be the most awesome.

The gas savings alone will pay for a Subaru (or whatever else that gets sufficient MPG) in several years. This is a pretty easy math equation to figure out how long for any given pair of vehicles. If you got a car with 25 mpg, you would probably save about $1200/year in gas alone at 10,000 miles driven per year.

If it snows a lot, a $20 shovel is a lot cheaper than $1000 AT tires.

BUT, if you REALLY, REALLY love your 80 and are willing to make a lot of sacrifices to make it work for your situation, we will be here to help.

 

[Proven]

As an extremely poor Marine and then full time student with an overload - I was driving a 2.7L 4 cylinder Toyota Tacoma 4x4. It was a 1995.5 model and extremely reliable for me while I was broke as broke can be. Luckily I had all the healthcare and food I could need paid for by the wonderful tax payers.

I highly recommend the 4 cylinder Tacoma's as a reliable first car.

 

[Killdozer1776]

Not my first vehicle by a long shot. I am in my mid 20s. I drive maybe 1000 miles per year. I was a diesel mechanic for a couple years and even had a 1600ft/lb race truck that I built myself.

All that said, my little brother goes to the same university as me starting this year, and his car is rotted out completely. Just scrapped it and he needed something.

He gave me a deposit for a screaming deal on the cruiser and I'll be helping him w maintenence on it to get him through school.. On the condition that if he eventually sells it, I get first dibs. Now I don't feel so bad about letting it go.

I'm going to tutor and work on campus starting next semester. Very flexible and I can study on the clock.

Will have to figure out what to do in a couple years for a vehicle but as it is, school, laundry and grocery store are all a short walk away.

Thanks again.

 

[rolliges]

If you can afford gas, the oil it needs, and minimal insurance: keep it.

You can neglect these things for waaay longer than you'd be willing to admit; ask me how I know.

 

[Ntgm37]

Not my first vehicle by a long shot. I am in my mid 20s. I drive maybe 1000 miles per year. I was a diesel mechanic for a couple years and even had a 1600ft/lb race truck that I built myself.

All that said, my little brother goes to the same university as me starting this year, and his car is rotted out completely. Just scrapped it and he needed something.

He gave me a deposit for a screaming deal on the cruiser and I'll be helping him w maintenence on it to get him through school.. On the condition that if he eventually sells it, I get first dibs. Now I don't feel so bad about letting it go.

I'm going to tutor and work on campus starting next semester. Very flexible and I can study on the clock.

Will have to figure out what to do in a couple years for a vehicle but as it is, school, laundry and grocery store are all a short walk away.

Thanks again.

Sounds like a great alternative to your conundrum. Good luck with the crazy school work!

 

[Killdozer1776]

I'm going to at least fix everything before I sell it to my little bro. He might want to look at cars first and I might want to keep it... Walking or biking everywhere in this snow and wind really fn sucks.

Being 23 years old it has ALL the common issues.

Idle needs fixed. I've done a full ignition set and the issue persists. The harness was resting on the EGR but no visible burns. I imagine I'll just solder in new, longer wire so I can fasten it up out of the way. What gauge is it?

Also if you slam on the brakes and then jab the throttle sometimes the trans slips then kicks into gear hard. Is that the solenoid issue? If so, how many should I get and where is the best current price? So many companies selling Toyota stuff. I don't know what's legit. Does the part number match anything in another vehicle?

Going to also flush coolant, new hoses, and it could use a new battery. Change diff fluids and spray another coat of fluid film on before winter.

The windshield wiper arms are offset a little. If the motor is bad is there one from another Toyota that will fit?

I'll do the wiring harness first to see if it miraculously fixes the trans issue. But probably not. Hey a guy can hope.

 

[satchel]

Regarding the wiper, unscrew the arm blade you want to correct at the base. Once you pull it off you can place it back on in the position you want. The wiper system is simple, if they move, the motor should be good.

I had a car wash rip the arm off my wiper motor and left my wipers dead, but basically there is a motor, an arm that goes from the motor to each wiper, and then the wipers are attached to that arm.

PM me if you need any more details, just did this job and have a spare arm (regulator?) you can have if you need it.

 

[Speedytech7]

I'm a mid 20s dude with medium to low income but I keep around my 80 because I have other junk to drive if it decides it doesn't want to behave. And I know being mint condition I could always launch it to the next guy in line waiting for one to pop up. Mine gives me zero reason not to trust it, but neither has my Tacoma and my Tacoma is dirt cheap to repair and keep maintenance on. The cruiser is a bit more fiddly despite being more "robust". I dunno you have a tough decision, but I'd probably keep it around because unless something major let's go like the head gasket, they can still run and drive pretty decent on okay maintenance. I have the time and skill to keep up on mine, but I think even if I had to just drive it and not change anything for a year or two it would be just fine.

 

[AAMC]

Sell it. As a student the last thing you need is a 23 year old truck. I know this will come to a shock for most people but at certain times in our lives our needs change. You could probably make the LC work, but you will likely be living in apartments during school without access to a garage, you will be paying for someone to do any major work on your truck and anything major will be expensive and leave you stranded. Once you go to med school, your residency isn't guaranteed you have no idea where you will end up. So if you are using mom and dad's house to work on the truck now that might not be an option.

Go buy yourself the newest low mileage Toyota Corolla or Honda Civic you can afford. It is going to be boring as f***, but guess what, it is going to be cheap, leave you with less stress, and it is just a mean to an ends while you are in school.

Agreed. Having been through the process, I actually drove my high school car (was new at the time) all the way through the end of fellowship. 17 years. I bought my first new car in the last year of fellowship after I secured a position. Save your money, cut your expenses, and you will have a lot more money on the back end once you are done with training. Then you can be an idiot like the rest of us, and sink money into LC's. Good luck getting in! My oldest daughter is vying to be a hand surgeon, I'll be paying that out the ass for a while...

 

[Killdozer1776]

I've decided to keep it. I came up with a list of over 40 things to check/replace within the next 6 months. I can't have my little bro deal with that so we're going to find him a nice car.

I've gotten some great and very relevant advice in this thread. Motivated me to turn the heat back up when the workload was controlling me instead of the other way around. My classes are verified unusually tough for the level but I'm plowing through it all and working part time as well as donating plasma for cash.

 

[Killdozer1776]

A newer car would cost more as I can do my own labor (when time permits). Even with worse mpg, this is the best beater for the money.

The low idle/stumble issue got worse and after going through every thread on the topic and making a list, I unplugged the upstream O2 sensor.

It idled smoothe and at 650rpm like I hadn't yet seen. Most of the time. It died on me at a stop light and backing out of a parking spot, both when the rpms dropped too low.

I started to realize this idle issue has compounding factors. I remembered a dodge gas truck I had that had the sputtering and dying due to a notorious intake plenum gasket leak. I also saw somebody post in archived mud threads to check the valve cover..

Mine is in fact leaking at the back. Worse yet, ******* previous owner broke one of the bolts off near cylinder 6. The front bolts were tight, but a bolt fore of the missing one was very loose.

Tightened it and it helped immensely. It actually runs great right now, but there is a long way to go.

 

[DSRTRDR]

Both sides of the fence have offered a lot of great advice. At first thought it seems most practical to sell it and tough out the winter and save for something lower mileage and newer.

I got mine for $1000 needing a lot of small things. I put a couple hundred into plugs, wires, cap, rotor and air filter. Then got several rust free body panels from an awesome member here.

I have about $1500 into it and I figured a low asking price would force a quick sale on me. After a couple weeks I've only gotten ridiculous lowballs and nobody has even come to look at it.

It almost seems like the universe is trying to make me keep it..

It has had a slight shudder and erratic rpm at idle. Today it suddenly got worse when somebody local messaged me about it. It actually stalled out on me turning slowly into my parking spot. Rpm too low. Runs great at any actual speed. I'm starting to think its the common wiring harness issue as mine was, in fact, resting on the EGR for years before I got it.

I thought about lowering the asking price.. Thought it was weird I can't sell it at this price. Maybe a sign to keep it. I'd probably have sellers remorse if I let somebody steal it from me.

In thinking of saving for something better or more practical..A car would be a good idea but up here our winters are 7 months long with massive snow and ice storms. Had 30" one weekend this past April and I was snowed in at home with a car with little food but luckily the power didn't go out for me.

Another consideration is that almost all the med schools I'll be applying to are all in the upper midwest.

The only 3rd gen 4runners within double what I could get for mine are as old and have as many miles as what I have. They're also not rust free. The nicer clean ones barely below 200k miles are at least 3500-4000. I figured.. Same exact situation I'm in now. Nearly the same model year and as many miles as what I have is just trading for the same problems (minus rust) for 2-3 thousand more bucks.

A 4th gen? 7k and up for model year 2004 or newer, which will be 20 years old in a handful of years too. Who knows how little the price might drop for 3rd/4th gens anyway.

As I was finishing looking at the market for these, my toaster fell off the cupboard and smashed a plate on the floor pretty dramatically. Thought that was pretty weird and unlikely. Maybe a sign.

I could try to pick up a beater suv like a crappy jeep (have owned a couple) or the infamous ultra crappy blazer/jimmy with probably worse problems than mine, for cheap. But that doesnt make any sense.

Knowing what we do now, is a part-time job and a little more hectic schedule (I do have some free time but I rest strategically) maybe the answer? My classes are tough and my grades are super important but maybe it can be done without sacrificing them slightly. If I were to keep it I'd do large projects each summer when I can work more and after summer course sections.

Am I trying to justify an irrational choice or is it in fact the rational choice?

why don't you apply for med school in better climates ? sounds like a no-brainer to me

 

[DSRTRDR]

I'm apt to agree with you until I wonder what Im going to drive in 2 years that will be dead nuts reliable and doesn't cost 8k+ plus interest with no guarantees

any older Lexus (cleaner than the corresponding Toyotas and usually better taken care of) - older RXs can be had for well under $5K

come to think: want to buy our 2000 RX300 in March/April or so ? was an Arizona car until August 2016, since then in Louisiana (we still need it for a visiting student in the spring, but are thinking of selling thereafter . . . )

 

[Killdozer1776]

why don't you apply for med school in better climates ? sounds like a no-brainer to me

Tuition concerns lead me to State MD schools and I plan on applying to the better of the DO schools, which seem to be neatly centered up this way. If I really rock my grades I can apply more broadly but from what I understand, each application is 1k or more so I have to plan that all out.

And as miserable as culture is up here, I can stay focused easier.. Not much else to do.

As for the rx300, I appreciate the thought and would consider that if it were a good fit and deal for everybody.

In the mean time I don't mind driving the cruiser around. Looking underneath today its actually quite solid. Mostly the lower edges of the body panels are bad.

That and it's actually ancient but it's been done before.