Another new Cruiser for the Family

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, Skimlinks, and others.

SanDiegoCruiser

SanDiegoCruiser

10 Year
Joined
Sep 14, 2011
Threads
63
Messages
1,244
Location
San Diego
My Father picked up this Cruiser. 2000 with only 118K miles. Great condition.

It's going in for a service in a few days...

Three major issues that I have found with it.

1. Smoke odor. The prior owner was a smoker. Trying all of the tricks to get rid of the smell.

2. One the drive from Los Angeles to San Diego (2 hours), he noticed the temp was normal. However, when he came to a stop light or the vehicle stopped moving, the temp gauge spiked all of the way to high within a couple of mins. Then, once he started moving, it went down to normal just as fast.

3. The only key he has is the Valet key. He wants to get a key with a remote on it. There are many master key threads on mud, but based on my research, the best thing to do would be to get a locksmith to reprogram the cruiser for a new Master Key?

The Cruiser will spend a few weeks here in San Diego, then it is off to Texas where it will spend the next couple of years as a DD in San Padre Island.
IMG_0447.webp
 
1. The biggest ozone generator you can find. A large one run overnight with everything closed up will kill worse odors than smoke.
2. Sounds like the aux electric fan is not kicking on. Don't wait to fix this. Nothing much will harm these engines but overheating will kill them quickly.
 
2nd on APKhaos idea on the Ozone Generator, those things are amazing. Previous owner of mine was a smoker and you'd have no idea.
 
i recently purchased a BMW with smoke smell.

Tried OZONE, helped a little.
tried a odor bomb, helped a little more.
Purchsed the 4 part kit from drivepur, doneski, game over smells brand new. Its a lot of work but solved the issue.

My vote on overheating is fan clutch.
 
Did you pick that up from Robert in Glendale? Nice rig. We looked at it Sunday but couldn't get past the smell and cig burns.

FYI I noticed when I added the VIN to toyota.com/owners and looked at the detail service records the previous owner was advised the cv boot, front and rear shocks were leaking but declined to fix.

-Scott
 
APKhaos said:
1. The biggest ozone generator you can find. A large one run overnight with everything closed up will kill worse odors than smoke.
2. Sounds like the aux electric fan is not kicking on. Don't wait to fix this. Nothing much will harm these engines but overheating will kill them quickly.
Click to expand...

There is no electric fan. It is an Aisin hydraulic-clutch based fan.
 
ssichler said:
Did you pick that up from Robert in Glendale? Nice rig. We looked at it Sunday but couldn't get past the smell and cig burns.

FYI I noticed when I added the VIN to toyota.com/owners and looked at the detail service records the previous owner was advised the cv boot, front and rear shocks were leaking but declined to fix.

-Scott
Click to expand...

Yep, I believe that is where he purchased it from. Yeah, I saw that history. Digging deeper into the Toyota history with the vin, it had the transmission replaced @ 70k which is great! No more weak transmission for the year 2000 now for this rig since it has been replaced.

Rebooting and replacing the shocks is no big deal. I'm replacing the shocks in my cruiser with Radflows, so we can take the OEM shocks from my truck and install them on his...
 
3 bowls of white vinegar in the cabin (front, middle, rear) and bake it in the sun with windows closed for a day or two. it'll smell like pickles for a day or two afterward but should kill most of the smell -- and it's cheap and easy to test. some people also dilute vinegar with water and spritz all the absorbent surfaces (carpet/fabric) to get more localized deodorizing power. after you do this, take it to get the interior shampoo'd to suck out all the funk from the fabric (and maybe request they use their awesome enzyme/deodorizer stuff). should kill the smell and will most likely be $50-60 for everything vs a $100 ozone generator that could potentially harm you when you go to open up your rig after accumulating a high concentration of ozone . I did this to my in-laws corolla that they used as a "dry smoking shelter" during the winter - smelled like a brand new car afterward.
 
^^ thanks I will give that a try.

On another note, checked the radiator. Almost bone dry, so that explains why the over heating issues. Just have to figure out why it is dry!
 
You could just take up smoking, then the smell won't be bothersome.
Strange why it would run cool at speed with no coolant though, I think there may be a bigger issue.

Sent from the future to protect John Conner.
 
jhfj80 said:
You could just take up smoking, then the smell won't be bothersome.
Strange why it would run cool at speed with no coolant though, I think there may be a bigger issue.

Sent from the future to protect John Conner.
Click to expand...

:lol:Great Reply! I also know that fresh ground coffee spread on the carpet for a few days will absorb all malodors...
 
I did the bowls of vinegar and scrubbed the surfaces with diluted vinegar and neither had much of an effect.

You really need to break down the tar and nicotine that has formed on all the hard surfaces. And Drivepur did that well for me.
 
A pie tin with charcoal brickets will absorb all of that smell.
 
Last edited:
+1 on scrubbing down the interior first and foremost. If you don't clean the source of the odor it's always going to come back.

After you thoroughly scrub the interior as best as possible, and steam clean the carpets, then set one or two paper plates of Folgers type coffee grounds down in the foot wells. Of all the tricks I've heard for removing smoke odor, coffee grounds is by far the best.

Had a friend who rescued a 1987 528e from near death and the thing was literally brown everywhere from nicotine. He cleaned it out and did the coffee grounds trick and apparently had 80 percent of the smell gone in a few days.
 
Albeit, after the fact, but using compressed air on the headliner should remove most of the odor and scrub all the hard/non-porous surfaces that will be usually a good start. And in time all odors will dissipate. I know most people don't want to wait that long though.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Back
Top Bottom