Boulder, CO service advise

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

9

97landcrusher80

10 Year 15 Year
Joined
Apr 26, 2010
Threads
1
Messages
2
Well here goes my first post so please forgive me for any noobish errors. I have used the forum and search functions since purchasing my 1997 factory locked 80 with 140k miles (which is wonderfully featured in an engine swap thread on this site after the PO fried the motor after running with no coolant) and would like to thank everyone for the massive amount of useful information i've found.

I've just moved to Boulder, CO and am now a thousand miles from my trusted mechanic and in need of service. After driving out I am experiencing a rotational front end noise when I come off the gas and coast. It is a dull grinding that is not continuous (unfortunately) and ranges from slight and occasional to constant and horrible sounding. From searching I likely have a u-joint issue, improperly greased knuckle/axle components or some blown out differential parts. I could probably use an entire front-end rebuild (thanks for the rebuild thread on that, btw!) just to check/re-grease everything but don't have the space/tools to do that here.

Does anyone have suggestions for a shop in Boulder? I took it to Boulder Toyota last week and wasn't very happy with the experience. They were unable to recreate the noise (unlikely) and seemed more interested in selling me a highlander than actually servicing my LC. There is a cruiser restoration/service shop in englewood (rocky mountain cruisers) that looks good but I haven't found many reviews for it and am worried that driving the truck too much at this point could be causing further damage and increasing repair costs. I am thinking of giving the dealer a second chance, they have a huge service dept. with multiple teams so maybe I just need to request that somebody else work on it.

Any suggestions would be helpful and much appreciated:)

Thanks!
-Chris
 
Thanks for the suggestion! I really admire Slee's work and will check it out. I haven't had a chance to mod anything yet and was a little nervous that Slee was more about off-road builds than servicing stock trucks. Looks like they do indeed offer full service.

Thanks!
 
Yep being in boulder you are in a great location as far as service and parts for your cruiser.

I had Robbie do my HG not too long back and was very happy with the work. Check the adventure offroad link in my sig for his contact info. Slee is just 20 min south of you in Golden. I think its probably safe to say either of those options have WAY more experience than any toyota dealer in/near boulder as far as the 80 series go.

Rising Sun is the local toyota club Rising Sun Member Forums - Powered by vBulletin
 
Yup
Our club meeting is tonight at Stevinson Toyota West, come on down about 7:15PM and you will meet a lot of other folks from Boulder
 
97landcrusher80 said:
<snip>
I've just moved to Boulder, CO
<snip>
Click to expand...


You just planted yourself right next to THE best 80 Series Cruiser mechanic in North America.

You need to buy a lottery ticket with your kind of luck....:lol:


Robbie is THE MAN.
 
97landcrusher80 said:
Thanks for the suggestion! I really admire Slee's work and will check it out. I haven't had a chance to mod anything yet and was a little nervous that Slee was more about off-road builds than servicing stock trucks. Looks like they do indeed offer full service.

Thanks!
Click to expand...

FWIW, Joe, our main tech is both Toyota and Lexus master tech and trained in both brands. We do full service, including engine rebuilts etc etc.
 
Yup, Robbie is a bad ass. He lives just up the canyon from Boulder. If you need any help contacting him, drop me a PM and I can give you his number, but I think he is really responsive to PMs here as well.

Very fair pricing, very smart and best of all, very enthusiastic about cruisers.
 
Robbie is out in California working on trucks there for a bit. Slee has great mechanics as well. You can't go wrong with either
 
Romer said:
Robbie is out in California working on trucks there for a bit. Slee has great mechanics as well. You can't go wrong with either
Click to expand...

Agreed.


The only "problem" with Christo's shop is all the goodies just sitting there screaming "YOU NEED ME!"..........:lol:
 
Last year I drove my truck to Slee's place, flew home, waited a week, flew back and picked it up. They did great work.

It wasn't a tune-up though. I had them re-gear, put in spedo correction, replace all bushings, rotate the bifrields (they were out for the gears). They found that I also had a worn out knuckle bearing, a cracked rear brake rotor, an exhaust leak, a frozen brake caliper, worn out u-joints and needed an ARB refrigerator.

OK, so I decided I needed the last bit.

They're so good that they will find the stuff that that should be fixed that you might not notice. They were polite and asked before doing any of it. Not cheap, but the work was top notch and reasonable. They installed the gears for half of what a local shop (who had never done them) quoted.

There is a lot of peace of mind when having major things done (gears) that the person doing them knows what they're doing, has done them before and will stand behind the install.

They're literally up the road from you. Even if you're not in need of immediate maintenance or repair, stop in there and browse around and chat. If they have the time to give you a quick tour of what they're working on in back you'll better understand. For us here in Omaha it's considered like a trip to Mecca.

Enjoy that town - and be sure to stop into "The Spot" bar & grill down the road from them. Excellent food and a fun wait staff.
 
The last time I stopped by I bought TWO complete 80s. :doh:
 
Wish I had the dilemma of choosing between Robbie and Slee for local repair work!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Back
Top Bottom