Finally bought a LC200 (2018 + extras) (1 Viewer)

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FerrisBueller

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Mentioned elsewhere that I was planning to buy a 2016+ LC next year, but was tempted to move that up with the dropping prices right now. Picked up a 2018 this week, super happy with it 😎

I had been making a mental checklist of the first things I would do whenever I found the right LC. First up were going to be window tint, TRD rims, bumping up slightly to 285/65R18 tires, and slee formed sliders. Well, the 2018 LC I ended up getting just fell out the sky this past week at a dealer just a few miles from me, with the first three items on my to-list already done!

I'm aware of the radiator issues with these, and can confirm that 2018 still has the weak style of radiator (no crack developing in this one yet, though).

I'm glad to be a full LC-owning member now instead of just a poser 😆

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Congrats! Are you sure that you have the old radiator design? I thought it was upgraded a few years ago on the production line?

What is your interior color?
 
Awesome looking with those TRD wheels. Welcome to the club!

Also, I thought they changed the design on the radiator?
 
Thanks!

Took a picture of the radiator. This is the old design, right?

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Also confirmed that the KDSS bolts are legit bolts now.

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Awesome! Congrats! That thing looks good, and in a way is the better looking younger brother to my white 2013 with sliders/wheels/tires.

Seems like a few 200s in the austin area now.. we need to show up at a club meeting when those get going again.

What's the build date on your 18? The new radiator design came out some time in 2018.. I bought my truck in April of that year, and a new old-design OE radiator just after.. only to have the new design get released later that year.
 
Awesome. Now take off the shield, and spray them down with LPS3 or slather the area with marine grease. You'll thank yourself later.
THIS.

Yours isn't bad enough to put something inferior on while you wait for LPS3, but I finally got some and it is ideal for this application. Also the machined surfaces on the upper side of the valve where the lines screw in. They can have the same corrosion issue, even if they don't have small screws that get stuck as a result.
 
Awesome. Now take off the shield, and spray them down with LPS3 or slather the area with marine grease. You'll thank yourself later.

you speak to a good point!!! as a potential owner, this point has been bothering me regarding ownership. quite a few of these rigs that I have seen on here as well as in person (north Texas area so humidity is not that big a factor as compared to say houston) seem to have a lot of underbody rust relative to the years / miles on them. Even OPs rig (its beautiful and congrats!!) seems to have startings of rust as seen in the KDSS bolt pics. Is early corrosion an issue with the LC200??

A point could be made that more offroading / wheeling can result in more corrosion but I have seen this even in almost exclusively city used LCs also. Quite a contrast to my wife's current 7.5 year land rover LR4 that has very, very minimal corrosion on the underbody (knock on wood!!!). This maybe one of the variables that I may need to consider before taking the jump!!!

OP -- apologies !! did not mean to derail your thread. your rig looks awesome. the rims are smashing!!! enjoy in good health.
 
LPS3 is amazing. Put it on a year ago and the bolts loosened with zero effort.
 
you speak to a good point!!! as a potential owner, this point has been bothering me regarding ownership. quite a few of these rigs that I have seen on here as well as in person (north Texas area so humidity is not that big a factor as compared to say houston) seem to have a lot of underbody rust relative to the years / miles on them. Even OPs rig (its beautiful and congrats!!) seems to have startings of rust as seen in the KDSS bolt pics. Is early corrosion an issue with the LC200??

A point could be made that more offroading / wheeling can result in more corrosion but I have seen this even in almost exclusively city used LCs also. Quite a contrast to my wife's current 7.5 year land rover LR4 that has very, very minimal corrosion on the underbody (knock on wood!!!). This maybe one of the variables that I may need to consider before taking the jump!!!

Hold on there for a minute..
Don’t read into the KDSS valve face as an indicator of corrosion. It seems to be a particularly corrosion-prone type of metal with no coating of any kind in the bottom rear half of the vehicle. That will rust. Period. I’d bet the rest of his undercarriage looks amazing, even with that valve face that color. A bad decision by toyota to send that design to the states? Perhaps. But if dealt with early it won't pose problems.. even in places with lots of road salt.

The reason you are seeing a bunch with corrosion all over the bottom is so many of these are bought to deal with winter conditions in states that salt, then get shipped all over the country to be sold used to people that don't know to do the homework. Your wife's LR4 looks great underneath, but a 200 driven in the same locations would too. And when we start talking reliability/longevity otherwise, there just isn't a comparison to be made.
 
What's the build date on your 18? The new radiator design came out some time in 2018.. I bought my truck in April of that year, and a new old-design OE radiator just after.. only to have the new design get released later that year.
02/18, so yeah it was built very early in 2018.

DO you mind sharing how much you paid? Exactly what I am looking for except I want the terra interior.
I had been tracking CarMax, Carvana, CarGurus, Cars.com, Edmunds, and CarFax listings for several months to get an idea of what everything was going for, and that's when I noticed the general drop in 2016+ LC prices the last 6 weeks or so. I got this one for $60k, with 52,000 miles. Most 2018 models have fewer miles, but those ones also cost quite a bit more. This hit the sweet spot for me, especially since I basically got the dark tint, TRD wheels, and brand new Goodyear Wrangler UltraTerrain AT tires for free since they were already on it. I've also noticed that LC prices can be drastically different in different states, even just one or two states over. In Texas they seem to stay slightly higher priced (probably because of very little rust) and sell quickly, especially in the larger cities.

Even OPs rig (its beautiful and congrats!!) seems to have startings of rust as seen in the KDSS bolt pics. Is early corrosion an issue with the LC200??
There's actually no other corrosion anywhere else on the undercarriage, just on the KDSS valve body!

Hold on there for a minute..
Don’t read into the KDSS valve face as an indicator of corrosion. It seems to be a particularly corrosion-prone type of metal with no coating of any kind in the bottom rear half of the vehicle. That will rust. Period. I’d bet the rest of his undercarriage looks amazing, even with that valve face that color. A bad decision by toyota to send that design to the states? Perhaps. But if dealt with early it won't pose problems.. even in places with lots of road salt.

The reason you are seeing a bunch with corrosion all over the bottom is so many of these are bought to deal with winter conditions in states that salt, then get shipped all over the country to be sold used to people that don't know to do the homework. Your wife's LR4 looks great underneath, but a 200 driven in the same locations would too. And when we start talking reliability/longevity otherwise, there just isn't a comparison to be made.
Exactly.
 
Hold on there for a minute..
Don’t read into the KDSS valve face as an indicator of corrosion. It seems to be a particularly corrosion-prone type of metal with no coating of any kind in the bottom rear half of the vehicle. That will rust. Period. I’d bet the rest of his undercarriage looks amazing, even with that valve face that color. A bad decision by toyota to send that design to the states? Perhaps. But if dealt with early it won't pose problems.. even in places with lots of road salt.

The reason you are seeing a bunch with corrosion all over the bottom is so many of these are bought to deal with winter conditions in states that salt, then get shipped all over the country to be sold used to people that don't know to do the homework. Your wife's LR4 looks great underneath, but a 200 driven in the same locations would too. And when we start talking reliability/longevity otherwise, there just isn't a comparison to be made.

i'll be buying it new... so basically, when I get it, I could potentially work with the dealer to get the underbody (with all skids removed) LPS3 coated / sprayed and then spray the skids and all other sensitive areas before it even rolls off of the showroom floor. essentially do it at delivery and then follow up every 2-3 years.

I know land rovers get a bad rep, but as you say, if you do your home work and keep up with certain weak points (esp the lower control arms and the timing chain guide wear issue in pre-2012.5 LR4s), ours has been stone cold reliable. but yes, maintenance is expensive (cheaper if you do some basic stuff yourself) and you do have a good point regarding longevity of the two platforms. land rover's biggest issue in my book is production inconsistencies.
 
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Production inconsistencies must run rampant....

 
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i'll be buying it new... so basically, when I get it, I could potentially work with the dealer to get the underbody (with all skids removed) LPS3 coated / sprayed and then spray the skids and all other sensitive areas before it even rolls off of the showroom floor. essentially do it at delivery and then follow up every 2-3 years.

I absolutely would NOT do that, if I planned to stay in texas. Maybe if I lived in PA. Unless salt is involved these do not have corrosion issues other than the KDSS valve and even then I'd be the majority that spent their whole lives in texas still won't have problems. On the other hand, EVERY time you have to do something to the frame/chassis/suspension of one coated in LPS3, you are going to get greasy and dirty as hell. Not to mention pounds and pounds of dirt stuck to everything.

Keep the extra corrosion protection where it's needed.. the rest will be fine.

BTW I don't want this to get further off-topic but I also don't want new people thinking these things are going to dissolve to dust in texas. That just isn't the case. If OP were to post pictures of the rest of the undercarriage I'm pretty sure everyone would realize this is a non-issue.

@FerrisBueller enjoy that beautiful LandCruiser! Hidden falls, the beach, wherever. I'll be taking mine to SW CO this summer for sure.
 
Maybe, but every single land cruiser I've ever seen (no matter how old) has rust forming at the weld joints and exposed metal like the kdss manifold. I don't think Toyota has ever figured this out... Maybe Texas is so dry that you all have no issue?
 

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