alaskacruiser said:The 2-pinion front diff is a major weak point of the older 100s. Having lived in Alaska for 23 years, I rocked the **** out of my '92 Ford Aerostar E-4WD (automatically locks/unlocks center diff) MINIVAN more times than I can count in the deep stuff (often several feet of snow) and never had any front/rear diff problems (or tranny or engine problems, for that matter), also pulled out several stuck cars in forward and reverse gears- again, no problems except new CV joints at 80K (more than expected service lifetime on these vehicles, esp. in severe conditions such as regular 40-50 below winters and unavoidable wheelspin most of the winter). The fact that a FORD MINIVAN has handled this type of use for 14 years and counting while '98 and '99 100s are exploding more than their share of front diffs under mild/moderate use definitely indicates a problem.
Yes. A definate blunder by Toyota.