My first year with an HDJ100 (1 Viewer)

[FinnishCruiserGuy]

Hi everyone!

I have been a happy Cruiser owner for about a year now and been following this forum as a guest during this period until now. It is amazing how much useful information one can find here!

I read that it is recommended to give an introduction when joining the forum, so here goes mine!

My Land Cruiser is a year 2001 champagne pearl HDJ100 that has barely reached it’s running in period, slightly above 700000 kilometres or 450000 miles on the clock. I thought it would be nice to present what has changed in my Cruiser since I bought it.

This is how it looked like in the ad (not that great):

Interior was quite ok otherwise, but the steering wheel was worn to terrible greenish colour:

The first (and obvious) thing to do was to something for the rims and tires. The rims were original, but in terrible condition and had lost the centre cups.

Sandblasting and paint did the trick, not perfect but good enough:

With the tires, based on many pictures in this forum, I went with a round of BFG A/T in size 285/75R16:

I had to tighten the torsion bars to lift the front maybe two inches to fit the new tires, the front end was really low in the beginning. I don’t know if the torsion bars had some fatigue or has someone really wanted to have it like that. With that sorted, this tyre size really fits nicely!

To be continued...

 

[FinnishCruiserGuy]

I ordered the missing centre cups from amayama.com, and they were a perfect fit.

The cost was more than expected, almost 200 € with all shipping cost, customs and taxes. But no regrets, without those the OEM rims look really bad.

The steering wheel was the second on my list to get fixed as soon as possible. In addition to the bad condition of the surface, it was completely loose from the core and it could be twisted very easily.

I drilled holes on the back side in each dent and filled the gap with RTV. It got very nice and firm, good as new.

Next, I went for reconditioning the surface. I bought some dark grey steering wheel paint online, and the colour suits nicely to the grey used in the interior (here you can see very well how bad the surface was):

After degreasing, I gave the surface a good sweep with P400 paper to get rid of the nasty stuff in the surface:

And then, after a layer of primer, three layers of colour and two layers of surface protection:

I am quite happy with the result!

I did also some small things like finding some missing switch covers etc. that had been lost, and painted the black area in the centre console that was badly worn and showing that fake wood trim all over:

The shift lever leather surface was in pretty bad condition, so encouraged by a post in this forum, I just cut it off and painted the white plastic parts in black.

 

[FinnishCruiserGuy]

With these minor updates and cleaning work, it’s like a different truck:

Also under the hood it looks quite ok considering the mileage:

I still have a lot of work to do:

The rear wiper did not work at all. I disassembled the wiper spindle + link + motor, and the spindle was totally jammed. I put the spindle into pieces, cleaned and regreased. Thought that this was an easy one until I reconnected the motor, and found out that now it won’t stop anymore. After many evenings of troubleshooting I found that the issue is in the “instrument ECU”. When bypassing it, the wiper operates normally, obviously without the intermittent function. I think I will just leave the ECU bypassed, the intermittent function is not a must.

What was really broken, was the rear diff lock actuator. It had seen some rough terrain too closely:

Last week I started dismounting it, I thought it’s impossible after two of the four screws heads rounded off, but then I decided (even though a voice in my head said “don’t do it”) to bang the remaining of the actuator to pieces with a hammer, as the housing is some kind of soft aluminium alloy. After removing the flange pieces under the rounded-off screws, they loosened easily. Happily everything sorted out, and now I’m waiting a new actuator from Japan ($$$):

The power antenna was also not working, that’s also disassembled in my garage at the moment while I’m waiting for new mast.

Passenger side window’s auto-function does not work properly, after hitting closed position it retracts back. I read that the motor should be removed and driven for > 4 seconds to reset the memory, that’s on my worklist!

Upper liftgate has been fixed at least once due to rust in the past, and now it starts to be time to do something with it again. I’ll leave that for next year, as at least for now there are only bubbles in the paint which haven’t yet fallen off and exposed the nasty rust. When looked from far enough, it looks like there is no issue!

What might be tricky is the remote central locking not responding to anything, I have three keys, tried each of those with new batteries without success. I have to still study the forum for the steps for troubleshooting. I’m sure there are good tips!

The air conditioning is also totally dead and there is at least on pipe that has a hole in it, most likely the compressor is dead also after X years without rotating a single revolution. But fixing the air conditioning I’m going to leave for a workshop’s concern.

And finally, I want to share a picture what this Cruiser is mainly used for, towing our small family boat from lake to another in Finland, which it does with ease. It’s still snowy here in February, but the thoughts are already in next summer!

If you read this far my looong introduction post, thanks for patience, now you reached the end!

I’d like to thank everyone in this forum for providing this much useful information and support for Cruiser owners all over the world! It’s priceless to have such an active community.

Best Regards,

-Simo

 

[excessive]

nice work! I wonder how that diff actuator got so mangled ?

 

[FinnishCruiserGuy]

Thanks!

Yes you probably need a bit of bad luck to get such a knock directly in the actuator. Positive is that the troubleshooting of rear diff lock not working was easy! Quick look in the chassis, and "OK".

The actuator has surely undergone severe abuse even before my gentle disassembly, as the flange has been partially ruptured long time ago:

There was about half an inch missing from the flange from the rear axle side. Hard to understand how that has happened.

 

[XAlent]

Nice work mate. I see you have the additional engine heater pump in there as well. Do you know what the item circled is? It look like a diesel heater but I could be wrong.

I suggest removing and blanking the EGR pipe and running some Seafoam cleaner through the inlet manifold because they'd be a fair bit of build up in there. Removing the EGR pipe also gives you a good spot for an exhaust temperature probe which is nice to keep an eye on as well as a convenient spot to pick up a boost signal for a gauge. You just have to replumb the EGR solenoid so it's open all the time

 

[ClassyJalopy]

Following with interest!

 

[FinnishCruiserGuy]

Thanks XAlent! You are absolutely correct, that circled device is a diesel powered "pre-heater". These are common here up north, especially in cars with larger engines. Most cars have electric heaters though, but the power in those is 0,5-1 kW, so it would take ages to heat such an engine. With this 5 kW diesel heater it takes 15-30 minutes to have a reasonably warm engine and cabin even in the coldest days.

Nice hint with the EGR! I have heard that it's quite a common modification with older diesel engines that will reduce the carbon build-up in the intake manifold. Let's see if I have the courage some day to have a look in the manifold, this is one of those things where not knowing the situation might be better! I wonder how much work there is (and possibilities to screw things up) to get the intake manifold out?

That's a great idea to plug those sensors in the EGR holes! And you have a very neat meter installation there.

 

[Moridinbg]

700 000km! Do you know the history of the fuel pump, injectors and turbo? At around 500 000km the pump starts loosing fuelling capacity. Expensive thing. The turbo starts showing its age around that time too.
How are the bushings underneath? Especially the front diff.

 

[FinnishCruiserGuy]

Unfortunately there are no maintenance records with the truck. It for sure would be nice to read if half of the vehicle has been rebuilt during its lifespan! In that sense I have not much to share, but I'll share some thoughts anyway:

I'm no expert, but I was amazed how well everything works in the mechanics despite the mileage. Engine starts and sounds good, no smoke, doesn't consume oil, seems to have all the needed power, transmission shifts without any issues. It for sure is possible that the engine has been completely rebuilt or changed at some point.

Where I can see the mileage, is somewhat noticeable play in rear diff, I can rotate the prop shaft by hand for a small amount. Front diff has been replaced with new unit a few years ago, and the front prop shaft has virtually no rotational play to feel.

Another thing is the shifter for low-high -range, I can feel clear vibration in it while driving. I'm not sure if it's normal, or is it a sign of wear in the transfer case gears?

The fuel pump seems to work great, at least judging from the amount of fuel it can deliver to the engine!

The turbo seems to be fine also. Only thing is that with partial throttle I can hear quite a significant "swooooosh" -noise, just like the compressed air is released all the time. When I floor it, the "leaking boost" -noise disappears and I hear a healthy turbo sound. Again, I'm not sure if this is normal or not as this is the only 1HD-FTE engine I have experience with.

The previous owner replaced a lot of bushings in the chassis, especially in front during the diff replacement. No extra noise anywhere.

The big issue here is rust, as the highways are spread with salt in the wintertime, so chassis parts look a bit nasty.

 

[uHu]

Hyvää päivää. Great thread on a great forum. That's a fantastic intro - keep it coming.

What killed your RDL actuator would be the road salt. I've found that they last only about 10 years around here. Suppose it is because of three different metals combined, making the alu disappear swiftly. Trying to keep mine soaked in Fluid Film.

The Transfer gear shifter will vibrate, yes, as the shifter stick itself is fastened to the gearbox. It does get worse as your injectors become more uneven in performance, and as the engine/gearbox mounts wear out. And there is a nylon grommet and a wavy washer on the bottom end of the shifter that wears out fast.

 

[FinnishCruiserGuy]

God kveld! That's a reasonable explanation regarding the actuator. It did not require much effort for me to break the housing, so it could simply be hit by a stone after being eroded for a decade by salt. My plan was also to cover the new one with Tectyl etc. to make it last longer.

I often envy pictures of 20 year old cars' condition in countries where salt is not used, so different than what we have here! It's probably old car owners worst enemy...

Good to know that the vibration in the shifter is normal, no need to worry about that anymore, thanks!