Greetings from central Indiana. Let me start by saying thank you to all of you who share your incredible knowledge and experience of these vehicles through this forum. I have already benefited enormously from your hard work and time spent in figuring out and documenting all of the how-to stuff.
I have wanted an 80-Series way before I knew they were even called 80’s. I needed to upsize my ’94 4Runner about 6 years ago and was looking for an SUV with a third seat. Not too many to choose from. The Land Cruiser was by far my first choice. However, the price was out of the budget (I think they were over $20K) and I ended up with a ’97 Expedition for $5K less. Not too bad of a truck, but man, what a rattley bucket of bolts.
So anyway, I was recently driving my ’02 Explorer which I didn’t like and was exhaustively researching ’96 and ’97 Land Cruisers and LX450’s (like only a frugal engineer can do – although I’m sure a lot of you could give me run for my money in that way). Those vehicles aren’t too common around here (which is something I’ve noticed and was also told by a nearby salvage yard guy). Well, lo and behold a ’96 LX450 came up on cars.com early one Saturday morning. The price was not bad, $13,300 I think it was, but the mileage was 40,000. WHAT! So I called right then, was the first caller (of many) and put a down payment on the car over the phone, lined up some financing that week and hopped on a plane to Daphne, Alabama the following Monday.
As it turned out, the car dealership was, uhh, a bit shifty and wasn’t truthful about a few things (condition-wise). But they had replaced the alternator, one of the headlights, “serviced” the battery (whatever that means) and changed the oil. They were not willing to reconcile the issues that they were untruthful about but that’s because they knew, and I knew that the truck was underpriced. So I signed on the dotted line and started out my 750 mile trek back to Indy.
About 15 minutes up the road, I added almost two quarts of oil (morons!) and she was running good. Home by midday the following day with the car o’ my dreams. Oh yeah, I had to replace the brake master cylinder about a week after I got home ($ouch$). I didn’t have the time or the confidence in my wrenching to mess with the brakes so I had Butler Toyota do the damage. As mentioned, the seller had an aftermarket alternator put on. The charging light was on when I bought the beast and the seller said it was because the new alternator had a temporarily higher output since it was new and the light would eventually go off. This sounded like hooey to me and my local dealership. But, for whatever reason, the light went off after a month or so. I am getting an annoying whine from under the hood and it’s my uneducated guess that it’s probably that alternator.
Since then, I have replaced all 5 speakers - Pioneers in the doors and a new 2-ohm, 5” no-name sub that I found on eBay for less than 10 bucks (bolted right in). I’m a stock kind of guy so I have decided to keep the stock stereo setup - once I got beyond the idiot-of-the-decade move with the cd changer. Get this… Since my cd changer “didn’t work”, I was looking for either a replacement cd changer, repair of my unit or other options (in-dash player, etc) when I finally stopped by an electronics repair place to get an estimate. The repair tech/owner came outside to look at the changer while mumbling something about “.. some changers require, blah blah...” and proceeded to look at the cd magazine (which I had “looked” at before) and told me that the cd’s need to go in UPSIDE DOWN!. Whoever heard of that??!? Anyway, the stock system sounds quite good/good enough for me with all new speakers and a working cd changer. Duh!
So I have spent the last couple of months removing the effects of 11 years in the Alabama pollen (that’s what the dealer said anyway) and the Texas sun. Finally last weekend, SUCCESS with some right shiny paint.
I’ve completed the tune-up stuff (thank you sir, to cdan), and the coolant flush and fill, as well as the CDL switch and 7-pin. I put 285-75-16 Dueler A/T rh-s (hummer 3 upgrade) tires on because I have had great luck with the Dueler A/T 693’s in the past (75,000 miles on the ’94 4Runner with miles to spare, excellent wet, dry and snow traction) and they were considerably cheaper than a new set of BFG’s, Revos, etc. (plus I have a set of hummer rims to sell). They were an eBay purchase.
Future plans include baselining the remaining fluids, front axle rebuild since I have the grease goobing out of the front hubs, trying to find some decent side-view mirrors since both are trashed and some of George’s LED’s. The dream list includes an ARB non-winch up front and perhaps a mild lift.
This is my daily driver which I plan to have for a long, long time. I love it. Thanks again and I look forward to keeping up with you all. Regards, John
I have wanted an 80-Series way before I knew they were even called 80’s. I needed to upsize my ’94 4Runner about 6 years ago and was looking for an SUV with a third seat. Not too many to choose from. The Land Cruiser was by far my first choice. However, the price was out of the budget (I think they were over $20K) and I ended up with a ’97 Expedition for $5K less. Not too bad of a truck, but man, what a rattley bucket of bolts.
So anyway, I was recently driving my ’02 Explorer which I didn’t like and was exhaustively researching ’96 and ’97 Land Cruisers and LX450’s (like only a frugal engineer can do – although I’m sure a lot of you could give me run for my money in that way). Those vehicles aren’t too common around here (which is something I’ve noticed and was also told by a nearby salvage yard guy). Well, lo and behold a ’96 LX450 came up on cars.com early one Saturday morning. The price was not bad, $13,300 I think it was, but the mileage was 40,000. WHAT! So I called right then, was the first caller (of many) and put a down payment on the car over the phone, lined up some financing that week and hopped on a plane to Daphne, Alabama the following Monday.
As it turned out, the car dealership was, uhh, a bit shifty and wasn’t truthful about a few things (condition-wise). But they had replaced the alternator, one of the headlights, “serviced” the battery (whatever that means) and changed the oil. They were not willing to reconcile the issues that they were untruthful about but that’s because they knew, and I knew that the truck was underpriced. So I signed on the dotted line and started out my 750 mile trek back to Indy.
About 15 minutes up the road, I added almost two quarts of oil (morons!) and she was running good. Home by midday the following day with the car o’ my dreams. Oh yeah, I had to replace the brake master cylinder about a week after I got home ($ouch$). I didn’t have the time or the confidence in my wrenching to mess with the brakes so I had Butler Toyota do the damage. As mentioned, the seller had an aftermarket alternator put on. The charging light was on when I bought the beast and the seller said it was because the new alternator had a temporarily higher output since it was new and the light would eventually go off. This sounded like hooey to me and my local dealership. But, for whatever reason, the light went off after a month or so. I am getting an annoying whine from under the hood and it’s my uneducated guess that it’s probably that alternator.
Since then, I have replaced all 5 speakers - Pioneers in the doors and a new 2-ohm, 5” no-name sub that I found on eBay for less than 10 bucks (bolted right in). I’m a stock kind of guy so I have decided to keep the stock stereo setup - once I got beyond the idiot-of-the-decade move with the cd changer. Get this… Since my cd changer “didn’t work”, I was looking for either a replacement cd changer, repair of my unit or other options (in-dash player, etc) when I finally stopped by an electronics repair place to get an estimate. The repair tech/owner came outside to look at the changer while mumbling something about “.. some changers require, blah blah...” and proceeded to look at the cd magazine (which I had “looked” at before) and told me that the cd’s need to go in UPSIDE DOWN!. Whoever heard of that??!? Anyway, the stock system sounds quite good/good enough for me with all new speakers and a working cd changer. Duh!
So I have spent the last couple of months removing the effects of 11 years in the Alabama pollen (that’s what the dealer said anyway) and the Texas sun. Finally last weekend, SUCCESS with some right shiny paint.
I’ve completed the tune-up stuff (thank you sir, to cdan), and the coolant flush and fill, as well as the CDL switch and 7-pin. I put 285-75-16 Dueler A/T rh-s (hummer 3 upgrade) tires on because I have had great luck with the Dueler A/T 693’s in the past (75,000 miles on the ’94 4Runner with miles to spare, excellent wet, dry and snow traction) and they were considerably cheaper than a new set of BFG’s, Revos, etc. (plus I have a set of hummer rims to sell). They were an eBay purchase.
Future plans include baselining the remaining fluids, front axle rebuild since I have the grease goobing out of the front hubs, trying to find some decent side-view mirrors since both are trashed and some of George’s LED’s. The dream list includes an ARB non-winch up front and perhaps a mild lift.
This is my daily driver which I plan to have for a long, long time. I love it. Thanks again and I look forward to keeping up with you all. Regards, John
