Hello everyone. I am brand new to owning and working on Toyota, particularly Land Cruisers. I had a 2014 Chevy Silverado that I did a lot of work on and loved, we had a storm come through and it blew the one tree I have in my yard down. As luck would have it, it landed on my truck and ended up totaling it. This sent me on the pursuit of a new truck or SUV. In 2022 I went on a trip to South Africa where we hunted out on a farm and they all drove either a Toyota Hilux, Land Cruiser Prado, or a Land Cruiser 79 Bakkie.
This got me thinking, I have a baby now and couldn't fit the car seat in the back seat of my old truck so why would I need to buy another one just like it? All the trucks in my price range were higher mileage and I knew from experience that meant new motors and or new transmissions. I didn't love the look of the Tundra’s so I felt stuck. Then I stumbled upon IH8MUD and all of you guys. I started looking for a Land Cruiser or a GX that I could modify and make my own. 2 months and a lot of looking I found a 2011 Land Cruiser 200 with 150,000 miles that was near the top of my budget but it was love at first sight. I've always had black trucks and this one was a cool Amazon Green. I went on down to the dealer who had it and bought it the morning after they listed it. (unfortunately, I lost the pics I took of it when we bought it)
Within 3 weeks of owning it, I started noticing some issues. Oil on the garage floor, the power steering fluid starting to get a little lower, a little coolant leak, and a rattle noise when I would cold start. Then I thought, oh crap what have I done. This LC200 is supposed to last forever, they shouldn't have these issues. I put it up on our car lift and got to looking and noticed the oil was coming out of the pan seal. That's no problem just need to take it off and clean out the silicone, change out the old gasket, and reseal it, easy job.
I started doing research on the power steering system and where to look for the leak. Then I found it, the steering rack had a busted seal and needed to be replaced. I'm pretty handy and love working on cars and trucks but this one I knew was going to be rough.
I took it to a local shop to have them look at it and confirm my suspicions and sure enough it needed to be replaced. They also diagnosed the rattle had to do with the timing chain. One of the tensioners had either failed or broken. I got the quotes and had them do the timing chain and I said I would tackle the steering rack. We also determined the rear shocks were shot, so logically I needed an all-new suspension system.
I really don't know what I'll do with the Land Cruiser as far as off-roading goes. I felt that buying a $4k off-road suspension system that I may or may not take off-road would be overkill to start with. I ended up choosing the Ironman 4x4 stage 1 Nitro Gas Suspension kit. I got the medium load for the front and the Medium plus for the rear. After getting all the parts in I had the garage do the timing chain and started researching how to do the steering rack. 2 weeks later the shop finished the timing chain and I got it back and went to work on it later that week.
We started on Thursday at 3:00 and worked on getting the old steering rack out. We finally managed to get the old one out by 9:00 that night, and it is not for the faint of heart. Some notes for the next person. Take the sway bar off (we did that the next day), remove the oil filter housing unit (we did that the next day), also if you are doing front suspension at the same time, you can gain a lot of room by removing the front coil overs (we also did this the next day).
This got me thinking, I have a baby now and couldn't fit the car seat in the back seat of my old truck so why would I need to buy another one just like it? All the trucks in my price range were higher mileage and I knew from experience that meant new motors and or new transmissions. I didn't love the look of the Tundra’s so I felt stuck. Then I stumbled upon IH8MUD and all of you guys. I started looking for a Land Cruiser or a GX that I could modify and make my own. 2 months and a lot of looking I found a 2011 Land Cruiser 200 with 150,000 miles that was near the top of my budget but it was love at first sight. I've always had black trucks and this one was a cool Amazon Green. I went on down to the dealer who had it and bought it the morning after they listed it. (unfortunately, I lost the pics I took of it when we bought it)
Within 3 weeks of owning it, I started noticing some issues. Oil on the garage floor, the power steering fluid starting to get a little lower, a little coolant leak, and a rattle noise when I would cold start. Then I thought, oh crap what have I done. This LC200 is supposed to last forever, they shouldn't have these issues. I put it up on our car lift and got to looking and noticed the oil was coming out of the pan seal. That's no problem just need to take it off and clean out the silicone, change out the old gasket, and reseal it, easy job.
I started doing research on the power steering system and where to look for the leak. Then I found it, the steering rack had a busted seal and needed to be replaced. I'm pretty handy and love working on cars and trucks but this one I knew was going to be rough.
I took it to a local shop to have them look at it and confirm my suspicions and sure enough it needed to be replaced. They also diagnosed the rattle had to do with the timing chain. One of the tensioners had either failed or broken. I got the quotes and had them do the timing chain and I said I would tackle the steering rack. We also determined the rear shocks were shot, so logically I needed an all-new suspension system.
I really don't know what I'll do with the Land Cruiser as far as off-roading goes. I felt that buying a $4k off-road suspension system that I may or may not take off-road would be overkill to start with. I ended up choosing the Ironman 4x4 stage 1 Nitro Gas Suspension kit. I got the medium load for the front and the Medium plus for the rear. After getting all the parts in I had the garage do the timing chain and started researching how to do the steering rack. 2 weeks later the shop finished the timing chain and I got it back and went to work on it later that week.
We started on Thursday at 3:00 and worked on getting the old steering rack out. We finally managed to get the old one out by 9:00 that night, and it is not for the faint of heart. Some notes for the next person. Take the sway bar off (we did that the next day), remove the oil filter housing unit (we did that the next day), also if you are doing front suspension at the same time, you can gain a lot of room by removing the front coil overs (we also did this the next day).
(It's the official welcome and don't get mad.)
for Amazon Green.
