V8 Landcruiser 1999-2003 vintage
 

Thinking about buying one of these to tow my boat. Anyone have any experience or suggest a better/more reliable vehicle for purpose. Any downsides that anyone can think of? Don't care about MPG I have a fuel card.

Has to be able to tow long distances if required and offer a little comfort so no commercial style pickups.

Don't buy anything post 2001 re VED

Won't be UK reg'd. ;-)

Thanks for the tip though, thought they'd abolished these plans.

Trememdous vehiciles. V8 are powerful, reliable, just like the diesels. Mpg on both are 5hite but with the cost of diesel being 14p a litre more, then not too sure which ones is best to go for.

Petrol ones are far cheaper than the diesels. I love them. Big solid family / towing trucks

SBK

Lots of experience of the diesels (4.2) but not the V8s. Inlaws have had 3 and wife's grandparents currently have one.

Proper off roaders, amazingly well specced out, never ever break down, will tow a house, a bit anti social, thirsy (even the diesel is a heavy drinker).

Sound ideal then. I don't mind being anti-social just not in a naff tosserish X5/Cayenne way. As I have a fuel card the more petrol the car uses the more benefit I'm getting from the tax rape that the government commits on me every month.

Wondered about common faults they might have. Obviously I'm going to be looking for something that hasn't done much heavy towing and be checking things like regular ATF/oil changes. Any weak points of note that anyone knows of?

Wife's grandparents one had a dodgy battery and alternator (diesel though) and it's had the odd scrape from being HUGE but reversing camera helps.

I've driven one from London to Cornwall and back and have had no problems. Even cabbies scramble for cover when you drive an LC!

The inlaws ones were all 100% reliable - all three of them.

Also done proper greenlaning in one (when it was 4 months old) - they'll go anywhere a Defender will go - just about.

The only the things i can think of that might have faults is the air suspension and check the electrical system.Don't know much about the petrol V8 though.Obviously the L/C is not so simple anymore, so more can go wrong.

If you decide not to buy the V8 L/C, here is the turbo diesel vers with the updated 5 sp auto.I havn't been far in the later one, so must get better economy compared with the older 4 sp auto but might be wrong.

TOYOTA LANDCRUISER 4.2 TDI 2004 AUTOMATIC on eBay, also, Toyota, Cars, Cars, Parts Vehicles (end time 30-Nov-08 11:05:30 GMT)

Nathan.

my dad has the 2000 3.0 td hes had a stack of problems. hth

The V8 petrol engines are bomb proof but can get a bit tappety and given that Toyota built these engines properly means they use a bucket under shim setup. 32 valves and 4 cams = a lot of labour to correct.

Some other Toyota V8 engined cars can have problems with the PS pump failing and the fluid the gets into the alternator which then dies too. Don't know if this is a problem with the Land Cruisers, though.

I thought the Lexus LS shared the same 4.7 v8.

Same family. The Lexus LS used the 1UZ-FE (4.0) and 3UZ-FE (4.3) aluminium engines with 6 bolt mains, the LC uses the 2UZ-FE (4.7) which uses an iron block and only 4 bolt mains. You can interchange bits between them.

You don't say !

:D

It's the only 4X4 to be seen in. Used one in Dubai and loved it but would not have one as I live in a town and don't tow anything.

Have you looked into Pajeros? I've got a 2.8 diesel swb (not for sale) and I prefer driving it to the Impreza. Should get a 97-98 for a grand plus. Will run on pure veg oil too ;)

Will tow anything and mine even has Recaros as standard :)

Ihave the LC80 (1994 model) and am going to pick up a 2000 (W) Amazon 4.2TD this weekend to replace it with


They are the most awesome cars built -- everyone who knows anything about 4X4's will tell you that they make 90% of their competitors look like toys

as I have mentioned in a previous post the Nairobi Landover dealership uses the Lancruiser as a recovery truck

An AA man of 20 years experience said to me that he picks up 2 disco's each and every shift -- the only car he has never recovered is a Landcruiser

any extreme overland trip programme and you can almost guarantee it will be a LC

and used by the UN and the worlds militia the world over


Reply form a qustion I posted on a toyota LC forum when I was looking to change from an 80 to a 100 series -- hope it helps

The 100 is a different sort of car from the 80. In Australia there are a lot of 105s which has a very similar chassis to the 80 but the body from the 100. However, they don't (didn't) sell them in the UK so we only have the 100 with the independent front suspension.

Now, the 100 has a couple of variations. I have a GX model diesel automatic. This has diff locks on the transfer box and rear axle. I believe that you can fit a locking unit to the front axle but that would be quite unusual. This would be a non-Toyota part possibly using compressed air to operate it so a compressor would be required. You can also fit air operated locker to the rear axle and some of the serious off-roaders prefer this to the electric units used by Toyota.

The GX model doesn't have the self leveling suspension or the sunroof or the electric steering wheel. This means a more basic car but less potential problems. So you would have the conventional suspension with dampers on this model. It's the VX which gets all the bells and whistles. There aren't a lot of GXs in the UK but there are a few.

Then you move on to the petrol engined 100s. These have a 4.7 litre V8 engine and a different system for the diffs from the diesel cars. As I understand it, they use the ABS to control wheel spin. The rear axle may have a limited slip differential as well but not the locking diff.

A further complication is that the second user imports are often equipped like the petrol engined cars even if they are diesel. You have to check carefully with these.

Regarding the third row of seats. They are two seats which mount separately. You might be able to fit a centre seatbelt but it would probably only be a lap belt. I had a Previa with this arrangement giving 8 seats. But the middle passenger wouldn't be as secure as his neighbours if you follow me.

As for weaknesses, the only one I have heard of (with the GX) is that the mounting points for the torsion bar spring which holds up the front end (there is one on each lower wishbone) is that with hard use the wishbone can split or the fixing on the non-moving end can fail where it meets the end of the torsion bar. It the same arrangment as was used on the old Morris Minor in the 1950s and early 60s in case you are familiar with that car. However, failures are only with hard off-road use - it's not a common problem. You can get stiffer springs (bars) and stronger fixings plates plus reinforcing pieces for the wishbones but they come from Australia so they are a bit harder to find here.

The independent front suspension complicates the process of raising the suspension because you need to lower the front diff if you jack the front end up. The back just needs longer springer and dampers. The front dampers are a standard design.

A small point is that I was surprised by the amount of rust under the back end of my car when I got it. It was 5 years old with 58,000 miles. The lining to the rear bumper was pretty rusty (perhaps 3 more years life before the metal began to fall apart). The spare wheel carrier is fairly thick metal but was also quite corroded as were some corners of the floor pan behind the back wheels. So, I spent a few happy hours painting everything with primer and hammerite back in the summer of 2007. It's easier to do that than to replace the rusty metal later and painting it gave me a good feeling!

The diesel engine follows on with pretty much the same design as the later 24V engine from the 80. There is an ECU which manages the injection pump but it's not a common rail diesel (like the D4D). The new V8 diesel in the 200 series is a common rail engine.

The petrol engine is shorter and wider than the diesel being a V8 rather than a straight six so there are a few access problems (like needing to take the rad out to change the timing chain) but these are not big differences. I understand that the petrol cars are all automatic. There are some manual diesels but the automatic is pretty good. My car is an early 2002 with the 4 speed automatic which has a drain port for the fluid but the later 5 speed box doesn't which may be a worry later.

The fuel consumption on my diesel is about 24mpg if I don't use the air conditioning when it drops to around 21. I understand this is a typical figure for the model. It's not as good as the 80. I had my car weighed a while ago and it was 2.9 tons with me and the missus in it plus a few tools (nothing heavy). My car has the standard Toyota tow bar which is pretty heavy (80 - 100kg?). But its a pretty heavy outfit which probably accounts for the fuel consumption

2.9 tonnes that is very heavy.As for the rust thing, he should of sprayed wax oil under there.

Very useful Hodgy thanks a lot. A diesel isn't in the running, V8 petrol only.

yep -- the joys of a petrol card --- sigh:)

but seriously for towing they are especially good -- and i think have a huge towing capacity/limit

uk forum

Toyota Landcruiser Owners Club (UK) :: Index

USA one --- boy do these guys mod thier trucks and they love them too also most not surprisingly are the petrol engined ones


IH8MUD Forums

good luck

Oh – and because they are recognised as such good cars, easy to sell on

My LC80 bought 3 years ago for £6000 with 120k, sold in a week for 2995 asking price with 155k on the clock

Just basic servicing

Although I think petrol maybe harder to sell – but cheaper to buy in the first place

Get the petrol and then convert to LPG?

I found this one on Ebay, that you might be interested in :

2005 TOYOTA LANDCRUISER AMAZON V8 A BLUE on eBay, also, Toyota, Cars, Cars, Parts Vehicles (end time 26-Nov-08 16:17:13 GMT)

Thanks but I'll be buying in outside the UK.

That looks like an awful lot of motorcar for 10-12 grand.

Why don't you go the whole hog and get the Dodge Ram with the viper engine in hmmm V10, NICE $hitty gas mileage for you when towing. I would imagine they will be dirt cheap too!

2WD only, likewise Ford F150 Lightning. Have considered a RAM Hemi but pick up trucks aren't really my thing.

What about a Hummer? :D