Toyota Reviews

I’m amazed that you managed to find such a convoluted reset procedure, even if it only provides a temporary fix. You may well be right that this behaviour is linked to heat build-up, especially if it happens after several hours of driving.

It’s interesting that you mentioned the engine sometimes goes into limp home mode, because the transmission’s behaviour sounds a lot like it’s going into limp home mode, too. Limiting the gears the vehicle will select is a classic symptom of limp-home mode, in fact.

The real question then becomes, what’s causing it to do so. Limp home mode can be initiated any time the vehicle thinks that continuing to drive at full power or speed will do further mechanical harm. As such, there’s a huge range of things that will cause limp home mode to engage, including a leak somewhere in the turbocharger’s plumbing, low coolant level, low oil pressure, low fuel pressure, a faulty sensor and many more.

So the first job is to scan the vehicle and see what fault codes are thrown up by the computer. From there, you can home in on the actual problem and fix it. But without those codes, you’re kind of flying blind.

The first piece of advice here is to not drive the car at all until this problem is fixed. A car with faulty brakes is one of the most dangerous situations you can find yourself in, and it’s just not safe to even attempt to move it, even to relocate it on the driveway. The problem could get a lot worse very quickly, leaving you with no brakes at all. And even if it doesn’t get any worse, your limited braking capacity could make an emergency situation much, much worse.

The noise is probably not brake-line pressure escaping, since you don’t have falling brake fluid levels. At which point, my suspicion becomes that the brake master cylinder is at fault. This is a device that uses vacuum from the engine to assist you to push the brake pedal. If the diaphragm inside the booster fails, you will might hear the vacuum escaping, with a hissing noise. Even if the booster is intact internally, a simple hose that connects the booster to the engine could have split and caused the leak. Until it’s fixed, though, you won’t have full braking power and that’s, obviously, very dangerous.

If you want a very capable off-road vehicle with a good reputation for reliability, then the answer is probably yes. These were great vehicles and were actually phenomenal in the bush where it took a lot to stop them.

The better question is probably why you wouldn’t buy one, and in that case, the answers include high fuel consumption (the FJ Cruiser was only available with a petrol engine, not a diesel). The vehicle was also a bit on the small side inside and won’t hold all the gear a typical family would need for a week away camping. Also, the two-and-a-bit door layout means access to the rear seat is a bit limited.

There’s also the matter of not buying more vehicle than you need and, if you’re not planning to go off-road or outback touring, then the FJ Cruiser is overkill. They’re also getting a bit long in the tooth these days, but a well maintained example can still be ultra-reliable.