Toyota Land Cruiser Problems

Here’s a figure you won’t find on the specification sheet on the brochure. The internet is no help either, so I took my trusty tape-measure around to a Toyota dealership and worked it out old-school. The answer is 400mm (40cm) but that’s for a standard vehicle. Bigger tyres and lifted suspension will throw that into a cocked hat.

I don’t think this is an isolated problem, Andrea, as I’ve heard of exactly the same thing happening to other 200-Series Toyotas. From the look of things, this type of recurring limp-home-mode problem with the LandCruiser is usually down to one of three things.

The first is a damaged or faulty stepper motor which controls both the throttle and the variable vanes on the turbocharger. Sometimes the vanes can become stuck, refuse to budge and burn out the stepper motor’s electronics in the process. If there’s a problem with any of those components, the stepper motor – at the very least -t will need to be replaced. The advice there is to use the genuine Toyota part, not a cheaper copy.

The second possibility is a fault with the EGR valve, and the third is a faulty accelerator pedal which, unlike older cars, does not connect via a cable to the throttle, but ends an electronic signal to the car’s computer. Any glitch here can send the car into limp-home. The fact that you’ve had problems while in cruise control makes me suspect either the accelerator or stepper motor, so they’d be the components I’d be checking first. For what it’s worth, I reckon the police-scanner explanation is a load of rubbish.

The car you want will need to have a towing rating of 3500 kg, which cuts the field down considerably. Your best bet is probably a used Toyota Landcruiser, it would tow your caravan, and parts are readily available in most parts of the country.

Check the brake fluid level, it could be a warning for low fluid.

I’ll take a punt here and suggest that the $55,000 price was the trade-in value at a Toyota dealership. Certainly, it’s about what a dealer would offer as a trade-in on a new LandCruiser, so it’s a good deal at that money.

The best thing you can do is sit your mate down, look him in the eye and get honest answers about how the vehicle has been used and what condition it’s in. This was a relatively early example of the turbo-diesel V8 and while they improved as Toyota made running changes, the early engines were known to burn a bit of oil. After his years of ownership, your pal should be well aware of things like that, so get some straight answers.

If it checks out, that’s great, but you’d still want to have a contingency budget for repairs as these were complex machines, and even jobs like replacing the starter motor (which lives up under the inlet manifold on these V8s) can cost a motzah to complete. That said, I love the idea that the vehicle has done mostly highway kilometres and that it’s never been off road. Seriously, that’s the second-hand LandCruiser you want to buy.

As an estimate if it’s got a petrol engine it would be $20,000-$25,000, it the engine is a diesel it would be $29,000-$33,000.

You really have two ways to go here. The fact that you want to go off-road in the best/worst conditions this country has to offer means an SUV or cross-over just isn’t going to cut it. With that in mind, you’re looking at either a dual-cab ute or a conventional four-wheel-drive wagon.

In the ute world, there’s plenty of choice within your budget, but you need to be careful that the vehicle in question hasn’t been worked to death by a tradie towing a bobcat Monday to Friday. The popularity of these vehicles, meanwhile, means that there’s lots of choice when it comes to aftermarket bits and pieces to complete your dream vehicle.

The other route – a conventional wagon-style 4X4 – also places a lot of choice within your budget. The Toyota LandCruiser Prado would be a good choice, as would something like a Mitsubishi Pajero which has always represented good value for money both brand-new and second-hand. You could also look at Nissan Patrols which also give you plenty of car for the money and, if you shop carefully, you could find a really nice LandCruiser 80 Series, reckoned by some to be the absolute pinnacle of off-road wagons, even though they’re getting on a bit now. There’s great aftermarket and service support for all these options, so it will come down to your personal preferences.

By 1998, the LandCruiser had gained bigger brakes and a bigger wheel and tyre combination, making these later versions the best for towing. Pre-1995 versions were limited to towing 2500kg, but the upgrade took that limit to 3500kg which is still competitive even today. The transmission makes no difference to this limit.