1999 Toyota Land Cruiser

[87Warrior]

My Jeep fleet has been tainted with rice... Actually, I feel really good about it. This Toyota is the replacement for my 06 Grand Cherokee that upset me with its failed 4wd system. This Toyota went into 4wd Lo without issue. Wahoo!

 

Just picked up this 100 Series.

 

1999 Toyota Land Cruiser

- One owner

- 246k miles

- Timing Belt done at 211k

- Diff Lock (rear locker)

- Small patch of fender rust

 

It needs new tires and a serious interior deep cleaning. This was a smokers vehicle so I am going to pull the seats and shampoo the carpet and headliner.

 

Now the fun begins!

[Wiggilez]

looks nice :)

 

and just between you and me the last gen of toyota pick ups before they became the tacoma the ones that were built up to 92 I believe. are possibly my fav mini truck. wouldn't trade my MJ for one, but i would trade my dodge for one.  

[Pete M]

how big of a tire can you shove under that?  :D

[87Warrior]

I've always admired Toyota's. This is my first.

 

You can fit a 33 stock....but I'm going to be reasonable and stick with a 31/32. It is my DD now and the fuel economy isn't that wonderful. I am going to go with Cooper ATW's for it. They seem like the perfect tire for my use and I was planning on getting them for the WK before it made me mad.

 

I have discovered a few things about this Toyota.

 

First, OEM parts are expensive.

 

Second, no local parts stores stock air filters or cabin filters.

 

Third, it has two FM antennas. One one the passenger fender and one in the back side window.

 

I have ordered a new touch screen radio I can link to my smartphone. Going this route seems more reasonable vs a Nav unit since my phone nav updates regularly. Hopefully the installation goes smoothly.

 

I also pulled the running boards. That really cleaned up the side profile of the truck. I noticed it kind of drove like a boat and had a good clunk so I started poking around. Turn out both front swaybar links are broken. I have replacements on the way and plan to mount them with lynch pins so I can have disconnects. Apparently they are just as useful for IFS trucks. I also plan to twist up the torsion bars a little to reduce the forward rake.

[Wiggilez]

I've always admired Toyota's. This is my first.

 

You can fit a 33 stock....but I'm going to be reasonable and stick with a 31/32. It is my DD now and the fuel economy isn't that wonderful. I am going to go with Cooper ATW's for it. They seem like the perfect tire for my use and I was planning on getting them for the WK before it made me mad.

 

I have discovered a few things about this Toyota.

 

First, OEM parts are expensive.

 

Second, no local parts stores stock air filters or cabin filters.

 

Third, it has two FM antennas. One one the passenger fender and one in the back side window.

 

I have ordered a new touch screen radio I can link to my smartphone. Going this route seems more reasonable vs a Nav unit since my phone nav updates regularly. Hopefully the installation goes smoothly.

 

I also pulled the running boards. That really cleaned up the side profile of the truck. I noticed it kind of drove like a boat and had a good clunk so I started poking around. Turn out both front swaybar links are broken. I have replacements on the way and plan to mount them with lynch pins so I can have disconnects. Apparently they are just as useful for IFS trucks. I also plan to twist up the torsion bars a little to reduce the forward rake.

 

Yes, yes they are. The OEM t-stat for my 89 corolla was 70$.

[87Warrior]

This Toyota is a pleasure to work on. Not because it is particularly easy, but because I haven't started bleeding or snapped any important bolts due to rust.

 

The first job I did was replacing the steering rack. It was darn tight in there. I ended up lifting the motor 2" to get clearance for the removal and installation.

 

I then repacked the wheel bearings, greased the spindle bushing and replaced the upper ball joints. I don't think the wheel bearings had been touched in 100k miles. The grease was dried up around the edges yet the bearings seemed to be good. Bearing packers make this job so easy.

 

Somewhere in there I cranked on the torsion bars. The front end sat 2.5" lower than the rear. Raised the front so it is 3/4" lower than the rear and pulled the running boards. After an intensive interior cleaning and leather treatment, the ashtray/smoke smell inside the cab has almost disappeared.

 

New tires will be installed this week. Ordered the Cooper AT3 in a 265/75r16. A little narrower and a little taller than the stock size.

[87Warrior]

After getting the AT3's mounted it was time for a trip. The trip was to Salida Colorado to visit family and do a little skiing. It was a success. 1,600 miles. Best fuel economy was 17mpg and the worse was 11.5mpg.

 

I did discover the upper driver door hinge needs replaced as the bushings are worn, causing wind noise when in a 35mph cross wind. This was a lot of fun in Western KS and Eastern CO where the wind never takes a break. There is also some sort of 'clunk' I can hear and feel in the floor when hitting a big bump or dip in the road. Spent a couple of hours prying and shaking the front end but can't find a dang thing loose.

 

I was disappointed in the lack of snow and dry roads, even in the high country. I really wanted to see how this rig behaved on the slick stuff. I was able to hit the slopes at Monarch where the snow was dismal at best. Naturally, the day I left it snowed a foot in Salida.

 

[benjy_26]

Awesome rig! Landcruisers can get through pretty much anything and take quite the beating, but that mileage has always kept me away.

[Megadan]

Landcruisers come with some enormous axles from the factory.  The only time the front axles get annoying is when you have to work on those front Birfield joints.   There is a 93 80 series in my local yard, and the want to buy the front and rear axles is real. Too bad they were all P-drop fronts.  I'd have zero shame running S80 axles under my truck.

[87Warrior]

This vehicle is a pleasure to drive and it rides and drives nicer than my wife's low mileage '12 Acadia. Sure the Acadia seats are a bit softer, but I think after a few more leather treatments the Cruiser seats will be comparable. It just rolled over 250k miles last week.

 

The Cruiser is now parked waiting for parts. For some reason the two idlers and fan pulley all failed and were spitting out rusty bearing dust.

 

The early 100 series actually have a weak front differential. The carrier is a 2 bearing design which can break while the later models are a more robust in 4 bearing design. The good news is a later model ARB fits right into place and fixes the weak link.

 

I really wanted an 80 series over the 100, until I test drove one on the highway in a head wind. It was no different than driving my Jeep, slow. The 100's V8 with plenty of power is what sold me on it. The IFS didn't scare me too much since I don't intend to do any rock climbing with it :)

[Megadan]

I was mainly talking about the 9.75" full float rear axle with factory lockers.  The 80 series in the yard near me has the lockers.  I'd love to take the rear axle, but I have no idea what to match it up with up front.

[87Warrior]

Not only is this truck easy to drive, it is consuming a lot of parts. This is probably due to about 65k miles of neglect. Even with the repairs I have done to date, this is still under what I had originally budgeted for a 100 series.

 

I am now at 251k miles and it has started to hit the dirt for the first time ever. Did a short Overland drive to a 4wd clubs food drive with a local guy and hit a few neat spots in Kansas.

 

 

 

 

 

Also. This. At the food drive they had an RTI ramp for fun. He scored a 1040 on the ramp. Was in the top 5.

[gogmorgo]

Totally saw that model T on Oppo today. They're ridiculously backwards and I would never own one, but old junk (especially when in great shape) is so much cooler than new stuff.

I wish there was a little more opportunity for overlanding up here. All the vast tracts of wilderness that aren't full-on boreal forest have been turned into crop land, and there isn't enough traffic to keep the tracks through the forest open, so for a near-stock vehicle they're pretty near impassible swamp all summer and completely impassible in the winter because of the snow.

[87Warrior]

I have to ask what Oppo is. I know someone on the Toyota Land Cruiser Association added some text to my pic of the T and started sharing it. Any Ford is ridiculously backward in my mind!

 

It is really difficult to traips across the states on dirt as well. I have spent the last year exploring rural Kansas and have about 600 miles of dirt roads logged with many more miles of dead ends. It's nice to live in a less populated area.

[88Pghcomanche]

Looks great. Never would guess it has 251k miles.

 

Curious if you did a compression/leak down test or engine/transmission oil analysis prior to purchase?

 

 

 

 

[87Warrior]

I didn't do anything special besides looking at the history report from Toyota looking for timing belt replacement records. The engine oil and transmission fluids smelled normal when I met the seller...and they were full to boot. These trucks aren't known to be sensitive to fluids.

[gogmorgo]

I have to ask what Oppo is. I know someone on the Toyota Land Cruiser Association added some text to my pic of the T and started sharing it. Any Ford is ridiculously backward in my mind!

 

It is really difficult to traips across the states on dirt as well. I have spent the last year exploring rural Kansas and have about 600 miles of dirt roads logged with many more miles of dead ends. It's nice to live in a less populated area.

http://oppositelock.kinja.com/when-your-model-t-outflexes-a-rubicon-1771545154

 

Well, there are the grid roads out here too, none of them are paved with anything but gravel, but they're all perfectly straight and nothing more challenging than a soft spot here or there unless the road has been completely washed away by spring flooding. Anywhere my MJ can get through woudn't be very challenging for a Neon, either.

[87Warrior]

Unfortunately this Toyota has consumed me and the poor MJ has been left alone in the garage for many years. I absolutely love it and love driving it. I am now at 328,000 miles on this vehicle and am continually staying on top of maintenance and making it mine.

 

 

I even convinced my brother-in-law to buy one...albeit the Lexus variety

 

 

[Smokeyyank]

Nice rig. We picked my wife up a GX460 a bit ago and love it. Only thing I hate is parts are expesive and oil changes suck. Have to drop the skid. But it drives amazingly smooth. I'd eventually like to get a lx570 or another GX. After all the headache with my WJ I'm done with Jeeps as a daily. Love Jeeps as rigs but that's slowly becoming it. 

[87Warrior]

1 hour ago, Smokeyyank said:

Nice rig. We picked my wife up a GX460 a bit ago and love it. Only thing I hate is parts are expesive and oil changes suck. Have to drop the skid. But it drives amazingly smooth. I'd eventually like to get a lx570 or another GX. After all the headache with my WJ I'm done with Jeeps as a daily. Love Jeeps as rigs but that's slowly becoming it. 

Thanks! I wasn't sure what to expect with this Toyota, but I have definitely been converted to a yota fan. But parts are expensive... Had to replace the electric brake booster on the Cruiser at the tune of $2k. Come on, that's more than I spent on 3 MJs! If this rig ever does need replacing (most likely due to an accident), I will certainly be looking at another Land Cruiser or the Cruisers weird brother, Lexus.

[Smokeyyank]

When the wife wanted to sell her KJ she wanted to get a newer jeep and shot that down. Told her I already have to work on my junk enough don't need more. Our sell on the GX was kind of a 4runner that was nicer with a V8 and cheaper. Heated leather, 3rd row and V8 standard, comparable 4RS were 3k+ more and obviously no V8.