The in-laws run a used 2001 Prado 3-litre diesel automatic, done about 90,000 miles now I think. Lumbering old bus but seems reliable enough, particularly in light of the following discovery yesterday...
Seems that the ATF is cooled by piping it through the radiator (which in itself is a questionable way of cooling it). Said pipe split some time ago, so ATF & radiator fluid have been quietly mixing and getting to know each other as one system the past few weeks.
Pressure must have built up somewhere to the extent that the connector pipe back in to the transmission box came adrift and the car started shedding all its ATF/radiator fluid whilst on a 10-mile late night drive home. Car made it 9 miles before the transmission seized...
AA flat bed to the workshop and it's back on the road 3 days later. Haven't heard what the bill was, but the outlaws don't seem to be too hurt financially. Guess the garage just replaced and reconnected the hoses, filled up the autobox and radiator with thr right stuff and turned the key...?!
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Proverbial brick outhouse.
SWMBO put our Cruiser through a set of steel railings at roughly 50mph.
Concrete support blocks ripped out of the ground which helped to slow the vehicle up, other than that it took the railings clean out.
She turned the key and the vehicle stated first click, simply reversed it straight through the mangled railings and concrete.
Once out of the vehicle she realised there was more damage than thought, front bumper was pushed round and had gone through one tyre.
Recovered to our home, basically all 4 wheelarches ripped off, front bumper wrecked bonnet dented and rear step bent up (reversing out), other than that the car itself was untouched, front cross member whcih sits in front of rad protected it, indeed nothing apart from cosmetic stuff had moved a fraction of an inch.
Insurance wrote it off cos the axles had been badly scored by the conctete blocks, and the cost to repair all outweighed the market value.
They really don't make 'em like that any more, and i'm not surprised that the Prado survived...whats that saying about Landrovers, Landcruisers and the Outback?
I expect the Prado in question is the fully mechanical fuel system model before the D4D common rail came on stream...i think the model your outlaws have (equivalent of Colorado here) is one of the best real 4x4's ever made togther with Amazon 80, simple tough and totally dependable.
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Yep, it pre-dates the D4D era.
They haven't had the repair bill yet. Garage wants them to run it a few miles then they intend to flush the ATF again...
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The radiator failing and mixing the fluids is a very well known problem on all the landcruiser forums - affecting 90-series vehicles.
It also affects mercs with valeo radiators, I seem to recall.
The clubs suggest changing the radiator at 7 years old as a precaution.
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Contrast the refill and run impact of mixed fluids with the impact of c 1998-2005 Mercedes with the failing Valeo radiators.. New auto transmission needed.
That's high quality German engineering.. not.
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Toyota Landcruiser 90 - 2001 Prado - tough transmission tale! - Lygonos
