Vienta V6 Parts Help

[adamVienta]

Hi Hope someone can help me. I am in the UK and have a 1997 Toyota Vienta 3.0 V6 Grande. It was bought new in Australia & after 3 years in the sun the owner returned to the UK and had it shipped all the way back here. Roll on 25+years and the old girl is still running great and has been my daily driver for the last 5 years (I am the 4th owner). Now to the issue: I am trying to obtain inner track rods and out track rod ends (inner & out tie rods, they seem to be called different things depending where in the world you are..... 🙂 However it would seem the Australian built cars had heavier duty steering parts and so each time I try to obtain the parts they are wrong. I have tried Toyota UK but the VIN number does not exist on their systems. I was just wondering if anyone in Oz Toyotaland can help me obtain the Toyota part numbers that I should then be able to order/special order here? The cars VIN number is: 6T153XK200X540006 and its got the (glorious) 1MZFE 3.0 V6

for reference I have been supplied QuintonHazell QR9548s track rod ends and Moog track rods: TO-AX-3321 (4550339135) these are both wrong - correct length but threads too small on both. Hope this all makes sense.

kindest regards

Adam

ps the YouTube channel "the car care nut" makes for great viewing. 

[Hiro]

On 1/26/2023 at 8:44 AM, adamVienta said:

 However it would seem the Australian built cars had heavier duty steering parts and so each time I try to obtain the parts they are wrong.

May not be a case of "heavier duty", but Australian-built cars needed to have a minimum percentage of Australian-sourced parts in order to qualify for government subsidies.  Hence, a lot of the mid-90s Toyotas would use steering/brakes/transmission parts etc from TRW or the like (which had a presence here to support Holden/Ford/Mitsubishi/Toyota) rather than Aisin/Denso Japan.  Unfortunately it also meant that unique-to-Australia part numbers and VINs often don't show up in worldwide catalogues.

 

If the thread issue is anything like my AE102 Corolla, the TRW rack has M16x1.5mm threads on the tie rods (both ends) whereas the (probably) Aisin Japan one has M14x1.5mm.  At worst, you can use these thread sizes and the length dimensions you know are right to sort through locally available catalogues and hopefully find something that matches.

[adamVienta]

Hi Ian

I think you have cracked it. The tie-rod ends do indeed have TRW stamped on them and now having checked yes they are M16x1.5mm. The supplied spares are all M14x1.5mm. 

Thank you for shedding some light. I will remove the inner and outer ones on one side and go along to my local parts store and see what we can find in the catalogues.  

Good news, she passed her annual MOT test today, they noted the play in the steering but said it was minimal and will certainly be fine for the time being. 

best regards

Adam