thommo

The old 93 Hilux started making this noise intermittently. Any ideas? Just a loose belt (me hopes)? cheers

Interesting, turns out my sister-in-laws auto Yaris is doing exact same thing. After kicking back to 3rd up a hill, it can take up to 1km to shift back to 4th/overdrive. Will be interesting to see if an ATF change fixes it. Biggest concern is getting the local Toyota dealer to do it (no choice, regular mechanic will be closed for Xmas). They charge like a wounded bull & have a reputation for screwing things up!

Yes, the service book says the ATF only needs to be inspected, not changed but I'll get the local Toyota dealer to do a change & see how that goes. My wifes 2006 VW Jetta says the same thing - no need to change the ATF in it's lifetime, but it started doing some hash shifts, so we had the fluid & filter changed @ 110,000 kms and that fixed it. In the US they are now recommending an ATF change at 80,000kms in that VW, but that prescription has not hit Australia.

Our daughter has a 2012 Yaris YRS Auto 1.5L with about 130,000kms on it. Recently she says after a hard acceleration on the highway where it drops back to 3rd (e.g. when overtaking), it will sometimes not then shift back to 4th (overdrive?) unless she manually shifts it to 3rd, then back to Drive. Anyone know the likely problem & a fix? Will an ATF & filter change make a difference? Or is it going to be big bucks? cheers

Cheers mate. I build 1/72 model aircraft & airbrush them (a man can't have enough hobbies ), so 1/1 size Hilux wheels are a snap when it comes to painting.....apart from having to lift the buggers on and off the saw benches. Geez I was sore! BTW, this is how to mask off the tyres while spraying the rims.

This is what I used on my 93 Hilux rims after a good sand and several coats of Super Etch Primer.

$1143 to get the seals, timing belt, water pump replaced & leaks in the thermostat housing & injector pump fixed. Could have been worse I guess. Ever since the last service where they replaced something in the steering arms that go to the wheels, the steering has been a bit sticky with largish turns of the wheel. There is a sort of sticking point where the wheels and steering wheel seem to catch for an instant. It seems to be worse when I first start driving, then gets better as things warm up. Any ideas? Not the power steering pump I hope!

Does anyone know if the drivers door off an LN106 dual cab will fit my LN107 ('93 SR5)? The wrecker I'm dealing with is answering all my questions except this one, and his online reviews show many cranky customer getting bits that don't fit. A decent used door would be better than digging out rust, filling, sanding, painting etc etc.

Dead right mate. I have a broken collarbone & cracked ribs atm, so am not allowed to drive a manual hence another bloke was driving with me in the passenger seat. Still, I saw the temp getting close to the red, but thought we were closer to the top of the climb than it turned out, so have to take some blame too. I baby the old girl, as she's 25yrs old and despite supposedly being the toughest Hilux they ever made.....it's bloody 25yrs old......is that like 75 in human years?

Thanks Trent. Mechanic had a quick look this morning, & thinks no head problem, just engine seals on the front. Will get them replaced, and he'll do the timing belt while he's in there as it is due in another 15,000kms anyway. $900-ish. He also reckons if I'm not concerned about the awful bitumen performance (which I'm not as my longest trip in it for fishing is only 1.5hr), stick with it as off-road it is unbeatable - which tallies with my experience. I think it's real advantage is how much lighter it is than modern 4WDS? And I'll learn to do a few rust & paint repairs to improve the cosmetics a bit.

Is there a simple way for the non-mechanically minded like me to detect a cracked head Trent?

The temp on my 93 Hilux got very high for about 10-15mins (close to the red, but not into the red) on Saturday coming up a long hill in 35 deg temp. Have since taken off the fly-gauze on the bullbar designed to stop grass-seeds etc clogging the radiator as I suspect this was the problem since it had a brand new radiator just 6mths ago which seems to be operating fine....BTW I was not driving it, if I had been I'd have stopped and pulled the gauze off straight away....and it was being driven harder than I drive it! It had been up this hill before in about 27 deg temps with no rise in temperature, but 35 was a different matter. Anyway, when it got home, I noticed a fair bit of oil dripping off the bash plate, and on the front suspension components. I degreased it all the next day, took off the gauze, and took it for a 50km spin down the highway at 100kmh. Temp was normal the whole way (just below half-way), but a few drips of new oil appeared on the bash-plate after parking it for a bit. It seems to be coming from around where the fan belt wheel on the front of the engine is situated. Not ****** out, just weeping a few drops. I'm guessing the oil got too hot and thin and a seal or gasket somewhere has leaked. Any idea what it might be, and what it is likely to cost to fix? Was thinking about selling this old girl and upgrading, but after seeing how it put a 2017 BT50 to shame on rocky river exits on Saturday, I'm a bit keen to keep it going. It's been a great old rig, I'm a bit attached to it, rough as it is.

Is the chip in the key which over-rides the immobiliser system buggered? This is what happened with my daughters 2002 Camry. The chip in one key went bad and sometimes when she turned it to start - nothing (I'm talking about the key here, not the remote). She found if she put the key in and out of the ignition lock 4-5 times eventually it would start. But that was a bit of a PITA so she ended up just using her spare key in which the chip was fine.

I still use my 93 Hilux for local fishing trips. I'm hanging onto it till it dies - which could be a while in a diesel with only 278,000kms on it, and which I get serviced every 5,000kms. Tried a new Navara and Triton and while they were heaps better on-road, off-road they kept bottoming out, unlike the old rice burner

This story reminds me of our daughters BF who bought a 2nd hand Subaru Liberty from a wholesale dealer in Orange. He'd already paid for the car, took it for a 10km test drive on pickup reaching up to 80kmh and on return noticed a burning smell. Popped the hood, checked the dipstick - no oil! Confronted the dealer who handed him a $20 note to buy some oil FFS! I'd have told him to shove his $20 up his clack and give me my $7,000 back. Because the car was over 160,000kms and more than 10yrs old, no statutory 3mth/5000km warranty in NSW, but he managed to get the dealer to give him 1mth warranty. The car has done tens of thousands of kms since and never missed a beat. So you can get lucky with this stuff.

Got our daughter a 2012 Yaris YRS auto with 102,000kms on it for $8,700 from Pickles Auctions (got it fixed price, not at auction). Also saw an identical Yaris but with 116,000kms on it go for $8,750 at auction from Pickles. Insurance company say the value of the car is $14,000! I see many Yaris's for sale at the various Pickles auctions. You can get them thousands of $'s cheaper than at a dealer (because the dealers buy from the auctions at what is essentially a wholesale price, then add $ thousands to that price and sell to you retail). If you buy a fixed price car from Pickles, you get the statutory 3mth/5,000 kms dealer warranty. If you buy at auction, you get no warranty. The only problem re buying from Pickles is you can't test-drive the car. You can inspect and start it though. So what I looked for is: Ex-fleet govt lease car with a full service history (the website listing of the car will tell you its service history); Each car has an inspection report that details any damage and some mechanical issues (e.g. it might say engine warning light is on); I physically inspected it, started it and looked for smoke coming out at rear, checked coolant and oil colours/levels, got underneath and looked for damage and leaks; Checked all lights etc worked; Check interior bits working (a/c, CD player etc) Checked spares tyre, jacks etc; Spare keys etc; If fixed price, it should have a current road-worthy certificate with it and will probably still have some rego; First time I bought from Pickles I was nervous as the price was so good, and I was not able to test-drive, but their ex-govt cars with a full service history are hard to go past. I have a lease car for work, and if I'm overdue a service, the company text me to tell me to get it done!

Fab result Helen, well done. Amazing what happens when a bunch of people collaborate and get the media involved - big corporates go to water and do what they morally should have done in the first place. It's not like they can't afford to fix their mistake (compared to what VW are now up for as a result of being entirely deceptive fools, it is a drop in the ocean - just a shame we bought a Jetta a week before the scandal broke - albiet petrol - because the cost of spares may now skyrocket as they try to re-coup their fines). Those melting dash pics are incredible - how the Hell could they try and wash their hands of that mess?

Cheers Trent. Hopefully it will hang together for the next 3 weeks when she gets it home so it can have a new gasket. The bolts are tight and spring-loaded, so I can't see it coming apart.

Our youngest did aqua-ballet in her lovely old Camry and totalled it (but thankfully not herself or anyone else). So she got a 2012 Yaris from Pickles with about 102,000ks on it. We noticed after driving 6hrs over country roads to deliver it to her, it had developed a bit of a 'puttering' sound at the back on start-up, and the rear exhaust section where it joins the main section just in front of the back wheel seems to swivel around a bit if you move the rear exhaust box - seems a little too much movement to me? We got under and had a go at the bolts at that join, loosened and re-tightened, but it still swivels. We were told there is some type of gasket in there which is probably chewed out. Does that sound right? Cheers

Not sure if relevant but the rattle in daughters 2002 Camry engine which was originally diagnosed as worn balance shaft bearings serendipidously turned out to be a loose exhaust bracket - a much cheaper fix. It was most noisy on start-up, when reversing up our steepish driveway, but was not noticeable when driving on the flat.

Chopperlamb, we had exactly the same happening with a 2003 Altise (2.4L) that we had many years ago. The problem only started after it went back to the Toyota Dealer for a recall to replace something faulty to do with the headlights (something in the stalk in the steering column and a bad connection where you turn on the lights if I recall). A few months after that wierd electrical stuff started, the most concerning being the headlights going off briefly when you put your foot on the brake :o So the good old Toyota dealer actually managed to create a dangerous headlight problem, where one never existed. Also the radio started cutting out sometimes and the fuel guage playing up. Our mechanic suspected a bad earth, cleaned that up but it did not stop the problem. We just lived with it until we sold the car.

Thanks mate. I think our daugher can do the chicken dance if it comes to the crunch. The lcoal locksmith who re-did the boot lock seems pretty capable....though I did notice today his shop has been replaced by a boutique beer outlet....so I'll have to find him again.

Forgot to say, the clone has a philips head screw in it, so it may come apart. I guess that means instead of buying a new clone, they can just put a new chip in it. I guess the Master is less likely to fail, but probably best to have a backup just in case. cheers for all the great advice mate.

Are the locals likely to know how to program the new clone key? I've read about how to do it - some weird dance on the brake & accel pedals, but I doubt I'd have the coordination to do it

Thanks Brendan Key photo deleted - don't want on our hands the demise of some poor muppet who tries to pinch our daughters car, and have her kick ***** and pick handles out of them. I'll see what I can do about getting another with a carbon chip done based on the Master. If no go locally, will be in touch with you.