CROCO

I have just a bought a new 2016 gxl awd and I absolutely love it,and also owned a 2007 kxs 2wd also a great car, but if i had to pick between the two cars i pick the 2016 model, the level of refinement and handling and comfort is better,build quality is also slightly better on the new generation kluger, performance wise the new kluger feels snappier and more responsive, not that the old one was sluggish,but you can feel the difference,fuel economy is too early yet too compare,being awd I think the new kluger will use slightly more fuel.There is things I like about my old kluger better than the new one like the removable middle seat so you walk through to the third and have the little tray in the centre, room there isnt really any difference between the two i can see, both generation kluger are great cars, they have there faults, but so does every car,as for the territory they are not as good as the kluger full stop, they are rubbish cars trust me,I have owned one , there probably good to a 100000kms 5 years old andthen they just fall apart,literally, trim coming off, strange noises, mechanical problems,talk to any mechanic about territories and they wont have a good oppinion on them.

I had 102000kms on my kluger before I sold her,at the end of october last year and purchased a brand new 2013 hilux 4x4 dualcab,I would of loved a 200 series but were way out of my price bracket,I originally was going to replace the kluger with a used prado 150 series v6 petrol,but the prados i was looking at higher klms on them than what the kluger had and they were doing such good deals on brand new hiluxes,I couldnt refuse,this is my first new car out of 10 cars and in 18 years of owning cars ,I originally was going to buy a v6 petrol hilux,but they were only doing the deals on diesels and the petrols at the time were dearer,so the diesel made more sense,diesels have better resle value,the d4d goes better than I exspected,im reasonably happy with it,I miss the perler of a v6 in the kluger though and the smooth ride,but oh well you cant have everything I quess. I would like to thank every one on this forum when I owned my kluger for all the great information and help,its being brilliant and I have enjoyed it very much,this isnt good bye from me on the contrary,I will still be over here in the kluger section joining in with topics and posts. The kluger has been absolute brilliant car and would buy another in a heart beat,I miss the old girl and I have seen it around town a couple of times since I sold it,these cars are absolute great value for money,plenty of power with great fuel economy very comfortable with loads of space. The only reason I sold the kluger was I going to do some remote 4wd trips and want to see some of australia and do remote bush travel.

When I had my kluger,the fuel light use to come on when the trip was reading in the mid to late 30s,when it was that low it took around 60 litres to fill it. All the toyotas that I have owned over the years the fuel gauges always read lower than what the actual remaining amount of fuel that is in the tank,which is a good thing,its gives you good safety margin and saves you from being stranded.

Hi sean,welcome to the forum mate,look chating on this forum with you mate about your cruiser.

The fzj105 is basically the same vehicle as the hzj 105,only its powered buy 1fzfe 4.5 litre engine and is a great vehicle,the 1fzf engine,4.5 petrol engine is pretty bullet proof and long lasting as the 1hz,there really isnt anything thing that I can thing to look out for on them ,the valve stem seals go on some of them at around 200000kms and they will smoke and burn a little oil,but nothing overly major. They can be pretty thirsty especialy if towing and heavy fourwheel driving,if your only doing the odd 4wd trip and only want a touring wagon and only going on mostly highway trips ,they only use a extra couple of litres a 100 hundred of fuel, they have heaps more power than the 1hz,they are absolute bargains on the used market and can be had several thousands cheaper,sometimes cases more than 10000$ cheaper,the difference in price you can buy a lot of petrol and the the petrol only needs to be serviced every 10000kms vs the diesel needs servicing every 5000kms,the petrol is cheaper to get serviced. I prefer auto,i reckon you got more control in mud and sand and especially taking off up a steep slope,no more true when towing,only where the manual is better is going down a steep slope the manuel gives better engine breaking. I wouldnt hestitate buying fzj105,I seen on car sales some absolute bargainsbe had out there.

Sorry nigel,I was refering na as hzj with the natually asprirated 1hz engine,if you get hzj 100 for$ 22000 in good condition I would grab,the hdj 100 are great cars but are over priced,I remember about 5 years ago when I was going to buy one ,the used ones with under 100000kms were selling for more than they were new, I ended up my a prado instead.

Hi kyle,the most common engine upgrade for older hiluxes would the 3.8v6 commodore engine swap,they offer a load more power and actually better fuel economy,but you will need the adabtor kit,marks adabtor kit makes one for the hilux,another option is drop a later hilux engine ,like the 22r-2.4, or the even later 3rz,2.7 both are very reliable engines,especially the 3rz,2.7,im not sure if you will need a adaptor kit for these two engines,theres a bit of info other forums such 4wd action and hilux net about some of these engine upgrades. I heard the absolute best engine to chuck in is the 1uz,4.0v8 engine out of a lexus,but im not sure of the cost and how much work required.

HI nigel,sorry for the late reply,there have been a few people that few people that has done the 1hdfte conversion and has been sucessfull,but isnt cheap,one of my mates was thinking of doing the same conversion in he,s old 105 series ,but the 1hdfte engine is in such demand there is a shortage of them and the ones that are avalible are exspensive,so he just dropped another 1hz in and put aftermarket turbo on it. The most cost affective way to get a live axel 100 series is to buy a na diesel and put after market turbo on it,I personally wouldnt put a turbo on a engine that has done over 250000kms without a rebuild,the 1hz is a pretty bullet proof engine and should perform great with a turbo,maybe not as good as the factory turbo diesel but will be a good torquey 4wd engine. If money no object i would buy hdj100,I know you wanted lve front axel,but I love the ifs, they will pretty nearly go anywhere a live axel cruiser will go and the better handling is worth the compremise in my oppinion,we took one of my other mates ifs 100 series turbo diesel up the cape and it handled everything we threw at it,I wanted to buy one a few years back,but couldnt afford one,the hdj100 still command a lot of money now,but thats only to be exspected,there a brilliant car,every time I haven driven my mates hdj100 I have trouble handing it back,there my all time favorite cars. The nissan 4.2 turbo diesel patrols are good reliable car and are very good off road,the 4.2 turbo diesel is no power house and certainly wont hold a candle to the 1hdfte engine ,but are very reliable and long lasting,its not uncommon for these engines to reach 500000kms without a rebuild or any major engine work. these cars are rare and are exspensive,most people that buy them hang on to them and the one are for sale a pretty pricey,but they are a great car,they are not as comfortable or powerfull as the cruisers but are equally good offroad and have heap of acessories avaliable for them. Im not sure if this is any help mate but I thought I tell you what I know and think.

Hi danny and rumpig,welcome to the forum guys,I have been a hilux owner in past,but it has been it been a few years,and now im a hilux owner again,I just purchased 2013 hilux sr 4x4 dual cab,im slowly starting to kit it out ,but when funds let me do it,Im also be looking for tips and ideas and look forward to chatting on the forum in the future.

Hi scott,welcome to the forum,I also use to be a holden man and had a couple commodores,but after switching to toyota I never looked back. The kluger is a brilliant car,I just sold my 2007 kxs and I would say,hand on my heart,the kluger was my most practical car I have owned,I absolutly loved it. The things I loved about my kluger was there was plenty of cargo space,there was also plenty of head and leg room,the seats were great on long drives,the most thing I was impressed with was the performance and fuel economy ,of the 3.5 VVTI V6 engine,these thing pack a punch and the fuel economy they acheive is outstanding for a 2 ton petrol wagon,you wont go wrong with the kluger

Hi roo ,welcome to the forum mate ,The first thing I did with my 120 prado was upgrade the suspension,old man emu shocks and springs,with a 2 inch lift ,with those many kms the original shocks and springs will probadly need replacing anyway,I found the standard original suspension sagged and faded over corrugations,with a load and if your going to put draws in the back and carry a lot of gear with a load of people it will be one of the best mods you will do on the prado. Another esential mod or upgrade is good tyres,depending where you are going in the prado ,a good set of off road tyres will take the prado a lot further in mud or sand,puting a set of aftermarket protection guards ,like sump guard or bash plates is a good idea,I didnt have them on mine ,but if your doing a lot of climbing over bush tracks ,there heaps better than the standard toyota ones. The best thing with the prado is its a toyota and you can lots of accesories for the prado at any 4wd accerories place. I not sure if this helps mate ,but also have a look on the prado point web site the heaps of of information on prados there ,they should be able to help you with ideas and problems that you might have.

I agree barney ,this would be a great time for auto accessory manufacturer to design and build a aftermarket lock for the spare,I surprised in this day and age that the kluger doesnt have a locking spare,even if toyota came up with a lock and you had to pay a small amount a money to get the lock fitted,I think most people wouldnt mind if they knew how espensive the spares are,I know you never completly stop theiving mongrels ,but it would stop most of the theft. I

Hi jay ,I had the clunk in the steering and was fixed about 15months ago and the problem hasnt come back yet ,fingers crossed,they replaced the intermediate shaft,but for some owners the problem comes back after it has been fixed,I read in one of the other posts about this problem on this forum ,that they are finding a permanent fix,and are not replacing anything untill they get to the bottom of whats causing the intermediate shafts clunk,so hopfully the problem be fixed for good.

My kluger will never go on gas,the v6 offers outstanding economy for big petrol 6 cylinder car,I heard good and bad stories of gas, more bad unfortunatly,biggest problem would be voiding your warranty.

Hi black kluger ,my kluger does somthing similar,you drive around a corner to enter a side side street or slowly exiting around about and the gear box seem fall in to hole it seems it wants go back to first,its like its doesnt know what gear it should be in,I also somtimes have the same problem when entering a busy motorway and you dont need full acceleration ,so you only push the accelerator down a bit more and nothing andthen you push it down harder and all hell breaks loose she goes like a cork out of a bottle, my old prado use to do the same thing,so might be how toyota autos work,there designed to be driven with a heavy foot, mine works better if you drive it a bit harder than gently.most times the v6 works brilliantly with the gearbox and offers strong performance from most of the rev range. I also really dont use sport mode as I find the auto mode works good enough most of the time,the only time is when overtaking one car and I dont want the gearbox to shift back hard for maximun acceleration.

Hi dan congratulations mate on your new kluger,dan the kluger only has the one washer tank,the one tank does the front and back washers. I always thought the first service was at 1000kms,but it probadly changed now,have a look in the service book it should show you when the first service is due.

Hi jamie,welcome to the forum mate,I use to own the same model hilux and is arguely the best model hilux ever made. The 3.4 V6 can a little bit thirsty,but isnt too bad by petrol standards,mine use get about 600 kms on a trip and around the 500 mark around town,which the diesel models were not much better on fuel, My hilux was cab chassis which from memory had 77 litre tank and yours being a dual cab only had 66 litre tank so your fuel figures dont seem that bad ,I use to find BP 91 octane use to give me the best economy and power ,I use to find using 95 or 98 didnt really give any better economy or power than normal 91 unleaded. Mine use to go quiet well,it lacked a bit of torque at lower revs, butonce the engine was in its power band it went great,and the best way to get the best to get the economy is to accelerate in the engines power band which from memory is around 2500 to 3500 RPM,reving it past 3500 will offer little benfit to performance and will only kill your economy,when driving on the open road I use to find sticking to the speed limit will give you the best economy in the hilux,which in NSW is between 100 to 110 kmh. The 3.4 is a very reliable engine and is not uncommon for these engines to do 300 or 400 thousand without a rebuild,if looked after and had regular servicing,the rest of the hilux is also pretty reliable and is well built. The 3.4 V6 is no power house these days but when it came out it bettered the triton and navaras V6 engines,for torque. The 4wd stick on mine was in the N position,but in not sure,but on the sr5 im not sure ,I would of thought it would have be in the N position on the road,but someone with a SR5 will clarify what position the lever has to be in.

I run 10W 30 in my kluger and other 2 toyota V6s that I had and find it gives the best performance and fuel economy,every time all toyota V6s have been serviced at my local toyota dealer they have put 10W30 in them,but once they put 20W50 in my old V6 hilux ,and like barney said only way I knew is they had it on the job sheet, I actually didnt give it much thought at the time ,but every other time only 10W30 was used,so whether thats the cause of the increase in fuel consumption or not I dont know ,but using a heavier grade oil will make very slight increase in fuel consumption,have a look on your service bill and it should show you what oil they have used in the service,if its 20W50,well its too heavy a grade of oil ,also sometimes the mechanics fill the engine too full of oil,it happened actually the same time they used the wrong oil, they over filled the engine 3 litres of oil ,how I know is I change my oil every 5000kms in beetween services and discovered that they overfilled the engine with oil,which I wasnt impressed about,so I would be checking the dipstick to see if there over filled the engine,which I couldnt imagine would be good for economy. While we are on the subject do the dealer reset the trip computer every service or it only does it when you refuel.

I also use 98,BP ultimate or SHELL V POWER,but mostly BP ultimate,I find it the best fuel for the kluger,the engine runs smoother and the throttel responcr is better,its a pity the price difference against normal unleaded.

No mate I couldnt see the photo of the battery ,but did see the super cheap battery charger range,they have a great range and look pretty good. Charging the battery in the car the best way,at least you know you wont lose any of your settings,years ago with the real old battery chargers it was un heard of to charge you battery while it was in the car,because the old chargers were nothing more than a transformer with no micocomputer to analise the charging process and protect electrical coponents,now with modern battery chargers with all the technology you are perfectly safe to charge you car battery in the car.

I charged my old battery in my kluger with a CTEK smart battery charger and I didnt remove ground cable ,earth lead,I just cliped the battery charger clips over the top of the cars battery clips and didnt have any dramas, I did however un done the venting caps which is recomended, the venting caps are on top of the battery,but if its a calcium battery it will be sealed and wont have venting caps . I think you should be ok charging the battery in the car with the battery charger you bought,if its a good quality one and has intelligent charging ,or mostly refered as smart chargers you be fine,and you wont need to remove your ground cable ,earth lead,.

Just a quick post ,I forgot to mention that I run 40 psi in my 19 inch wheels,I find it the best presure for ride and handling,if your tyres are underinflated it will play are part in handling,you would be surprised how many people dont have the corect pressure ordont check there tyre pressure,I make a habit of checking them myself with a tyre gauge once a month. Having the right pressure will improve hadling and fuel economy and make your tyres last longer.