bluemountains

Oh, OK. It appears to be a crankcase ventilation valve, although a rather fancy one. It controls the removal of blow-by gases (those which have gotten past the piston rings) from the engine and diverts them to the intake manifold so they can be combusted and sent out through the cat converter, rather than just released to a) smell bad in the passenger compartment and B) release unburned hydrocarbons to the atmosphere. Always thinkin', those Toyota boffins. ;)

The 1st image is a full engine bay shot. Not sure which device you're referring to in that pic.

OK, took some photos, they're here. Proximity to stuff screwed up the autofocus on the camera, sorry, nothing I can do about it. Also, forgot to mention that my YN58 has LPG installed (you see the liquid->gas phase converter in one shot), which may also affect routing. A better way to go is probably to buy an aftermarket service manual (Haynes etc) which has a vacuum line routing schematic.

Sure, I'll have a go. It's a real rats' nest of vacuum lines- I don't know how well they'll photograph- but hopefully you will find out what you need to know. Keep in mind that mine is an automatic, so routing may be different to manual transmission models.

I'm not sure why Toyota did this- might have been using up existing parts stocks from the previous production run. Since the wear parts are from the previous series, you can also surmise that other parts like front brake calipers & brackets as well as rear drum brake wheel cylinders etc. will similarly be from the previous series- they'd have to be, so everything will fit together. The brakes may be the only oddity. Engine, gearbox & electricals on my YN58 all seem to be per YN58 specification, but... your mileage may vary. Take your old part to the auto parts store when ordering new stuff.

Did a lot of sniffing around- seems that there's no temp control which prevents the Aisin-Warner 03-71 automatic from selecting OD when cold. If it won't shift into OD, the problem is the OD lockout solenoid valve. If it won't shift into OD when cold, the solenoid valve is sticking & frees up when warm. The solenoid valve & cable assy is detailed in this dwg & labelled 85420B The actual Toyota part number is 85420-20050. The problem on my Hilux continued to get worse- at first, it was only sticking shut for the first 7km after a cold start. It got progressively worse until I had to drive it 30+ km before it would select OD. A replacement OD lockout solenoid is horrifically expensive. Upwards of $350 at a Toyota dealer. Found one for as low as $134 from this mob. However, I really have no use for the OD lockout function. Really annoyed me to have to part with even $134 to restore the feature. I did more sniffing around. So it happens, the AW 03-71 was used on some Volvo 700 series sedans in the late 1980s. The OD lockout solenoid fails on those Volvos, too. A Volvo club in the UK details the problem here. If you really want the OD lockout feature restored, you can buy a new solenoid. If, like me, you don't give a crap, you can buy a solenoid eliminator blockoff plate from these guys for $US40 plus shipping. If you're even more like me (read: cheaper than dirt), you can discard the inner O-ring seal & cut a slot between the fluid inlet & outlet with your Dremel & a thin grinding wheel: Just cut off the wire on the top of the solenoid & bin it. NOTES: a) Clean the gack & goo from around the solenoid before removing it- it's on an upward facing surface & there will be a lot of dirt & gunk around it. You don't want 25 years of mung to drop into the fluid circuits in the slushbox when you remove the solenoid valve! B) There's very little clearance for a spanner to get at the bolts which hold the solenoid valve on. You may have to release the transmission support crossmember & drop the tailshaft housing down a couple inches to get access. With some WD40 and a few hammer taps on the spanner, I managed to get the bolts on mine out without dropping the crossmember but very nearly rounded off the bolt head on the forward of the two bolts. They're 12mm hex heads- and are much tighter than they ever should be. May have to do with steel bolts in aluminum threads & 25 years worth of no doing much. The slushbox now selects OD by itself, even when cold. However, the OD lockout switch on the gear selector (naturally) now no longer works. And not a single crap was given! Cheers -Brian

Just rebuilt the front brakes on my YN58, but not without a bit of stress. Turns out the Disc Brakes Australia catalogue calls out the wrong rotor for this yoot. The DBA online catalogue specifies DBA156 for YN58R- this is a 255mm diameter rotor. wrong wrotor! wright wrotor! The rotors on my YN58 are 247mm diameter. There is a YN57R (with the 1998cc 3Y engine), built through 10/87, which uses a 247mm dia rotor.DBA catalogue specifies DBA781 rotors for this application- but they no longer supply it. My YN58R with a 2237cc 4Y engine, was built in 9/87. It appears to have been among the first in the YN58 series to be built and was equipped with brakes from the prior series. Burson Auto Parts were kind enough to search up some suitable rotors and delivered them to my house, 25km from their Penrith shop. The moral of the story is to measure your old rotors and be sure the ones you're being given will suit your yoot. Cheers Brian

You may think it counterintuitive, but LPG is safer than petrol. Statistics prove it. LPG tanks are 3mm steel, where many petrol tanks are plastic. It's not unusual to find LPG tanks thrown free, intact, from smashes where the entire vehicle was destroyed. LPG systems have both flow-rate cutoff valves, which stop LPG flow in the event of a severed fuel line to the engine compartment, as well as solenoid operated valves which stop LPG flow in the absence of +12V. LPG systems are inspected annually as part of rego inspections. When the LPG tank is 10 years old, it's removed from the vehicle, inspected for corrosion (there never is any because the tank is not open to the atmosphere and thus cannot permit moisture to enter the tank) and it is pressure tested with compressed air. You can't say the same of petrol systems or tanks. Fires are much more likely with petrol systems than with LPG. LPG cannot be spilled in a refuelling operation. There's no risk of static sparks igniting LPG during refuelling because an earth connection is established when the LPG nozzle is connected, before fuel can flow from the nozzle, unlike petrol, where there's always a few drops left in the nozzle. People have a tendency to think petrol is safe, but that's mainly due to familiarity. Petrol is in fact a fairly dangerous substance to handle. There's many more safety measures built in to LPG fuel systems and refuelling stations than with petrol. I'm 100% comfortable with LPG fuel systems.

If the cost of petrol annoys you, you can always put your Hilux on LPG. LPG will cut your fuel costs by about 50%. Will cost about $3000 to install but there's still a $1000 government rebate for installing an LPG system. You'll also still have the option of running on petrol if you need to, at the flick of a switch. I had an LPG system installed on a 1986 HiAce van in 2008. At the time, there was a $2000 rebate so the net cost was $1000 out of pocket. The much lower running cost meant I recovered that $1000 in about 6 months. Finally wore the van's gearbox out at 330,000km. Due to the cost of repairing the gearbox along with some rust & other necessary repairs the old van needed, it was time to retire it to the junkyard. I wanted to recycle the LPG system, so I went shopping for another Toyota of about the same vintage, also with a carburettor. Found a 1987 YN58 Hilux in very good nick to replace the van. Had the LPG system taken off the van and put on the Hilux- cost $1150. Got a $1000 rebate for converting the Hilux, so net cost was $150. In both the van and the ute, the LPG tank is fitted where the spare tyre usually goes, so the spare has to be carried in the cargo area. I went 7 years with LPG on the van & never had a flat, so I haven't bothered to make up a spare tyre carrier for the ute- and probably won't. Can't see the point of carrying the weight of a spare tyre if I really don't need it. LPG is a great motor fuel. Engines on gas last a long time because LPG can't wash oil off the cylinder walls. Gases that get past the piston rings don't contain any raw fuel that can dilute the engine oil. I only have to change engine oil about every 10,000km- and could probably go 15,000. Oil comes out honey coloured, not black, gritty, sooty and diluted with fuel. LPG doesn't leave any sludgy gunk in the engine. Petrol will not burn in liquid form- it has to be vapourised first- and carburettors don't do a very good job of it. Droplets of petrol don't burn as completely as LPG, which is in fully gaseous form when fed into the engine. LPG has now been standardised across Australia. It's rated 100 octane, so there's never any knocking or pinging. No need to modify the engine at all to run on LPG. LPG mechos used to suggest running spark plugs one heat range cooler, but that's not necessary anymore. I did run cooler plugs in the HiAce, but they made the van fall on its face when giving it full throttle on petrol, so I haven't changed the plugs in the Hilux. Performance on the Hilux is identical on either fuel. My Hilux has the 2.2L 4Y motor and a 3-speed/OD automatic. Goes about 10-10.5L/100km on petrol, 12L-12.5L/100km on LPG. Since petrol is more dense than LPG (about 720g/L vs 540g/L), you will burn more litres of LPG but since LPG is so much cheaper per litre than petrol, you save a lot of cash per km. The Hilux usually goes about 400km per tank of LPG. My LPG tank has 65L capacity but max fill on any LPG tank is 80% to allow for expansion, so max fill is 53L. I usually put in about 48-50L to go 400km, which with LPG at about 61cpl is about $30. Between the lower per km fuel cost and the ability to change oil about 2-3 times less often, there's a lot less dough out of your pocket. If you're a greenie (I'm not much of one), you'll like the fact that running on LPG reduces CO2 emissions by up to 18% per km. Because gaseous LPG burns so much better than petrol vapour, LPG particulate emissions can be up to 70% lower than petrol. If you're a gearhead, you'll like the longer engine life and fewer oil changes. If you can pony up the $3K for installing an LPG system (remembering that you will get $1000 cash back), it'll pay for itself in about a year or so, depending on how much you drive. Like I did, you will probably be able to swap the LPG system onto another vehicle if you get something with a broadly similar engine/fuel system. It's hard to go wrong putting your baby on the bottle! Cheers Brian

Thanks for that. I would hate to stuff up this Hilux, it's a pretty tidy example. Only 172,000km when I got it- last owner was an 85 yr old bloke who had used it only a couple times a year for his Rotary Club stuff. He'd only put 20,000 km on it in the last 20 yrs. I had to replace the master cylinder & radiator due to corrosion caused by the thing not being used enough. I guess I'll just have to be annoyed for 6km every day until the weather warms up! Thanks. :)

I've bought a few Chinese copy bits for my YN58- taillight assemblies and door mirrors. The bits are VERY cheap compared to Toyota OEM but the quality is just awful. I got a pair of Chinese copy taillights for under $50, shipping included. Penrith Toyota quoted $400 for ONE new OEM taillight. However, the copy taillight housings are thin, cheap plastic with a squirt of silver spray paint as a reflector and the lenses are VERY fragile and must be installed with extreme care to avoid breaking them. They do work OK, though. Sure better than the cracked, faded 25 yr old OEMs they replaced. Similar story with replacement door mirrors- about $33/ea, delivered, for Chinese copies. The mounting foot on the knockoffs was not the same shape as the OEM, which revealed the dirty shadow in the paint from the OEM mirror foot. The knockoffs' covers for the feet would not snap in place once the foot was screwed to the door. Since all I really needed was new mirror heads, I grafted the knockoff heads to the OEM feet, using the OEM mirrors' springs. Works OK. Mirrors are not the best- you can see stuff but the image is a bit distorted. You get what you pay for.

Hi Luxers, I have a 1987 YN58 Hilux XCab which I bought last December, in peak summer. As the weather has cooled off, it has refused to shift into OD (or 4th if you like) until it's been driven 6km. Very repeatable. Otherwise behaves normally. Once warmed up, OD lockout switch on the shift lever behaves normally. The temp gauge indicates in the middle of the range after about 1-2km. My mecho tells me this behaviour is normal. Says it is to ensure cat converter comes up to operating temp quickly to reduce emissions. Plausible. However, the owner's manual contains no mention of OD being unavailable until the engine/trans are up to a certain temperature. I've installed an LPG fuel system on this Hilux, so the cat converter really doesn't have much to do. I live up in the Blue Mountains and my morning drive is all downhill, so I kinda miss OD for those first 6km. 3000RPM at 80km/h is a bit annoying. Transmission is Aisin Warner 03-71, which I understand does have a connection to sense engine coolant temperature. IF this is normal behaviour, and IF 03-71 has a coolant temp sensor connection, I ought to be able to 'fake out' the transmission so it thinks the engine coolant is up to operating temp. Can anyone help me with which wire to this trans tells it about engine temp and what the state on that wire is at when engine is at operating temp? Thanksabunch! -Brian