2006 Toyota Land Cruiser - Staying Put

[St.Jude]

3 hours ago, MJK 24 said:

They want you to throw it back at them because good used stock is hard to find.  Be stubborn and dig your heels in if it’s an otherwise good car!

Quite possibly. I know he's lost money on it already, well I know he's said he's lost money.

3 hours ago, Ian_Fearn said:

Shit ain’t it….. After a lifetime of chronically knackered cars my wife declared we would be buying something that I didn’t need to work on all the time.

That turned out to be a nightmare with slimy dealers, a warranty that wouldn’t pay out and the car continually returned with the fault I could have fixed myself (and did in the end) not fixed for reasons relating solely to them not wanting to pay for it.

We’re back to shit cars now and all the happier for it.

Glad you’re sticking with it! My advice would be to get the car back and sort it yourself, life is easier that way….. 

I know, first time in a long time I spend a good whack of money on it and I feel beholden to the dealer to get his act together.

I'll give him till tomorrow, for some o rings to be gotten from Toyota. I think the condenser or pipe they fitted "didn't come with proper o rings", which is a shit excuse but I suppose he didn't expect me to bring it back so soon pointing the issue out.

It has, written down, 6 months warranty on the injectors. That's all I'm really worried l about more than anything as duff ones can wreck the engine. Anything else though I'll do myself. 

[artdjones]

The injectors give very little trouble. I suppose we must have sold 15 or 20 where I worked in 5 years and only one Landcruiser needed one injector. We sold several HiLuxes and a lot of D4D Avensises as well, with no fuel system trouble at all. 

Why there would be any difficulty with o rings I don't know, most Aircon specialists have a large assortment.

 

 

[St.Jude]

12 hours ago, artdjones said:

The injectors give very little trouble. I suppose we must have sold 15 or 20 where I worked in 5 years and only one Landcruiser needed one injector. We sold several HiLuxes and a lot of D4D Avensises as well, with no fuel system trouble at all. 

Why there would be any difficulty with o rings I don't know, most Aircon specialists have a large assortment.

With all the research I did, the injectors seemed to have been an issue? A few forums on about the seals (which were copper) should be changed to steel ones from Toyota. And then changing the injectors at 100,000 miles. Then I saw somewhere else that someone said it should be done at 150,000 miles, then another one said 130,000 miles. So now I'm just looking for white smoke, and maybe when it gets to 200,000 just do the injectors then. I don't know, but it's good to know someone who's sold them has said they don't give that much trouble!

As for the O rings, apparently (either) the condensor or the new pipe they fitted didn't come with them. So they used O rings they had. It seems odd to me as well, but then maybe they eyeballed the sizes and used the wrong thickness? I don't know. 

I've sent the lad a text asking what the story is, I'll see what he says.

[artdjones]

37 minutes ago, St.Jude said:

With all the research I did, the injectors seemed to have been an issue? A few forums on about the seals (which were copper) should be changed to steel ones from Toyota. And then changing the injectors at 100,000 miles. Then I saw somewhere else that someone said it should be done at 150,000 miles, then another one said 130,000 miles. So now I'm just looking for white smoke, and maybe when it gets to 200,000 just do the injectors then. I don't know, but it's good to know someone who's sold them has said they don't give that much trouble!

As for the O rings, apparently (either) the condensor or the new pipe they fitted didn't come with them. So they used O rings they had. It seems odd to me as well, but then maybe they eyeballed the sizes and used the wrong thickness? I don't know. 

I've sent the lad a text asking what the story is, I'll see what he says.

There was a problem with the seals up to 2007, there may have been a recall by Toyota. It would be worth checking with a main dealer whether yours got it done.

[St.Jude]

15 minutes ago, artdjones said:

There was a problem with the seals up to 2007, there may have been a recall by Toyota. It would be worth checking with a main dealer whether yours got it done.

I did put the VIN through the recall checker, and it came back saying nothing was up with it. But I'll call the main dealer later and ask them to check.

Had a text back from this lad - "Got to send it to a friend of mine who does air conditioning as we cannot sort it". I'll let the third person have a crack at it, but if it's not done by Friday I'll take it back and investigate it myself. 

Edit: I asked him if it's losing pressure, and he said it's "leaking around the O rings". AFAIK, the condenser and the rear pipes have been changed. The only other seals/leaks could be around the compressor, but this talk of O rings leads me to think it's with the condenser, and what the possibility is that they've fitted the wrong one. 

[St.Jude]

A bit of an update on this.

I paid the bodywork guy a visit today. A nice enough skin of a lad, very much in the middle. But no sign of the car. As it's with his mate, which is a proper garage. Apparently.

Transpires now - and this is all third/fourth hand now - that it was "steaming". The mate suspected head gasket failure - I know, it's not even a K-series - but did the test and that came back negative. So it's not head gasket failure. What he reckons is that it's the EGR valve cooler - a fucking new one on me, I just thought it was a valve. In fairness, it had smoked a bit on hard acceleration but I thought that was just a standard thing of a diesel. 

But obviously he's explaining this to me, and I look at him and just say "yeah, but what's this got to do with the air con?". The mate of his won't touch it until that's sorted, as I think it requires removal of some bits oh I don't fucking know. 

And dickhead dealer's on holibobs. How lovely for him.

[St.Jude]

FINALLY got my LandCrusier back this morning. Tried the air con, well to be honest it was already on and on MAX COLD, and it was cold. Colder than what it was anyway.

My knee has flared up over the weekend, so I was glad I got this back. Still difficult for me to get in but less difficult than trying to stoop down in to my wifes car. Drove it, no visible sign of black smoke so the £1,000+ cost of the EGR cooler (and I would say, clean) has done well with it. 

Quarter of a tank left, it had done 190 miles in total. I think that's not too bad, but filled it with another 50+ litres so I Could use the Milners EcoMax stuff again. 

Going to clean the seats at lunch time with the leather stuff and give it a bit of a vacuum, inflate tyres and get it ready for a trip to Bournemouth with the wife and the dog.

Now I have the fun task though of trying to find a babyseat for the damn thing!

Also, decided to call this LandCruiser... Randy. Because why not?

[St.Jude]

Hopefully, tomorrow, I'll be tootling down to Bournemouth with the wife and the dog as a bit of a breakaway before we start getting ready for the impending arrival of the future ruler of the world. So I need to get an interior light bulb sorted, along with a clean of the carpets in the boot. I had already done the seats with turtle wax creamy leather thingy, but I'll go over it again tonight along with a bit of it as well as clean the windscreen inside so it doesn't mist up in the morning.

Slight issue I had for the last two days was that in reverse the parking sensor goes mental, like somethings behind me. I've cleaned the sensors twice, but I noticed one of them has a bit of a ding in one. That might be the reason, but I don't have the time or the inclination to diagnose the fault. I decided to turn the damn thing off - which is a faff!

There's a button under the steering column, does nothing. I don't know what it's meant for really, but I thought someone said it turns the sensors off until you turn the engine off. But that didn't do a whole lot.

After a lot of scratching heads, I came across a thread on another forum (I know, I'm sorry) and someone there spoke about a rocker switch that lives in a cubby hole in the back of the car which you turn off if you're towing something. Still couldn't find the cubby hole, until I realised there's a seat hiding it. Put the seat down, open cubby hole, find the switch, tried it - no more beeping! It also means I've no parking sensors on the rear, but I've got mirrors. 

Took a lunch time to work that out. I'd have fixed my air con in the same time frame if I knew now what I knew then!

[St.Jude]

So here I am, 140 miles later, in Bournemouth. 

Honestly, with a mix of motorways, dual carriageways, and A roads, this Randy LandCruiser is so bloody comfortable. I could do the trip again right after.

The bloody parking sensors attempted to bite me in the hole today. We got here at about 5pm, lady at the hotel said their parking was full. I could try and get a space on the side road but I'd probably not get one so should go to a car park that was a 2/3 minute walk away.

"I'll find a space" I said.

I fucking did as well.

Properly tight, was a lot of forward/back, but I did it. A chap was stopped in front of me, I knew he was thinking it wouldn't work. Indicator was on and everything waiting for me to give up. Great look of disappointment on his face when the mirrors went in and I got out.

Only down here as a sort of babymoon, using a voucher the mother in law gave us pre-COVID for a dog friendly stay. Mabel's never been near the sea until today.

She wasn't impressed. Soon as the wave came in she ran away. Bravely ran away etc.

I'm down about an eighth of a tank from 140 miles. Not bad going either.

[St.Jude]

I'm starting to think there's some sort of calendar whereby it's marked when my air con will work, and when it won't. I think it works out at about 2 weeks with me it'll work, then 4 weeks away at the dealer doing fuck all, then it'll be 2 weeks with me and then decide to stop working.

But am I fucking giving it back to the bloke. I think I'm still just inside warranty, but it can wait till March. It still blows heat and that's what I need for the rest of the year.

Otherwise, it's been great. Swallowed up all the new baby stuff in boxes. Took two doors from B&Q (btw, don't buy them - they're shite) and has done two tip runs already.

The roof bars I've left on, and they whistle. A lot. But wrapping bungee chords around them dramatically reduces the sound. And I mean that. These would whistle at 40mph, now I get the odd beep when I'm above 60mph.

Tried the new baby seat in the back. Christ alive what a faff, I can see now why everything is ISOFIX. I'd love to know what my old man did when I was born, driving me and my mom back from Birmingham's Women's hospital in the back of an FSO Polonez.

The babyseat has highlighted an issue with this rear seat belt. The wife was moaning about it but she moans about everything, and the issue is it gets tight and doesn't relax. I'm trying to get the seat secure here, and I'm pulling the belt to make it tight, and I realise then I've done it too tight. It doesn't relax, and actually the only thing I can do is release the belt so it goes back, and then it'll pull out again. What causes that? That's something I could do with sorting ASAP. 

Also, the seat itself seems to slip slide on the leather. Has anyone had this issue? What can I do to keep it planted without risking the ire of the wife, midwife, plod, my future child when it comes to choosing my nursing home?

[Matty]

My advice ? Sort it yourself. Generally these warrenties are a box ticking exercise. He can't be arsed you'll get fucked about till kingdom come.

Car looks mint though. That's the important bit to remember. You've got a car you love, even if you've had to buy it from a knobhead. 

[Mally]

It's a difficult thing to explain, but I think what you are saying about the seat belt is what they actually do.

We always had problems with belts on a rear facing seat in the van. Once we got it something like, we left it there.

Forward facing seat is not as bad to set up.

Have you got all the slots and clips in the right place?

[Landy Mann]

I take it you're not on an incline? Inertia real belts can do that on a slope as the ball bearing is in the wrong place.

[St.Jude]

1 hour ago, Matty said:

My advice ? Sort it yourself. Generally these warrenties are a box ticking exercise. He can't be arsed you'll get fucked about till kingdom come.

Car looks mint though. That's the important bit to remember. You've got a car you love, even if you've had to buy it from a knobhead. 

100% I'm going to fix it myself. Makes me think whether it's been serviced too. Easy to skip an oil change on a dizzle as the oil goes black the moment it's used. So I may do that for my own gratification next month.

14 minutes ago, Mally said:

It's a difficult thing to explain, but I think what you are saying about the seat belt is what they actually do.

We always had problems with belts on a rear facing seat in the van. Once we got it something like, we left it there.

Forward facing seat is not as bad to set up.

Have you got all the slots and clips in the right place?

Well you're right, it's what they do. But there should be a bit of give in it.

So when you're driving, a sharp pull of the belt will lock it in place. But if you feed it back in, and pull it slowly out again, it'll release more of the belt. The problem with this is that as soon as the wife sat in it, the moment she went to move forward it just locked. It wouldn't give any sort of play, unless you unbuckled and fed the whole lot of the seatbelt back to the car.

Got all the slots and clips etc set right. Its when it comes to tightening the lap part, and then trying to get the shoulder belt part tight on the seat, the belt wouldn't give it any play so at one point the belt was pulling the seat up.

I might try it behind my seat tomorrow.

6 minutes ago, Landy Mann said:

I take it you're not on an incline? Inertia real belts can do that on a slope as the ball bearing is in the wrong place.

Not on an incline, I'm on the flat.

[loserone]

Isn't that by design?  It's so that a rear facing seat is locked in place?

[St.Jude]

5 minutes ago, loserone said:

Isn't that by design?  It's so that a rear facing seat is locked in place?

On the car seat yes.

It's the actual seat belt of the car that I think isn't right?

[loserone]

Yes the actual seatbelt, so that once strapped in it is held tight.

 

There will be a point from which it kicks in, you might find you can get the seat in place just under that point (but not sure why you would)

[red5]

https://www.halfords.com/baby-and-child/car-seat-travel-accessories/car-seat-covers-protection/halfords-car-seat-grip-mat-237856.html

On leather these are ace.

[Zelandeth]

Useless information time: The reason your roof bars are quieter with the bungee cords there is because they interrupt the airflow. 

Usually you'll get a natural oscillation at certain speeds because of a phenomenon called vortex shedding - wrapping the bungee cords around it is doing the same job as the spiral pattern you often see on big industrial chimneys.  While it's annoying when your roof bars whistle, the wind setting up a huge subsonic oscillation in a hundred plus foot tall chimney is far worse news!

[St.Jude]

@loserone That's the thing it just doesn't do that.

The seatbelt should release and give you more of the belt in normal conditions - i.e. not smashing in to a tree - this belt just locks at every point until you unbuckle it and feed it back. 

I'll take a video tomorrow to better show what I mean

[loserone]

Yup, pretty sure you're describing exactly what I mean.  And it clicks every 5mm as you feed it in, until it's all the way back in.

[Mally]

32 minutes ago, red5 said:

https://www.halfords.com/baby-and-child/car-seat-travel-accessories/car-seat-covers-protection/halfords-car-seat-grip-mat-237856.html

On leather these are ace.

Now I know you don't work for Halfords, but there were 12 people checking that when I looked.

[Dan_ZTT]

Yeah I'd suggest one of those cover things too, we have a similar one but with some little pockets on it too, makes a noticeable difference on the leather

[Low Horatio gearbox]

I understand what you mean St.Jude.

I've had 2 different  belts in 2 different cars do the same. One was the aforementioned nit vertical safety* feature  - the inertial reel looked vertical but it  wasnt quite. The other was where the mechanism  had been maladjusted when it was removed and refitted and subsequently bound up.

If your reel is installed as it should - both mine were pre hidden behind plastic interior panel 70s cars. Possinky check for "somones been here before" panel disturbance?  Its possible could be sticking thru lack of use possibly? Inertia reels  are very simple and pretty fail safe devices, I'd presume it's  designed to fail and lock repeatedly than not at all.   Does the drivers side  rear belt do the same thing? If not then you have a workable belt till the passenger side gets sorted and if they both lock ... err TADTS...

[Dave_Q]

I think L1 is right, I found it in a Land Cruiser manual:

https://carmanuals2.com/toyota/land-cruiser-2006-occupant-restraint-systems-6602

On page 52

Quote

. Fully extend the shoulder belt to put it in the lock mode. When the belt is then retracted even slightly, it cannot be extended. To hold the infant seat securely, make sure the belt is in the lock mode before letting the belt retract.

I think what it's saying is once you pull the belt all the way out (or beyond a certain point - those seats need more belt than any human so maybe it knows?) then it enters this lock mode, it's deliberate to lock the child seat in place.

[St.Jude]

10 hours ago, Dave_Q said:

I think L1 is right, I found it in a Land Cruiser manual:

https://carmanuals2.com/toyota/land-cruiser-2006-occupant-restraint-systems-6602

On page 52

I think what it's saying is once you pull the belt all the way out (or beyond a certain point - those seats need more belt than any human so maybe it knows?) then it enters this lock mode, it's deliberate to lock the child seat in place.

I'll try it again, but it seems it's doing it at every stage.

10 hours ago, Low Horatio gearbox said:

I understand what you mean St.Jude.

I've had 2 different  belts in 2 different cars do the same. One was the aforementioned nit vertical safety* feature  - the inertial reel looked vertical but it  wasnt quite. The other was where the mechanism  had been maladjusted when it was removed and refitted and subsequently bound up.

If your reel is installed as it should - both mine were pre hidden behind plastic interior panel 70s cars. Possinky check for "somones been here before" panel disturbance?  Its possible could be sticking thru lack of use possibly? Inertia reels  are very simple and pretty fail safe devices, I'd presume it's  designed to fail and lock repeatedly than not at all.   Does the drivers side  rear belt do the same thing? If not then you have a workable belt till the passenger side gets sorted and if they both lock ... err TADTS...

I'll give it a look. It doesn't look to have been messed with. But I would think that it's just purely not being used that could be causing issues. 

-

On a lighter note, which I forgot to mention, on my way to work Friday morning some c**t in a Discovery Sport nearly ran me off the road. It's a single track road, and as you get to the top of the hill there's a blind left turn (for me). Coming the opposite way, everyone usually pulls to the left so you can see what's coming up the hill. Dickheadery Sport driver decides fuck that, and cuts the corner. I slam the anchors on, and had to pull to the left where there's a bush. I managed to avoid them, but took half a bush to my wing mirror. No real damage, can't see much in the way of scratches, but I do have to get a dashcam. Because all I know about this car was that it was a pure jet black Discovery Sport. A newish one.

This morning, on my way to work, same road, I don't meet anyone coming my way. Until I get to a residential bit, and I turn a corner. Guess what I see just being thrown in to the middle of the road, from a driveway with 12 ft hedges either side? A jet black Dickheadery Sport. The daft bastard goes absolutely postal - with his kids in the car, poor teenage kids - at me for basically being there. I'm less than 100 yards from the corner of, what is really, a main road. He spends the next 20 seconds - and I swear this is true - smacking his steering wheel with his hands shouting stuff at me which I can't hear. He winds his window down, at this point I'm doing the maths in my head thinking there's a good probability that this is the prick I met Friday, he's calling me all sorts. I tell the prick to get some tampons for himself (which I don't think he liked) as he slammed the brakes on while I drove off. 

Life is too short and too precious to get het up over things like this. It was what, 8:15am and he's already nuclear. If his impending heart attack doesn't kill him, someone who isn't as nice as I am about his driving will. 

[Low Horatio gearbox]

From reading the manual you should be able to extend it fully then it locks.    Not your "locking every damn time my life is to short for this shit.. I've got rusty cars to weld and a wife to drive nuts.." scenario.  Lack of use could be it, I've know cars that only see one person sitting in them have sticky doors, so seat belts would be the same. You could try some silicone spray on the belt to see if it will free it up. 

[robinmasters]

I had one of these, Mothercare used to sell them. Really thick rubber, so protects leather seats from getting dents in from the baby seat. They're wide too, so catch at least some of the food etc kids drop. 

They appear to be NLA, but there's a couple on eBay; collection only, presumably due to the weight-they really are heavy duty. 

https://picclick.co.uk/ebaysearchresults/Neat%2BSeat%2BCar%2BHeavy%2BDuty%2BRubber%2BCar

[St.Jude]

Haven't refit the seat this evening as I had a tip appointment made in my name for tomorrow, so now the seats are down etc ready for more shite to go the tip.

Did try the belt, yeah it's meant to do that. According to one of the guys on the LandCruiser group of Facefook it's a safety feature. Tried the belt but instead of pulling it all the way out, pulled it out a good bit, and fed it back in to the car without an issue.

So there's no problem, just the thicko who owns the car!

[tom13]

On 10/11/2021 at 9:11 AM, St.Jude said:

I'll try it again, but it seems it's doing it at every stage.

I'll give it a look. It doesn't look to have been messed with. But I would think that it's just purely not being used that could be causing issues. 

-

On a lighter note, which I forgot to mention, on my way to work Friday morning some c**t in a Discovery Sport nearly ran me off the road. It's a single track road, and as you get to the top of the hill there's a blind left turn (for me). Coming the opposite way, everyone usually pulls to the left so you can see what's coming up the hill. Dickheadery Sport driver decides fuck that, and cuts the corner. I slam the anchors on, and had to pull to the left where there's a bush. I managed to avoid them, but took half a bush to my wing mirror. No real damage, can't see much in the way of scratches, but I do have to get a dashcam. Because all I know about this car was that it was a pure jet black Discovery Sport. A newish one.

This morning, on my way to work, same road, I don't meet anyone coming my way. Until I get to a residential bit, and I turn a corner. Guess what I see just being thrown in to the middle of the road, from a driveway with 12 ft hedges either side? A jet black Dickheadery Sport. The daft bastard goes absolutely postal - with his kids in the car, poor teenage kids - at me for basically being there. I'm less than 100 yards from the corner of, what is really, a main road. He spends the next 20 seconds - and I swear this is true - smacking his steering wheel with his hands shouting stuff at me which I can't hear. He winds his window down, at this point I'm doing the maths in my head thinking there's a good probability that this is the prick I met Friday, he's calling me all sorts. I tell the prick to get some tampons for himself (which I don't think he liked) as he slammed the brakes on while I drove off. 

Life is too short and too precious to get het up over things like this. It was what, 8:15am and he's already nuclear. If his impending heart attack doesn't kill him, someone who isn't as nice as I am about his driving will. 

Which road is this?

Also if you haven't got the rubber inserts in your rails that will normally be the cause of the whistle. Ask me how I know ha. Tape will cure it or just wedge some rubber down there.