2006 Toyota Land Cruiser - Staying Put

[St.Jude]

Slight update, as something has happened which has pissed me the fuck off.

Ever since I did the injectors on this truck I've been monitoring the MPG. Before the injectors it would do 24mpg, after the injector work it would do 28/29mpg. This was done on my way to and from work, mixed driving. 30mph up to fast country roads and back down again. I did a long trip to Heathrow, and I swear I was getting mid-to-high 30's.  The full tank returned 32mpg.

As you've seen on the diesel/petrol panic buying/price gouging thread, I often talk about a petrol station that I go past every day. It's an independent, branded as Callow Oils. Now at the beginning of the month it had diesel at 185.9p a litre. I usually fill up at Sainsbury's, but they were still about 192.9p a litre. So I thought fuck it, I'll fill up at Callow Oils. Filled up, drove away. 

Since then, I've noticed the fuel needle just dropping more than it should. I thought it was odd, so decided to fill up at Sainsbury's as it was about 186.9p a litre. I filled up and did the calculations - the truck was doing 24mpg. I had done 160 miles and was a smidge over half a tank.

I went home, wondering how or what has happened. I'm looking at the mirror trying to see if I'm bellowing black smoke, I'm listening for anything that indicates something being off. I'm shitting myself thinking injectors or even the turbo was banjaxed. This happened on Thursday. I ordered a new PCV filter/valve thing from Toyota (£51, thank you very much) which came and was fitted today.

Since then, I've been driving around with mixed driving again and watching my fuel needle like a hawk. I've done 150 miles and I'm at a quarter of a tank.

The only thing that's changed between the recent 24mpg reading and now is the diesel. I've always used Sainsbury's diesel, and whenever I used Callow Oils was for a quick £10 splash and dash. The thing is though, the recent fill up at Sainsbury's cost me £70. That's £70 that I spent about a week or two earlier than normal. With the price of fuel as it is, we can't afford shit diesel. 

I'm not going to use the petrol station again. 

[artdjones]

17 minutes ago, St.Jude said:

Slight update, as something has happened which has pissed me the fuck off.

Ever since I did the injectors on this truck I've been monitoring the MPG. Before the injectors it would do 24mpg, after the injector work it would do 28/29mpg. This was done on my way to and from work, mixed driving. 30mph up to fast country roads and back down again. I did a long trip to Heathrow, and I swear I was getting mid-to-high 30's.  The full tank returned 32mpg.

As you've seen on the diesel/petrol panic buying/price gouging thread, I often talk about a petrol station that I go past every day. It's an independent, branded as Callow Oils. Now at the beginning of the month it had diesel at 185.9p a litre. I usually fill up at Sainsbury's, but they were still about 192.9p a litre. So I thought fuck it, I'll fill up at Callow Oils. Filled up, drove away. 

Since then, I've noticed the fuel needle just dropping more than it should. I thought it was odd, so decided to fill up at Sainsbury's as it was about 186.9p a litre. I filled up and did the calculations - the truck was doing 24mpg. I had done 160 miles and was a smidge over half a tank.

I went home, wondering how or what has happened. I'm looking at the mirror trying to see if I'm bellowing black smoke, I'm listening for anything that indicates something being off. I'm shitting myself thinking injectors or even the turbo was banjaxed. This happened on Thursday. I ordered a new PCV filter/valve thing from Toyota (£51, thank you very much) which came and was fitted today.

Since then, I've been driving around with mixed driving again and watching my fuel needle like a hawk. I've done 150 miles and I'm at a quarter of a tank.

The only thing that's changed between the recent 24mpg reading and now is the diesel. I've always used Sainsbury's diesel, and whenever I used Callow Oils was for a quick £10 splash and dash. The thing is though, the recent fill up at Sainsbury's cost me £70. That's £70 that I spent about a week or two earlier than normal. With the price of fuel as it is, we can't afford shit diesel. 

I'm not going to use the petrol station again. 

I noticed that one fill on my van when filling stations were having difficulty getting supplies didn't last as long. I wondered if some leftover winter diesel was being sold. 

[Mrcento]

I know it's different engines and the likes, but my old Disco 300tdi would sometimes do that after refuelling on Tesco diesel (Only ever Tesco did it, and not even every time), i'd dump some Redex in and the MPG would go right back to what it was before.

[St.Jude]

On 8/6/2022 at 9:04 PM, artdjones said:

I noticed that one fill on my van when filling stations were having difficulty getting supplies didn't last as long. I wondered if some leftover winter diesel was being sold. 

They get regular deliveries, but I wonder if they’ve been given the shit stuff for cheap? It’s bizarre.

On 8/6/2022 at 10:21 PM, Mrcento said:

I know it's different engines and the likes, but my old Disco 300tdi would sometimes do that after refuelling on Tesco diesel (Only ever Tesco did it, and not even every time), i'd dump some Redex in and the MPG would go right back to what it was before.

All the cars I’ve had have drank Asda stuff, it just doesn’t last, so I don’t bother now. Where I am Sainsburys is the only retailer (that isn’t Asda) that doesn’t ask for my first born in terms of pricing. 

I drove past there again today, the diesel is now 181.9p a litre, they can keep it.

[St.Jude]

Guess who’s air con has started to blow warm again?

Quite odd this time, my side blows a bit cold now, whereas the passenger side is blowing warm. 

Will book it in to the garage again with this information. At least it’s cooling down tomorrow…

[AnnoyingPentium]

26 minutes ago, St.Jude said:

Guess who’s air con has started to blow warm again?

Quite odd this time, my side blows a bit cold now, whereas the passenger side is blowing warm. 

Will book it in to the garage again with this information. At least it’s cooling down tomorrow…

Welcome to the club. Except mine is intermittently toasty. 😂

[horriblemercedes]

37 minutes ago, St.Jude said:

Guess who’s air con has started to blow warm again?

Quite odd this time, my side blows a bit cold now, whereas the passenger side is blowing warm. 

Will book it in to the garage again with this information. At least it’s cooling down tomorrow…

Different car, but that's exactly what my BMW would do when it was low on refrigerant 

[Spurious]

1 hour ago, St.Jude said:

Guess who’s air con has started to blow warm again?

Quite odd this time, my side blows a bit cold now, whereas the passenger side is blowing warm. 

Will book it in to the garage again with this information. At least it’s cooling down tomorrow…

Is there some sort of dual zone climate control? Is there a flap stuck open perhaps 

My old C5 had that and one side would blow hot occasionally. 

[St.Jude]

50 minutes ago, horriblemercedes said:

Different car, but that's exactly what my BMW would do when it was low on refrigerant 

But where is this leak coming from, that is the question!

25 minutes ago, Spurious said:

Is there some sort of dual zone climate control? Is there a flap stuck open perhaps 

My old C5 had that and one side would blow hot occasionally. 

Yeah it is dual zone, well I suppose tri zone as the back can have its own temperature too which I think is also blowing warm again.

[jonathan_dyane]

It'll need a new condenser. It's always the condenser.

[St.Jude]

43 minutes ago, jonathan_dyane said:

It'll need a new condenser. It's always the condenser.

It, apparently, had a new condenser when I bought it. It looked brand new in fairness.

[St.Jude]

So to close the air con book for another year - the garage never called me back. We will look at it again in the new year.

The 120 series has an annoying fault with the rear door where over time the door tends to slip down. The door is too heavy (especially with the spare wheel) and the bottom hinge can’t cope. It can also (apparently) cause the door skin seam to split. That’s not happened to me, but over time I’ve noticed the door slipping and yesterday it slipped to a point that it was hard to close the door right.

The solution? Two 12mm washers.

Held up with a floor Jack and some breeze blocks.

Shuts like a new door. Annoyed with myself that I didn’t do it sooner!

Inside I’m in the process of upgrading or replacing bulbs in the car. I’ve not done the switch gears yet, but tried out the map lights with some LED ones.

I think it’s brighter, but it feels like a more modern car inside which is better I think.

One thing that’s annoyed me is when I have the baby in the car, and it gets dark, I can’t see him in the mirror. The solution to this is a rechargeable book light.

Works really well at the dimmest setting and is the right colour to not affect his sleeping.

Next bits of work to do before I go on holiday is the timing belt, water belt (both on order), LED lights for the inside, and maybe a new tension lock for the rear wheel cover as mine is seized. Timing belt and water pump is being outsourced, I have serious CBA vibes with that job.

[goosey]

On 8/6/2022 at 8:44 PM, St.Jude said:

Slight update, as something has happened which has pissed me the fuck off.

Ever since I did the injectors on this truck I've been monitoring the MPG. Before the injectors it would do 24mpg, after the injector work it would do 28/29mpg. This was done on my way to and from work, mixed driving. 30mph up to fast country roads and back down again. I did a long trip to Heathrow, and I swear I was getting mid-to-high 30's.  The full tank returned 32mpg.

As you've seen on the diesel/petrol panic buying/price gouging thread, I often talk about a petrol station that I go past every day. It's an independent, branded as Callow Oils. Now at the beginning of the month it had diesel at 185.9p a litre. I usually fill up at Sainsbury's, but they were still about 192.9p a litre. So I thought fuck it, I'll fill up at Callow Oils. Filled up, drove away. 

Since then, I've noticed the fuel needle just dropping more than it should. I thought it was odd, so decided to fill up at Sainsbury's as it was about 186.9p a litre. I filled up and did the calculations - the truck was doing 24mpg. I had done 160 miles and was a smidge over half a tank.

I went home, wondering how or what has happened. I'm looking at the mirror trying to see if I'm bellowing black smoke, I'm listening for anything that indicates something being off. I'm shitting myself thinking injectors or even the turbo was banjaxed. This happened on Thursday. I ordered a new PCV filter/valve thing from Toyota (£51, thank you very much) which came and was fitted today.

Since then, I've been driving around with mixed driving again and watching my fuel needle like a hawk. I've done 150 miles and I'm at a quarter of a tank.

The only thing that's changed between the recent 24mpg reading and now is the diesel. I've always used Sainsbury's diesel, and whenever I used Callow Oils was for a quick £10 splash and dash. The thing is though, the recent fill up at Sainsbury's cost me £70. That's £70 that I spent about a week or two earlier than normal. With the price of fuel as it is, we can't afford shit diesel. 

I'm not going to use the petrol station again. 

Surprised you even managed to fill up at all, every time I go past there’s always a queue into the road and half the pumps are closed

[St.Jude]

Rang the garage to see if they’d do the timing belt. They will, quoting 3 1/2 hours for it. “Have they done this job before?” I asked - “yes that’s what we quote for all Nissans”. 

So I’m going to do it myself this weekend then. It’s 45 minutes if you’ve not done it before, according to the LC forum bods.

4 hours ago, goosey said:

Surprised you even managed to fill up at all, every time I go past there’s always a queue into the road and half the pumps are closed

I hate going past it on the way to and from work because there’ll always be one dickhead who puts their car in the middle of the entrance, and there’ll be a dickhead behind them that won’t go either side of them, resulting in a long line of traffic. 

They were meant to knock it down years ago to build houses, but somehow it survived. No idea how.

[St.Jude]

LED interior lighting is now complete!

I may have bought a rather large replacement LED light for the puddle lights, but they do fit.

And it makes the world of difference in the dark.

As for the switch gear, the green bulbs I bought are yellow.

I don’t mind the yellow, but it looks shit when compared to the green switches.

Rather annoying.

I did go to do the timing belt today and water pump, but I got quite anxious about doing the job so I talked myself out of it. I may ask a friend at work for help, well moral support more than anything, and see if I can’t crack it on Saturday. 

I genuinely think the fright I had when I snapped the stretch bolts doing the injectors has affected me when it comes to working on this engine. I need to snap out of that funk.

[St.Jude]

So after a good turn of duty a fortnight ago in France (where MPG was as low as 32mpg, highs of 35!), I noticed on Saturday that I was putting a bit more right turn in to the steering when going in a straight line. Wasn’t until Sunday when I went out to it to fit the other car seat to it did I think the left side of the Land Cruiser was lower than the right.

Whatever has happened now, the left side has collapsed. No warning lights, no rubbing, just a gentle bounce when going right at the roundabout. Not ideal.

Ive got to plug the laptop in to it to see if it’s a sensor failure. This has air suspension on the rear, and I’m 99% certain that it’s had the air bags replaced recently. So I’m confident it’s not that. At its worst the dampers are terminally bust (£1,000 for the pair thank you) or the ride sensor is kaput at £250. Which, apparently, is a pig of a job to change.

I will be under it on Sunday looking for any air leaks before I look at the sensors.

This is not the champagne motoring for lemonade money that I’m used to!

[big_al_granvia]

paddy is still purring away like a fucked off lion, gawd i love that car around town, still drives like a go kart and terrorizes the weans, okay you need ear plugs on long runs... the steering does wander towards large puddles if there is chavs nearby (neds in scotland), found a stuffed lion in the wife's caravan, it lives on the parcel shelf.... wrc wrap planned for spring

[AnnoyingPentium]

17 minutes ago, big_al_granvia said:

found a stuffed lion in the wife's caravan

Saw this a wee bit back when driving by heading for the station. Couldn't stop laughing, it's fucking brilliant.

[St.Jude]

18 minutes ago, big_al_granvia said:

paddy is still purring away like a fucked off lion, gawd i love that car around town, still drives like a go kart and terrorizes the weans, okay you need ear plugs on long runs... the steering does wander towards large puddles if there is chavs nearby (neds in scotland), found a stuffed lion in the wife's caravan, it lives on the parcel shelf.... wrc wrap planned for spring

You know what I’m not even surprised mate. Wife said “you don’t have much luck with cars” and I had to remind her fairly quickly about Paddy. Cheapest car I’ve had and the best!

Ive not forgotten the stuff on the for sale thread, the horns etc, just need to get my area in to gear with it.

[artdjones]

1 hour ago, St.Jude said:

So after a good turn of duty a fortnight ago in France (where MPG was as low as 32mpg, highs of 35!), I noticed on Saturday that I was putting a bit more right turn in to the steering when going in a straight line. Wasn’t until Sunday when I went out to it to fit the other car seat to it did I think the left side of the Land Cruiser was lower than the right.

Whatever has happened now, the left side has collapsed. No warning lights, no rubbing, just a gentle bounce when going right at the roundabout. Not ideal.

Ive got to plug the laptop in to it to see if it’s a sensor failure. This has air suspension on the rear, and I’m 99% certain that it’s had the air bags replaced recently. So I’m confident it’s not that. At its worst the dampers are terminally bust (£1,000 for the pair thank you) or the ride sensor is kaput at £250. Which, apparently, is a pig of a job to change.

I will be under it on Sunday looking for any air leaks before I look at the sensors.

This is not the champagne motoring for lemonade money that I’m used to!

Is there any way to convert to the conventional suspension? I've driven a lot of Land Cruisers on steel springs and they were comfortable enough. Probably because they're so heavy.

[St.Jude]

1 hour ago, artdjones said:

Is there any way to convert to the conventional suspension? I've driven a lot of Land Cruisers on steel springs and they were comfortable enough. Probably because they're so heavy.

There are, but it’s pointless. I’d have to weld seats to the axle to take the springs etc, but then I could just buy the model down from this LC5 if I wanted coils.

[artdjones]

1 hour ago, St.Jude said:

There are, but it’s pointless. I’d have to weld seats to the axle to take the springs etc, but then I could just buy the model down from this LC5 if I wanted coils.

https://www.milneroffroad.com/product/front-shock-absorber-coil-springs-sscs-su/air-suspension-to-coil-conversion-kit-standard-height-su0547k/SU0547K

[horriblemercedes]

I'd fix the air, personally. I don't get the enthusiasm for coil conversions - I would rather fix an air system than a coil system usually. I hate coil springs!

[St.Jude]

27 minutes ago, artdjones said:

https://www.milneroffroad.com/product/front-shock-absorber-coil-springs-sscs-su/air-suspension-to-coil-conversion-kit-standard-height-su0547k/SU0547K

Other issue with that is those dampers aren’t adjustable. So I would either swap out the front ones for stock dampers as well, or buy the proper ones for the rear.

I am going to stay out with the air suspension. It rides lovely on the motorway. 

[Cooper1]

As a P38 owner who also has nice soft air suspension I'd say, fix the air, mind you I have to say these old cruisers are almost P38 level of headache LOL 

 

[RoverFolkUs]

We look after a few of these and also a few old shape LC Prado's. The door drop fix is ace, "they've all done that sir" - had assumed it to be hinge wear or metal fatigue. If it's a simple case of popping a couple of washers in its probably worth trying that when it's next in for a service 👍

[St.Jude]

51 minutes ago, Cooper1 said:

As a P38 owner who also has nice soft air suspension I'd say, fix the air, mind you I have to say these old cruisers are almost P38 level of headache LOL 

When it works, it works well. But when it breaks, it seems to be expensive. 

45 minutes ago, RoverFolkUs said:

We look after a few of these and also a few old shape LC Prado's. The door drop fix is ace, "they've all done that sir" - had assumed it to be hinge wear or metal fatigue. If it's a simple case of popping a couple of washers in its probably worth trying that when it's next in for a service 👍

I can't lay claim to that fix, the aussies worked that one out!

[St.Jude]

I’ve not moved or started it since I parked it up Wednesday morning, as the wife is out of town I’ve been using her Merc instead. 

Today I’m about to drive off the driveway and my Land Cruiser catches my eye. The left hand side, which was bottomed out, is suddenly the right height again. Looking from behind the car is pretty much level again.

Me thinks, from this, either it’s haunted or the ride height sensor is toast.

[goosey]

Are you sure the opposite side hasn’t just lowered itself down to level out ? 

[St.Jude]

53 minutes ago, goosey said:

Are you sure the opposite side hasn’t just lowered itself down to level out ? 

Yeah I’m sure.

It usually sits a good 5/10cm (at least, I’m no good with measurements, ask my wife) above the tyre. That’s what the right has always done, the left was down to 2/3cm above the tyre. So the left side has magically grown.