Buyer's Guide for HiLux Surf?

[silvtr1000]

Hi All - new guy here. I've been contemplating a used Japanese import Surf for years, and bumped into a guy last weekend who got a '92 Surf for just over €4000, direct from an importer at Dublin port - sold as seen, no warranty. That seems like a lot of car for not a lot of money! Is there a good online buyer's guide for the 2.4 TD '90 - '95 (2nd generation?) model? What goes wrong? Are parts easy/hard to get, cheap/dear? Any comments/advice is much apreciated. Had a '92 Discovery for a year - had no big problems and loved it, but aren't Toyotas more reliable?

[Guest]

Hi All - new guy here. I've been contemplating a used Japanese import Surf for years, and bumped into a guy last weekend who got a '92 Surf for just over €4000, direct from an importer at Dublin port - sold as seen, no warranty. That seems like a lot of car for not a lot of money! Is there a good online buyer's guide for the 2.4 TD '90 - '95 (2nd generation?) model? What goes wrong? Are parts easy/hard to get, cheap/dear? Any comments/advice is much apreciated. Had a '92 Discovery for a year - had no big problems and loved it, but aren't Toyotas more reliable?

Just do a rummage around here. There is lots of info. 2.4s (only some of them) are known to have a bit of an issue with the Cylinder head. Approx 20% have cracked heads since they were imported and they may have been cracked before export.

Apart from that they are built like a Chieftan Tank and will generally last a very long time.

Parts are easy to get from various places, Milners, Roughtrax, LA Supertrux, breakers, the US etc etc. You can even get them from Toyota if you find a friendly parts man as a few people on here can get you the part numbers.

Definately more reliable and better to drive than a Disco - I had a 1994 V8 for about 3 months before getting a Cherokee. The Disco was a dog to drive compared to the Cherokee and definately compared to the Surf which handles more like a car and doesn't roll as much as a pre active suspension Disco.

Cheers

[Morr]

Hi All - new guy here. I've been contemplating a used Japanese import Surf for years, and bumped into a guy last weekend who got a '92 Surf for just over €4000, direct from an importer at Dublin port - sold as seen, no warranty. That seems like a lot of car for not a lot of money! Is there a good online buyer's guide for the 2.4 TD '90 - '95 (2nd generation?) model? What goes wrong? Are parts easy/hard to get, cheap/dear? Any comments/advice is much apreciated. Had a '92 Discovery for a year - had no big problems and loved it, but aren't Toyotas more reliable?

If you like the disco, you should love the Surf. Plenty of them hitting the Dublin roads now. Like with any vehicle, check it out thoroughly, The only real Achilles heel on the earlier 2.4’s is the potential cylinder head problem. There are no visual indications as to whether the head is about to go, or has already been replaced, so budget for this. Having said that, the majority of Surfs do not give any head problems, it’s just that you will always hear about those that do. Keep reading on the forums here for more info and have a look at http://www.showmesome.info/hilux/info/faq.htm for some more pointers.

Plus you can get all the normally required service parts in any motor factors. Many other parts are common to the pick-ups so there's usually no problem getting spares, any parts you can't find can be ordered thru your local Toyota Stealership, or thru Jap import specialists such as JaParts in Enfield.

[dandownunder]

Guys, just to let you know the Aussie surf site has an article on buying the hilux surf which was written for 4WD monthly here in Australia. Has lots of interesting info though and would benefit anyone.

http://www.toyotasurf.asn.au/techsite/downloads.htm and is at the bottomw of the page.
hope that helps, cheers
Dan.

[4 runner surfin]

some nice pics on your link there

[Cmar]

Hi, Welcome to the forum. Good to see another Irish Surfer on here.

Just to echo whats been said, the only problem with the 2nd gens is the head crack problem, you are looking at a €1000 plus job to fix if it goes so keep that in mind before buying. And the heads are not the easiest things to get unless you buy new.... €€€€€€€€€€!!!

I've had a 2nd gen and now have a 3rd gen and I love them to bits, fantastic 4x4's, still relatively rare, especially the 3rd gens.
If you buy and it dosent give problems you will never regret it.