Questions/Advice on lots of maintenance

[Monolithic]

So I'm trying to do as much preventative maintenance as I can on my surf. A little background on the vehicle. I bought it last fall with 199,980km on it. Had a bad oil leak and the passenger side was beat up quite bad from a previous owner rolling it. There was also a metal on metal noise when cutting the wheel hard.

Got it home, the speedometer rolled over 200k indicating timing belt had to be replaced, so I got a new belt, tensioner, and crank and cam shaft seals. Installed them all which in turn stopped the oil leak. Kept hearing the noise when cutting hard and the last straw was when my steering wheel kicked out of alignment (truck only has about 200,500km at this point). I dropped it off as a shop and the mechanic had it for 3 months and took me for $1700 (replaced steer column, upper pitman arm and lower control arm) and the problem still persisted when making sharp right turns.

So that's my little history. Since April I've put 25,000km on it, religiously doing oil changes every 5000km with high quality synthetic oil.

Alignment issues
I noticed wear on my front tires so I went to get an alignment. Before doing so I replaced my inner and outer tie rods and sleeves. After the alignment I was told it couldn't be done perfect because they ran out of toe in (it's months later and I still have no idea what this means even after asking several people). Any ideas?

Overheating issues
I bought a home made 5 x 8 cargo trailer to haul my belongings with me (total weight with my stuff is probably around 1500lbs or less... I'm guessing way less). Made a few trips to BC through the mountains and on the third trip I started to have overheating issues that got so bad that I can't even haul my trailer at all now unless it's on completely flat ground. My engine will get so hot that it starts spitting all the transmission fluid out the vent in the top. I've since started to get heating issues on large hills whereas I never did prior to hauling the trailer. It was recommended that I have a larger exhaust installed (2.5") and for me to not haul a trailer anymore. I've also ordered a K&N air filter in hopes of increasing the air flow to the engine and am toying with the idea of an intercooler, but I'm stumped as to why it keeps heating up now whereas it didn't originally. Also thinking of getting a thermostat that kicks the fan in at a lower temperature. I have also purchased another used clutch fan just in case. Any other suggestions?

Preventative Maintenance
I have ordered/am ordering and plan to install the following parts:
Upper and Lower Balljoints
Rear coil springs
Rear Heavy Duty Shocks
Air bag suspension for inside coils
Clutch Fan
Low Temp Thermostat
2.5" exhaust system (will be made and installed at a shop)
New tires (in a couple more months)
Replace transmission oil and clean filter
Fuel filter (will be done tomorrow probably, still trying to find an original filter housing seeing as when I bought the Surf all it had was one of the clear plastic ones)

New front seats if I can track down some Recaro ones like I have. I found some in Japan, but they're $500 a piece and I'm not quite sure if I want to dump that much into just seats. My driver seat is pretty shot though. The rubber on the bottom holding it up has ripped so I just have some old clothes stuffed under to hold it up. And the foam has collapsed on one side as well.


Anyone think of anything I may have missed? I love my Surf and just really want it to last.

[TonyN]

Are you sure the head isn't cracked? that's the usual cause on 2.4's that get hot, you're losing coolant then it overheats.

Otherwise the rad is full of crap, or airflow is restricted. Do you have spot lights on a bull bar or maybe no fan shroud fitted?

The alignment is more of a worry, if you've run out of adjustment either the chassis is bent, (you said it had been rolled) or its got to much lift on the front torsion bars and needs lowering a little. The front wheels should 'toe in' by about 1mm at the front, (imagine leaving your heels on the floor but moving your toes closer together) and they have run out of thread on the adjusters before getting there.

[Monolithic]

Are you sure the head isn't cracked? that's the usual cause on 2.4's that get hot, you're losing coolant then it overheats.

Otherwise the rad is full of crap, or airflow is restricted. Do you have spot lights on a bull bar or maybe no fan shroud fitted?

The alignment is more of a worry, if you've run out of adjustment either the chassis is bent, (you said it had been rolled) or its got to much lift on the front torsion bars and needs lowering a little. The front wheels should 'toe in' by about 1mm at the front, (imagine leaving your heels on the floor but moving your toes closer together) and they have run out of thread on the adjusters before getting there.

I don't think it's cracked. I don't seem to be losing any coolant... or any fluid at all for that matter, unless my heat gauge moves... then tranny fluid spits out the top. It doesn't even burn any oil. I put just over 1000km on today averaging about 115-120km/h all in one shot... I lost a little bit of transmission fluid (very little) when it did heat a little while idling at a long stop light half way through the trip. Outside temp was around 28C. I'm hoping my clutch fan is just shot because I'm picking up a used working one tomorrow afternoon.

I do have spot lights on my bull bar! And a bush guard in front of my AC cooler. I'll remove the lights first thing tomorrow. I do have a fan shroud. I'll get a pic of the front end in the morning. Maybe there's more I can do.


Thanks for the input on the alignment. I'll see what I can find out. I met a local mechanic in the area I'm working in that is going to recharge my AC so I'll see what he can do as well.

Do you know of anyone that had bought a cheap rad on ebay? They're crazy expensive to buy new in Canada, but if I get one from Australia it'll only come to about $350 with shipping. I flushed my rad when I did the timing belt and I don't mind spending the money to make sure it's not my rad causing the problem.

Here is a link to one of the ones I'm talking about. http://www.ebay.ca/itm/Toyota-Surf-H...#ht_1638wt_952


Thanks so much Tony, I really appreciate your input.

[budweiser]

New front seats if I can track down some Recaro ones like I have. I found some in Japan, but they're $500 a piece and I'm not quite sure if I want to dump that much into just seats. My driver seat is pretty shot though. The rubber on the bottom holding it up has ripped so I just have some old clothes stuffed under to hold it up. And the foam has collapsed on one side as well.

http://cgi.ebay.ie/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?...#ht_500wt_1156

[Monolithic]

http://cgi.ebay.ie/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?...#ht_500wt_1156

Sweet. I missed the bidding, but I'll message them on ebay about the seats.

[Albannach]

Sweet. I missed the bidding, but I'll message them on ebay about the seats.

Have they moved Alberta?

[Monolithic]

Have they moved Alberta?

Oh, in regards to pick up only on the seats? I just realized that now.

[budweiser]

Oh, in regards to pick up only on the seats? I just realized that now.

mm! just realized that now too.
just try, may be its ok if you organize an company to pick up, you dont know if you dont try.
or a surf train?

[Monolithic]

I changed out the coils/shocks and added airbags last night. I don't know how you guys do it! It took me a full 9.5 hours and I think I pinched my airbag in the coil when jacking the axle back up. I was running out of time so I had to just keep going with putting everything back together. I have the Max Ellery manual and everything seems so straight forward and then when I go to do it I run into so many problems.

I pulled the shocks off fine and then pulled the bolts from the upper control arms (took me about an hour probably and I only got them out when a guy dropped by the shop I was using and procured a flat bar to jam into the housing to put the control arm back far enough to pull the bolt out.) Then the lateral control rod came off without too much of a fight, but still had to pry it off (so scared of prying things in case something breaks).

Finally got the axle dropped by using a second jack to hold the frame up while using another one under the axle. Got the coils out and then I had to pull the bump stops... I didn't want to destroy them at first, but that's what it came down to because I couldn't figure out how they were attached. Ended up using a cutting disc to cut the bolt (after I realized I could have just cut the rubber off and I would have seen that it was a small self tapping bolt). And then I had to drill the self tapping screw out because that is where my airline was going to go. Got the other side off with a socket and then went to work at routing my air lines up to my fuel cap (another hour of frustration). Finally got it all routed, put the airbags in the coils and put them back on the axle. Then I followed the manual and raised my axle again and managed to attach my passenger side control arm. Took me another hour of prying and jacking the axle every which way to get the second control arm attached.


Then I spent another hour trying to figure out how to get the lateral control rod attached because jacking the axle up all the way and also jacking up one side or the other was always leaving me just short. Luckily I googled around and found out that I'm supposed to put my tires back on with the shocks not attached and then my control rod went right into place with a little prying on the bracket that's attached it.

In WesternCanada the going rate for mechanics is around $80-100/hour and doing work like this makes me thing it's not high enough!

Clutch fan going in tonight, then my balljoints will be done tomorrow by a mechanic!