Lost confidence in my Prado

[Fungi2003 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Fungi2003]

I've had a raft of issues with my car and I must admit that I'm slowly losing confidence with it. I really lost patience when i found a hose dangling from the transfer case yesterday.

Issues I've had to date are as follows:
* a screw or something moving around in the dash area (was reported since 30,000)
* steering rack,
* clutch kit due to faulty release bearing,
* water filling in the rear door,
* another clutch kit due to faulty release bearing,
* synchro ring, dogs, synchro clips replaced (due to misaligned selectors when the last clutch kit was replaced)
* hose dangling off the transfer case
* and list of other QA related issues I had to point out to the service manager on numerous occasions

Spoke to Toyota Customer Experience and mentioned that considering the circumstances I would like to have an extended warranty. After 10+ phone calls chasing up where this is at they denied the warranty extension and offered a $300 voucher. I mentioned that I wasn't happy with the response and requested that the regional service manager contact me.

In all seriousness I am hesitant to take the car off-road any more - I was considering keeping the car for the long run but am looking at getting rid of it! I haven't spared a cent on the rig and it has a perfect service record!

[Hutch Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close Hutch]

Re: Lost confidence in my Prado

I've had a raft of issues with my car and I must admit that I'm slowly losing confidence with it. I really lost patience with it last when i found a hose dangling from the transfer case yesterday.

Issues I've had to date are as follows:
* a screw or something moving around in the dash area (was reported since 30,000)
* steering rack,
* clutch kit due to faulty release bearing,
* water filling in the rear door,
* another clutch kit due to faulty release bearing,
* synchro ring, dogs, synchro clips replaced (due to misaligned selectors when the last clutch kit was replaced)
* hose dangling off the transfer case
* and list of other QA related issues I had to point out to the service manager on numerous occasions

Spoke to Toyota Customer Experience and mentioned that considering the circumstances I would like to have an extended warranty. After 10+ phone calls chasing up where this is at they denied the warranty extension and offered a $300 voucher. I mentioned that I wasn't happy with the response and requested that the regional service manager contact me.

In all seriousness I am hesitant to take the car off-road any more - I was considering keeping the car for the long run but am looking at getting rid of it! I haven't spared a cent on the rig and it has a perfect service record!

No good Fungi, i had the same feeling with the Jeep and sold it and brought the prado and haven;t had one issue(touch wood), sounds like the gearbox is from poor wrkmanship each time it has been fixed, a lot of the other things can happen if you go offroad. I hope things settele down for you. I had about 25 warranty claims which made me sell it plus after driving the Prado everything else seemed second rate. Good luck!!

[Bushbasher Out of control poster! Find all posts View Profile Close Bushbasher]

Re: Lost confidence in my Prado

I feel for you in your frustration.

I have a 98 GXL v6 Prado which I bought brand new complete with extended warranty. AT 65,000km I got the manual gearbox rebuilt under warranty because there was a ticking sound from the release bearing. All new bearings and the ticking noise is still there after 180,000km. She's still going strong and apart from a radiator blowout in 2005 I have had no issues. When the warranty ran out I started doing my own services. Now my 18 yr old uses it whilst I scoot about in my 2009 GXL t/dsl.

When I bought it I asked the dealer if it would last 10 years like the other one. She just said "I hope so". So far 12,000km and all is running ok.

[IRON-PAWW Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close IRON-PAWW]

Re: Lost confidence in my Prado

Well I don't think any vehicle can be truly trouble free. It does seem though that you might have suffered some less than professional work. Hard to really know, but that's my suspicion. I think you need to decide when enough is enough, particularly if the vehicle seems to be producing a string of faults. A lot of your faults seem clutch and gearbox related so it's possible you were unlucky and got a less than perfect assembly in that area, though with this mud and other crap ingress issue you do begin to wonder. I have read more than one article mentioning the current Toyota Drivelines becoming somewhat of an achilles heel for the current models, still, a lot of articles amount to no more than opinion pieces so you do need to be careful with such articles. However, we all know about the issue with the Prado diffs. A lot of owners also have "going strong" stories to report though too, and you can't discount that.

Over time I think you get a feeling for how vehicles operate and respond. My old Hilux was soild as they come and although it had done a lot of K's I knew it would have been good for a heck of a lot more, though it needed a bit of attention for anymore serious work. So If you're of the opinion you'd like to cut your losses with that particular vehicle then I'd go right ahead and do just that. There's no rhyme or reason to it, but some vehicles just don't seem to have had such a good run up the production line. Or somebody dropped it on the wharf when they used the wrong ramp.. etc etc. Who knows.

Rip all the good stuff off the one you have and sell it off. Replace it with another one and see how that goes. Reckon that's what I'd do.

[Madkore Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close Madkore]

Re: Lost confidence in my Prado

Just throwing it out there, but could it be a dodgey mechanic who is the cause of your recurring troubles, rather than 'Toyota' production per se?