I have a 97 Limited (auto, 4wd) with 178k on it. I love my yota, and a while back I decided I'm willing to spend whatever it takes to keep the thing running. That being said, it has turned into quite the money pit. A brief summary of repairs over the last few years:

164k - timing belt goes bad, replace engine with a used taco one
167k - significant rear brake/axle work
174k - rebuild tranny, replace solenoids
176k - replace transfer case, flywheel

That brings us to today. I have 3 problems.

1. When I engage 4wd, I hear a loud clicking noise. It sounds very unnatural, so I just disengage it immediately.
2. I live in extremely cold weather (SD). When the weather is below 35-40 degs F, I have a very hard time starting... it seems like the starter doesn't want to engage. I know a block heater can fix this, but I thought my starting problems would be happening at ~20 degs, not 40. It starts up just fine when it's warm.
3. My gas mileage has worsened considerably. Granted, I tend to let her idle for a while to warm up now, but were talking 16 mpg instead of the 18-21 I used to get.

Any thoughts?

 

How long have you owned it?

Your list sounds like the previous owner didn't do any scheduled maintenance.

Your timing belt was almost twice the mileage to be changed (I believe they recommend every 90,000 miles)

I don't know what happened with the rear brakes, but a seal going out isn't uncommon on any rig with that many miles.

The auto trannies are probably the weakest link in the whole rig. My tranny has been giving me solenoid problems too. Not changing the tranny fluid every 30,000 will lead to problems.

I would assume the work on the transfer-case and the flywheel are somehow responsible for your latest problems. 2000 miles is WAY too soon for it not to be related. Get under there and see what the shop screwed up

Lastly, long idols WILL drop your gas mileage that much. If you do it every day for more than 15 min your wasting a lot of gas.

My mileage drops significantly with sub zero temps and snow in the winter because I'm warming it up and using 4 wheel drive all the time.

Just my 0.02

Erich

 

why in the world did you replace the engine bdcause of a timing belt?

 

I have owned it for about 3 years. The frustrating thing is that it generally was well maintained. I know this because my dad owned it before I did.

As far as the timing belt/engine issue goes, I don't know the details of what exactly happened (it occurred when my dad owned it). I do know that the timing belt was replaced very recently before it failed. I'm not sure what happened when it failed that caused the need for a new engine.

As for my current issue...

After talking to a friend of mine who does all his own tech work (although not on a 4runner) he seems to think that I may have a front diff issue... aka maybe a failed seal and oil leak. I looked underneath today to see if I could check the oil, but that thing is damn near impossible to get to without taking things apart. There is a bold on top of it - is that what I would open to check the oil level? I did notice, however, that there was a little bit of oil collected on the underpan directly under the diff.

 

should be a big allen head fill plug where you check the diff oil. drop the skid plate.
also make sure its not motor oil from the last oil change.