Well, It has been a long time since I visted here but I am glad the forum is still around.

I have 99 4Runner and have had ton of problems with it. I bought the truck back about 2 years ago from a dealer in CT. After I picked it up I brought it in for an oil change or something an they told the water pump was leaking and that they would fix it no charge. I said while you are there you might as well replace the timing belt/chain. Dont remember what it has. They only charged me for the part. The next problem developed a month or so later. Maybe more. This was minor. The left mirror cracked when I tunred on the defroster. They replaced that no charge. THen the tranny started acting up. 5 speed manual. They tried several times to fix it but eventually they replaced it with a new tranny. This set me back a few hundred dollars. They aslo did the clutch. I also have a drippy front Differencial, which the dealer said was caused byt teh wrong fluid. So now a year or so later I left for a business/vacation trip last weekend. I trailered my bmw motorcycle up with me. So when I get to NH 5 hours later the truck is a little louder than normal. But I don't think too much about it. So Friday comes and we head home but on the way we stop in Boston over night. When I pull in to my friends house the truck is "ticking" I think what the f is going on. Saturday morning we head home and now all hell breaks lose about 20 minutes from my house. Charging light comes on and the power steering starts acting funning. I head right to the dealership. When I get there I open the hood and find that one of the drive belts has come off. I look even closer and notice that the main pully is wobbling like mad and is cock eyed and pulled to right side of the motor The servcie manager come out and looks and says you aint driving this anymore. He is talking new engine. The truck has only 95k on it and I baby it. NO offroading. nothing. Has anyone ever experienced anything like this with their 4runner? Or Am I just the lucky one. I love the truck but where do I draw the line?

 

Sounds like the dealership may not have torqued the main pulley bolt correctly. If that's the case, it may have slowly started getting loose until it finally alllowed the pulley to modify the crank or the inside of the pulley. Did the same dealership do the work?

Andreas

 

That sucks dude, time for a new mechanic. I have passed 100,000 miles on my toyota and the only problem I had was the power ant. quit after 3.5 years.

 

that does suck. These engines are known to last 200k+ miles fairly easily.

But its man made and it can break. Crap happens, unfortunately for you it appears you didnt get the best runner out there.

I've read on this forum 3 times of engine failing with low miles. A 3.4 with 70k, a 4.0 with 40k and another 4.0 but I think that last one was just someone making up stories.

If they want to replace the motor have it towed to another mechanic and tell him whats going on and see if he can find while it would have failed like this. Maybe he can find evendience that the dealer screwed up and you can have them fix for free or discounted.

Unfortunately another mechanics probably not gonna want to say that the dealer screwed up because that will through him into the middle of a legal battle between you and the dealer.

Never the less good luck. Sorry you are having so much trouble with your Toyota. They really are quite reliable, well usually.

 

Yeah, it does suck and the biggest thing is that I love the truck and have no problem putting a new motor in it. Maybe a big block. HEHEHE

Just kidding.

 

I'm sorry, "izyellodog", but I'm going to have to agree with everyone who've suggested that it was "stealer error" from when they did the water pump, afterall, have you any idea just how hard it is to get that f'ing crank pulley bolt out.
No, I'd say that it was'nt that you got a "bad" 'Runner, it was that you got a bad "Dealer" who's probally looking to recoup "all" (not "some") of the out of pocket expense he's incurred from all previous repairs, & then some.
You should push the obvious to that stealership, i.e., that there is no way that that crank pulley should have come loose, if it were properly torqued down to the specified lbs., and have them replace the motor for free.