The Toyota Hilux is renowned for its tank-like qualities, despite this, a trip like ours really takes its toll on the vehicle. Our time back home has gave us the opportunity to do some essential work on poor Bee-bee and get her prepped for the next phase of our trip. The 40,000+ miles we’ve racked up already had really started to show; wandering steering, pulling brakes, rattles and shakes. Regular maintenance is essential whilst travelling, but some jobs are just too large to undertake on the road, especially by a novice like myself. The high mileage meant that Bee-bee’s second cam-belt change was due imminently and rather than trying to do it on the road it made sense to do it prior to our departure. Any moving parts on the running gear really get worked hard off road. The rubber bushes on the anti-roll bars, track rod ends, steering idler and spring cups all required replacing as did the rear springs which had really started to sag due to being overloaded and overworked. The brake system had a full overhaul with new discs and pads/shoes all round. Whilst we had the wheels off it made sense to replace all the wheel studs as 70% of them had been over tightened and cross threaded by an over zealous tyre fitter with an air-gun. We changed all the wheel bearings at the same time. The ECU Doctor came up trumps and has repaired the faulty ECU (Electronic Control Unit). My diagnosis, with a little help from the Hilux Surf Forum, was correct and the ECU is back in Bee-bee and she’s running fine. The ECU problem coupled with a few family legal matters that required signatures had delayed our departure for an extra few weeks. A quick service – all the filters, belts and fluids changed and Bee-bee is fit for the road. Regular readers will be pleased to hear we’re currently on the French/Swiss border and heading southeast to eventually pick up our original route in Kazakhstan early next year.
If you are new to our adventure you can get regular updates on our Facebook page. (Don’t forget to click ‘Like’) You can also check out our YouTube channel (don’t forget to subscribe) for short films of our exploits. It’s wonderful to be wandering again and we are looking forward to making new friends on the road.
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Bee-bee certainly picks her moments… The first time she broke down was in Russia when the alternator died and the battery ran flat leaving us stranded across a railway line!
Last weekend she again threw her toys from the pram at the most opportune moment! On Saturday prior to leaving for a family camping trip she refused to start. The car was packed, the fridge was loaded, the batteries were charged, she turned over, but just refused to start. On closer inspection I noticed the glow-plug warm-up light wasn’t coming on either. After a few checks with the meter and a quick visit to the Hilux Surf Forum I diagnosed the problem as the Electronic Control Unit (ECU). Hopefully. It seems that it’s a common problem with at least two other people on the forum suffering the same fault this year. As it’s Bee-bee’s 20th birthday this year I’m wondering if Toyota have programmed a self-destruct sequence into the ECU! So with a little white hire car in place we headed off camping with my nieces while Bee-bee missed out on all the fun, sat inactive and sulking on the driveway. The trip was planned to not only spend time with family but to also road-test all our kit prior to setting off again. The ECU has now been sent to the highly recommended ECU-Doctor. With a car our age these kinds of parts are not available new anymore. Buying one from a broker is risky, so the best course of action is to get the ECU repaired and remapped. The ECU-Doctor can diagnose and confirm the suspected fault, repair it and offer a 12-month guarantee in the process. Let’s hope I’ve diagnosed it correctly and that he can work his magic on Bee-bee’s brain! Prior to our Truckin’ hell we’d made the decision to head straight back home; unfortunately we were 8000 miles away in Mongolia. In hindsight our departure from Mongolia was probably a little too hasty; a bit more Dakar Rally than Mongol Rally. Bad roads coupled with some wannabe Sébastien Loeb-esq driving damaged Bee-Bee’s rear axle. Luckily my daily under-car crawl exposed the hairline crack in the right-hand side upper trailing arm mount early on. The part that had cracked is essentially one of four main connections holding the entire rear axle in place. The discovery was an unnecessary blow – talk about kicking a man when he’s down! Due to the remoteness of our location we had no choice but to lash up the mount with a heavy-duty ratcheting cargo strap and hope for the best. I kept a close eye on it over the following 300 miles of bad road. It gradually got worse, by the time we arrived in Russia the mount had completely sheered off but luckily the pot-holed corrugated dust roads of Mongolia had been replaced by relatively smooth Russian tarmac. The ratchet strap was now holding everything tight in place. A weld job would mean we’d lose a valuable day’s driving and a complete axle replacement would mean we’d lose a good week. Given the situation and the need to be with my parents we re-evaluated our options and decided the temporary fix was secure enough to last the journey home; it did. Macgyver would be proud! On our return to the UK we started the process of getting Bee-Bee back into ‘adventure’ shape. A new axle was sourced from Jap 4x4 Parts and a visit to the Hilux Surf Forum secured a date with Tony the Hilux Surf oracle. Whilst the axle was off it made sense to replace anything that might have already taken a battering. A visit to Rough Trax secured a Super Pro polyurethane rear panhard rod & trailing arm bush kit, some new bump-stops, anti-roll bar bushes and a couple of front anti-roll bar link rods which had also taken a battering. The axle swap was fairly straightforward, especially with Tony’s knowledge. One area that could have been problematic was swapping the trailing arm bushes. Luckily Tony has access to a 25 tonne press and a lathe. The press ram was a little too large for the bushes so Tony hit the lathe and knocked up a couple of male and female adapters to fit either side of the bushes. With the press the old bushes popped out pretty easily and the new ones straight in. We had trouble undoing a couple of bolts, reminding me of the importance of Copaslip, nothing the reciprocating saw couldn’t deal with though. When replacing axles on 4x4 vehicles it is important to check the diff ratios are the same, if not you’ll have back wheels that’ll want to turn at a different speed to the front wheels making for a very interesting ride. On a Toyota this information can be found on the VIN plate in the engine bay. The axle code is four digits, ours is G294, this translates to a differential size of 8.0", final ratio of 4.1, and a 4 pinion set up. This website was very useful for translating the code. You can also double-check the ratio as Toyota colour code the end of the diff, double check the two axles are the same and you should be right! When fully loaded Bee-Bee has always had a bit of a saggy back end. Whilst we had the springs out we fitted a pair of spring assisters to help firm up the already upgraded springs. A couple of days in the workshop gave us a great opportunity to not only replace the axle but complete a few other jobs refining Bee-Bee’s status as number one adventure mobile. One modification we carried out was to remove the air-con unit and air-con radiator. This would improve access to the alternator and improve airflow through the main radiator as well as removing one of the three fan belts (less to go wrong and less to carry). The left over air-con electric radiator cooling fan is now acting as an emergency, manually operated cooling fan aimed at the main radiator. Whilst the main radiator and fan were all out we topped up the oil in the viscous fan. This modification is a very simple but effective one. The fan on these vehicles is of the viscous type. This means that is has an oil operated clutch in it. When the engine heats up, the oil changes consistency and the fan starts to grip more and turn faster. The oil in the fan can be replaced with a different consistency making it kick in slightly earlier, cooling the engine more effectively.
The mods to the cooling system now make a noticeable difference to Bee-Bee’s running temperature and we have the option of turning on the electric auxiliary fan when the temperature starts to rise too. If you want to read more about some of the other cooling mods we’ve made to deal with the extra weight, click here. Andy The search for our new adventure mobile is over. After a rather disappointing ebay battle which we initially lost we have eventually got our hands on the perfect vehicle. I spotted a Toyota Hilux Surf SSRX 3.0 Ltd after weeks of searching on Ebay and after reading the description thought it was too good to be true. I promptly added it to my watch list.
The vehicle was described as “probably one of the best 3.0L Turbo Diesel Toyota Hilux Surfs in The UK” and reading the description I had no reason to doubt this. The oil, oil filter, air filter, fuel filter, transmission fluid, differential fluid, transfer box fluid and all grease points have been checked and changed every 3000 miles. The cooling system has been flushed every 2 years using Toyota Red Coolant, flushing right through to the rear heaters and at the start and end of every winter the underneath has been power washed and wax sealed. This is just the start, the service history on this vehicle has been impeccable with new dual batteries, alternator and thermostat fitted recently along with all new belts. The 4x4 has never been taken off road and the current owner has had it for 7 years; basically for the year we are unlikely to find a better example. It has racked up 144,000 miles but for a diesel Toyota this age with this service history that really isn’t much at all. When Emma arrived in Guernsey on Thursday evening I showed her the car, she noticed it was based in Northampton, which conveniently is just 30 minutes up the road from where she lives. After a couple of quick phone calls we had arranged for Emma’s dad to take the short trip up the road to inspect the 4x4 on the following Sunday (the day the auction ended). Armed with a comprehensive list (which I shall upload to the resource section) of things to look at and check he spent a good 45 minutes checking the car over. It seemed the car was as good as the listing stated. On top of all this the guy that owns it had seen our website and was fairly excited at the prospect of his car travelling the world. So Sunday evening arrived and after a bit more research and a look at our finances we decided on how much we were willing to spend on it and set up some sniper software to bid up to our maximum 2 seconds before the end of the auction. Unfortunately, as is always the way on Ebay someone else had more money. We lost the auction and slightly disappointed went to bed. At 4:45am a text message arrived from the owner (he was travelling to the U.S) stating that the woman that had won the auction could not afford to buy it and did we want it? We promptly said yes and lay awake excited at the prospect of what was ahead of us. We shall pick the car up in a couple of weeks once Emma has returned to the UK. I can’t wait for the next few months, although the car is pretty much mechanically sound we are still going to have to do a fair amount of work to it to get it expedition ready. Luckily for us some of the expensive stuff has already been done, the car has had a 4" suspension lift fitted by LA Supertrux in Daventry, to take the larger 33x12.5 tyres and more importantly it has an ipod dock. We are going to have to spend another couple of thousand pounds over the coming months on a fridge, roof tent, heat exchanger and shower, hi-lift jack, heavy duty tow points, awnings, spare wheels, snorkel, new heavy duty front bumper and a storage system in the back to utilise the space. Once all the work has been carried out we are going to be equipped with one capable adventure mobile. I can’t wait. I’ve managed to narrow down the model of Hilux Surf that would be most suitable for the type of trip we are planning. A 1994 - 1996 Hilux Surf KZN130 with a 3L 1KZT diesel motor seems to be the only model that has a reliable reputation, all the others, especially the 2.4’s have problems with over-heating and cracked cylinder head/blown head gaskets. From what I’ve read on many of the forums it seems other than the 2.4 engine issues the Hilux Surf is a tank. The Generation 3 (95 – 02) models also share a chassis with the Landcruiser Prado, only reinforcing the tank reputation. On the whole a great condition Surf tends to be a lot cheaper than the Landcruiser, which is great news for our bank managers and pockets.
My only concern is the availability of spares worldwide. A lot of Surf’s have been exported to South Africa, Pakistan, Afghanistan, United Kingdom, Ireland, New Zealand, and Australia; so hopefully the spares are out there. We will obviously carry a selection of essentials with us; tie rod ends, all belts, axle shafts, axle & driveshaft U-joints, spare wheels (x2), wheel bearings, spare hub, brake pads/shoes (full set), fuses, radiator hose, all other hoses, hose clamps, air filters (x3), fuel filters (x5) and oil filters (x3) seem like a good starting list, if anyone has anymore suggestions please comment. A great source for spares in the UK is Milner 4x4. What is also handy is that if we can’t find a suitable vehicle locally, a local dealer who specializes in importing cars could source us one from the UK or Japan to our direct spec and have it fully checked before we buy it and get it shipped over for us. Now all we need to do is decide on the Hilux Surf or Landcruiser. Maybe I’ll flip a coin. Ok, so I’ve been searching ebay for possible vehicles and seeing what is out there. I have found a few expedition prepared vehicles for reasonable prices. Buying an already prepared vehicle does seem like a good way to save some cash, although it could also be a very easy way to flush some money down the pan. If a vehicle is already expedition prepared it is likely to have already taken some heavy abuse. It's a bit of a gamble.
It also makes sense to see what is available locally too. Living on a small island like Guernsey means that vehicles here don’t rack up a huge mileage and that they rarely get driven faster than 40mph, a good start when looking for a reliable expedition vehicle. Ideally our perfect vehicle is a Toyota 80 or 90 series Landcruiser, which has been owned by a family and only used to do the school run, unfortunately there are not a huge amount of them on the island. We do however have an abundance of late 1990's Twin Cab Toyota Hilux and Toyota Hilux Surfs as well as many Mitsubishi L200’s or Warriors as they are commonly known around here. Unfortunately most of these pick-ups have been used as work horses and so the chances of finding one that hasn’t taken a battering are fairly slim, although I know there are a few out there. Just checking the prices on ebay it seems that these two cars sell for much less than the desirable Landcruisers of a similar age. I’ve been trying to find as much research on these two vehicles to see if either of them are up to the job. When selecting a vehicle you need to take several things into consideration. Firstly reliability, does the vehicle have a reputationas being reliable? I have already been warned about the 2L turbo diesel Hilux's and Surf's, as they are notorious for blown head gaskets and cracked heads. Apparently some of the 4 door Hilux's have a 3L non-turbo diesel lump which is a much better motor. There is a stack of information about Toyota's diesel engines on this website. I need to check up on the L200, but I think they have the same running gear as the same year Delica's, these 4x4 people carriers have a good rep in Canada. In fact there are plenty of these on the island too. Possibly worth a look? This website has plenty of information about an expedition Delica. The L200 had a build issue in 2003, so these are to be avoided. Another point to consider is the availability of spares, the Landcruiser certainly ticks that box but do the Hilux and L200? Both the L200 and the Hilux have been exported around the world but not to the extent of the Landcruiser. Is this really going to be a problem? We are going to carry some essential spares with us and surely if the worst comes to it we can DHL them....Hmmmmm tough call! Whatever vehicle we choose, it needs to be comfortable as well as practical. The Landcruiser is obviously fairly luxurious in comparison to a utility vehicle like the L200, is this going to sway our selection? One factor that I had initially neglected was the fact that the truck/car needs to fit into a shipping container, luckily our budget is pretty much the deciding factor to that problem. If anyone has any queries regarding expedition vehicles a good place to start is the Expedition Portal website. They have a great forum with members from all over the world who can offer great advice. Anyway, enough from me for now. I'm going to have another search on Ebay. Andy |
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