Is the FZJ80 worth it in today’s market?

[Ozark_Prowler]

Mine was in overall great condition, but that straight six would run warm off-road and when idling a lot in traffic in this south Texas summer heat. Reading comprehension is a skill, I said that it is unlivable "by today's standards", that should be pretty self explanatory, i.e., loud cabin, mediocre brakes, few gears, meh air conditioning, subpar ride, etc., this is of course just one mans opinion and you are obviously entitled to your own. I appreciate the 80's mechanical simplicity in comparison to what's on the road today, but it doesn't mean I want to daily one, not for how/where I drive and what I expect out of a daily driver in 2021.

Ok, well I may have different standards, since the newest vehicle I've owned was a 2002 WRX. I find the ride of the 80 series to be remarkably smooth compared to my previous DDs. I agree it can be loud and the brakes are subpar though. The interior is certainly rudimentary by today's standards; it's hilarious to think this was a flagship luxury SUV back in the day. And it does seem the the straight six tends to run rougher and hotter than the newer V8s, though I'm not sure how much of this has to do with age vs. any inherent design flaws.

I didn't mean to sound arrogant in my response; I was just curious about your personal experience. Thanks.

 

[Tex68w]

Ok, well I may have different standards, since the newest vehicle I've owned was a 2002 WRX. I find the ride of the 80 series to be remarkably smooth compared to my previous DDs. I agree it can be loud and the brakes are subpar though. The interior is certainly rudimentary by today's standards; it's hilarious to think this was a flagship luxury SUV back in the day. And it does seem the the straight six tends to run rougher and hotter than the newer V8s, though I'm not sure how much of this has to do with age vs. any inherent design flaws.

I didn't mean to sound arrogant in my response; I was just curious about your personal experience. Thanks.

No offense taken, I was busting your chops as well, all in good fun. Different strokes for different folks obviously, it's all relative to your personal experience so there will be differing views on the subject. I could live with an 80 as my daily but not in my current location and lifestyle.

 

[Lovetheworld]

I still have a Toyota 4x4 from 1994 and it doesnt seem to be having any of these issues. It is a Hiace van, pretty much a van version of the pickup. It is very reliable, only rust is an option. It has 130K miles on it, and the original LSD still works. Some drivetrain work came after driving it over the worst roads in Asia.

I completely agree it doesnt love up to modern standards due to the noisy diesel and because of that, we will move away from it. We bought a 4x4 Sprinter which drives much better.
However, our old Toyota Hiace really is a car/campervan that you can take anywhere and is reliable. So in that sense it is still living up to that name. Without the work much of the 80s need.

 

[Tex68w]

I still have a Toyota 4x4 from 1994 and it doesnt seem to be having any of these issues. It is a Hiace van, pretty much a van version of the pickup. It is very reliable, only rust is an option. It has 130K miles on it, and the original LSD still works. Some drivetrain work came after driving it over the worst roads in Asia.

I completely agree it doesnt love up to modern standards due to the noisy diesel and because of that, we will move away from it. We bought a 4x4 Sprinter which drives much better.
However, our old Toyota Hiace really is a car/campervan that you can take anywhere and is reliable. So in that sense it is still living up to that name. Without the work much of the 80s need.

My buddy has a HiAce 4x4 diesel that he bought from an importer a few years back and it has been an absolute nightmare for him, it has less miles than yours and is very clean but has been far from reliable. From cooling issues (rebuilt the radiator, replaced t-stat and flushed the system multiple times), to a new alternator, starter, and a few other items, he's constantly breaking down and having issues. This is all compounded by how difficult it is to find parts for it let alone on this side of the world. All of that said, he absolutely loves the thing and will have a hard time ever selling it even though it constantly bites him at every turn lol. Just goes to show you that your personal experience is yours and yours alone and often times differs drastically from the next guy.

 

[calicamper]

Mine was in overall great condition, but that straight six would run warm off-road and when idling a lot in traffic in this south Texas summer heat. Reading comprehension is a skill, I said that it is unlivable "by today's standards", that should be pretty self explanatory, i.e., loud cabin, mediocre brakes, few gears, meh air conditioning, subpar ride, etc., this is of course just one mans opinion and you are obviously entitled to your own. I appreciate the 80's mechanical simplicity in comparison to what's on the road today, but it doesn't mean I want to daily one, not for how/where I drive and what I expect out of a daily driver in 2021.

Had 3 J80’s in our family mine being the show room floor Cherry one. All three of us had the same experience. The 80 eats brake pads fast compared to modern trucks. One family member tried to remedy this with fancy “longer lasting” pads which resulted in an unexpected problem of cooked brake fluid and a failed (cooked) caliper. As such the other two of us stuck with stock pads. Which stock pads only run 8000-12,000 typically. I’m sure someone will now claim the “My Toyota is magic and went 100,000 on the pads”. BS….
Best Toyota truck brake life for me was 40,000 miles in my 1Gen Sequoia. All my cars I get 60,000-100,000 depending if the car tows a trailer or not.
Yes hot weather especially hot windy places the J80 fully 100% healthy working fan clutch and good radiator still got warm. Add a hot head wind at highway speeds and it really!!! Wasn’t happy. Likely why people thought it had head gasket issues given people drove them like V8 trucks and blew up the head gasket when the temp spiked.

 

[Lovetheworld]

Well, the van came in a few configurations, and some.of these engines werent that reliable. Especially the automatic turbo diesels.
My drivetrain is equal to the one in a standard Hilux (like top gear tested, or this youtuber more recently)
Mine doesnt have a turbo or power windows or anything really. It does have parttime 4x4 eith low gearing and a pretty extreme final gear of 5.125. It only has 75hp but it gets everywhere and can climb without difficulty.

I lifted the van, put bigger tires on it. Replaced fluids, and drove it all over Northern Asia. Which was rough at times, but it simply didn't care.

Only when we got back, some of the stuff needed replacement on the front axle, and it were clearly parts from 1994...
Much of the van is still original and it just always works.

 

[Ozark_Prowler]

My buddy has a HiAce 4x4 diesel that he bought from an importer a few years back and it has been an absolute nightmare for him, it has less miles than yours and is very clean but has been far from reliable. From cooling issues (rebuilt the radiator, replaced t-stat and flushed the system multiple times), to a new alternator, starter, and a few other items, he's constantly breaking down and having issues. This is all compounded by how difficult it is to find parts for it let alone on this side of the world. All of that said, he absolutely loves the thing and will have a hard time ever selling it even though it constantly bites him at every turn lol. Just goes to show you that your personal experience is yours and yours alone and often times differs drastically from the next guy.

Does his have a 2LT motor? I think those are known to be troublesome engines.

 

[Ozark_Prowler]

Had 3 J80’s in our family mine being the show room floor Cherry one. All three of us had the same experience. The 80 eats brake pads fast compared to modern trucks. One family member tried to remedy this with fancy “longer lasting” pads which resulted in an unexpected problem of cooked brake fluid and a failed (cooked) caliper. As such the other two of us stuck with stock pads. Which stock pads only run 8000-12,000 typically. I’m sure someone will now claim the “My Toyota is magic and went 100,000 on the pads”. BS….
Best Toyota truck brake life for me was 40,000 miles in my 1Gen Sequoia. All my cars I get 60,000-100,000 depending if the car tows a trailer or not.
Yes hot weather especially hot windy places the J80 fully 100% healthy working fan clutch and good radiator still got warm. Add a hot head wind at highway speeds and it really!!! Wasn’t happy. Likely why people thought it had head gasket issues given people drove them like V8 trucks and blew up the head gasket when the temp spiked.

You can use 100 series pads on the front which help a bit, but yeah, the brakes are definitely a weak point. Thats's true for pretty much all the old solid axle Cruisers. I don't know why Toyota struggled so much with their braking systems back in the day.

I wonder what about the inline 6 makes it more susceptible to overheating? Maybe it just has to work harder to move 2-3 tons of truck as compared to a V8..

 

[nickw]

Like I said, it wasn't to point out that Landcruisers are better. But that their heritage is true, and based on hard work in other continents. So a remark that Landcruisers would have a great reputation based on an easylife as soccer moms drive them around the US is ridiculous.

But here in Europe the 80 was almost always sold with the diesel and everybody loves them. I have so much anecdotal evidence it isn't anecdotal anymore. Also one guy who had high repair bills by the way, it is not all that great. And personally, now that they are so old, I would prefer a petrol version. The diesel has more parts to break. And the remark that reliability goes down now that they are almost 30 years old, yes I agree.
And still they are sometimes used as workhorse. I was talking to a beach cafe owner who had a really rough 80 to get to the cafe on the beach (salty) and always standing there. That thing is now 30 years old, 400K kilometers, and still it is very reliable to him, only requiring standard maintenance.
But I know lots of people driving them to high mileage pulling trailers and what not.

I also know a swiss guy who had an 80 diesel in Africa and did 500K kilometers in Africa with it, and it only failed him once.

But still this is not the same as doing that now with a 30 year old car. I see people making that mistake all the time, especially with Toyotas and Mercedes. Yes they are or were very reliable models, but you just bought some 25 to 35 year old car and going to travel the world with it. It is different from having that same car new from the dealer and going over the world.

We had a 30 year old BJ45 landcruiser (longbody diesel version of the fj40) and it is a great strong car. But somewhere in Iran in the middle of a city the clutch cilinder failed. All these rubbery gasket/seal kind of things are prown to failure at these ages.
The real great thing about a Toyota is that you can service it anywhere on the planet. Which is impossible with a US truck.
But then, there are specific US trucks and regions where it is absolutely fine and they will be serviceable.
In the end it is silly to focus on an old Toyota being THE way to overland. So many options.
I would like an FZJ80 as a (future) classic, keep it nice, see it rise in value. Unmodified.

And you guys are talking about prices for an fzj80, but here in Europe prices for a good HDJ80 are insane. And they typically have high mileage are slightly modified. I would not buy that.

You need to look at the context I was referencing...context matters....

 

[calicamper]

You can use 100 series pads on the front which help a bit, but yeah, the brakes are definitely a weak point. Thats's true for pretty much all the old solid axle Cruisers. I don't know why Toyota struggled so much with their braking systems back in the day.

I wonder what about the inline 6 makes it more susceptible to overheating? Maybe it just has to work harder to move 2-3 tons of truck as compared to a V8..

Aerodynamics of a brick wall and the surface area of the grill wasn’t really that big. The radiator was pretty decent volume wise but once you heat soaked it…. Air flow was mehh

 

[Lovetheworld]

Does his have a 2LT motor? I think those are known to be troublesome engines.

Almost. It has the 2L, so without the turbo. And that makes a big difference.
Because the ones without turbo are very reliable.
They can do very high mileage.

 

[Tex68w]

Well, the van came in a few configurations, and some.of these engines werent that reliable. Especially the automatic turbo diesels.
My drivetrain is equal to the one in a standard Hilux (like top gear tested, or this youtuber more recently)
Mine doesnt have a turbo or power windows or anything really. It does have parttime 4x4 eith low gearing and a pretty extreme final gear of 5.125. It only has 75hp but it gets everywhere and can climb without difficulty.

I lifted the van, put bigger tires on it. Replaced fluids, and drove it all over Northern Asia. Which was rough at times, but it simply didn't care.

Only when we got back, some of the stuff needed replacement on the front axle, and it were clearly parts from 1994...
Much of the van is still original and it just always works.

I've been begging him to lift it and put some AT's on it along with a rack but I think he struggles enough with just trying to keep it on the road somewhat regularly to think beyond that lol. I wish he could source that snorkel. He really should have done more research on them before buying as there were quite a few different configurations in them during that era and he could have benefitted from understanding which combos/years to avoid.

Does his have a 2LT motor? I think those are known to be troublesome engines.

I don't know the engine model off the top of my head but I do know that it is NA, so no turbo. I'll inquire the next time we talk.

 

[Tex68w]

So he said it has the 3L 2.8L NA diesel which is reputably a very good motor. Sadly he seems to have gotten a lemon, it's back in the shop this week to have the rebuilt alternator replaced again.

 

[Lovetheworld]

It looks like a more complicated but more luxury version of what I have, which is basically a work van.
But yeah the 3L should be reliable too, especially with a manual.

The snorkel is in fact a Toyota original part, and I just ordered it at the dealership here in Netherlands. Even though it is meant for the Africa market.
So I cannot complain about ordering parts for these old Toyota's

I have 225/75R16 but that is with modfiying the front wheel arches. And lifted it.

Anyway, to me it is reliable like the reputation says, and I think many of the basic versions are.
Of course some work is needed at times, but not like the fzj80 numbers passing by here.

 

[Todd780]

So he said it has the 3L 2.8L NA diesel which is reputably a very good motor. Sadly he seems to have gotten a lemon, it's back in the shop this week to have the rebuilt alternator replaced again.

Maybe do like these Microbus people did and V8 swap it?