In 1998 I bought a Toyota 4-Runner. 3.4 V6. I have since used it all over the country; up in the Andes in deep snow and rocks, on the beach, on highways and everything else. From 1998 it's made of metal, I dom't think there are any plastic body parts and it's been dinged a bit. It still carries the scrape on the back wing which I did 2 hours after I bought it when parking it in an underground carpark.
It's done 220,000 kms (+/- 140,000 miles).
It has just had it's first fault. In all that time until now it has only been serviced, I can't even recall it having a new exhaust. Never failed to start, never broken down.
But it's just sprung a leak in the radiator.
Annoying today , but pretty impressive for the last 22 years.
Just thought I'd say.
Worth mentioning that the PPoS they've been making since 2009 and calling 4-Runners are another matter completely. I had one of those and thank fully got rid of it. Though it was replaced with an almost completely s*** Murano 3.5l.
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It's this body shape, though otherwise that's a different car.
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:1996-1998_Toyota_4Runner_.jpg
Last edited by: No FM2R on Sat 7 Mar 20 at 13:47
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Presume it's worth repairing, rad swop can't be that costly.
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Getting the radiator is the problem, not swapping it. Toyota (Chile) just quoted £1,000 and 2 months. But they are friggin idiots. I'll get one from our equivalent of a scrappie for about £100..
But yes, very much worth keeping.
Because of the climate rust is not really a thing here and it's very reliable. Probably not worth much money, even here probably only around £4k, but such a great and capable car.
Last edited by: No FM2R on Sat 7 Mar 20 at 15:02
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Ha. Bikers have a FB page (Overlander Mules) - bikers in the far flung corners of the globe ask for bike parts and ask people if they happen to be flying out to particular place to courier parts out. A radiator might be a bit big for hand baggage, but you never know.
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Thanks, though there is similar here for foreign vehicles. I suspect it's some bloke in Miami who sneaks things into containers, but I make sure never to ask.
No doubt I'll get one at some point.
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Don't you have places that can re-core an existing radiator like here in the UK?
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No. And I wouldn't trust them to do it if they tried.
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Maybe worth a try with Radweld or something similar?
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Under normal conditions, perhaps. But this car can spend it's time on the streets of Santiago, typically temperature in the low to middle 30s.
If it's not there it's gasping up at 11,000 foot in the FF cold or perhaps travelling a thousand miles or so South in one hit.
None of which are a good place for anything that is not a strong and reliable repair and all three of which it has done since Christmas.
Last edited by: No FM2R on Sat 7 Mar 20 at 21:20
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>I'll get one from our equivalent of a scrappie for about £100.
I would be a bit wary of using a 20yr old rad from a scrappie. It may not be in much better condition than the one you have.
I'd have a replacement airfreighted from the US. I had a new water pump for my Chevy shipped from US to UK a few years back. Took about 7 days.
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I live in the corrupt and deeply inefficient Third World.
I had a spare for a laptop couriered from the US. It was tracked and within Chilean Customers within 36 hours. It was at my house 4 months later.
And that's typical
As it happens the radiator was used a lot more recently than when my car was made. Hi-Lux used the same one, for example.
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How much bribery goes on for this type of stuff in chile?
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There's far less cash based corruption than there is in other South American countries. In Brazil, for example, you can do *anything* with cash. In Chile offering cash is frowned upon.
The corruption in Chile is favour and/ or friend based. You *need* to know people. Then you can get anything done. Without such a facility you can get nothing done. You will not even get a decent job.
Alongside that is the quite incredible inefficiency together with a total lack of concern about that inefficiency.
Last edited by: No FM2R on Sat 7 Mar 20 at 22:41
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A radiator is just a radiator! somewhere to store a supply of water! - my mate managed to shoe-horn one from a consul into his Anglia years ago, kept it on the road but it never seemed to warm up properly!
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I would imagine Consul radiators are in equally in short supply in Chile :))
Last edited by: Fullchat on Sun 8 Mar 20 at 15:10
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Toyota 4-Runner 1998 - No FM2R
