Faults:

Blown piston ring.

General Comments:

Underpowered and a bit of rust, but this truck has been unbelievably reliable. Other than routine maintenance I just had a piston ring break once. It's getting near the end of it's life, which has been twice as long as most trucks so I'm looking for a newer model 4Runner. I only paid $3800 for it and it ran great for over 10 years. I couldn't have asked for a better truck.

Faults:

Head gasket at150,000 miles. Lost the clutch, had it rebuilt and only got 20,000 miles on the repair before I had to replace it again.

General Comments:

I have done a lot of repairs on this truck myself due to the fact that this year model is a Heinz 57. Whenever I did a repair and called parts departments at the dealerships, I found that my 1986 had parts that were not supposed to be on it. It was a mid-year model change, which makes it more difficult to pinpoint and fix problems. This truck is 20 years old and still going and I don't want to get rid of it! I love my truck.

Faults:

I have a whoosh whoosh noise coming from the rear, We jacked it up and checked it out, and it seems to be coming from the brake drums... no biggie, I am gonna replace the drums and shoes anyway... Also had to replace the Idler arm on the front end.

General Comments:

I have only had this vehicle a few months, but "oh what a feeling!" This is my first winter in the snow, and I couldn't have picked a better vehicle to start out in. I got this truck at a Junkyard, I only paid $375 for it, and this thing performs so much better than my 96 Nissan when it was new!!! I love this truck, I don't think I will be buying anything else for a long long time!!!

Faults:

On the second day that I owned the car, the air conditioner went out. Turns out that the evaporator and the expansion valve broke, I had to replace those as well as refill it with FREE-ON. This cost about $200. The rear end was sagging very badly, but a set of air shocks easily fixed that for about $70. The transmission would not start out in first gear if it was cold, you can have that fixed by flushing out the transmission at your local dealership for around $150 to $175.

The stereo won't pick up any stations above 100 FM, and the cassette player no longer works. I also had the steering wheel's rubber start to come loose, but it's not that bad yet, and I have had to buy seat covers. The master cylinder is starting to go out on the brakes, but they still work.

General Comments:

After all this said, I really love this vehicle. I have owned it for a couple of months, and it has held up wonderfully considering its age. The engine purrs like a kitten, the shifting is super smooth, and it is an all around great vehicle.

Faults:

Engine blew up at 160,000mi.

Rust.

Nothing else important enough to mention.

These trucks are getting old, so be prepared to fix the little things that will break on you from there old age. just go to the junk yard and take what you need.

General Comments:

Well, when I bought My 4runner it burned oil and stuttered like one of the valves were bad. so I rebuilt the top end of the engine and fixed the rust on the rear wheel wells. For the last 2 years or so, I took the 4runner camping about once a month and did some off roading while I was there. needless to say, The 4runner performed flawlessly. I took it to montreal which is about 9 hours away. and it was fine. If you like that truck feel then youll love the older 4runners. There`s not too much power for the steep highway hills. but it will still get you there reliably.

The reason I'm writing this review is because the engine just blew up. I never checked the oil in the truck because it never leaked or burnt oil. but coming back from an offroading trip this weekend the engine was tapping real bad coming up a steep highway hill, I pulled over and, guess what. Theres no oil on the dip stick, it didn't leak out and I didn't see It burning the oil, so where it went, I don't know?

It needed 3 1/2 quarts! its my fault for not checking the oil before the trip.