Thread: What happened to your D3/D4 today?

Originally Posted by PerthDisco

5th on LC is an afterthought bolt on to the earlier design 4 speed box. It sits outside the main cluster. All repair shops emphasise never ever ever tow in 5th.

And weak as water synchro rings as well. Mastery of double clutch technique needed to down shift.

An old wives tale.

I have posted this before,from a guy who runs a gearbox repair shop.

"The H150 is one of the strongest gearboxes around with a mainshaft in excess of some 65mm in diameter. The fifth gear unlike most boxes being at the rear and being a weak point is actually mounted in the centre of the shaft and has its own oil pump to feed it. I’ve come across folk that tow very very very heavy vans and no issue. As some have suggested if it tends to labour a bit going uphill throw it back to fourth"

Originally Posted by scarry

An old wives tale.

I have posted this before,from a guy who runs a gearbox repair shop.

"The H150 is one of the strongest gearboxes around with a mainshaft in excess of some 65mm in diameter. The fifth gear unlike most boxes being at the rear and being a weak point is actually mounted in the centre of the shaft and has its own oil pump to feed it. I’ve come across folk that tow very very very heavy vans and no issue. As some have suggested if it tends to labour a bit going uphill throw it back to fourth"

Agreed. The latest version sits behind the 1VD in the 70 series. You don't hear of many problems there.

The R151 found in the Hiace, Hilux, and for a period the 100 and 70 series with the 1HZ did have a 5th gear weakness early on. The problem was largely resolved by about 2010 and since has been a well regarded gearbox. Toyota put it behind the supercharged 1GR V6 in the Hilux, so they had plenty of confidence in it.

Yes, I’m a 1HZ 80 series man and not many don’t have a few gearbox gremlins but after 300,000 kms though. Glad they fixed up later. Suited to low power output.

5th Gear Towing - YouTube

Originally Posted by scarry

Done millions of K's in our work Hi Aces,never had an issue with 5th gear,in fact have hardly had an issue at all.
And they all run pretty close to GVM all day,every day.

Being a Pilot vehicle maybe you did a lot more K's in 5th.

Yes - a lot of k's done in 5th trying to save fuel. After blowing up two gearboxes in a very short period (5th gear in both cases - I still managed to get home both times using 4th only) - I learnt my lesson.
After the second replacement (I managed to get a low km imported box from Japan) - I only ever used 5th when travelling at ABOVE 100km/hr and that bloody great sign on the roof was folded down flat.

Apart from gearboxes - I can't complain about the HiAce. It had only 75,000km on it when I bought it from a deceased estate (was a painter's van) - it had over a million km on it when I sold it. Was still on the original engine - only things I ever replaced were 2 x gearboxes, all wheel bearings and all the brakes, and it spat a timing gear once so I ended up putting another head on it after a few of the valves did a tap dance on top of the pistons (never damaged any of the pistons though - and I replaced the timing gear regularly after that - was an easy job that I could do on the side of the road). It mainly did long runs, mostly at 80km/hr or less. Only had the 2.4 diesel which was gutless but reliable and easy to work on. I replaced it with a F100 with a 5.8 litre Chev V8 diesel in it and a C6 auto. Never had any problems keeping out in front of some of the "faster" oversize loads with that one as I occasionally did with the HiAce.

A few months ago I was working on a job up near Coober Pedy and had one of the new HiAce vans (mini-bus) to drive. Very impressed with it except for the unnecessary electronics with lane change alert / blind spot alert and all the other crap included with it. That might all be good, but when it plays up in remote areas, you have to get the vehicle to a major dealership to get any work at all done on it - we could not even get a cracked windscreen replaced by the local glass shop in Coober Pedy because of some sensors mounted on the screen that had to be "re-set" by the Toyota dealership. Other than those issues, it was a surprisingly nice ride - even on rough minesite roads, had plenty of squirt when out on the highway, and miles of room (was a hi-roof version). I have since seen a couple of 4WD versions of the same thing around here in Kalgoorlie - would be interested to see how they stack up.

Went to the dealer to get a new tailgate actuator as I needed one nowish. On reversing out of the awfully tight Barbagallo parts car park I clipped a car on the corner dammit!!! That actuator now owes me $630 after my $500 excess

Originally Posted by DiscoJeffster

Went to the dealer to get a new tailgate actuator as I needed one nowish. On reversing out of the awfully tight Barbagallo parts car park I clipped a car on the corner dammit!!! That actuator now owes me $630 after my $500 excess

Been driving long champ!

Originally Posted by DiscoJeffster

Went to the dealer to get a new tailgate actuator as I needed one nowish. On reversing out of the awfully tight Barbagallo parts car park I clipped a car on the corner dammit!!! That actuator now owes me $630 after my $500 excess

Got out of it cheaply ne thinks, there's the Ferrari, Bentley, Aston Martin dealer there too.