Toyota reliability

**JDNSW** · 10th November 2006, 12:50 PM

Visited my next door neighbour this morning - sitting in the house yard is her son's Hilux, with the rear axle on stands, and a pair of half axles on the tray pointing to the sky with the diff sitting there as well.

The diff has three almost complete teeth missing from the pinion, and about half the crownwheel teeth missing bits. Apart from the obvious damage, closer examination shows excessive side play on the sun wheels, and almost completely worn out splines on both these and the half axles. The owner attributes the diff failure to a recent transfer case failure. It has also recently had the gearbox replaced and last year a new engine. It has done only just over 300,000km.

He has been unable to find a second hand diff for less than $900.

But of course, everyone knows how reliable Toyotas are - never hear of any problems with them !

John

**mns488** · 10th November 2006, 12:55 PM

How old is it?

A friend who has an 86 hilux told me that hiluxs' of that era have corrolla diffs

?

no idea if that is true or not.

Would sort of explain why he has been through 4+ diffs since owning the car (he bought it in 1995).

**JDNSW** · 10th November 2006, 01:10 PM

Originally Posted by mns488

How old is it?

A friend who has an 86 hilux told me that hiluxs' of that era have corrolla diffs

?

no idea if that is true or not.

Would sort of explain why he has been through 4+ diffs since owning the car (he bought it in 1995).

Its about that era, but I would be very surprised if a Corolla had a diff that large, although I have never seen one - but the rear wheel drive Corolla was reputed to be unbreakable, so its possible.

The diff looks small compared to a Landrover, but the axles look large diameter, even compared to a Salisbury, let alone a Rover diff.

John

**Frenchie** · 10th November 2006, 01:10 PM

Hmmm, that's not really that bad. I had a V8 County which at 300,000km had had the engine and gearbox/transfer case replaced.

Problem with newer Toyotas is they are building to a price, and a lot of their components are made in Taiwan(?) plus they use undersized diffs etc.

But then again Defender axle splines can wear quickly.

Not many vehicles are built tough these days.

**isuzurover** · 10th November 2006, 01:46 PM

Hilux diffs have an 8" crownwheel. Rover diffs have an 8.25" crownwheel. But totota diffs are A LOT stronger than rover because they are a hypoid design (rover is spiral bevel), so have more crownwheel and pinion teeth in mesh at any one time. They still break though, but a lot less frequently than rover diffs under the same conditions would. The salisbury is hypoid, and has a 9.75" crownwheel.

The axles/halfshafts are 30-spline 1.31" diameter. Rover 10-spline are 1.1" diameter, 24-spline (salisbury) are 1.24" diameter.

A rover housing can be redrilled to accept a toyota deff centre, and Mcnamara make custom axles for this application. The macnamara rover hypoid locker uses toyota ring and pinion gears.

**Slunnie** · 10th November 2006, 01:49 PM

The Hiluxs have all got 8" diffs in the rear and the IFS ones are about 7.5". The 8" Toyota diff is pretty strong and a lot stronger than a Rover diff. Despite the Rover being 8.5", the Toyota unit is a hypoid design and so has a much larger pinion which distributes the loading on the crownwheel a lot better, making it stronger.

The axles are also 1.3" 30 spline, where Rovers best is a 1.24" 24 spline, and so the toyotas are a lot stronger in that area also. Don't be fooled by the small differences in size between the Crownwheels and axle diameters, they are a lot stronger.

**Slunnie** · 10th November 2006, 01:51 PM

This pic is Toy 8" 4.1 ratio on the left and Rover 8.5" 3.54 on the right.The Rover 4.11 has a smaller pinion again.

**Ace** · 10th November 2006, 01:54 PM

The General Assistant here at school has an early 90's cruiser with about 300000km on the clock and the engine is buggered, has no compression, he reckons its got a cracked ring. And it has been serviced religiously, just, i would rather oil leaks and electrical niggles any day. Matt

**discowhite** · 10th November 2006, 02:07 PM

probably not the diff's fault! have you seen how MOST toyota drivers drive off road??

cheers phil

**cartm58** · 10th November 2006, 03:12 PM

Dont forget most people drive less than 25,000km a year and keep a car for less than 5 years and your always better off buying somebody pride and joy with all the aftermarket goodies fitted than buying new and fitting them yourselve.

In Japan the laws for motor vehicle inspections are designed to ensure people buy new cars rather than keep cars on the road hence the grey market of reasonable second hand vehicles into Australia and especially WA.

Manufacturer's design and manufacturing specifications influence their warranty offers as does marketing edge of long warranty offers to new buyers. With second hand car owners getting balance of warranty period making more atttractive to buy second than new. As depreciation value more costly than possible repair costs to buyer

For a vehicle regardless of make doing 300,000 km some wear and tear expected. My range rover which l bought in 2005 had 198000km needed new resistor for air conditioning, new brake pads, new air bags for suspension (got non LR bags $200 apiece) since then replaced starter motor, A frame, all of which l consider fair wear and tear replacements for vehicle of this age.

Last weekend went out with mixed club in Julimar area north of Perth light forestry tracks 1 creek crossing at the start of the trip l got asked how many spares had l on board as Range Rovers notoriously unreliable yet it was a brand new toyota diesel 4wd hilux ute that snapped its steering arm climbing out of the creek, Range Rover never came out of Drive and 4H all day

Cartm58
1993 Range Rover

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