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AHC failed

MKS

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Jan 18, 2016
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All, A few weeks back I had the check AHC system warning pop up on the dash while travelling back from Devon. Got home with no real issues but a few days later noticed oil on the ground and the AHC system permanently in low. Also noticed that the ride was distinctively harsh. Took the car over to Beadles Toyota in Aylesford as it is covered by the Toyota relax full manufacturers warranty which extends up to 100K miles and ten years. So should easily be covered as my 200 is only 7 years old and 45K miles. So Toyota had trouble diagnosing the problem but eventually diagnosed corroded AHC pipes. Parts about £200 and 16 hours labour, so around £2400 in total. Apparently the body needs to be lifted and ohh by the way "Toyota might not cover the cost as it is corrosion and we won't know until we put the claim in after the work is done". So not much choice and have had the fix done. Good news was the body didn't need to be lifted and so only 8 hours labour. No decision from Toyota yet as to whether they will cover it, meanwhile I have had to pay for the work to get the car back.
Needless to say I'm not impressed that such major components will fail as such low mileage and age. I'll be even less impressed if Toyota won't cover it. Waiting to hear.
 
Have a search on Raj’s thread, he has been through it all. Getting to become quite common on 200’s now. I’d look into being proactive and replace anything else if the body is coming off, alternatively you can get a conventional spring kit to replace the system
 
Sorry to hear this.... But you have to wonder, Why is rust such a major issue with 4x4's in the UK..... Is it the Salt we use ?.... Or is it the fact Manufacturers dont put enough protection on Trucks bound for the UK. There are too many posts regarding Rust on the Forum. Weather they are Old Trucks or fairly new ones.... My missus Skoda is 10 years old and there is almost no rust at all...... I hope Toyota Honour their warranty and cough up for you Mate.. Good luck
 
Agree there Higgy, perhaps Toyota have become complacent in recent years trading on the Land cruiser good name only. Their rust issues seem to be getting worse as we look back over previous/recent models. I wont mention THAT particular one !
 
Sorry to hear this.... But you have to wonder, Why is rust such a major issue with 4x4's in the UK..... Is it the Salt we use ?.... Or is it the fact Manufacturers dont put enough protection on Trucks bound for the UK. There are too many posts regarding Rust on the Forum. Weather they are Old Trucks or fairly new ones.... My missus Skoda is 10 years old and there is almost no rust at all...... I hope Toyota Honour their warranty and cough up for you Mate.. Good luck
I don’t suppose it makes good business sense to build a vehicle that will easily last 10-20 years, I would also guess that most buyers of premium vehicles only keep them 3ish years and then replace them with another new item, current trend of PCP deals keeps the sale of new vehicles where nobody ever pays the retail price, so once it’s past 5 years the manufactures probably don’t care how long they last, or support them, or even want them on their forcourts!
Throwaway society now, why should archaic internal combustion cars be left out…
 
Here is my friends 200, on springs, wheels and bigger arches
CE7A1909-8A8B-49F1-A9C1-DD480D7437C6.jpeg
 
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some things are worth more than little pieces of paper or digits on a bank statement..
 
Went to see a 200 series in Bradford a short while back and it was unbuyable due to the state of it underneath. Disgraceful really. My mates V10 Tuareg on an 05 plate would shame 98% of all the Cruisers underneath.
 
MKS, my car did about 52K miles when same thing happened n it’s also 7 year old. It happened within a month of getting a full service from Jemca Toyota. I too got email about this extended warranty but I ignored and when I went to Reading Toyota, they told the same story, lift car, everything underneath corroded, 30-40 hrs labour 15K + in repairs and even after repairing, car not worth keeping on road. Long nightmare story. Thanks to all our club members who helped me out of this.

Later this whole incident left me in obsessive disorder zone. I still keep looking for faults and check if I have RAC no. ready whenever I drive and drive only occasionally. To come out of my OCD zone, since I got the car back I spent about 000s£ taking to different mechanics and asking them to test n change everything in doubt.

I would say you are better now as repairs carried out by Toyota themselves and this work will be covered in future warranty.

I will never go to Jemca Toyota. May be they blew up the whole thing to avoid repair under warranty as car had full service from them a month ago
 
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Raj,
I think Beadles Toyota in Maidstone have actually done a pretty good job and worked around the issue of not having to lift the body. their labour rates also seem ok at £100/hour. I would hat to say good because £100/hour is still tough to swallows but significantly cheaper that the VW garage next door which charges £140/hour. It all seems to be working fine at present but lets see. I did get underneath to see if I can see what is replaced with a view to rustproofing the new pipework but most of it is out of sight.

Im still waiting for a decision from Toyota on whether they will cover the cost......
 
Learned one thing. Though this AHC failure looks like big repair, it’s manageable, there are also plenty of standard suspension upgrade options if v don’t want AHC.
this is the beauty of Landcruiser. this car is a survivor built to last for lifetime, anything can be fixed on it. It’s not a disposable car
 
I read some time ago that Pleiades (speeling could be wrong there) of Sawtry are dab hands at Citroen hydraulic suspension repairs, and apparently the Citroen spheres make good substitutes for those on the 100 series LC's of which Pl...s have fixed several.
They must have come up against corroded pipes on the 100 series before, so might be worth contacting them see if they would consider the job on 200.

 
This is a good option, v ll need em eventually when original ones ware off. With Landcruisers from what I saw, it’s the hydraulic fluid pipes that fail prematurely due to corrosion. I saw few people change globes at 100K +. In UK we need more mechanics who can do AHC work for costs to come down.
From Craddocks to other mechanics from other forums, all suggest to get rid of AHC n install regular suspension but if done properly AHC should last long time
 
Pleiades was highly recommend by a previous forum member who used them to replace the spheres on his 100. Can't recall who it was but was a few years ago now
 
All, A few weeks back I had the check AHC system warning pop up on the dash while travelling back from Devon. Got home with no real issues but a few days later noticed oil on the ground and the AHC system permanently in low. Also noticed that the ride was distinctively harsh. Took the car over to Beadles Toyota in Aylesford as it is covered by the Toyota relax full manufacturers warranty which extends up to 100K miles and ten years. So should easily be covered as my 200 is only 7 years old and 45K miles. So Toyota had trouble diagnosing the problem but eventually diagnosed corroded AHC pipes. Parts about £200 and 16 hours labour, so around £2400 in total. Apparently the body needs to be lifted and ohh by the way "Toyota might not cover the cost as it is corrosion and we won't know until we put the claim in after the work is done". So not much choice and have had the fix done. Good news was the body didn't need to be lifted and so only 8 hours labour. No decision from Toyota yet as to whether they will cover it, meanwhile I have had to pay for the work to get the car back.
Needless to say I'm not impressed that such major components will fail as such low mileage and age. I'll be even less impressed if Toyota won't cover it. Waiting to hear.
Hi,

Done this one myself (the one above the rear axle); takes bout 2-3 hours and you dont need the body off!

Regards
 
Mine too was the one above rear axle. This might be the weak spot for these cars.
 
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portem,
Next time I would do the same but I was, and am, still expecting Toyota to cover this under warranty. Pretty poor show if they don't. The LC200 is their very expensive flagship "legendary" off road vehicle having a major corrosion failure in a key suspension component at only 7 years old and 46K miles. I will be taking it up will Toyota UK and Global if necessary
 
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