G
Guest
Guest
Hello there,
I have a 1997 Toyota Tandcruiser VX petrol which I'm planning to take
overland to Nepal starting in ten days. This trip has been a year in the
planning and a week ago we hit a snag which I'm hoping the wisdom here
assembled will be able to help out with.
Last Friday week we had a minor head-on collision with a ford escort
whos driver was changing a CD while driving round a bend towards us at
20mph. There's a dent in our bumper and he wrote his car off. (He
actually smashed his own windscreen with his fist in anger afterwards.)
Unfortunately the steering now pulls to the left. If you raise the front
of the Landcruiser with the ignition on, the front wheels drift off to
the left on their own. The steering wheel is markedly harder to turn
right than left. There is no oil leaking anywhere that I can see. There
are no visible signs of damage to the steering anywhere.
The geometry is apparently ok and nothing is bent (our normal mechanic
checked this and concluded he couldnt help us). We've put it into a
dealership who have been more or less completely useless. They have no
idea what's wrong and have not even started working on it yet - every
day they say it's something different and have to order a new part
(after getting authorisation from the insurance).
My questions are:
1. any idea what might be wrong?
2. any recomendation of a Landcruiser specialist in London likely to
have more of a clue than the Toyota dealer were talking to?
Apologies for such a long email being my introduction to this list - I
only discovered it's existance this afternoon after posting a similar
message elsewhere.
Thanks in advance
steve
--
Steve Rawlinson
Claranet Ltd
[Email address removed]
I have a 1997 Toyota Tandcruiser VX petrol which I'm planning to take
overland to Nepal starting in ten days. This trip has been a year in the
planning and a week ago we hit a snag which I'm hoping the wisdom here
assembled will be able to help out with.
Last Friday week we had a minor head-on collision with a ford escort
whos driver was changing a CD while driving round a bend towards us at
20mph. There's a dent in our bumper and he wrote his car off. (He
actually smashed his own windscreen with his fist in anger afterwards.)
Unfortunately the steering now pulls to the left. If you raise the front
of the Landcruiser with the ignition on, the front wheels drift off to
the left on their own. The steering wheel is markedly harder to turn
right than left. There is no oil leaking anywhere that I can see. There
are no visible signs of damage to the steering anywhere.
The geometry is apparently ok and nothing is bent (our normal mechanic
checked this and concluded he couldnt help us). We've put it into a
dealership who have been more or less completely useless. They have no
idea what's wrong and have not even started working on it yet - every
day they say it's something different and have to order a new part
(after getting authorisation from the insurance).
My questions are:
1. any idea what might be wrong?
2. any recomendation of a Landcruiser specialist in London likely to
have more of a clue than the Toyota dealer were talking to?
Apologies for such a long email being my introduction to this list - I
only discovered it's existance this afternoon after posting a similar
message elsewhere.
Thanks in advance
steve
--
Steve Rawlinson
Claranet Ltd
[Email address removed]