Anybody move from a Jeep JKU to a T4R?

[Vwright14]

Just wondering if anyone has made the changeover from a Jeep JKU to a 'Yota 4Runner as im considering doing this myself. I have 2 vehicles im looking at getting into one is the T4R and the other is a 2011+ Tahoe/Yukon. Now I know all three of these are different but im a bit different too lol. So any info is greatly appreciated.

Things im looking for in the 4Runner over my JKU
Slightly more interior room
Safer overall
More reliability.....which im still questioning seeing some of the 5th gen posts lol
Better ride...albeit slightly
Maybe more comfy...still need to drive one
Quieter on the road possibly...I have a hard top but im sure the jeep will be louder lol
Both have a real real locking diff.....well i actually have Limited slip in the jeep and I "think" the 4Runner is LSD...i wouldn't get a loaded top model so i still need to see what said vehicle i drive comes with.

Things i know will be about the same or slightly less
4Runner has less power but about the same trq
T4R has pretty much same MPG's...i get about 19avg
Off road prowess may be slightly better in the JKU but may be about even for what I do..
Mild lifts seem to be about the same...i can run 33's stock with some trimming but have a 2in AEM lift just sitting on the shelf...and thats about all I would run on the 4Runner
I have leather in the jeep and have to have it in the 4runner

Now as for the Tahoe/Yukon...
V8 power and sound that I miss.....all while getting about the same MPG's as the jeep and 4runner
More room than both hands down
Not as easy off road but I had an 03 that i still took in some mud holes and a bit offroading. Just gotta watch the width of the truck
Better ride than both
Still not that bad for mild lifts.
Limited slip rear.
Gotta have leather seats.

IM sure there some stuff im overlooking but that's about where I stand now. I would be buying used whatever I get so we will have to see when I actually get to drive one.

 

[vipergrhd]

Trade it now

The 4runner will out live that Jeep and save you headaches in the long run,have you had your left cylinder head replaced? If not it will need one soon coz they burn out every 20-30k.Jeeps are fun hands down but not worth owning passed it's warranty.Just my 2 cents.

 

[Vwright14]

Actually no cylinder head job on mine and I'm at 54k miles on a 2012 I bought new lol. I will say I like the 2014 4runner guage clusters much better than the 2013 and down. I hate that reddish light in them!

 

[BlackWorksInc]

Actually no cylinder head job on mine and I'm at 54k miles on a 2012 I bought new lol. I will say I like the 2014 4runner guage clusters much better than the 2013 and down. I hate that reddish light in them!

There's one or two members who do LED changes on the factory gauges for the 4th gens to custom colours, they shouldn't have an issue with the 5th gens.

 

[Dre's runner]

I made the same switch. Went from a taco to a TJ. Lasted 3 months with the heep and bought a 2005 T4R with 70*** and couldn't be happier. The heep wasn't even that great off road and busted the rear end on very mild trails. Not too mention all the other little things that went wrong. When I asked other jeep guys their response was "that's a jeep". This is my 4th toyota and I'm never going back. The 4runner is better off road with the a-trac and much smoother and with the V8 hauls a**, and I can fit a more than a just a volleyball in the back. There's a reason these things are found in the harshest environments in the world and not jeeps( or tahoes for that matter). They just work... Period

 

[xmytruck]

Why is jeep unreliable? I ask the question and I never get straight answer. I have 95k on my 4runner and it has been in the dealer for issues. When I had my old jeep it had same amount of issues it lasted to 175k.

 

[Vwright14]

I wish the newer 4runners came with a v8 option but nope. I don't do any hardcore wheeling but enough to like what I like. Any and every vehicle can have its share of problems. But when it comes down to simple build quality any Chrysler product will be at the bottom of the list. I have a 4dr wrangler so the cargo is about the same as a T4R from what I can tell.

 

[Vwright14]

Went and sat in a used 2014 4Runner today. Room was decent. ..steering wheel seemed to sit low to me but i didn't play with power seat much and I could just be used to how close the wheel is to the dash in my jeep. I sat in back to. . Was a lil odd with the big hump in the ceiling but not bad. Not like I would ever sit back there but had to try it out. I didn't drive or only because it being Saturday the salesmen were waiting liked sharks in bloody water and they wanted 35k for it. But it did have leather, sunroof and nav but wasn't a limited model. But there was a 2011 next to it with 54k miles and was certified for 29k. It was very clean. . Leather, no nav and no sunroof. Maybe this week I'll get to drive one. .... but right now it's looking like I could get a 2012-13 tahoe/yukon for about the same price as a t4r... so it will be tough to choose.

 

[grimmjeeper]

The 4runner will out live that Jeep and save you headaches in the long run,have you had your left cylinder head replaced? If not it will need one soon coz they burn out every 20-30k.Jeeps are fun hands down but not worth owning passed it's warranty.Just my 2 cents.

I've had my 2012 2dr JK for two years and well over 20K miles now and no hint of trouble with my cylinder head. But mine was built with the head casting that doesn't have the problem. And when you get one fixed under warranty they replace it with the good head.

Why is jeep unreliable? I ask the question and I never get straight answer. I have 95k on my 4runner and it has been in the dealer for issues. When I had my old jeep it had same amount of issues it lasted to 175k.

Honestly, Chrysler corp vehicles including Jeeps, do have more than their share of problems compared to Toyota and Honda. I'm a big Jeep fan but the myriad of problems with the Grand Cherokee is why I'm about to pull the trigger on a 4runner instead.

Still, it's not like Toyota hasn't had it's share of problems. Unintended acceleration from throttle by wire, camshaft problems in the 5.7 equipped Tundra. So no brand is immune to problems.


I'm picking a 4runner over a JKU for several reasons. First off is the rear seat comfort. The rear seat on the JKU has less room and it's fixed upright pretty straight. If I want to take people on road trips, they'll be much happier in the back of a 4runner over a JKU. And the cargo area of a 4runner is bigger so I can fit more stuff, as well as having a cargo rack on top if I need it. The 4runner has a better towing capacity (4700 lbs vs 3500 on the JKU) if that makes any difference.

The independent front suspension rides better on the road than a JKU, though you give up rock crawling prowess as a result. While you can lift the JKU and put bigger tires on easier than a 4runner, I have a built JK that I take rock crawling so I don't need that capability. And quite honestly, unless you're doing really over the top trails off road, there's little that can stop the 4runner as is. Stock for stock, the 4runner is very much as capable as a non-Rubicon JKU. And the only thing that gives the Rubicon the edge is the tires and the lockers.

The resale value of both is pretty solid so you shouldn't be worried about that.

Quite honestly, the only reason I would want to get a JKU over a 4runner would be if I wanted an open top vehicle and/or I wanted a platform I could build into an extreme off road vehicle. And I already have that in my JK so it's a 4runner for me.

 

[vipergrhd]

@grimmjeeper

I'm not sure where did you get the idea of a casting issue,it is just a matter of time for the exhaust valves to burn out some could make it to 70k before it burns up,there is a reason why they extended the warranty on the left cylinder head up to 150k miles.It is a design flaw from what were told and we don't know if they have fixed it i just replaced a head on a 2014 JK with only 4k miles we even had a minivan with less than 3k miles.People still buys Jeep like chicken nuggets then trade it in after 2 years when they get tired of all the issues.

I don't think the replacement heads are better,IMO it's the same head with a different part number,we have seen on several occasions a vehicle had multiple head replacement before hitting 100k miles.

 

[vipergrhd]

Valve leaks

Here is the proof,they always leak on the exhaust valve.

 

[Vwright14]

Yeah if I would have known about it before hand I wouldn't have bought it of course

 

[grimmjeeper]

I'm not sure where did you get the idea of a casting issue,

Update on ticking Pentastar..new head... - Jeep Wrangler Forum

200+ pages talking about how the head was redesigned by Chrysler and that the casting number on the outside of the head indicates whether you have the redesigned head or not. :shrug:

 

[BlackWorksInc]

...
Still, it's not like Toyota hasn't had it's share of problems. Unintended acceleration from throttle by wire, camshaft problems in the 5.7 equipped Tundra. So no brand is immune to problems.
...

First I have heard of camshaft issues in the 3UR-FE engines, a quick Google search didn't really bring anything up either... Are you sure you're not thinking of the 5.7L Hemis? They like to drop valve seats and have numerous other cylinder head issues...

As for Unintended Acceleration, Toyota wasn't the only one for that issue, just the most publicized. Not to mention out of all the incidents, the number of legitimate issues not contributed by owner incompetence was extremely low. I'm not going to go too indepth into this as its been done before extensively, but a few organizations have determined the potential cause to be tin whiskers (which was the cause for the 787's batteries catching fire and will be the bane of modern electronics thanks to twat Prius wannabe environmentalists), and issues in software coding which could cause memory bleeds over time (which I guarantee you is not a Toyota isolated issue as the industry constantly cuts corners on their programming in vehicles.)

Toyota has its issues, but ChrCorp has managed to make a business out of selling subpar products, factory support, and customer support... so much so that they almost went bankrupt twice and are called Fiat now. :nerd:

 

[grimmjeeper]

First I have heard of camshaft issues in the 3UR-FE engines, a quick Google search didn't really bring anything up either... Are you sure you're not thinking of the 5.7L Hemis? They like to drop valve seats and have numerous other cylinder head issues...

It was 2007, right when the 5.7 came out.

PickupTruck.Com - New Toyota Tundra Hit With Camshaft Failures

As for Unintended Acceleration, Toyota wasn't the only one for that issue, just the most publicized. Not to mention out of all the incidents, the number of legitimate issues not contributed by owner incompetence was extremely low. I'm not going to go too indepth into this as its been done before extensively, but a few organizations have determined the potential cause to be tin whiskers (which was the cause for the 787's batteries catching fire and will be the bane of modern electronics thanks to twat Prius wannabe environmentalists), and issues in software coding which could cause memory bleeds over time (which I guarantee you is not a Toyota isolated issue as the industry constantly cuts corners on their programming in vehicles.)

Toyota has its issues, but ChrCorp has managed to make a business out of selling subpar products, factory support, and customer support... so much so that they almost went bankrupt twice and are called Fiat now. :nerd:

My only point was that Toyota is not immune to having some problems in their vehicles. Chrysler seems to be orders of magnitude worse right now (and is the reason I'm ordering a 4runner instead of a Grand Cherokee). But it's exceedingly rare to find any mass produced vehicle that doesn't have at least some TSB's for problems in design or manufacturing.

 

[Vwright14]

Very true but most brands actually find the fix.....Chrysler has several on the new v6 they haven't been able to truly fix since the engine came out. Including a problem with mine..


This they had been going back and forth with engineers till the decided just last month, far out of bumper to bumper warranty, that maybe a tstat and coolant flush will fix it and that will cost me 340 bucks. It only did the noise under 32 degrees and only after it sat outside over night.

 

[grimmjeeper]

Yeah, the dealer service techs for Chrysler really aren't very good. It took them 3 times to properly diagnose my known heater core problem and it was only after I got a different person to look at my Jeep.

And that's another one of the big reasons I'm switching to Toyota as well. Even if the Grand Cherokee wasn't full of problems, I wouldn't want to take my Jeep to the local dealer to fix it for any reason if I could help it. So I'm choosing to change to a brand that has a much better dealer network and support.

 

[flighht2k5]

I've had my 2012 2dr JK for two years and well over 20K miles now and no hint of trouble with my cylinder head. But mine was built with the head casting that doesn't have the problem. And when you get one fixed under warranty they replace it with the good head.



Honestly, Chrysler corp vehicles including Jeeps, do have more than their share of problems compared to Toyota and Honda. I'm a big Jeep fan but the myriad of problems with the Grand Cherokee is why I'm about to pull the trigger on a 4runner instead.

Still, it's not like Toyota hasn't had it's share of problems. Unintended acceleration from throttle by wire, camshaft problems in the 5.7 equipped Tundra. So no brand is immune to problems.


I'm picking a 4runner over a JKU for several reasons. First off is the rear seat comfort. The rear seat on the JKU has less room and it's fixed upright pretty straight. If I want to take people on road trips, they'll be much happier in the back of a 4runner over a JKU. And the cargo area of a 4runner is bigger so I can fit more stuff, as well as having a cargo rack on top if I need it. The 4runner has a better towing capacity (4700 lbs vs 3500 on the JKU) if that makes any difference.

The independent front suspension rides better on the road than a JKU, though you give up rock crawling prowess as a result. While you can lift the JKU and put bigger tires on easier than a 4runner, I have a built JK that I take rock crawling so I don't need that capability. And quite honestly, unless you're doing really over the top trails off road, there's little that can stop the 4runner as is. Stock for stock, the 4runner is very much as capable as a non-Rubicon JKU. And the only thing that gives the Rubicon the edge is the tires and the lockers.

The resale value of both is pretty solid so you shouldn't be worried about that.

Quite honestly, the only reason I would want to get a JKU over a 4runner would be if I wanted an open top vehicle and/or I wanted a platform I could build into an extreme off road vehicle. And I already have that in my JK so it's a 4runner for me.

the unintended acceleration was proven to be crap. I wish people would stop bring that up.

 

[BlackWorksInc]

It was 2007, right when the 5.7 came out.
PickupTruck.Com - New Toyota Tundra Hit With Camshaft Failures

Ah, that's probably why I haven't heard of it. It was such a minor amount of vehicles from the early production.

 

[Vwright14]

I do wish the T4R made closer to 300hp though..