I've loved my 2001 4Runner since I bought it. Its been easy to work on and very reliable. Parts haven't been too expensive. I'm at about 230,000 miles and she still runs great.
HOWEVER...
The brake master cylinder assembly for the 01 and 02 is a bastard. Toyota changed the design to accommodate the traction control bs and made the unit very very expensive and treated it as a one piece assembly that should not be disassembled. Mine has started screeching a god awful metallic scraping death howl and throwing up all my dash lights along with dash alarm. I'm worried my brakes may fail at some point. I've spoken to 7 different mechanics in my town and no one wants to touch it because the design is unusually complicated and "different." They see the Nitrogen filled accumulator with Japanese writing all over it and their faces fill with panic every time. I finally went to the Toyota Stealership and they want over $3000 to replace the assembly. Their Master Mechanic came outside and told me I'm screwed and the assembly cannot be rebuilt (I don't really believe that yet). If I really had to pay that much this truck would become a total loss...that's more than it would cost to do a used motor swap..and maybe tranny too!
This master assembly part is impossible to find for under $1000 new. Its very hard to find used anywhere at all. After a full day studying and searching this I finally found one with 100k miles on it on Ebay for a decent price after some haggling. I have an independent import specialist mechanic installing it tomorrow. It shouldn't be that difficult of a swap but I'd rather let a pro do the brakes. I have my fingers crossed that the used unit will be good for another 100k or more. I got really lucky because this will probably end up costing only around $600 in total which is a lot better than Toyota wanted but still a lot of money. Especially when you consider that the failure could be caused by something as minor as a bad o-ring or spring under the accumulator. It may be the pump itself. Idk yet. If all goes to plan I'll be able to perform an autopsy on my bad unit and find the failure.
I'm posting this because it was rather difficult to troubleshoot and diagnose this issue on a 3rd Gen 4Runner. If I knew this could happen I may not have bought an 01. I probably would have looked for a 99 with regular brake master setup that is cheap to replace. There are very few info threads here on this topic that don't just dead end or OP pays the full $3k to fix. I actually found more info on IH8MUD. The 2000 Land Cruiser has the same master assembly setup and there are stories and videos of the same noise online. I feel like this issue should be covered in the 3rd Gen Buyer's Guide because although seemingly rare, it is a fatal failure for most budget rigs. Use this as a PSA/warning/whatever. If your 01 or 02 makes this noise, you may be quite ****ed.
video of the brake master assembly noise
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlilHc0UyIk
HOWEVER...
The brake master cylinder assembly for the 01 and 02 is a bastard. Toyota changed the design to accommodate the traction control bs and made the unit very very expensive and treated it as a one piece assembly that should not be disassembled. Mine has started screeching a god awful metallic scraping death howl and throwing up all my dash lights along with dash alarm. I'm worried my brakes may fail at some point. I've spoken to 7 different mechanics in my town and no one wants to touch it because the design is unusually complicated and "different." They see the Nitrogen filled accumulator with Japanese writing all over it and their faces fill with panic every time. I finally went to the Toyota Stealership and they want over $3000 to replace the assembly. Their Master Mechanic came outside and told me I'm screwed and the assembly cannot be rebuilt (I don't really believe that yet). If I really had to pay that much this truck would become a total loss...that's more than it would cost to do a used motor swap..and maybe tranny too!
This master assembly part is impossible to find for under $1000 new. Its very hard to find used anywhere at all. After a full day studying and searching this I finally found one with 100k miles on it on Ebay for a decent price after some haggling. I have an independent import specialist mechanic installing it tomorrow. It shouldn't be that difficult of a swap but I'd rather let a pro do the brakes. I have my fingers crossed that the used unit will be good for another 100k or more. I got really lucky because this will probably end up costing only around $600 in total which is a lot better than Toyota wanted but still a lot of money. Especially when you consider that the failure could be caused by something as minor as a bad o-ring or spring under the accumulator. It may be the pump itself. Idk yet. If all goes to plan I'll be able to perform an autopsy on my bad unit and find the failure.
I'm posting this because it was rather difficult to troubleshoot and diagnose this issue on a 3rd Gen 4Runner. If I knew this could happen I may not have bought an 01. I probably would have looked for a 99 with regular brake master setup that is cheap to replace. There are very few info threads here on this topic that don't just dead end or OP pays the full $3k to fix. I actually found more info on IH8MUD. The 2000 Land Cruiser has the same master assembly setup and there are stories and videos of the same noise online. I feel like this issue should be covered in the 3rd Gen Buyer's Guide because although seemingly rare, it is a fatal failure for most budget rigs. Use this as a PSA/warning/whatever. If your 01 or 02 makes this noise, you may be quite ****ed.
video of the brake master assembly noise
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlilHc0UyIk
