Just a little intro

[K McVey]

What's up guys.....I'm new to the board and new to the world of 4Runners. I have to say I am feeling a little buyers remorse though. Not towards the vehicle, I love the truck but I think I paid to much and I took it to the dealer to have the oil changed after I bought it and they found a bunch of stuff wrong with it.

Anyways my new 4Runner is a 97 SR5 with 147K on it and is in pretty good shape on the exterior (no rust) and the interior is not bad for the year. My other vehicle is also a Toyota and I am fairly active on that message board. I am looking to find out as much as I can about my new truck so I will be lurking around and asking questions occassionally.

Thanks Keith

 

[K McVey]

Wow tough crowd in here. 24 views and not one hello or anything. It's cool, alot of people keep to themselves. I get that way to sometimes.

 

[gizmopt2002]

WELCOME!!

haha. Don't worry man, when you post it, they will come.

Anyways welcome to the forum.

If you don't mind me asking, how much did you pay, and what wrong with it?

 

[K McVey]

I paid $7200 for it. Lately when I've bought a vehicle I didn't need it right away and I've taken my time finding the right one. I searched for my last car for 6 months before deciding on one.

So I didn't do as much shoping around as I normally do. The dealer said it needs a new head gasket and there is no sticker on the timing belt so they don't know when that was done, it has 146K on it. Also they mentioned something about the pivot points on the e-brake.

 

[gizmopt2002]

Hmm... Seems to me that you got ripped off. lol. But really it does. The head gasket issue will cost you at least 3,000 from what i have seen, plus whatever else you have to do for it.

 

[HerbVick]

Hey guys.

Just wanted to chip in my 2 cents worth. So, take it for what it's worth, since it's probably too late to be of any use.

I was just going to say that if you replace the head gasket, you may as well get that timing belt at the same time and save a little on the labor. My 2nd gen. 4Runner blew a head gasket while traveling. I was going through Kansas City at the time, in route from Sioux City to Fort Smith. The timing belt had recently been changed, so there was no need. I did get both gaskets changed, though. They told me that the stock gaskets were weak and prone to fail at around 100k mi.

No damage was done, but it was scary seeing my fine ride towed from the freeway after a steamy shutdown from 65 mph on cruise.

Good luck, and I hope you enjoy your T4R after you get it back to full trim.

About shopping 4Runners, I usually keep an eBay scan search with email notification going all the time so I can check out what's selling. I've seen several relatively low mileage 1st and 2nd gen 4Runners that were garage kept sell for what I thought was pretty cheap. I bought this '04 on eBay, but I wish I had been a little more patient for a 1st or 2nd gen. The ones I saw were not in a convenient location for me to bite on.

Now that I have had two 1st, one 2nd and a 4th gen 4Runner, I think I liked the 1st gen the best! It seemed under powered, but it was much lighter. My 4th gen has plenty of power, but it's so heavy it needs all it's got.