Newbie asks: How hard is it to find the rarely needed part?

[Scrounger24]

Hi,
I am brand new to the forum, and haven't had much time to browse around it yet. So, please forgive me if my question has been addressed somewhere already.

Mine is a 1991 3.0 V6 4WD SR5. I am the second owner since 1993, bought it with 30K miles, it now has 233K. I still love it. It does everything I want it to for working, hauling, camping, touring, tailgating. But I'm facing a dreadful decision. It has serious engine problems. My mechanic says it sounds like a thrown rod, cracked bearing, any number of disastrous things. He is able to get hold of a rebuilt engine, off the shelf, and swap it out for a pretty decent price and comes with a 5/50,000 warranty. To me, that's a good deal: to keep a car I really like; that I know has been well maintained as opposed to some new/used one that has problems I don't know about; and to not have a new car payment.

My mechanic says he would agree, except for this caution: In the years and miles to come, there could be critical parts that might break that will be next to impossible to find replacements for. Not the wearable stuff like pads, disks, CVs, etc. But the stuff that may never break, but could tomorrow, and which you may only find in junk yards anymore. He mentioned things like ECUs, A/C condensers and evaporators, PS pump and hoses.

My question for you all is: What has been your experience in finding these kind of rarely needed, one-of-a-kind parts? Is it the nightmare search from junk yard to junk yard he's warning me about, or has the internet and the popularity of the 4Runner made it fairly easy to find these rare items? I'm not looking for any specific part, just a general sense from those of you more experienced with this. It could be the difference between keeping my beloved 4Runner, or saying goodbye to a faithful ol' friend.

Thanks all.

 

[Quatre Coureur]

I just pulled a 4.88 geared IFS out of a 2nd Gen. Everything ur mech mentioned was still on it. Toyota made millions of these trucks. Shouldn't be too hard to find parts. Maybe start collecting these items beforehand. U know its always easier to find stuff when u don't need it.

 

[unlimitedFJ4]

Hi,
I am brand new to the forum, and haven't had much time to browse around it yet. So, please forgive me if my question has been addressed somewhere already.

Mine is a 1991 3.0 V6 4WD SR5. I am the second owner since 1993, bought it with 30K miles, it now has 233K. I still love it. It does everything I want it to for working, hauling, camping, touring, tailgating. But I'm facing a dreadful decision. It has serious engine problems. My mechanic says it sounds like a thrown rod, cracked bearing, any number of disastrous things. He is able to get hold of a rebuilt engine, off the shelf, and swap it out for a pretty decent price and comes with a 5/50,000 warranty. To me, that's a good deal: to keep a car I really like; that I know has been well maintained as opposed to some new/used one that has problems I don't know about; and to not have a new car payment.

My mechanic says he would agree, except for this caution: In the years and miles to come, there could be critical parts that might break that will be next to impossible to find replacements for. Not the wearable stuff like pads, disks, CVs, etc. But the stuff that may never break, but could tomorrow, and which you may only find in junk yards anymore. He mentioned things like ECUs, A/C condensers and evaporators, PS pump and hoses.

My question for you all is: What has been your experience in finding these kind of rarely needed, one-of-a-kind parts? Is it the nightmare search from junk yard to junk yard he's warning me about, or has the internet and the popularity of the 4Runner made it fairly easy to find these rare items? I'm not looking for any specific part, just a general sense from those of you more experienced with this. It could be the difference between keeping my beloved 4Runner, or saying goodbye to a faithful ol' friend.

Thanks all.

If you need parts I live in Sacramento, CA and I live next to 4-5 of the Largest Toyota Recyclers in the West Coast they have anything and everything you will need from 1st Gen 85's to 2010 TE and FJ's I actually just picked up a few parts today!

 

[Quatre Coureur]

Have u considered a 3.4 swap? From what I hear this is one of the easiest swaps to do. :nerd:

 

[77'911]

As I've been on a restoration binge on our 1990 4runner, I'll chime in with a comment or two. Some parts , like the updated speedo head to convert to the new style speedo cable end has become mildly rare. I was told that it was the second to the last in the North American warehouse. Was also told I purchased the last right rear window motor, when rebuilding the system. Most parts though, are readily available. They have short blocks and loaded heads.
I even bought and installed a set of factory rear mud flaps a month ago. Was mildly surprised they still had trim pieces like that in stock. The decent after market fuel parts(denso, aisian, koyo, etc..) have been starting to dry up, so I completely rebuilt our system a few years back. Best of luck with it.
regards

 

[giro]

I'd be mildly worried about parts that wear out over time rather than use that are unique. When my fan blew up, that was what I asked. My truck is about to get to 160k, and I'm about to have owned it for 10 years. It hasn't seen that hard of a life, but plastic can degrade over time even without harsh conditions. So I was wondering if all 20-25 year old fans were ticking time bombs (thus don't get a used one), or if my issue was rare. I ended up pulling one at pick-n-pull, but of the 6 gen 2 4runners that they had, one was broken, 2-3 had their whole engines gone, and 1-2 had their fan gone. I got the last one in stock at that location at the moment.

Mostly the only thing that worries me is the ECU. I worked on a 92 3000gt for a few months, and they were known to have their ECUs go out. They had some capacitors that would leak over time, and so it was known as a "when, not if" scenario. If you caught it soon enough you could replace the 3 capacitors with longer life ones that are now available. If you caught it after some damage, you could pay a few hundred to have it repaired. If you didn't catch it in time, it was ruined. There weren't new replacements, and used replacements had the same issues.

The best thing about that was the lead up, that it would cause random strange issues. Basically it became the scapegoat, where if you had a strange problem and the logical solution didn't help, look at the ECU.

Just about everything else should be able to be replaced/changed, so it's not as much of a worry, IMO. OTOH, more things are going to need to be replaced as time goes by. But parts should be available.