What's the final word on the 2004

I

Iowa4Runner

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What's the final word on the 2004's?

A week ago I was 95% sure I'd be purchasing an '04 SR5 4WD V8 4Runner. After reading about the driver seat warranty fiasco, moonroof issues, drivetrain vibrations, droning sounds, and other misc. problems I'm only 25% sure. I can't believe a company like Toyota can't fix a seat. How many model years will go by before they figure this out?

Anyway, what are the most common quality issues one can expect to encounter when purchasing an '04 SR5 V8 4WD 4Runner?

Thanks,

Mike
 
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all vehicles will have problems period. No vehicle is perfect. Mfg's try to build the perfect vehicle but during production there will always be flaws. flaws can be from design or anywhere in the production.

you just have to live with what you can get and hope for the best. even the cream of the crop has problems (look at the 7 series w/ the idrive system. it's a pos and bmw has bought back lots of them from owners because its crap).

anyway, the 4runner is a quality truck that can't be overlooked! i love my truck and it hasn't failed on me yet. personally, i haven't had any problems (knocking on wood!!).

good luck
 
Good Times said:
all vehicles will have problems period. No vehicle is perfect. Mfg's try to build the perfect vehicle but during production there will always be flaws. flaws can be from design or anywhere in the production.

you just have to live with what you can get and hope for the best. even the cream of the crop has problems (look at the 7 series w/ the idrive system. it's a pos and bmw has bought back lots of them from owners because its crap).

anyway, the 4runner is a quality truck that can't be overlooked! i love my truck and it hasn't failed on me yet. personally, i haven't had any problems (knocking on wood!!).

good luck
Click to expand...

Yours hasn't had any problems? Interesting. I was under the impression that some of the issues, like the seat, affected all 4Runners. I realize that some vehicles will roll off the production line with a few minor flaws that may require a return trip to the dealer. But this ongoing seat problem seems to be a matter of engineering laziness and it tarnishes my image of Toyota.

Thanks for your reply,

Mike
 
My seat bottom moved some when I cranked it up, read about others trying to get this fixed with no success and I just cranked mine back down and it no longer moves (flexes). If you are concerned about the seat get a 4runner with the electric seats they don't have a problem. The steering wheel vib. is no big deal, I don't even know if it is a problem. Drive one and decide if it will bother you, if it does move on the another vehicle. I also felt it in the Lexus GX470 I drove.
 
I thought there was a Lexus TSB for the drivetrain vibration issue. The TSB will most likely be carried over to Toyota once they can get enough replacement parts produced.
 
My 04 v8 4x4 4runner has 1950 miles and is 2.5 months old.

I've never noticed any problem with my seats ... they could be all the way down, I'm not sure.

I feel a slight vibration in the steering wheel around 1800RPM, from time to time, but nothing I would describe as a droaning sound.

I've only smelled the rotten egg smell once, and that was only after a 2 hour trip and then only when walking behind the truck.

My sun-roof started to rattle at 1500 miles and is getting worse. I haven't let the dealer attempt a repair yet.

Gas mileage around town is horrendous, usually just under 12mpg.
 
Quality

What Lance said.

Personally, my truck has been left off all the Bichlists: there's nothing wrong with it. Not one thing. I feel kinda left out.

Mid to hi 18s on the mpg computer, mixed driving.

There are no perfect cars, jobs, wimmen or kids.

You just gotta use your own judgement, & go with the odds. Statistics show that you're playing the odds rite if you go with Toyota. Acknowledge the line above, then make your decision.
 
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The one thing I thought would be worthy of adding to this post...

Consider your dealer and specifically, their service manager/department. This is sometimes more important than the vehicle's reliability record itself! I'm fortunate, the dealer I purchased from is a small town based dealer, that strongly believes in keeping the customer happy and earning repeat buisness. They have a solid reputation for this. As such, their service department and attitude is hard to beat, always willing to listen to the customer, fix the vehicle, provide a loaner car service, etc. I've read some stories about dealerships refusing to work on the 4-Runner's various problem, stating that a problem is normal to the vehicle and nothing can be done.

As Extec said, nothing in this world is perfect. But, going with the top-ranked name of Toyota, the odds are in your favor of having a vehicle that is more reliable.
 
personally, i buy toyota's for the low repair incidents compared to other makes. plus being up here in the frozen north, i depend on my toyota starting up when its -40F at times, even if i forget to plug it in. plus with the wife and kids driving around town, i dont want them breaking down during a deep freeze or anything like a blizzard.

granted there has been issues with previous and current toyotas, but they are minor compared to what i had to put up with on some of the other makes, and it just eases my mind buying a toyota and knowing it will work after the warranty.

there are extreme cases, like sad4runner, but overall the majority have a low annoying factor.

YMMV
 
After reading about the driver seat warranty fiasco, moonroof issues, drivetrain vibrations, droning sounds,
Click to expand...
I haven't had any problems with my seat but I drive with my seat all the way down. This is the one quality issue that does concern me.

Moonroofs from all manufacturers seem to commonly have problems with rattles and leaks. This was one reason that I got a vehicle without a moonroof.

I haven't had any problems with drivetrain vibrations or droning sounds.

I have had my 4Runner for 3 months, 5K miles now.
 
I agree with Good Times. Every vehicle is going to have problems. My 4runner has 9k miles on it and still runs strong since the day I bought it. Have not had any probs with it yet. When I had my 2000 Heep Grand Cherokee, I started having problems when I reached 8k. You will not regret in getting a 4runner, unless a better 4runner comes out this year.
 
...and I forgot to mention, depsite the problems, I'm happy with my 4runner (so far). The issues I reported above, though frequently reported by others on this board, are all minor in my opinion. The worst of them is probably the moon roof rattle which i will eventually get around to getting fixed. As somebody else said, this is a fairly common kind of problem across ALL makes and models.

To me, serious issues are those that significantly impair the ability of the product to perform its primary function and/or otherwise substantially reduce its resale value beyond normal depreciation.

As a comparison, My 2002 Explorer burned up 2 tranmissions inside of the first 1500 miles! A single transmission failure that early on could be just coincidence. Two failures in such a short time? That's kind of hard to explain. Either the first repair was done incorrectly or incompletely, or Ford has a serious tranmission quality issue. Search various Explorer forums and you'll discover that the latter is a possibility.

So far I haven't seen ANY documented examples of the 4runner issues cited in this post resulting in anyone ending up stranded or injured. One person did manage to force a Lemon buy-back regarding the seat thing, but most have reported it to be only a minor annoyance, if they've even observed the problem at all.

The vibration issue could effect long-term reliability but so far I haven't seen any evidence of such. Moreover, there appears to be a solution working its way through the Toyota Borg. In my case, it's so minor it could be little more than my imagination.

In the end, it's impossible to know the future quality of an automobile. The best you can do is look at the reliability record of the manufacturer and that model and then weigh your decision carefully. Let me ask you this. What other vehicles are you considering? Are there any that have fewer known issues (or none) that also meet your purchase criteria? If so, consider those. If not, then your decision is made.
 
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