Toyota's Suck

Just Cressidas? ;)

(I'm thinking another model with the 7M-GE engine...)

Wow, it sounds like your car had every problem that any Cressida had. I wonder if the car was wrecked or flooded before you got it.

Well, those too! :-)

Ya, man! I can't wait to pull it out of the garage. I hope I put the pans in the right places on the floor...

WOW! There's a kid here in town who bought one from his grandad, 82,000 miles in MINT condition, and it runs great. I think the old man had it serviced whenever it hiccupped.

Now, my Supra on the other hand...a lot of the problems you describe; the leaks, the failing transmission, the non-power antenna.

A lot of the pieces were common between the cars, and it looks like they got the worst. Interesting, however, the AT that was used in the Cressida/Supra was also used in the Jeep Grand Cherokee, and I don't hear many complaints about those.

Well, I skimmed over the last series of posts and find them rather stupid and definitely not worth the time to read. In fact, either or both the Hanes and Chilton manuals recommend changing the filter every

The Hanes and Chilton manuals may recommend changing the filter every 30,000 miles, but the owner's manual and factory repair manuals do not list fuel filter replacement as a routine maintenance item.

Even so, I agree that the location you described does not make sense. If you run across something like that again, try crow foot flare nut wrenches.

Ray, I went through the manuals and couldn't find the chart that included the fuel filter. However, I do remember seeing it somewhere. However, that isn't an issue for me in that I think changing the fuel filter at 150,000 miles prudent. In addition, although the old fuel line was still good, changing it was also prudent given the rust I found on it. In fact, I will probably need to replace the other fuel line in the rear of the vehicle before long. I own a set of metric crow foot flare nut wrenches, but couldn't fit them into the space available to tighten the nut. I have been using a wrench that was in my Yamaha Virago M.C. tool kit. I'm going to add more about this terrible experience in the Repair Manual thread.

Well, I want to add that both the Factory Manual and the Chilton manual recommend using a torque wrench that is 30 cm long. Good luck with a tool that large in the space they provide for work. Futhermore, I'm checking the factory manual for the 30,000 mi./36 month schedule for changing the filter, I really think it is there somewhere.

A lot of dealership technicians complained about how tight the flare nut fittings were when the fittings changed over from banjo fittings, so I did some research. The fuel filters with flare nut fittings are designed to be permanent and should not need replacement. I know of many vehicles with over 300,000 miles on the original filter without no ill effects.

That information may have stopped me from replacing the filter, but eventually I would have had to replace the fuel lines and that would mean disconnecting the filter. In fact, I should replace the back fuel line that comes off of the tank, but I can slide on the original one for a while. We see a very excessive amount of rusting in New England due to the amount of salt that is put on the roads in the winter and the proximity to the sea. When I stated that it would be easiest to install the filter on the front line first and then put the whole into place that wasn't the way I did it. It may be an impossible fit that way. However, I had already refit the back line. As to keeping the vehicle running for 300K without changing the filter, let me add that when I worked in the Boston Taxi industry we had many vehicles (the old Moguls, especially) that reached 300K in two years or so. In fact that was the norm with most companies. I dread dropping the gas tank and replacing the rest of the fuel line. I've replaced tanks before. GM vehicles are known to have theirs rust through the top often. At least with this Toyota, I have more room under carriage with which to work.

In addition, Ray, we experience regular changes in weather and temperature in New England. The famous line here would be >>If you don't like the weather just wait three days and it will change.

I'm pretty familiar with the weather in New England, I worked out of Mansfield MA for 10 years, visiting dealers in MA, RI, NH, ME, & VT, although I haven't lived there since '93. Prior to the Tercel recall for rear lower control arm rust, I visited a highway department facility in VT and was surprised to find out that they spread something like 10 tons of salt plus 10 tons of sand per lane per mile in a typical winter - that's not only tough on metal, but the "sand" was more like fine gravel that blasts the paint off of cars.

The fuel pump pickup has a plastic housing with fine mesh over the opening that should stop the larger chunks from being picked up, while the filter gets the finer stuff. You may be able to get at the fuel pump from under the back seat - it should be mounted on top of the tank - and check the condition of the mesh, and also look to see if there is any sediment at the bottom of the tank. If there is a lot of sediment inside the tank, you may be able to siphon it out through the fuel pump opening without having to drop the tank. Obviously, you want to take the normal precautions when handling fuel, like using lights that won't shatter, doing it outside, etc.

Thanks, Ray, for the reply. I found the recommendation for changing the Fuel Filter in the Hanes manual. It is on P. 1-4 under the Chapter titled Toyota pick-up and 4-runner Maintenance schedule and the Heading: Every 30,000 miles/24 months, whichever comes first. It states >>Replace the fuel filter

"Windsurfer" ...

And here I was thinking that they wanted the beach sand to stay on the beaches... Tomes

I am pretty sure that the "sand" spread on the roads in New England come from sand a gravel pits, not beaches. The "sand" sample that I picked up in VT looked more like fine gravel than the sand that you see on beaches. There were chunks of rock as large as the rock salt they use, and that stuff blasts a vehicle's paint as well as the windshields, which is one more reason not to tailgate when that stuff is on the roads ;-)

"...spread on the roads in New England come from sand a gravel pits, not beaches..."

Right. Beach sand has been tumbled for eons so the grains tend to be rounded. Also -- and maybe more important -- most communities have regulations against "stealing" sand from the beaches, since they sometimes must actually truck it in.

Fine gravel, from quarries or pits, has not tumbled, so the edges are still sharp. Beach sand is slippery, gravel pit sand is not. (I've tried beach sand for sand blasting -- didn't work at all. "Black Beauty" was 1000 times better.)

Most towns sweep the streets in the spring and save the sand (which contains some residual salt) for next winter.

Windsurfer, aka swiftwater, aka swiftsailor, aka swiftskier, aka speedysailor, aka snowyguy, aka blowbooster, aka Brucie, aka a zillion other aliases, doesn't have a grain of a clue.

You don't have to go to the beaches for sand in N.E.

"Windsurfer" ...

"Both Ma. and N.H. have their own sandy sea coasts so they can probably put more on their roads due to lower costs" is the phrase that was referred to above. This clearly implies that the thought is that the sand would come from the sandy sea coast. Amused Tomes