Picked Clean: Toyota Land Cruiser Junkyard Shoppers Must Move Quickly!

Murilee Martin
by Murilee Martin
picked clean toyota land cruiser junkyard shoppers must move quickly

Sometimes I see a vehicle in a self-service junkyard that I know is going to look like the carcass of a Thanksgiving turkey by about December 4th, after all the bits of meat have been harvested for sandwich-making. The Toyota Land Cruiser is such a vehicle. When we saw this truck on May 10, it had been been stripped of some parts but was largely complete. When I returned to this yard a couple of weeks later… well, see for yourself.

The Land Cruiser is like the Acura Integra or International Harvester pickup; the word spreads that one has appeared in a low-price junkyard, and then the vultures swoop in.

Actually, this truck still has plenty of good stuff left, including most of the drivetrain and some interior bits. By the time it gets gobbled up by The Crusher, it will be a bare shell.



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  • 1998redwagon 1998redwagon on Jun 04, 2012

    that action puts a smile on my face. reused, recycled. delaying the date with the crusher. it's all good.

  • Icemilkcoffee Icemilkcoffee on Jun 04, 2012

    I am amazed the front axle is still there. I beleive these wagons have the very valuable high-pinion front axles.

    • Mad_science Mad_science on Jun 04, 2012

      The FJ60s had low-pinions that were basically the same as the trucks. Wasn't until the '80 that they went to high-pinion and rear steer axles. Still surprised it's there, though. Toyota solid axles are getting harder to find.

  • ToolGuy 38:25 to 45:40 -- Let's all wait around for the stupid ugly helicopter. 😉The wheels and tires are cool, as in a) carbon fiber is a structural element not decoration and b) they have some sidewall.Also like the automatic fuel adjustment (gasoline vs. ethanol).(Anyone know why it's more powerful on E85? Huh? Huh?)
  • Ja-GTI So, seems like you have to own a house before you can own a BEV.
  • Kwik_Shift Good thing for fossil fuels to keep the EVs going.
  • Carlson Fan Meh, never cared for this car because I was never a big fan of the Gen 1 Camaro. The Gen 1 Firebird looked better inside and out and you could get it with the 400.The Gen 2 for my eyes was peak Camaro as far as styling w/those sexy split bumpers! They should have modeled the 6th Gen after that.
  • ToolGuy From the listing: "Oil changes every April & October (full-synth), during which I also swap out A/S (not the stock summer MPS3s) and Blizzak winter tires on steelies, rotating front/back."• While ToolGuy applauds the use of full synthetic motor oil,• ToolGuy absolutely abhors the waste inherent in changing out a perfectly good motor oil every 6 months.The Mobil 1 Extended Performance High Mileage I run in our family fleet has a change interval of 20,000 miles. (Do I go 20,000 miles before changing it? No.) But this 2014 Focus has presumably had something like 16 oil changes in 36K miles, which works out to a 2,250 mile average change interval. Complete waste of time, money and perfectly good natural gas which could have gone to a higher and better use.Mobil 1 also says their oil miraculously expires at 1 year, and ToolGuy has questions. Is that one year in the bottle? One year in the vehicle? (Have I gone longer than a year in some of our vehicles? Yes, I have. Did I also add Lucas Oil 10131 Pure Synthetic Oil Stabilizer during that time, in case you are concerned about the additive package losing efficacy? Yes, I might have -- as far as you know.)TL;DR: I aim for annual oil changes and sometimes miss that 'deadline' by a few months; 12,000 miles between oil changes bothers me not at all, if you are using a quality synthetic which you should be anyway.
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