How long will it last??

How long will a 5th Gen likely last on the road? 200k, 300k, more?! What’s the first thing to go; engine, transmission, electronics?

I currently have 153K on the clock. 90% of my miles are 67mph highway miles. Yes, 67mph. It’s the sweet spot for mpg at 21.5. I have done NOTHING other than change the oil every 10000ish miles with Mobil 1 extended performance (20,000 mile) oil and filter, Wix air filter every 15k or so, wipers as needed, cabin filter when it’s musty and that’s it.
I plan on doing a full tuneup with plugs, PCV Valve, gear oil all around, and eventually a transmission fluid change when I get around to it. My philosophy with the T4R is don’t fix what isn’t broken. But, when do they break???

 

a few tips here...
6 MAINTENANCE TIPS TO KEEP YOUR 5TH GEN 4RUNNER RUNNING LONGER
https://trail4runner.com/2023/07/19/maintenance-tips-5th-gen-4runner/

 

No one knows, it is up to how you maintain, drive and to a large extent, luck once you got much beyond 200k. There is no reason a well maintained 4R cannot get to 300k easily but that's where luck comes in, how it was assembled and how the maintenance is done, etc.

A cousin of mine had a Lexus ES300 that had an oil change maybe once every 15k when she remembered it, lived to 360k on original engine and transmission. I have see also seen a well maintained LS460 whose engine died at 80k with meticulous upkeep.

Right now my personal high mileage vehicle is a 26 year old camry with the 5SFE that has about 230k, only opened once to replace valve cover gasket and only because it was smoking a little and failing the CA Smog visual check. We get it serviced every 5k since it is mostly city and suburban miles which is considered more severe condition than highway trips, it's parked outside 100% of the time, literally driven hard and put away wet. Original everything otherwise besides timing belt and water pump. If it doesn't make it to 300k I will be very surprised, by then it will probably have the wear equivalent to 400k-500k of freeway commuting.

 

Look on copart at the 4th gens 2003-2009. This is basically a 5th gen with a different outer skin. Same engine and trans frame and all. Looking for the average mileage you’ll see dozens with 300,000+ still running just wrecked and totaled. There are occasionally trade-ins at dealerships and the dealer can’t sell something that age with high miles so they send them to auctions like copart in normal running condition. The listing will tell you everything about it. I use copart to figure out life expectancy of a vehicle before I start hunting for what works. Only thing that seems better is the 1st gen sequoia with the 2UZ at auctions, tons of them with 400k+

there are a few 5th gen owners well into the high 250,000+ range and I think one regular poster on the other forum with like 365,00 so realistically the engine and trans are likely 500k capable just keeping it everything around it functioning

I had a 2008 Tacoma I drove cross country dozens of times. All across, up and down, it was the 4.0 1gr-fe engine and the same trans as the 4R And I did the TRD supercharger at 10,000 miles and I drove it to 275,000 before I sold it in 2017 and it’s still running today. I don’t know how many miles it has but I suspect it’s gotta be close to 400k by now.

 

The fact that you’re on this forum and concerned with longevity, I’d say a long time.

 

It'll last as long as you want provided you maintain and repair it

 

First thing will likely be the frame if you don’t keep an eye on rust


If I had to bet with those easy highway miles you could probably get 500k on that engine. Just keep up with maintenance, fluids, and don’t forget that eventually the soft rubber parts like the fan belt and hoses may need replacing. As it gets up in years miles eventually you may need to replace the starter or alternator or tstat, etc- all easily obtainable.

Electronics don’t really “wear out” unless something is abused, with the exception that any circuit that has electrolytic capacitors in it- those caps will eventually dry out and fail, usually around 30-40 years. Most likely place is in power supply/voltage conversion circuits, for example the ECU may have one to step down the cars 12v stystem to 5v or 3v for the ICs.

By now you probably get the idea- there is very little that is going to cause the car to “die” unless you just don’t want to invest the money/time in fixing it, and the big stuff is a long way off in future. The one thing that could be is if you wore the engine internals to the point you scored a cylinder, I’m not sure the 1GR can be safely overbored and honed like an iron block v8 for example.. but this isn’t a priceless classic we are trying to save so I doubt anybody has tried.

 

with the caveat that I own a 2023, and haven’t driven it as much, I’d expect the vehicle body to give up before engine/tranny for me. With the road on salt in northeast, I am worried about body rusting out. I am not worrying about engine or transmission going bad. my last two vehicles reached 138K and 128K before we got rid of them, mainly because we felt we wanted new cars not needed them. I have no reason to believe 4R won’t go well past those numbers.

 

Body won’t rust. Frame will. Keep up with a routine of fluid film or your favorite similar product will keep it good for a long time.

 

As someone else mentioned it will last as long as you will spend the money repairing it. Not really any weak links I am aware of other than frame rust potential. Once high mileage lots of people don't want to put $ into expensive repairs and just trade it for something new. 200k is relatively easy for a Toyota with basic maintenance. Over that parts just wear out and repairs are expected.

 

The type of miles you have been putting on are the best kind for accumulating miles vs. around town.

 

hmmm, I know a few Landcruisers here which are also rusting on the body (winter salt area).
Usually in the wheel wells. I have also discovered some corners there on my 4 Runner which fill up with dirt.
Rinsing with water (no high pressure) and spraying some Fluid Film should help. Ideal after the winter.

 

Change the fluids at the recommended intervals and replace the usual parts that go bad (brakes, alt, starter, fuel pump, etc) and keep it clean, it'll go a 300,000 easy. My '96 Silverado has 273,xxx miles on it. I expect the 4R to surpass that. The under carriage on my pick-up was power washed after every snow storm. I had access to a heated wash bay.

 

Oh I’m sure the body could rust if it gets old enough, just can’t remember the last time I saw a Toyota diving around like this… I’d bet the body is dip galvanized like the unibody vehicles are.




the frames OTOH we all know it’s a ticking time bomb… I dealt with the recall inspection on my Taco and I now fluid film yearly.

 

There is a little known special circuit built into the vehicle's CPU that sets a flag when your vehicle loan is paid up. Once this flag is detected, a random number lottery is drawn each time you start your vehicle, and if yours comes up, a virtual failure wheel spins and your vehicle wins one of it's fabulous failures. Once this happens to you, it's non reversable and immediate.

 

How does he know......

 

Here is some stuff I picked up from Car-Care-Nut, applicable to my now low mileage, short trip, city driving

 

where do you do it from? Haven’t had to do this in a while, looking to have it done rather than dealing with it myself.

 

Rust!!! A lot of people who never see road salt avoid this Achilles Heel. I don’t have personal experience with long term 4Runner owners, but I knew a few Honda Civic owners who lost the battle to rust, yet the car kept running fine otherwise.

 

I’m almost certain that they are not (along with many truck frames, as opposed to car frames), which confuses me why they wouldn’t. But feel free to correct me if I’m wrong (and I really hope that I AM wrong!)

 

Not exactly sure what you trying to say but afaik Body is dipped. Frame is not.


I don’t think any manufacturer makes a car (Sedan, wagon, etc) that has a separate frame - pretty sure the Crown Vic was the last body on frame mainstream car. Every maker dips car unibodies these days.

 

Do you mean older trucks that didn’t have lockup torque converters?

 

One of our contractors has a 2008 4runner with 370k+, he recently drove it from Texas to Florida and back. He’s still on the original water pump & radiator, a few weeks back he replaced the head gaskets and one exhaust header. Basic maintenance items only beyond that.

He broke down about a month ago and brought the wife a new 4runner, but kept the 08 for local duty, he says it still runs great.

 

My apologies for not being clear
what I was going to say, that all modern computer operated transmissions not much reliable on a long run, constantly shifting in overdrive. it works hard and it wears out faster.

 

Body rust has been well documented on this forum. Early 5th gens can be very rusty. The rear hatch latch is one of the first places to go

 

Welp, answered my own question. Alternator dead at 153K on the clock.

 

Yes that is what I don’t like, frame is not dipped. I got an oil undercoating treatment done, but I imagine that a dipped frame that gets an undercoating done is that much more protected!

 

overdrive is just an extra higher gear. The additional 4-5 shift is no “harder” on the transmission than the 3-4 shift was.

The 5th gear on this rig is 0.716 so folks call it an overdrive because it’s less than 1. With the stock 3.73 rear end the 5th gear overall ratio is 0.716x3.73=2.76. In theory you could remove 5th gear and change the final drive to a super short 2.76 and get the exact same engine revs on the highway in 4th. Then just increase first from 3.5 to 4.7 and 2nd and 3rd proportionally and you have essentially the same range, just more of the reduction in the trans rather than rear end. What’s the result? More torque multiplication in the transmission which would actually be HARDER on the trans gears than the overdrive.and larger gaps between the gears making it worse to drive…

in other words, it’s all a numbers game. Don’t get hung up on words like “overdrive” which are a legacy holdover from 100 years ago…

 

yes I am familiar with the latch rubbing thread. Go compare the photos in that thread to the rusty GMC I posted above. Classic example of how some on here seem so terrified that the most reliable vehicle on the planet is going to fall apart if you dont shrink wrap it in a hermetically sealed bubble.

I never said the body can’t rust at all, just a LOT less likely than frame. Even dip galvanized bodies can rust if you scratch through the galvanize coating… but they rust a hell of a lot less than cars before galvanizing started in the late 90s. When I was a teen I got pretty good with bondo and fiberglass patch, it wasn’t uncommon for the old used cars we used to drive to have the entire rocker panel rust through like that picture above. I had one car (87 dodge) rust a hole in the floorboard behind the front fender liner big enough to put your foot through.

 

I'm at 151k, is my alternator on borrowed time?