Recommended mechanic near Los Angeles

Hey guys,

looking for a good mechanic or shop near LA to get my 95 4Runner tuned up and smog ready. It was running rough and wouldn’t pass smog a while back, and I didn’t have the time to work on it so I registered it non-op. Right now it’s at a buddy’s ranch near Moorpark. I recently got the motivation, and currently have the time to bring her back to life. I drained/replaced the fluids, tossed in a new battery, filled up with fresh gas, and it fired right up. Sounds like it’s not firing on 1 cylinder, and the fan clutch is out (ordered a new one planning to install next weekend). Looking for someone to help with the more intricate fixes, and diagnose why it’s not passing smog. Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

 

Hey D, sorry nobody commented yet. I'm in Orange County so not quite local to you, but I'd be remiss if I failed to recommend Japanese Car Specialties in Mission Viejo. It's not close to you if you're in LA, but John Najem (and his wife Wendy) know 4Runners better than anybody around and they'll get you up and running with the best parts and service. Even if you don't get work done there, John is a trove of knowledge. He doesn't like working on the 2nd gens as much, but he does great work and will tell you basically everything wrong with your truck based on a 1 hour inspection. At that point, it's just time/money to get things copacetic. JCS is the only place I go to in SoCal if/when I need something done that I can't do myself. Hope you find what you need.

 

D-Hams

Both TYC (http://tycautoservice.com) in Lomita and The Toy Shop (http://www.thetoyshopoftorrance.com) in Torrance are both great places with honest owners (Tom & Jeremiah respectively) and skilled mechanic teams.

For the emissions failure, have you looked into the EGR system yet? It was problem with mine. Turns out the guy I bought it from had a two vacuum lines hooked up wrong. Rather than buying new parts it was worth the headache of tracking down a diagram and hooking them up right. Also, if you don't know how to use the obd1 system yet, I suggest you learn. Its not that hard (paper clip) and it can save a lot of time and money by not guessing on parts.

Chris