Toyota Prado: 1st Major repair 2013

Continuing from my previous post, finally I had to send my Big Boy to a local workshop for a major checkup on Wednesday (26 June 2013) after encountering total failure to the clutch system.

There was a part of my daily route to where I work, whereby a T-Junction was located on a steep hill and normally I will balance the accelerator and the clutch while waiting to exit. The clutch failed to work and caused my car to stall on the hill on that day, which was very dangerous as there were cars behind me, waiting in line for the exit. I brought the car to a local workshop immediately at noon and requested the clutch pump to be replaced as well as check on other major parts that is in the process of failing.

This morning, I went to collect my Big Boy and was billed a total of RM1,538.46 or about USD512.82.

The bill

Let us see, I made no mistake regarding the clutch pump failure as they have indeed replaced the master pump but I feel a bit disappointed though, given this pump was only replaced last August. The workshop did not seem to encourage me to use OEM part even though I requested as i'm telling them i'm willing to pay extra as long as the parts can last long. They insisted to use their pump that was from different manufacturer. Let's see how long will this one last then.

Next, all 4 absorbers were replaced. Does any of you know how to check if your absorbers, particularly the gas type, has failed? Previously when the oil type absorber was used, I was able to detect failure by detecting any oil leaking out of it. This type (gas type) though, I cannot know for sure if my absorber failed. I can only judge based on my feeling. For one, the riding feel extra bumpy when my car go over rough road. It's supposed to feel smooth even though the car is on rough road. Secondly, it was about 2 years ago I last changed my absorbers, so I guess it's almost time for replacement. Once these four failed again (hopefully will not fail within these two years), I am considering to change them to a more premium one, the Old-Men Emu that could cost almost 5 times the one i'm using now.

In my last post, I mentioned about hearing the 'thud' sound whenever i steer my Prado and I suspected it was the gears wearing out in the steering rack. Apparently, my Tie Rods were broken and jammed.

Steering rack parts that I have changed

After the replacement, now I feel the smoothness of steering. So far I have not encountered any 'thud' sound, which has been annoying me for the past 1 year.

So after done with the workshop, it's time to do the alignment because that is what we need to do whenever we changed our absorber. This is to align the wheels to prevent uneven wearing out of tyres. Below are some of the pictures during the wheel alignment process.

Big Boy ready for wheel alignment process

One of the rear absorber. Oh, and i did some modification to
the rear spring as well but this was done 2 years back. As the
original spring was too soft which caused my Prado to bottom
out too easily, I changed to a stiffer one.
This is from King Springs.

Wheel alignment process

The red thing there should be the Grommet that they have also
changed for me. This thing, I guess helps to prevent my
steering wheel from vibrating too much whenever I go over
bumpy roads.