Last night, while driving my 1954 Willys to Harbor Freight to buy a foam-cannon for my pressure washer so I can prep our Pontiac Aztek for sale, I spotted a classic automotive breakdown. A vehicle was on the shoulder of the road with its front left wheel having detached from the chassis, and of course it was the 3rd-gen Toyota 4Runner — known by some as the 3Runner for obvious reasons.
I stopped to have a look, and to assure the rather frazzled owner that this isn’t a huge deal, and the’ll probably just need some new ball joints and a few brake parts, and they’ll be on their way. I can’t imagine it’ll cost more than $500, I told them.
Here you can see where the front suspension dragged on the road — there’s a little gray line on the road:
And here’s the carnage; look at how the knuckle separated from both ball joints!
This is a design flaw that has affected far too many 3Runners. Yes, it’s avoidable, and yes it can happen to other vehicles, but it happens way too often on 3rd Gen 4Runners. It pretty much never happens on Jeeps, but Jeeps have other issues.
The Jeep Cherokee XJ’s major flaw? The neutral safety switch tend to give up the ghost, as does the Crankshaft position sensor. XJs are also super under-cooled due to radiator packaging constraints, and once they overheat, there’s often a head-crack between the valves.
So for today’s Autopian Asks, I ask you: What are some examples of well-know weak-links in the auto world?
XD-XH Ford Falcons have such fragile exterior door handle mechanisms that repros are still being manufactured to this day, 26 years after the last car using these handles was built.
As a kid, more than once we’d have to scoot into the car from the ‘other’ side until dad got around to fixing the broken door handle…
My old 1st gen Scion xB had a rear hatch door handle that can be easily ripped off from the mounting points.
That handle was just a flimsy flap of plastic which held the weight of the door when one would manually open or close it. The problem was so bad that Toyota issued a recall to have it replaced even after many years of ownership. Even the replacement broke as it wasn’t even redesigned or reinforced.
I ended up replacing it with an aftermarket unit with integrated steel mounting brackets. Thankfully that one worked.
Thought of a few more from some of my previous vehicles:
Toyota 3VZE 3.0 V6- Headgaskets. That’s what took mine out. Perfect truck, but the HG blew right before I was going off to college. Sold it for NOTHING. Still bitter. Sort of why I’m weary of the “Toyotas are bulletproof brooo” claim.
Ford MPFI- Not sure of the year ranges- The little cocksucker of an ignition control module mounted on the distributor. Mine started to go out in our ’90 F250 with the 5.8, which I correctly diagnosed, replaced with a part store one- same problem. Tried all sorts of other stuff including 2 new dizzys with modules, a warranty module, and just about every other spark related component. After giving up for a while, I tried one off a wrecked pickup in the junkyard. Bingo. Immediate fix. Parts store parts are TRASH.
Subaru 2.5 Headgaskets- I don’t need to elaborate on this, but my dads ’99 headgasket blew twice in the same exact spot on Stevens pass in Washington several years apart.
Honda V6 5 speed auto- Heard countless horror stories about these- and I almost never see any Odysseys on the road anymore, likely due to this transmission. Funnily enough, ours was perfect well over 200,000 miles in our 2000 Odyssey. Maintenance schedules yo.
Buick 3800- Intake gaskets and elbows. Bought a LeSabre for $100 for the Gambler 500. Needed both of em. Pretty easy job, hardest part was removing the rear spark plug boots.
Chrysler Era XJ- Pretty much anything made by Chrysler in these goes bad. My sister has a beautiful 2000 Cherokee with around 110K, and it’s needed tons of sensors, switches, etc replaced. Sweet rig though.
Audi B5 S4: Fucking everything
Rust.
– All japanese vehicles
IIRC older Ford MPFI systems (5.0L, 3.8L, 3.0L) needed regular cleaning of the throttle body and EGR circuit to idle well. The pintle valves on the IAC plugged with carbon, a quick spray and wipe with carb cleaner and you were good to go for another 6 months.
Ford IAC’s went bad constantly, or got stuck with carbon as you said. Same symptoms weather it was a lowly 1.9 CVH Escorts/Focuses or a 6.8 V10. Vehicle would drive great, but if it was colder out, they would stall at stops.
Even early 2000s Fords did this. The only thing that solved it was when they went with electronic throttle.
Had a ’99 WJ Grand Cherokee with a 4.0L. The cooling fan ‘relay’ was tucked under the passenger side headlight. When I bought mine someone had already taken a hole saw to the bumper cover for access. I burned through 3 or 4 over my 11 years of ownership, finally just installing an aftermarket Hayden thermostat and finally a toggle on the dash.
It also needed a transmission rebuild at 125k.