Last week I took the Land Cruiser for a service at Börje Johanssons Bil AB in Åkersberga. They have been doing the service for it since I brought it home in 2002, so they know the car pretty well. They did a mid-service with oil changes etc. But they found some bad stuff. The exhaust system was rusty and broken, and needs replacing from the large muffler and all the way back. And one of the rear suspensions is leaking suspension fluid. Replacing the exhaust costs 15,000 SEK, and the rear suspension 10,000 SEK. (10 SEK is roughly 1 EUR/USD.) And last Friday they called and said that they did replace the rear suspension on a similar LC, and then they needed to replace some other parts as well. They cost an additional 12,000 SEK. I could chance not buying those, but if they break, the car would be unusable for a month until those are replaced…
I asked Toyota and they said it was ok to use an OEM exhaust system if I found one, but I should use original suspension parts. I started surfing Ebay and calling around, and finally found a Finnish made exhaust system which cost 6,000 SEK instead of the original 12,000 SEK. Ordering time only one week. Taken! And those other parts I also found for 5,000 SEK instead of 12,000. (Does everything at Toyota cost 12,000 SEK?!?) They will arrive between September 5 and September 15. And the service time is booked for September 18. (I have no control over the suspension parts from Toyota, but they said they will arrive in time…)
It’s going to be a nail-biting September…
Worst case scenario we’ll have to take the Nissan Patrol instead. Not optimal in any way, but a last resort…
By the way, Börje Johansson Bil declined to sponsor us on this trip in any way. I personally am a bit disappointed with that, considering how much business I have brought them over the years.