(Home) Owner on the road to recovery

hi there,
We are from perth, western australia and we bought our 89 Masterace surf, turbo diesel in november last year from a car dealer. Little did we know the troble that lied ahead. After a few weeks we noticed more and more black smoke, only to discover the injectors were absolutely shot, so we had them replaced at about $350. Everything was fine until we went on 300km trip that was suppose to take 2.5 hours. It took 5, the engine overheated, the expansion tank was losing water, what a weekend. But we got through it. Then a week or so later we heard a noise that turned our townie into a combie. It was the manifold, cracked in 3 places, but after talking to the mechanic, and the problem we were still having with overheating we discovered a cracked head. if was going to coast us around $2000 for them to fix it, but for an extra $750 we got a near new engine, with less than 50,000km on it. I was depressed for a while but I got my baby back today after 3 weeks, and then the problem of starting the car arose. So i took it to the auto sparky and had to have a relay put on it as there wasn't enough current to start the car. That cost $50. If anyone from perth has a townie and wants parts take it to just toyota wrecking in kenwick. They were fantastic. Just thought I should let u know that even after a few bad experiences I still have faith in my townie

Heidi

- (#7913) heidi, 2 Apr 03 6:31

It is good to hear from another Surf owner in Perth.
Mine is a 1990 MasterAce Surf, Bronze colour (sound better than metallic brown!) If you see a bronze one with the skylite roof around the Fremantle area, give us a honk.

I have found 'Just Toyota Wreckers' good as well. There are three shops I think, and I have dealt with Kenwick and also O'Connor. They are both good and helpful.

Do you take yours off-road at all?

Mine surprised me a bit off road, better than I had expected.

Some guys on a Hilux Surf site have christened mine 'the Pregnant Surf' - I thought it was probably an appropriate description.

Dave.

- (#7955) Dave, 7 Apr 03 2:38


Hello Heidi

Thanks for the info on just toyota wrecking I will keep this in mind for parts in the future. Having owned the masterace for a few of months now I am very happy with it. Great car for touring.

Regards Neil Bunbury

- (#7931) Neil, 6 Apr 03 23:58