A 100 series revival

Alright, up next for revival is a familiar friend. I purchased this 2002 Lx470 in 2018 as our practical family car for my wife as we were expecting. I had owned a 4runner many years prior and had always wanted a 40 series, so naturally I looked at 80s, 100s and gx’s and we lucked out at the copart auction and brought home our first "Land Cruiser".

This was also the first time buying a car from copart. And the first time I really tried to fix a car that was in an accident. Luckily for me it was pretty easy. I picked up a TJM bumper from slee and some depo headlights and we were up and running.
I had to go through the rigor of getting it inspected and applying for the rebuilt title. But it was really rewarding to have been able to figure it all out.
My wife worked with @maxpowerzz and somehow it came up that we bought the 100 for her. He suggested I join the club, so thanks to Jeff for really bringing me closer to all of you awesome people!

I slowly worked on the 100 over the course of 4 years. Redoing the seats, timing belt, tires, etc and eventually buying a BIO rear bumper for it.
It was trouble free over those 4 years and treated our family well and I would say that the experience of buying it wrecked plus the joy it brought my family inspired me to buy the 80 I always wanted and rebuild it. Here is how it looked around 2021 right before I bought my 80.



In 2023 we purchased a wrecked 200 series and drove the 100 to Cheyenne to pick it up. Unfortunately the same month a wreckless couple that were fighting while driving hit the rear of our 100 while it was parked. Need not to worry. It held its own. Although I think it was trying to prove its worth because we had just purchased the 200.




Unfortunately for me the couple were able to drive their vehicle away from the scene after getting in a fight with a guy that witnessed it all. That bio bumper really paid for itself though. That chunk of metal is the door shell that was left behind. The white car is the suspect car. I’m still bitter. I drove the 100 around for about 8 more months and then sold it to a friend in October 2023. Here are the for sale photos from my listing.

About six months after I sold the 100 to my friend he reached out to me to tell me that he wanted to sell the 100. He took it on one short trip and just didnt find himself driving it. He ended up selling it to an employee of the business next to his shop. I would see it around town and next to the shop over the course of the years since and really didn't think much about it. Then. One day to my amazement I come across it at the local tow yard auction.. It was in sad shape. Stuck in low without keys and clearly abandoned.




I had to save it again. And so, I was determined to bid to win it back and bring it home. And win it I did!!! The whole family rejoiced!
We had our 100 back. We had it dragged out of the yard and with a bit of work by a locksmith and a jump from the 62 (shoutout to @Cruisertrash for leaving the jumper cables at my house, and myself for throwing them in the 62) I was driving my new lowrider home!
Blurry photo for evidence of how it really rides on the bump stops.

Its moments like these that remind me why I'm grateful for this club and forum. I had the confidence to buy my junk back and figure out how to drive it home and had soo much fun doing it. And I get to share it here. Now to figure out what I have all over again and bring everyone along with me.

I started to dig into it and it appeared that the previous owner had indeed kept up with general maintenance on it. A new battery in 2025 and an oil change from over the summer showed some promise. The interior was dirty, but still in great shape. I sold the 100 with 233k on it and it now has 246k, so it wasn't driven very much over the years. There was a date on the windshield that said 12/18 which led me to believe it was brought into the yard on the 18th of December. I reached out to my friend prior to bidding to get the scoop on when he last saw it and he said it was sometime in the fall but wasn't sure exactly and he had last seen the owner around that same time. I checked the fluids and the ahc fluid is a putrid brown and the oil was overfilled by two quarts. Everything else was looking to be in good shape though. Before I work on new cars I like to clean them in and out. It helps me get to know the vehicle and take inventory of what I have. It cleaned up nice!




Its pretty obvious that something is wrong with the ahc. I last serviced it in early 2022 and nothing had been done in the 4 years since. So the next step was to load up techstream and see what codes it showed. I got c1762 and c1751. Upon clearing them both c1762 returns. Ive gone through all the fsm procedures and read through many pages of threads on mud around the code and what causes it. Most all point to air stuck in the system. My plan of action is to evacuate all of the fluid and clean up the pump and strainer. Check the globe diaphragms and make some decisions from there.

I

Back to the 100. I drained all of the AHC fluid on it and inspected the fluid that came out. Everything looked fine albeit dirty, until, I emptied the reservoir. I noticed a lot of black flakes in the fluid here. I also took apart the pump and found the same black stuff all in the strainers in the pump. I had hope that I just needed to clean the pump and that all would be fine. I also cleaned this black stuff out the tank that turned out to be what flaked off and killed the pump, which was proven after a thorough cleaning and a bench test. So the hunt was on for a new pump.





After a week of searching I found a used pump with 90k on it. I cleaned it up and bench tested it and it was night and day different. I started it up and successs! The suspension immediately kicked in. After a few bleeds it was time for a test drive proving everything with AHC is back to normal.


Those headlights need some attention…
On the to do list now is to replace a sketchy looking flexible brake line and get it registered.

new update! While I was test driving the traction control came on when I was driving in dry weather in a straight line. It turned out to be the inner tie rod end on the driver side. A quick order from cruiser outfitters and I was in business. I failed to take any pictures but I did inner and outer while I was there and it was uneventful. I also went after the headlights and removed the plastic dip from the front bumper.

Then I did a deep clean and did another overall inspection to see if there was anything else that needed attention. Everything checked out and now I’m just waiting for the license plates. It feels great to have put some elbow grease into this and bring it back once again. I know the family is excited to put it back in rotation.

I likely won’t have any updates for a while, until I need to do some other work to it. Until then, would you just look at it??

Glad to see you have your cruiser back. Good for you.