2010 Alphard V6 4WD

[Blinchy]

Hi All,

 

Am new here but have got 2 trips in so far with my new to me Alphard. Going to use this thread to share the story and findings, i only got one snap the whole weekend, will endevour to take more.

 

First off, the collection of the car wasn't the smoothest, they were under sealing, putting the rectangle plates on and changing the speedo facia as i turned up. A week after paying for it!

The dealer i was dealing with was a very nice chap though, he does all those bits basically for free and even gave me a spare battery just in case. He didn't look that well on the Saturday and sure enough has had the flue this week, so i asked him to put the fuel gauge needle and square plates in the post, easier to do it on my own time than arrange to go back and get those bits sorted.

 

First trip in the car was fully loaded, 4 adults and 2 babies with prams, 40 minutes to east Sussex for Sunday lunch. First day and found a AH10 to park next to!

My AH20 though, perfect comfort, very quiet inside, engine feels very strong, Don't think Ive been in any other car this quiet. The gearbox and throttle are a little odd at first, its got the slowest throttle response of anything Ive driven before! There is literally a 1 second delay from the pedal to the throttle, and its not linear, it seems to pause then crack open. If you don't wait for it, it lurches forwards from a stop. The steering feels fine, bit van like, but i find it quite fun to hustle around, you can feel the brakes grumble through the wheel though.

 

A few niggles to report,

The car has sat for a long time and the brake discs are very crusty. They freed off fine, but the rears still grumble a tad and as i got into some pedal pressure the fronts have started juddering slightly. The pedal also feels inconsistent and oddly soft. Very little bite, you cant dip your toe for that last touch down into junctions. From my previous history of clapped out cars i'm fairly confidant all this is just the corrosion on the discs. To that end EBC do a complete kit for £360 or so. I may just go with this and sort it out once and for all. Other than that, the interior is amazing, very happy with it.

 

So the job list. Hopefully i can move through this over the next few months and keep this thread updated

 

Replace brakes, as above.

 

Under sealing - The dealers underseal job was pretty good in the end, all the bare/painted steel under neath was done neatly. I looked under it before hand and he had loads of pictures from when the car came in and it was spotless. I have a chronic fear of corrosion so Ive ordered a Lanoguard kit to spray the rest of it. Ill probably spray from each corner as i replace the brake discs/pads.

 

Speedo facia - as the dealer was fitting the aftermarket MPH fascia on Saturday he tweaked the fuel gauge and it broke one of the little plastic clips on the needle. He's put a new one in the post for me, just got to plop it on. The other odity with the aftermarket fascia is the parking sensor button illuminates the letters "TRC Off", if anyone knows what this is??. So I'm not convinced the new fascia has the functions depicted in the right place. I don't really like the new fascia, it just looks like a knock off, i might just ditch it and convert my brain to kmh.

 

Number plates - its got rectangle ones one. they look terrible, the rear does actually fit pretty well but the front is bodged on.

 

Investigate random non-factory switch - ive got a secret switch which illuminates when the lights are on and the switch is switched. Im hoping its something cool like underglows, but need to look into it.

 

Satnav update - great device, all in Japanese, still thinks its parked on the previous owners drive way! and i can see the school run the car used to do in Japan!. The head unit appears to be a dealer fitted upgrade of some sort, its an Alpine head unit and flip down screen that works with all the buttons and rear view camera. I don't want to risk losing the camera and steering wheel buttons to change it. Its got the the data files on an SD card as well as a sim card, so ill look into available software/maps and see if a UK sim will work.

 

Towbar - cool guys don't look at explosions and tow things, so need a tow bar at least as there no explosions around here. Also i want to get a boat, so tow bar.

 

Im sure more will get added to the list, but there you are, that's the plan for now! All the best, Greg

 

 

 

 

 

[Chris.ac]

Hi and welcome. 

Just some observations. 

You say you have a v6 4wd? That would be ggh25, not ah20.

Ah20 is a 2.4lt.

 

The throttle should be smooth with no lag, i could easily wheel spin my v6 when pulling off from a junction, until i learned to be more gentle. 

 

The new dash clock is obviously the wrong one. 

There are minor differences. 

TRC off is traction control off, operated by the button that looks like a skidding car.

 

8 have square plate at front, the bumper is cutout for that design. 

 

Random switch may be the rear fog lights fitted to comply with uk rules, it's possible to replace with the correct Toyota switch or a new indicator stalk that has both front and rear foglights positions.

[Picasso]

Nice alphard i agree with chris you realy need to change your front number plate to a square one you dealer should had known better than to fit that oblong one on the front may i ask who the dealer was .

[PaulS_]

Lovely car! Congratulations on the purchase.

 

Re head unit, I have kept the original but am strongly considering a replacement from Cartronics - their fitting retains the steering wheel controls, phone controls, and rear TV screen - https://www.cartronics.co.uk/case-studies/toyota-alphard-import-pioneer-apple-carplay

[Blinchy]

Thanks for the responses team, a little update

 

Not a great week. Managed to prang the rear drivers corner on my neighbors car on yesterday. Was looking out the window and not at the camera, lost an entire pug 207 in the blind spot. Was absolutely gutted, haven't hit a sausage for 15 years then go a back this thing into a stationery car at crawling speed! How did i manage that! Stoved the door of the 207 in and ruined the wing mirror. My car, it popped the rear bumper off, star cracked the paint and bent the bumper hangers slightly, then put a big ding in what was a pristine tail gate.

After crying it off and groveling to number 34, who was very calm about it fortunately, i refitted the bumper and the plastic close out panels underneath. The bumper hangers and clips all just pushed back into place. Fortunately the ends of the chassis rails look untouched. The paint is damaged, lots of chips, but the paint off the other car all polished out. Then i had to remove the light, rub down and nail varnish the big ding. There's a few other chips which have flashed over with rust i didn't spot initially, will tackle them on Sunday.

 

In other news, after the fender bender i took it for a shopping trip and spanked it around the dual carriage way. Got the "P" parking sensor light flashing in the rain under power, the traction light and parking sensor lights are defiantly flipped. Also the 4WD does work quite well, still torque steers a bit, but will just about hold full throttle on a wet road. No chance with the 4WD turned off. And that leads me onto the brakes, practiced some big stops finally, got them hot and all the rust off, there is definitely something wrong with the braking hydraulics, the pedal pressure falls away if you keep pushing, and i could get to the pedal stop braking hard from 70. Then at idle, if i pump the pedal the engine revs hunt up and down. Im pretty sure this is a failed master cylinder, plunger seals leaking and presumably a vacuum leak too?

 

Chris, yes still learning the part numbering and codes on these. my chassis number is ggh25 you are correct.

 

Regarding master cylinder part numbers. ive identified pn. 47201 on Yoshi parts.

https://yoshiparts.com/parts/car/toyota/products/alphard_vellfire_hv/ggh25-ggh25w_pftsk-jp-2grfe-350s-6fc-alphd-07s-cbu/1994494_49?one=[["year_list"%2C"2010"]%2C["engine"%2C"2GRFE"]%2C["frame"%2C"GGH25"]]&two=[["vehicle_model"%2C"ALPHD"]%2C["grade"%2C"350S"]%2C["seating_capacity"%2C"07S"]]

 

The only source for it i can find in the UK are Japeuro car parts. Rather expensive, although cheaper than driving into your neighbors car, and not in stock at the moment, but was told i could have 1 in two weeks time.

https://www.japeurocarparts.co.uk/buy-genuine-brake-master-cylinder-89067-2314-2122-6-d

 

I'm presuming, this is a standard Toyota master cylinder though. The Hilux ones look similar, as do the LandCruiser ones. Has anyone fitted an alternative before?, what do you think my chances are getting this to fit? just change the reservoirs over?

https://www.milneroffroad.com/product/brake-master-cylinders-load-sensing-valves-bsmh-br/brake-master-cylinder-right-hand-drive-006783?gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQiA0--6BhCBARIsADYqyL--pXLdYSgx7QScv74biLfvtXFEvsg2Mg4blwYZJQxpS9Sa5bRHv-oaAmCyEALw_wcB

 

Or does anyone have names of other Uk supplies to try?

 

And the dealer was Sussex Car Sales, he sent the square pate through, another job for Sunday.

 

Cheers Greg

[Picasso]

hello gregory i help a lots of memers on here with part no.s your oe no. for your brake master cylinder is   4720128660   check this link far cheaper than japeuro price  https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005008184764491.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.main.1.679739f1Q36pWQ&algo_pvid=2fd00430-61c9-4cd4-9b87-4b27f9dee7ab&algo_exp_id=2fd00430-61c9-4cd4-9b87-4b27f9dee7ab-0&pdp_npi=4%40dis!GBP!111.77!81.59!!!1000.63!730.44!%402103835e17341039121891711ec957!12000044153599737!sea!UK!191972601!X&curPageLogUid=rXqWlxozzu0M&utparam-url=scene%3Asearch|query_from%3A  if you ever need any part no.s just ask 

[Blinchy]

Thanks for those numbers Picasso, that was helpful.

 

I got the master cylinder sorted today. I wanted the car on the road again for next week, that aliexpress part, and Toyota we’re all 6 week lead times. Toyota could easily get the part but wanted £400 + vat for it. So I thought I would see what was wrong with the old cylinder and took it apart. It’s a Bosch twin piston unit with the front axle piston in front of the rear piston. The springs on each of them are different rates which gives you the brake bias. The rear piston just pulls out, then the front piston popped out with the bike pump. There’s 4 seals in there, 2 for each piston, the top 3 came out easy ish with a seal pick. Then the bottom seal, which is the main seal for the front piston, was hard and super trucking to get out. The lip crumbled and split before the seal starts the pull out. Literally took me 2 hours with a pick to get it out. 
 

So the seals were hard. Which explains things at least. The seal pack is fairly complex. Theres 3 different seal types, all with various lips and edges, Bosch part numbers on. Tried looking for replacements but measuring off the old shrunk seals wasn’t giving me any confidence. Then I guessed that this style of master cylinder must be used in other cars. So I just started googling 22.2mm M12 port Bosch master cylinders. And found this one for a bmw mini. It was £50 delivered and looked identical, bar a tad shorter.

 

So the new bmw spec master cylinder arrived on Friday and I whipped the piston out to find the seals and the insides are exactly the same as my Alphard unit. The only difference between the units is the throw, the Alphard cylinder has. 49mm throw, and this bmw one is only 40mm throw. These new seals came out way easier than the old ones, much more “rubbery”. The bottom one I struggled on before popped straight out! Interestingly, the seal designs are different. They are way tighter on the pistons too, proving measuring off the old ones wasn’t going to work.

 

Slapped the original cylinder with the new seals in this morning, did a vacuum bleed on it and managed to get it filled without air going in the lines. Had a solid pedal until I turned it on and the ABS module opened, now the pedal is a bit spongy again, so I think the rest of the lines need bleeding through with the new fluid. But the test drive was good, way better pedal feel, does not drop away, plenty of stopping power. Still got lots of pedal travel but I do think it’s a bit of a feature. The boosted on this thing is huge. It must be 400mm in diameter. The pedal travel is pretty normal with then engine not running. Then the booster sucks the pedal down loads. So I’m thinking this is old fluid in the lines to the wheels. It should be milky where it’s broken down in this case, so we’ll see what we see. 

 

 

[skippy992]

Wow that sounds like a complex job you seemed to know what your doing pity you weren’t able to pick up a new unit overseas as Toyota in the Uk and Oz are ridiculous in there  pricing of parts sometimes if you can’t find generic parts it’s cheaper to buy from Japan even with the freight cost.

 

[Blinchy]

There were a few options to order a new one from, but this time i was lead time limited. And now we know how the master cylinder is put together!
It is a bit complex, theres no information out there on rebuilding them, everyone just tells you to buy a new one. But it’s only 4 seals out of a seal catalog, that someone had to select and stuff them in with their finger too.