New to Toyota Hiace

Hello All!
Brand new to the forums and I need your opinion on a 1990 HIACE 4wd Diesel. I've recently discovered the HIACE series and fell in love but don't have much information on repairs/problems to look for and want to prepare for what i'm getting myself into.

I would post a link but new members aren't allowed to for 7 days. Visit Sodo.moto.com to find the van posting


This van is going for $8,750 with 106k miles. 2.8L Diesel engine. Little bit of rust near the wheels. My main questions are how easy are parts to find? Are repairs easy to make yourself? How much upkeep does the Diesel engine take compared to a gas/petrol model?  Do you think the listing is asking for a fair price?

Any advice would be helpful! My goal is to turn this into a weekend road trip beast.

Thank you!
-E

Welcome
I'm sure you'll find all the info you need here, it's ace for that as we are a group liking a very rare motor now

If you are talking about the blue one there is a patch of corrosion (rotting metal) at the bottom corner of the windshield seal on the driver's side that I would be concerned about. There was a close-up on the Craigslist posting, but they removed it. You can kind of see it if you zoom in on image 15. Edit: photos 38 & 40 on the sodo website show it. Probably what's keeping the price on the low side as that would need to be addressed immediately and could be an expensive repair. You'll also want to check how recently the timing belt job has been done as that's crucial and runs close to $800. Making sure the cooling system is tip top is also critical for the temperatures and road grades found in America. From what I've learned, changing all the belts/hoses/fluids/filters is a good idea as these vans often have little to no service history when they arrive in the states.

These are great vans with a very reliable diesel engine and consumable parts are sourceable through either your Toyota dealer, NAPA, Amazon, eBay, or from Yahoo! Japan. You can find a PDF of the shop manual online which is extremely helpful and reassuring. There are also great parts websites like jp carparts to look up part numbers to Google for sourcing.

Hopefully there is a mechanic in Bend that has experience with these in case a repair is more than you want to bite off. I'm very fortunate to live in the same city as Vanlife Northwest, he's a great mechanic and resource on these vans, as well as a rad dude. He's done great work on my van when I wasn't comfortable doing it myself.

You could always import one yourself through Pacific Coast Auto, which is what I did. It takes time and effort, and there's the risk that something was missed/under stressed (like a rust issue) during the auction inspection, but you'll pay less than at a dealer. PCA is super great to work with and they have tons of videos explaining the process, dos & don'ts, etc.

Best of luck!

Thanks for all the info djathens! Would the rust near windshield require more then a window replacement? I suppose it depends on how deep the rust penetrated which would be hard to see without removing the windshield? Glad to hear parts are easy to source. Portland might be our home in the upcoming years so it's nice to now there's a good mechanic there for future needs.

I'll be up in Washington near the end of the month and am going to take a look at the van. Hopefully the rust is minimal and no mechanical issues.

I guess my concern would be with the windshield seal having something to bite onto. I suppose they could fab and patch in some metal to recreate the missing portion. I also had a difficult time sourcing a windshield seal (didn't need one, but wanted to see how hard it would be to find one since mine is looking old), so I would want to have a new one on hand if the windshield ever had to come out. The fact that the passenger corner is also showing some corrosion may point to a bigger problem than what is visible on the outside.

Here in Europe we used to be able (at least a few years ago) to get replacement weld-in panels. I bought them too and got them welded in. Basically all the lower parts of the car, but there was also a panel of the whole part above headligts and gril up to the front window.

I'd be very concerned that the visible rust would just be the proverbial tip of the iceberg. Unfortunately 1990 is now very old and many things will start to fail (don't ask me how I know). Anything rubber i.e. all the seals and gaskets will have hardened and result in many leaks, you'll just think you've fixed them all and another one will fail. Many things are very hard to get to due to the layout so a lot of the cost of repairs is not the parts needed but the large amount of chargeable time to get the faulty part out and the new one in.
If you're going to see the van in the real take some tools and see if there are any other areas of rust you can poke a screwdriver through (especially the tailgate!).
You'd probably be wiser to try for something a little more recent.

Why not go for the new Toyota Hiace 2019? This is a highly evolved version of the 1990s model. The quality of the vehicle holds up to its standards while the design comes upgraded to keep up with the latest trends. The front seats have wide cushions that offer an excellent fit around the thighs and hips, providing lasting comfort on long trips. Its excellent space-efficiency accounts for the superior loading capability. The van meets transportation requirements via space customisation.

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You can't import a Hiace into the United States unless it is 25 years old, to the month. So 1994-05 is the 'newest' we can bring in at the moment.

dj speaks the truth. It has something to do with environmental and safety standards...it would in no way be to allow Ford and GM to build complete trash and still stay in business