Toyota Hilux GUN26R Review

How good is this truck? Well technically it’s a ute but we love to call it a truck. These things are so good we own one. Part of the GDL Automotive Fleet is a Toyota Hilux.
Often used for carrying exceptional weight such as scrap metal runs to the tip, engine and gearbox transport and towing a car trailer with any vehicle on it.
Our hill has towed more than its own weight several times and has never given us grief whilst doing so. The trick with this vehicle is to gently accelerate and let the diesel engine pull itself along rather than flat throttling it and forcing it to labour unnecessarily.
We recommend wherever possible to go for the diesel model. However we have noticed a few things with ours that with a bit of research have been discovered to be common issues.
1. Front brake warpage. A savage shudder now comes through the vehicle when braking. Its to be expected given some of the weights we have towed but many owners are reporting the same fault.
2. Goes through rear tyres. Again towing a lot will increase this issue but ours has gone through a set rather quickly.
Hilux GUN26R Common faults3. DPF (Diesel Particular Filter) issue. Covered under warranty. It must be said that our dealing with Bill Buckle Toyota was fantastic and I highly advise dealing with Hayden at the Mona Vale workshop. The Hilux has a software update that was released to stop these vehicles from blocking up the DPF. This is all covered under warranty so if you have one get the software upgrade. We left ours too long and the DPF blocked up, blew heaps of smoke and triggered the check engine light to come on. New DPF and a software update later and we are back in action.
4. With higher kilometres on them the diesel injectors seem to still give trouble. This was a fault on the earlier models which we were hopeful Toyota would have fixed but it seems to not be so. Ours has not given this issue yet but many owners with high kilometre engines are reporting this fault.
It is worth noting that the factory optioned dual battery set up has a recall active for it as well, so if you have one with twin batteries fitted you should get that looked at too.
Finally it has to be said that the GUN26R like its older brothers has failed the favourite american moose test. This is a high speed, manoeuvre test that simulates dodging a moose running onto the road. In Australia we would call it the roo test and we would buy a bull bar and plow the twin over. Regardless this test can be viewed here.
Overall we highly advise buying the Hilux, most issues with them are trivial or covered by warranty and factory recalls, however this model is yet to stand the test of time. I suspect it won’t be as good as its predecessors and the DPF issue may prove to be a major one for clients who are out of warranty and don’t have the software updates.

Would You Like To Speak With The GDL Team?

Simply choose the option below that suits you best.

OR

Request A Callback

Enter your name and mobile below and one of our team will call you within 15 minutes!*

*During business hours

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.