MPG/Alignment/CV joint (1 Viewer)

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Oct 23, 2019
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Houston, TXX
Hey guys as you know I just bought my GX right now though I'm currently scratching my head at some issues.

1st. My MPG seems to be very low for what it should. Currently, I'm getting 13 mpg in the city. It's not lifted nor does it have bigger tires. I'm not saying I don't have any issues on paying gas but I am just wondering for when I do lift it, how much worse if it's going to get. Wondering if it's a CV issue cause that needs to be replaced or spark plugs or something in that realm.

2nd. I can't tell what needs to be replaced first. The truck is pulling hard to the left and feels as if it's struggling a little bit. I was told I need to replace the rack and pinion but it's not that important and I would be better off changing the boot and wait till I lift it to change the rack. Second is the CV joint. My second thought was going to be the CV joint since that is very oily upon inspection. But, I'm not getting any usual clicking sounds or anything noise showing time for a replacement.

Any comments would help guys!
 
Get it aligned first.

Check out your brakes,make sure none of the pistons are stuck causing the pads to drag on the rotors.

Service/reboot your CV.

Has someone diagnosed the steering rack is bad? If so, how, and what are the specifics?

If you get it all sorted, lift it and install larger tires, expect ~13mpg city.
 
CV wont create enough rolling resistance to negativity impact fuel economy with giving off some serious indicators, ie binding, grinding, ect... you wouldn't be daily driving it if the CV was damaged enough to be boat achoring the car down to 13mpg.

Spark plugs will impact fuel economy. Change them if there's no record of it being done and you have high mileage. Check your air filter and clean your MAF with some MAF specific cleaner and check your MPG again after.

Definitely check that you don't have a seized puston. That will cause pulling.
 
from my research before buying I've seen that siezed front calipers is fairly common for the 470's. mine has had the calipers replaced twice in it's history because of that and I only have 114k. if it's pulling to one side, get up to speed and then just coast (ie nutral) does the truck pull AND decelerate noticeably? what do your brakes look like? could also be a bad wheel-bearing.

Who told you the steering rack needed replacing? was it a shop you took it to? or the previous owner?
 
Spark plugs will impact fuel economy. Change them if there's no record of it being done and you have high mileage. Check your air filter and clean your MAF with some MAF specific cleaner and check your MPG again after.

if someone has done this already...anything you’d suggest? Plugs and air filter got replaced this summer, can check the MAF. Been running premium from shell for the last 3 tanks to make sure it wasn’t the crummy Kroger gas hurting my mpg.

highway driving from Atlanta to Athens is 70 miles, and that gets me just below 3/4 of a tank from full. Apparently this car is supposed to get around 400 miles of highway driving from a full tank, or 100 per quarter tank.
 
Get an alignment first... since its the GX only the front really gets aligned so its a $60 job usually

That will give you a good baseline, also with that you can inspect bushings (LCA) which can cause the car to pull when braking since the bushings will give under load.

second, do all your maintenance/tune ups regardless since its your "new" to you car and you want a good baseline on fluids and parts.


Regarding CV, if it aint leaking and its OEM.. leave it alone. OEM grease is VERY VERY slick so you dont have to worry about resistance there... however check diff fluids too while you are at the maintenance part... make sure the u joints and all the slip joints are lubricated too.

I can pull 18~ MPG on highway with my GX... thats 33" front armor/winch, sliders, lift.... but city im at 13-14 lol


also to add... the biggest factor in MPG and efficiency is driver habits... if you keep speeds at 65 or below the air resistance is less and MPG is up.
 
if someone has done this already...anything you’d suggest? Plugs and air filter got replaced this summer, can check the MAF. Been running premium from shell for the last 3 tanks to make sure it wasn’t the crummy Kroger gas hurting my mpg.

highway driving from Atlanta to Athens is 70 miles, and that gets me just below 3/4 of a tank from full. Apparently this car is supposed to get around 400 miles of highway driving from a full tank, or 100 per quarter tank.
just an FYI in my experience gas gauges are not exact when it comes the the 1/4,1/2,3/4 marks... usually I get more from full to 3/4 than I do 3/4 to 1/2 and even less 1/2 to 1/4 and a lot less 1/4 to E. ie the 400 won't be divided up equally by the gas gauge.

That being said... I haven't paid attention to that in the GX (only had it since Nov)
 
I am lifted, and armored (though it's all aluminum) and run 35s. I get 16.5 mpg on the freeway and 12-13 in the city.
 
just an FYI in my experience gas gauges are not exact when it comes the the 1/4,1/2,3/4 marks... usually I get more from full to 3/4 than I do 3/4 to 1/2 and even less 1/2 to 1/4 and a lot less 1/4 to E. ie the 400 won't be divided up equally by the gas gauge.

That being said... I haven't paid attention to that in the GX (only had it since Nov)

Yup, that's very true. This would make my gap in mileage more concerning, as I'm getting ~70 miles of highway driving on (slightly more than) 1/4 tank, or ~280 miles for a full tank. This is with a bone stock truck. I'm gonna try cleaning the maf and throttle body this weekend if the rain lets up, and see how the mpg looks on the highway. Never ceases to amaze me how much knowledge this forum has.
 
The person that looked at it told me that the rack and pinion were due for a change but that could wait. This is what I’m seeing under the truck

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Your driver's side CV is wetting the bed. I doubt its your rack too. My passenger side just let go yesterday :(.

For MPG's, check the heat coming from the brakes after driving, my bet is the driver's side is hotter than the passenger side. If you have a cheap HF infrared thermometer, use that to measure the difference between the sides. This would answer the poor MPG's and the pulling left.
 
Yeah it is :/ I’m going to replace the boot on both the rack and the joint ASAP. I’ll check out the breaks too !

depending on the cost of an OEM boot + the time to reboot the cv axle and get it off/on the car, you may consider replacing the cv axle entirely.

I did both of my front cv axles about 6 months ago, and the I think the parts cost were barely different for the boot kit from lexus vs the cv axle from them.
 
????
Lexus charged almost the same amount for an OEM CV axle as they did for a boot?

You can buy parts store axles for around the cost of an oem boot, but they aren't oem axle quality. If you can get oem axles for the cost of a boot, post a link, I'll buy some trail spares!
 
check Toyota for 04-09 4 runner CVs... may be cheaper since they don't have to dip them in gold lol
 
????
Lexus charged almost the same amount for an OEM CV axle as they did for a boot?

You can buy parts store axles for around the cost of an oem boot, but they aren't oem axle quality. If you can get oem axles for the cost of a boot, post a link, I'll buy some trail spares!

hey, that’s my bad. I must have misunderstood the shop that did the work on my car. It was probably that the labor to remove and reboot both cv axles + cost of cv boot kit was only slightly cheaper than simply dropping in new cv axles. The dealer site I use has the cv axle kit for $220 and the boot kit for $50 or so. I’m not sure what dealer is the parts supplier for the shop I use.

This is the dealer site I use. They ship right away, and their prices tend to be far cheaper than any of the lexus dealers here in Atlanta.

Jim Hudson Lexus of Augusta

Still, depending on the mileage of the car, I’d consider replacing the axle instead of just re-booting. $170 is a pretty big price difference, but I tend to be super proactive rather than reactive when it comes to cars.
 
Toyota offers OEM reman complete cv's for 4R/FJC/GX for around $120. Only issue is stock is hard to come by...
 

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