Recent content by Carpenter951

Well I've found a company selling replacement wire ends for a FJ wiring harness so the correct plugs are available. Total cost looks to be about $40 for all of them. Now to figure out what wires go where without releasing the audio smoke inside the wires.

Can the stereo from a 07 FJ Cruiser be retrofit to a 98 LX470? The aftermarket Kenwood unit the previous owner had installed has given up on functioning. It was a two piece with cassette tape head unit and CD below to make up the double DIN space. My neighbor just had his 07 FJ unit pulled and...

^^^What he said. I have driven "old cars" most of my life and this is entirely correct. My 470 does it. It goes away as the engine warms up. Since I have 450k on my 470, I give it time to warm up and I don't punch it around on the road. For guys who don't "wrench"- I get that a person who isn't...

If it will pass your local inspection, I wouldn't worry. You should see mine. It has 450k on it and will put out that much and more for several minutes till the engine warms up. Mine is oil getting past the rings, valve stem seals and valve guides till the engine warms up and parts expand to cut...

Can it be saved? Yup, it's only money. You're better off spending a bit more and looking for a better example and avoiding the headache. I was a prof wrench back in the day and I don't shy away from high mileage vehicles with no rust. Put rust into the picture and I'm a hard pass.

Ok, I've been through this thread and it's a great write up on replacing burnt out bulbs- https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/ac-illumination.748876/page-4 But my question is- I have a 1998 LX470 and my HVAC controls are the old Toyota push button types. Does anyone know or will the ones listed...

Agreed, but it's easy to check to rule it out. In my case, the hose was so bad it crumbled when I touched it.

Nothing fancy- valve cover gaskets, rear U joint, steering rack bushings

Got a chance to do some more detailed looking. Hood struts are toast. No t belt change sticker anywhere visible so I'll just enter the VIN on the Lexus site and see what pops up. No visible oil leaks but the engine compartment is quite dirty so hard to tell after years of sitting and there is...

Still wanted to see what the group thinks on this one, I've never owned one of these and before I buy any vehicle that I've never owned, I do quite a bit of research to see what models are most desirable and which ones are real pigs. Don't know about a LSD or not, haven't looked at it that...

From the amount of work that has to be done to this vehicle, battery, interior, t belt, heater hose fittings, the OHC suspension is suspect, other things I know are going to have to be addressed, etc, I was thinking more on the lines of $1500 off, tops. I haven't heard the vehicle run and it's...

First off, new guy here but not new to wrenching and cars. Used to be in the Porsche club before selling them off and did all my own work (yes timing belts etc) and continue to work on my own stuff. Brings me to the question. As a contractor, I work on lots of different stuff and my favorite is...