100k Dealership Maintenance List - any input? (2 Viewers)

[teleskier]

I'm the second owner of a 2007 Texas truck with 98k on the clock. I've had it for 10 years and neighborhood speed bumps are about as rough as this thing has seen. Zero rust anywhere. Its our family adventure vehicle and I plan on keeping it for a very long time.

Although I could do most of this, free time is not in surplus. I'm going to spurge on getting it done all at once at the dealer. I did not do the 90k service on this where many things are recommended. I'll post dealer prices once I get it done. Here is my list

1. Timing Belt
2. Water pump
3. T stat
4. Trans/T case Fluid Flush and Change
5. Diff Fluid change
6. Coolant flush
7. PS fluid flush
8. CV Boot replacement
9. Plugs
10. Fuel Filter
11. Clean throttle body
12. Replace Alternator (while they are in there? Non OEM?)

Am I missing anything?

 

[McDuff123]

Brake fluid, maybe brake lines. Hell, maybe rotors and pads too.
How about the rear suspension airbags? Or are you currently or soon-to-be on an aftermarket spring and coil suspension?

 

[Rednexus]

A few comments:

1. The fuel filter is actually a sock inside the tank and is non-replaceable.
2. I would have the radiator done at the same time the T-belt and alternator are done. Might not be a bad idea to replace radiator and heater hoses too.
3. I concur on getting the brake fluid flushed, although the lines are probably OK. If you were to replace them I'd go with braided stainless lines which are the same cost as OEM or less for all 6.
4. I would leave the CV boots alone unless they are torn. If they aren't torn the will be. It's an easy job to replace the CV so there really isn't a benefit from doing it now vs. later when they get torn.
5. Same thing with pads/rotors. Another easy job that can be put off until they are needed.
6. This is going to be an expensive service - I'm guessing $4K min, maybe quite a bit more. Any reason you are using the dealer? There must be a good independent Toyota/import shop in Austin who could do this for 30-50% less than a dealer. For example Denso reman alternators and new radiators are probably half the cost on RockAuto that a dealer will charge you, and they are basically the same part.
7. I would leave the shocks/suspension alone if you ever intend to lift the truck, as mentioned above. Then do everything at that time. With 98K your suspension is probably nearing the end of life but might have a couple of years left in it.

 

[jiggletits]

There is absolutely no need to replace the alternator, radiator, brakes, CV boots unless they NEED replaced. Don’t waste money fixing things that do not need fixed.

Alternator especially, are you being for real? You bought a Toyota not a Ford. Things don’t just break out of nowhere on a Toyota.

Scheduled maintenance is one thing… do that. Otherwise if it isn’t broke, don’t fix it unless pissing money away for no reason is your thing.

98k miles is hardly ‘end of life’ for any component of this vehicle. Take that phrase with a grain of salt.

 

[Rednexus]

I disagree regarding the GX radiator and alternator. Radiators are a known failure point on these vehicles, due to the plastic tanks. It's only a matter of time before the 15 y/o plastic cracks and the radiator fails (see multiple threads on this forum about it). This can either leave you stranded on the side or the road (potentially overheating your engine and causing other issues if you don't catch it soon enough), or you can preemptively replace the radiator to remove the failure point for another 10-15 years. A Denso radiator is like $150 for these vehicles and it's nominal extra effort to replace it when the timing belt is being done and the cooling system is being flushed.

Alternators are also another known failure point, mainly because they are mounted low on a 2UZ engine and often get submerged at water crossings. Much like a radiator, an alternator failure can leave you totally stranded. A Denso reman alternator is also <$200 and it's an easy part to replace to when the T-belt and radiator are being done.

I'll be replacing both the alternator and radiator on mine early next year before we take the GX on it's next road trip. $350 in parts and a day in my garage is a better way to handle this rather than having them fail on the trail and being stranded in the middle of nowhere.

The only other real failure point in these vehicle is the starter - though it will usually give you some warning (clicking solenoid) before it goes. It's a difficult job to replace it.

 

[HomersCanyonero]

I disagree regarding the GX radiator and alternator. Radiators are a known failure point on these vehicles, due to the plastic tanks. It's only a matter of time before the 15 y/o plastic cracks and the radiator fails (see multiple threads on this forum about it). This can either leave you stranded on the side or the road (potentially overheating your engine and causing other issues if you don't catch it soon enough), or you can preemptively replace the radiator to remove the failure point for another 10-15 years. A Denso radiator is like $150 for these vehicles and it's nominal extra effort to replace it when the timing belt is being done and the cooling system is being flushed.

Alternators are also another known failure point, mainly because they are mounted low on a 2UZ engine and often get submerged at water crossings. Much like a radiator, an alternator failure can leave you totally stranded. A Denso reman alternator is also <$200 and it's an easy part to replace to when the T-belt and radiator are being done.

I'll be replacing both the alternator and radiator on mine early next year before we take the GX on it's next road trip. $350 in parts and a day in my garage is a better way to handle this rather than having them fail on the trail and leaving you stranded.

If you off-road or go on long trips, it’s better to take care of alternator and radiator on your own time rather than on a trip.

I had to replace my radiator because it was seeping pink coolant. I combined it with TB, WP, drive belt, cap, tstat, and hoses. And this saved labor money at Indy shop. All good parts including Lexus, Toyota, Denso and aisin.

I replaced alternator as preventive maintenance for fear of getting stranded while in Death Valley. Alternators can start having issues without warning.

Now, if you only drive locally in your city, then wait until you see pink crust on radiator and get electrical gremlins to show up before replacing these two parts.

 

[jiggletits]

The alternator on my 2003 is factory original. 270k miles. Doesn't sound like OP's vehicle has been through water crossings, or off-roaded much at all for that matter.

If the radiator is full of leaves/dirt/debris it's worth inspecting it, but not just arbitrarily replacing it at dealer pricing. That is stupid. If you are DIY'ing all the work, then sure buy a radiator for $150 and do it... but at the dealer? I bet the part alone is $450-600 plus their bull**** 2-3x markup on "shop hours" vs actual hours it takes to do the work. I bet a radiator replacement alone at the dealer is well over $1000. Let them inspect it then go from there.

"Known issues" on a web forum full of people who off road these vehicles are not "known issues" to the general masses who actually buy them to drive around the burbs. These things don't happen to 99% of these vehicles.

 

[Rednexus]

The alternator on my 2003 is factory original. 270k miles. Doesn't sound like OP's vehicle has been through water crossings, or off-roaded much at all for that matter.

If the radiator is full of leaves/dirt/debris it's worth inspecting it, but not just arbitrarily replacing it at dealer pricing. That is stupid. If you are DIY'ing all the work, then sure buy a radiator for $150 and do it... but at the dealer? I bet the part alone is $450-600 plus their bulls*** 2-3x markup on "shop hours" vs actual hours it takes to do the work. I bet a radiator replacement alone at the dealer is well over $1000. Let them inspect it then go from there.

"Known issues" on a web forum full of people who off road these vehicles are not "known issues" to the general masses who actually buy them to drive around the burbs. These things don't happen to 99% of these vehicles.

I would be interesting in seeing your statistical analysis that shows that radiators and alternators don't fail on 99% of Lexus GX's.

If you are OK driving around on a 19-year old alternator that has spun hundreds of millions (billions?) of times and relying on a 19-year old piece of plastic that's been thermally-cycled and fatigued under pressure and heat thousands of times, that is of course up to you. The fact of the matter is, bearings in alternators will eventually wear out. My GX, which was owned by a Karen prior to me buying it, had a Delco a older reman alternator on it when I bought it at 135K. Cruising the 'burbs was enough to do it in at 100K or before. Plastic in radiators will naturally degrade, harden, and crack with age. It's just a matter of time before both of them go out. If the OP is looking to "bulletproof" his GX for another 10+ years of ownership, it would be foolish not to replace these items (do some research - failure is common) when the GX is already being torn apart. I would not want to be relying on a 29-year old piece of plastic 10 years from now.

Dealer pricing is another issue - if this were my GX I would find an indy mechanic and save a lot of money. When I replace these I'm just going to DIY it.

 

[HomersCanyonero]

The alternator on my 2003 is factory original. 270k miles. Doesn't sound like OP's vehicle has been through water crossings, or off-roaded much at all for that matter.

If the radiator is full of leaves/dirt/debris it's worth inspecting it, but not just arbitrarily replacing it at dealer pricing. That is stupid. If you are DIY'ing all the work, then sure buy a radiator for $150 and do it... but at the dealer? I bet the part alone is $450-600 plus their bulls*** 2-3x markup on "shop hours" vs actual hours it takes to do the work. I bet a radiator replacement alone at the dealer is well over $1000. Let them inspect it then go from there.

"Known issues" on a web forum full of people who off road these vehicles are not "known issues" to the general masses who actually buy them to drive around the burbs. These things don't happen to 99% of these vehicles.

I must be on the mall cruiser forum...yes, my perspective is from an offroading and road-trip perspective.

It's way cheaper to fix it on your own time than at an inopportune time when you are on a trip far from home.

Long story on how I learned the hard way...I had a radiator get clogged on my 80-series (my fault for switching from green to red coolant only partially which clogged the radiator). Only problem I was on a trip in Utah (lived in So Cal) and I had to fix it at the Toyota dealer because the nearest local repair shop was not familiar with 80s and changed my clutch fan with aftermarket one. I had to go back to the local shop and ask them to put my original OEM fan clutch back and reimburse me for a bad repair. Issue was radiator not clutch fan.

Toyota dealer in Salt Lake was great. Charged me decent prices and allowed me to get 94 brass radiator from CruiserDan in New Mexico Toyota who gave me a 20% IH8MUD discount and free shipping to another Toyota dealer in Salt Lake City. Anyways, long story but I wasted a week getting all this work done. Luckly, I was there for a sports tournament for my kids and I was able to rent a car. Regardless, one week and extra car rental fees. And the repair has been good for 14 years!

So, I tend to over-maintain my offroading rigs...more so than my LS460 car which get minimal maintenance because it's always in the city.

@Rednexus by the way, my 1996 80-series (my son drives it now) is still on the original alternator, water pump, timing chain, engine, transmission, and head gasket. Only parts replaced recently were power steering pump, starter, and radiator. Cats, brake booster, and fuel injectors are on the watch list. That thing has been a tank. CLose to 300K miles and I bought it with 100K miles. I did baby the fluids, hoses, and other stuff when I had it.

 

[teleskier]

I love the debate here; I wanted to update everyone to make this debate even more healthy.

UPDATE: Brought it in to Lexus of Austin yesterday and had it looked over. The list of items above was a bit of a surprise to them, but I think they immediately understood the plan when I told them I was keeping the truck for at least 10 more years and need it bulletproofed.

While they were looking through things they found the front and rear cam seals were leaking. This was a surprise. As a result, they are going to basically replace all the top end gaskets, seals, valve stem seals (?) etc. The SAIS had been replaced 5 years ago, so I am going to leave that alone. So the package price for the water pump, timing belt, PS flush, coolant flush, thermostat, valve cam seals, plugs and coil packs is about $4200. Probably paying 30% more than I would with a local place for that work. They are also doing both front axles, tcase/diff flush, transmission flush, repairing an emergency brake issue, PS flush... They will have it done by Wednesday - 3 days. Mechanic time 29hours. Total price is going to be close to $6-7k. Meanwhile I have a courtesy RX350.

In this case, we could debate the merits and markups at dealerships, but I am now glad it's there; all OEM stuff, Toyota certified mechanic, warranty on work, a place to call on if something goes wrong, rock-solid Lexus service history, and done in 3 days.

 

[HomersCanyonero]

Congratulations on getting all that maintenance and repairs done. The one thing I will say about Lexus/Toyota is that once you take care of these things, the maintenance and repairs will last for a long time....meaning they don't go bad the next year with the same failure.

Some people have time to fix things and others have money to fix things. And time is money, so getting it done in 3 days with a "free" loaner is good. You should have asked for a LX470 loaner LOL.

 

[jiggletits]

Man that is a lot of money.

If the cam seals are the same as on the 5.7, they will seep for 500k miles without being a problem.

I still think you're wasting your money but you do you man! It'll be a great truck whether you fix all that stuff or not.

 

[Toyoland66]

Anecdotally I agree with replacing the radiator and alternator with 90k service as I had both those items go bad on mine shortly after doing the 90k and had to replace them at separate times. Practically speaking both are minimally added labor to do during the 90k compared to separately, but I don’t know if shops take that efficiency into account. I do all my own work so it’s a consideration for me. I also replaced the fan bracket for the same reason.

 

[MrTorgue]

I disagree regarding the GX radiator and alternator. Radiators are a known failure point on these vehicles, due to the plastic tanks. It's only a matter of time before the 15 y/o plastic cracks and the radiator fails (see multiple threads on this forum about it). This can either leave you stranded on the side or the road (potentially overheating your engine and causing other issues if you don't catch it soon enough), or you can preemptively replace the radiator to remove the failure point for another 10-15 years. A Denso radiator is like $150 for these vehicles and it's nominal extra effort to replace it when the timing belt is being done and the cooling system is being flushed

^ 100% this. The plastic tanks are brittle with this kind of age. Most people don’t realize rubber and plastic still age even if the vehicle isn’t driven a lot. Low mileage means nothing to rubber and plastic parts. My 2010 460 needed it’s radiator replaced due to...you guessed it the plastic tank cracked.

 

[HomersCanyonero]

Anecdotally I agree with replacing the radiator and alternator with 90k service as I had both those items go bad on mine shortly after doing the 90k and had to replace them at separate times. Practically speaking both are minimally added labor to do during the 90k compared to separately, but I don’t know if shops take that efficiency into account. I do all my own work so it’s a consideration for me. I also replaced the fan bracket for the same reason.

Some Indy shops will negotiate with you on labor rates. I collected all my parts for radiator, cap, tstat, hoses, drive belt, WP, TB, coolant, etc. This took me like a month to gather from various sources both online and at the Lexus and Toyota dealers.

I then took all my parts to 3 Indy shops to get a quote on labor to install all at once. Parts were $500 and my trusted Indy mechanic gave me the best price. $500 labor. This was in 2017. Others quoted me $650 and $800 for labor back then.

And my radiator had pink crust and PO had installed an aftermarket water pump with a broken bolt. All fixed with oem parts.

So, you have to understand that OP has money and no time. I saved money by ordering all the right parts which saved my Indy mechanic time from having to figure out what to order.

My Indy mechanic prefers that I bring the parts because he ends up spending a lot time ordering everything that’s needed. And he charges me close to msrp when he orders as opposed to me getting online and dealer discounts.

It ends up being a win-win for me…but I spend a lot of time researching and ordering the right parts.

 

[HomersCanyonero]

Man that is a lot of money.

If the cam seals are the same as on the 5.7, they will seep for 500k miles without being a problem.

I still think you're wasting your money but you do you man! It'll be a great truck whether you fix all that stuff or not.

But you are right…that’s a big chunk of money on these repairs.

 

[HomersCanyonero]

By the way, I saw two really good YouTube videos
from TrailRecon and OverlandBound on things that break in Moab when on the trials or things to check before going offroad.

One item out of 10 on the list that often fails is the cooling system (radiator, hoses, etc) because of the extreme heat and tough wheeling trails really stress out the cooling components with extreme pressure/heat.

People don’t realize that normal city driving doesn’t equal trail driving, so a brittle radiator plastic top or a worn out cap or a marginally working tstat or worn out hoses or old coolant or dirty radiator (wow that’s a lot of ifs) wont stand to that trail pressure and heat and something gives out.

Anyways, I go off-roading so I think of all these things and I baby the gx470 because of the off-roading. I don’t baby my city driving sedan.

 

[Weedhopper]

That’s a lot of money but spread that out over the ten years he will own it. I did the same thing to the 4Runner but in two stages. The only time it has been in for service now is for oil changes, no surprises.

Check the transmission lines too. Age will cause cracks and leaks. Transmissions are expensive.

 

[HomersCanyonero]

That’s a lot of money but spread that out over the ten years he will own it. I did the same thing to the 4Runner but in two stages. The only time it has been in for service now is for oil changes, no surprises.

Check the transmission lines too. Age will cause cracks and leaks. Transmissions are expensive.

It's a lot of money and still not addressing a few items like the radiator and alternator, but those could be done later.

 

[teleskier]

Yeah... time is the problem. It is what it is. Opportunity cost is too high for me to spend a week (or months) on this project. Too many projects as is, working 80+ hours per week, 2 kids and a few hours a week for putting my feet up.

To the point about aging plastic... the problem with these newer cars is that everything is plastic and there are a billion little parts that crack and age. Its why I am doing a EMP-proof 1HZ in my FJ40 and eliminating or bulletproofing as many failure points as possible.

Truthfully, the GX470 is probably going to be driven by my kids when they get to that age. It's the main reason I want it a stable as possible.