Builds 2003 LX470 Overland Build (2 Viewers)

[AlamoCruiser]

We finished the trail, ate some dinner, and headed back to sleep for the night. The next day we began our journey home. If we had driven straight away, we would've gotten home in ~5 hours, but we were still technically on vacation! We took the opportunity to stop at Copper Club Brewing in Fruita, CO and Casey Brewing in Glenwood Springs, CO. Casey was a brewery I've been wanting to visit for quite some time now (big sour fan), so that was an awesome treat on our way back home. The trip was amazing, but it was nice to be home in our own bed again.

It was an amazing trip and my only regret is not having more friends along for the ride. I'm already looking forward to the next trip (wherever/whenever that may be), but in the meantime, I guess I should clean the red dust out of my Lexus, fix the rear house electrical problems, and probably make sure all of the trail damage that incurred along the way isn't going to lead to anything serious down the road!!

If you stuck around reading my whole trip report, props to you. I know it was wordy, but I really wanted to document and remember this experience. If you're in Colorado and want to meet up (maybe run some trails???), shoot me a message! I've got the itch now that I'm back home again!!

 

[reddog90]

Cool trip!

 

[AlamoCruiser]

Thanks for reading!

 

[krice118]

Looks like an incredible trip. Thanks for sharing! Bummer on the Toyo tires. Howd the LR4 handle the trails compared to the LX?

 

[AlamoCruiser]

Looks like an incredible trip. Thanks for sharing! Bummer on the Toyo tires. Howd the LR4 handle the trails compared to the LX?

The LR4 was impressive! I think because of my larger tires and slightly more clearance, I was able to tackle slightly gnarlier stuff (not to mention I was willing to go a little harder in my LX), but my dad definitely has the better driver mod equipped. I wish he hadn’t caught the sidewalls because it really cut his time short, but when he comes back with KM3s, I’ll get a better idea of how his truck is compared to mine

 

[krice118]

Looking forward to the review! the LR4 is a handosme looking SUV.

 

[AlamoCruiser]

About a month ago, I took on the job of replacing the timing belt, accessory belt, and water pump. I broke three breaker bars in the process of getting the crank pulley bolt free (no idea why it was torqued down so hard). Using a crank pulley puller was a lifesaver getting it off, and the reinstallation of everything was surprisingly easy. After driving it I can say that everything went perfectly, and I have other's in this forum to thank for their detailed threads on the job. I'll upload some photos of the job once I am able to for the sake of my cataloguing of everything

Next on the list is to inspect my front rotors for warping, I've been getting varying braking intensity on the front end recently.

 

[AlamoCruiser]

Here's some photos of the timing belt service (1.5 years later lmao). I used Yota Shop's Timing belt kit TKT-021. In retrospect, I probably should've changed the accessory pulleys while I was in there, but I was on a time crunch and didn't have a ton of extra $ to throw at the job.

 

[AlamoCruiser]

Timing belt part 2

 

[AlamoCruiser]

Last year the LX got some hail damage. Thankfully hail doesn't affect it's capabilities offroad!!

 

[AlamoCruiser]

For the past month I've been slowly working on the truck trying to hunt down a loud rotational squeaking at idle. My first thought was a bad pulley or the fan clutch. I took the serpentine belt off, checked every pulley and they all spun freely and with no unexpected friction. I checked the resistance in the fan clutch when spinning it freely and it appeared to rotate as expected and it had no grit or noise in the rotation by hand.

That brought me to considering the starter because I'm sitting at 275k miles on the odo, and I've not replaced it yet. I also noticed the screech was louder as the engine turned over so I believed that the starter gear was staying engaged while it was running. I took the leap and replace with a new Aisin starter and OEM intake manifold gaskets.

When I pulled the starter and spun the gear, it was so gritty and resistive, so I definitely needed to replace it. I took my time so as not to lose any bolts or break any clips and got everything replaced and put it all back together. At the same time, I replaced the terminal connector for the main ground wire that goes into the engine wiring harness because it was holding on for dear life.

Now that the truck is running with the new starter, it starts up great, but at idle it is still squeaking. I think I solved a problem, but not THE problem that's causing the squeaking at idle. Now I'm back to wondering which pulley is the culprit. Below is a video of the noise I'm hearing. I ordered an Aisin fan clutch to install (again, because of my high mileage and unknown clutch age) and will hopefully get it installed next week.