A deal I couldn't refuse....and then a build slower than molasses

[mizzle415]

I'm mainly posting this paint a picture of the multiple lives this LC has lived with us so hopefully ya'll can help me get my ABS/Atrac system working again among all the other little issues I'm working on. It'll also help me create a record of all the debacles of my disorganized mechanical adventures. I admit I am a bit of hack when it comes to working on my vehicles, but I usually persist until the job is done and it works as it should.

Purchased this 2002 LC in 2016 with 185K. These cruisers were pulling pretty hefty prices back then and I found this one listed for $11K. I went to go see it and it had a couple of dents, serious paint blemishes on all doors and rear bumper and surface rust on the frame and axles. I told the guy I didn't want it and walked away. About 30 minutes later he called me back and offered it at $8500. I still really didn't want it, but then he went to $7500 and I couldn't keep walking.

We sold this one to get into an LC when car seats took up all the space. Life on the coast is tough on crappy paint jobs.

Life 1 - Origin
Initial mods - 285/75/16 BFGs, Fox IPF 2.0s, new speakers, ARB dual compressor in the engine bay, Slee step sliders, OME 866 rear, and Tbars

I hardly any pictures from its first life, but here it is after lift and tires. We put on about 30K miles over the next few years, with lots of camping, towing a small 14-foot toy hauler all over the West Coast.

July 2018 - About 225K, It was hot AF that day, over 105 as we headed up the Pass, when we had a brake malfunction while towing the toy hauler up over Siskiyou Summit on the way to Oregon. Right at the top of the grade, all the lights lit up on the dash, bells, whistles, buzzers and the like. I eased off the gas and coasted it down into Ashland. At that point the brakes were locking up each time I tried to move, giving it throttle, to the point the motor would stall. I was eventually able to get it off the road. At the time, I did not realize it was the brakes locking up and thought I had a transmission problem as each time I hit the throttle, the whole car would shake, I heard grinding (the ABS activating) and then the motor would stall. I was able to send the family on their way with our friends we were visiting, and I had the LC towed to a transmission shop. By the following day, the symptoms had gone away, brakes no longer locking up, and the transmission shop could not find any issue (with the transmission). I ended up leaving the trailer and driving the LC a hundred or so miles to our final destination. It did act up when climbing up a steeper gravel road toward the end of that drive. I was mid-family vacation, towing a toy hauler, so I took it as a sign from the lord to buy a Tundra and I obeyed.

Notes:
1. Days before the trip, I had a friend/coworker/mechanic change out the F/R pads and rotors. It was a while back, but I think he damaged a wheel speed sensor and had to replace it.
2. It was hotter than Hades the day of the brake malfunction. During the last fill-up before the pass, there was some kind of air lock, and I had a lot of difficulty pumping any gas into the tank.

Several days had passed and my research pointed me to Mud and some threads on ABS module failure. We decided to gift the LC to my wife's cousin who lived nearby, with the promise that we'd get it back when he got a new rig. I assumed we sentenced the LC to death as it was already injured, and since I'd known Cousin Josh, he'd killed every vehicle he ever owned. He unplugged the wheel speed sensors and drove like that until July 2022, when he got a Chevy LBZ dually and towed the LC from Oregon back to me. It had a snorkel, some new dents, stains, rattles and a P0330 code, but she was alive!

 

[excessive]

thats quite a story on it. How many miles are on it now ? What's the future plans for it ?

 

[Jack90210]

I'm right there with you on the slow build, I've had my LX for over a decade and am just now doing more than a "perpetual baselining."

Love that this guy called you back with an offer that got better by the moment

 

[mizzle415]

So when we got the LC back, I was just going to leave it as is, and use it as a river bomber, something we could beat on a little and not worry about.

It started with addressing the knock sensors (replaced with OEM, then we needed a winch so we didn't get stuck and for that we needed a bumper. Ironman had a really good sale, so I picked up the bumper and 12K winch.

We ran the LC like that for a few months, then the dreaded misfire CEL started coming back.

Around October 2022, the CEL misfires and thread on MUD led me to replace the intake manifold gaskets. I think it was a P0305, then multiple cylinders, etc. There was thread which suggested spraying break cleaner at several places around the intake manifold to see if there was a change in idle RPM. This test was positive for me, indicating a leak in the intake manifold gasket. During my knock sensor job, I must have overtightened the manifold bolts which led to premature failure. Once the new manifold gaskets were in, the truck was running good and I decided to address the floater with a motor feeling of driving this boat. At some point in there I replaced the passenger side exhaust manifold and catalytic converter.

Here's Remi enjoying snow wheeling as much as the rest of us!

Ended up having a weekend to myself with the family out of town and I spent it rolling around in the driveway, wrestling with the LC.

Trail Taylor rear upper and lower links, all OE bushings for front upper and lower control arms, Sankei 555 UBJs, LBJs, front wheel bearings, drive flanges, sway bar endlinks (Moog), and based on that pic, looks like valve cover gaskets and valve seals. I'm thinking at this time I also did spark plugs and coils. Coils are from A1 Auto, not DENSO.

During the valve cover job, I had valve cover bolt on the drivers side at the back of the motor break off in the cylinder head. I ended up putting a clamp on it along with some extra FIPG. This hack held until the next episode...

 

[mizzle415]

thats quite a story on it. How many miles are on it now ? What's the future plans for it ?

To be continued...its not just the build that is slow....its my posting and pictures too.

 

[mizzle415]

Baja 2025 Trip Report - Post 1
December 20, 2025 through Jan 5, 2026, just over 3,000 miles, from Grass Valley to as far south as Loreto and back home. We used a combo of google maps, OnX, Ioverlander and paper maps for navigation. We did not have a set travel plan, choosing to take it as it comes so we could choose to spend more time in places that we liked. That said, I did a bit of research on a few destinations and some of the dirt routes on OnX.

The map below breaks up the trip days by colors.

We started by heading through Lake Tahoe, down HWY 395 down toward the inland empire of SoCal for Day 1.
Leaving stormy days in Norcal for sunshine and warm temps in Baja!

Day 2, we drove to El Centro and crossed the border at Mexicali east, breezing through inspection, but then forgetting to hit up the FMM office for our Mexican visas. We had to park the cruiser a few blocks from the border, walk back to the crossing, and procure the necessary documents.


It was myself, my wife and two sons (12 and 14). To accommodate our gear and sleeping arrangements, I desperately modified and outfitted our little off-road trailer, which started life as 1950s Sears farm trailer. We had an an RTT on the Cruiser and another on the trailer to give ourselves a little buffer from the scorpions.

This is what it looked like when I bought it probly 12 years ago. This is not mine, picture borrowed from the interweb. Mine was painted red and used as a Stanford Football tailgating trailer.

I added sidewalls, lid, lumber rack, doors, fenders, lights, full-length tongue bar and Gen 1 4Runner leaf springs with some O'Reilly shocks, 4Runner wheels, a year or so after I got it. To get it ready for Baja, I spent the weeks leading up to the trip modifying the rack to be static on the lid, building a full set of pull out drawers to house the stove, fridge, and camp kitchen. I added another access door for the battery, modified the tailgate to a swing gate for better access to the drawers, and then slapped on some CAT yellow paint to cover up the primer job its had for 10 years.

I scoured FB marketplace and picked up a San Hima RTT for the cruiser in October, then did some desperate FB shopping for and ARB fridge, 2400wh powerstation, an etaker DC to DC charger (in the Cruiser), some traction boards, jerry can holders for water, tongue box and I'm sure a few other things I'm forgetting. It was a super hectic couple of weeks leading up to the trip, but I'm happy to say that all things remained functional and the trailer and tents made setup and teardown awesome.

 

[mizzle415]

Baja Trip Report - Post 2
Oh yeah, I also swapped in a new OEM steering rack and brake master cylinder the week before we left. Yes, sometimes you need sawzall to change a steering rack
All this was accomplished while dodging some rainy days, short daylight hours. The paint will need serious touch up due to the moisture, but way better to travel with paint rather than primer!

Regarding the Cruiser, I've done a lot of work to this baby over many years of on and off ownership. I started this build thread as I still have some major issues that need to be resolved and want to provide the proper detailed back story before asking for help on the forum; but I've driven it to Tahoe, down to the coast a couple of times, through the heat of Death Valley for a week with no major issues, so I rolled the dice and decided to take the Cruiser on this trip.

Back to the Baja Trip Report.

Day 2 brought us through Mexicali in the early afternoon and we headed west on Mexico 2D toward Tijuana, making a left turn after an hour or so onto the dirt to cross Laguna Salada on our way to Canón de Guadalupe.
Canón de Guadalupe is a true desert oasis, transcending the dry lake bed, into a wide sandy canyon, then turned into a narrowing wash navigating around giant granite boulders, finally climbing into a mesmerizing grove of date palms tucked into a narrow canyon where three separate private hot spring resorts are located. It was dusk as we arrived which put us behind the 8 ball when trying to negotiate the price for a camp site. I'm pretty sure we overpaid by a lot, but when all was said and done, we couldn't have been happier. Each campsite had it's own private hot spring tub. Ours was called La Cueva and had a little cave you could soak in. The next day we hiked up the canyon to several emerald green swimming holes and small water falls. The water was damn cold.
It was our second night camping and our first night cooking out of the trailer. Stoked.

 

[mizzle415]

Baja Trip Report - Post 3 - No pics...I guess it didn't happen
Day 3 - Our camp host urged us to take the highway back to Mexicali and down to San Felipe, but we were determined to earn our international overlanding badges, so we left Canon de Guadalupe and continued south, taking a cross-desert route (Sand Flats trail) to San Felipe. As we were towing a trailer and rolling solo, all trails we did on this trip were green on OnX. That said we did kick it into 4lo many times to get up steep rocky pitches, roll through deep sand and even hit the center and rear diff locks through the silt beds.

My 12 year old took the wheel, picking our way through a maze of sand tracks and we ended up in a date palm orchard looking at a bunch of sheep boinking around on a pile of broken asphalt. As we were wondering where we were, an upset gentleman rolled up on a quad. After some time, I was able to communicate our planned route through the desert, and he kindly escorted us off the orchard and back to the "main route". He looked at me, looked at my family in the car, told me the route was very bad and I should got back to Mexicali...I'm starting to see a theme here. He asked if we had "Doble", and finally let us go on our way.

He was right, shortly after we left him the route turned into a whooped out race course through sand and cactus. We probably averaged 15 mph, and navigated through countless forks, parallel routes, washes, deep sand ruts and were relieved to hit another laguna salada (dry lake) and finally kick it up to 35 mph for the final few miles before we hit pavement. As we aired up, we my wife noticed that the wiring loom to the trailer and etaker DC to DC charger was missing. Going through the countless deep whoops had taken its toll. We hit the pavement and rallied on to San Felipe where Autozone awaited.

Day 4 - We awoke on the Sea of Cortez, in a funky private campsite on a gorgeous beach. The host never came out to collect, unlock the bathroom or say hi. We ended up leaving the money under a rock and heading out early to try to make it down to Loreto by Christmas. Heading out early meant no coffee, no crapper, grocery shopping while waiting for Autozone to open as i got the wrong pigtail for my trailer wiring. Had to go to another parts store as they didn't have what I needed (male 4 prong pigtail). Once we got to a nicer spot, the splicing began. Got the DC to DC working, and got the trailer lights to 80% functional, just missing the passenger side tail light. All signals and brake lights were functional and it stayed that way for the duration. We made it to the junction of Mex 5 and Mex 1 where a tiny roadside tienda (shop) advertised snacks and coffee. We were greeted by Tapatio Man, who looks like the handsome blue eyed mexican from the label who welcomed us to the "Real Baja", gave us a kind spanish lesson, coaxing words out of each of us and working with us on our pronunciation. People like this can truly brighten your day...or maybe it was the coffee and homemade empanadas .

Day 4 ended in Baja California Sur, in the city of Guerrero Negro where we setup camp on the beach near the outskirts of town.

Saw this guy on the way...my bleary eyes coulda sworn he was a unicorn.

We did not make to Loreto for Christmas Eve, rather we ended up in the Bahia de Concepcion south of the town of Mulege.

 

[mizzle415]

Save for Baja Post 4
A few videos...




January 7, 2026 - https://youtube.com/shorts/WbjfZ06_TPg?si=UoZvinz9sWn56zP1

 

[mizzle415]

Baja Post 5

Day 6 and 7 - After spending Christmas in Mulege, we headed down to Loreto. We all needed a shower after spending two days at the beach, so we booked a room at a tiny hotel/RV park and enjoyed the luxury of running water. Loreto is a large town/city near an airport, so it caters to Americans and Canadians, with lots of English speakers, a really nice/touristy town square and shopping area, a beautiful harbor and lots of tours you can book. We are terrible planners and didn't reserve anything in advance, so we couldn't get on a scuba tour and settled for a snorkeling tour or Coronado Island.
On our way back from the island, we asked our boat captain about our plan to head over the mountains on a dirt road to San Juanico. In a now familiar tone, he said that was a terrible idea and we should take the highway. He said the dirt road was terrible and there could be banditos! I could see my wife's expression change from excitement to fear in an instant. I reasoned that he's likely not driven the route recently and people tend to repeat stories that they hear or fears that they have with no firsthand knowledge.
Day 8 After the morning snorkel session, we drove back up toward Mulege and turned left on a dirt road which headed west over the mountains to La Purisma, San Isidro and eventually on to San Juanico (Scorpion Bay). The road started as a wide gravel washboard road and quickly turned into a rocky single wide fire road, with minor steep sections that I shifted into 4Lo for easy towing. There were washouts, creek bed crossings, ruts, etc. but nothing a stock 4x4 couldn't handle. As we rose up into the mountains, the plants got more diverse, cacti larger and we ended up in the high plains filled with giant Cardon cacti. As we left Loreto in the afternoon, we had to find a suitable camp site along the desert mountain traverse. Finding something well off the beaten path was critical ever since the boat captain mentioned "banditos". As the sun began to set, we arrived at a spot labeled Los Naranjos on Ioverlander. We took a smaller trail that offered a level spot several hundred yards off the main road, up against a desert cliff that was alive with desert dove calls, surrounded by giant Cardons and fell asleep to the yips of a thousand coyotes.
Day 9 took us from Los Naranjos to San Juanico. Once across the mountains, we descended into a river valley which hosted the small towns of Carambuche, La Purisma, and San Isidro. This area is lush with palm trees, and the road paralleled an irrigation canal which provided water to the three towns, making these towns unusually green and very idyllic. We made it out to the pavement and headed north to San Juanico in an attempt to get some waves at Scorpion Bay. We were hoping to rent boards here, but the sleepy town was in full hibernation due to the holidays. No boards and no swell had us moving on to San Ignacio on another dirt adventure day.
Day 10 we took the San Juanico Transpeninsula route to San Ignacio. This route had the worst washboards of all the trails we did, had the silt beds shown in the video post above and but was stunningly beautiful, with yellow cliffs like Utah hemming in cactus-filled valleys. The crossing from Loreto was much more rocky and slow, but this section with the silt beds had us much more concerned about getting stuck as solo rig. We made it through to San Ignacio by evening and enjoyed dinner in the beautiful town square and a great night's sleep at an RV park with hot showers and flush toilets. While having some ice cream, we met a guy from the States who recommended we go to Punta Abreojos where his brother in law had a coffee shop and rented surf boards. There was a beach break and point break with the possibility of waves. It was another sleepy little town on the coast, but the gods were not providing any swell once again, so we had to settle for some body surfing in the tiny shore break one again.

 

[excessive]

what a great adventure! living vicariously through your pics

 

[FJFOOL]

Quite the history you're building with that Cruiser ! The Baja trip sounds fantastic and told me I should do that ! Thanks for sharing.

 

[mizzle415]

Quite the history you're building with that Cruiser ! The Baja trip sounds fantastic and told me I should do that ! Thanks for sharing.

Do it!! We’re ready to go back