AHC front corner dropping, christmas tree and bad luck so far with unicorn LX 570 (1 Viewer)

[Nihilarian]

Okay, finally found time to dig into this today. Found the problem...

I didn't get the toyota code reader, but I have an OBD2 reader. Connected it and got the same bank 2, oxygen sensor 2 code that the dealership found and then subsequently replaced the O2 sensor for. So, I moved on to the earlier suggestions to check out the harness connectors below the A pillar on the passenger side. There I found a problem. On the lowest connector there appears to be some mild signs of corrosion, but the big problem is I found a pin snapped off, shown with arrow below.

I haven't looked up the wiring schematic yet to absolutely confirm this is causing MY issue, but my guess is that it is. Open to suggestions on how to fix this... I guess the right solution is to pull all of this apart, extract the broken pin and repin the connector. Sounds like a nightmare.

On to the AHC issue. Pulled the service cover in the wheel well and found the fluid is about 1/4" below the min line with the height set to the Neutral position. I believe it's supposed to be between low and high in Neutral? So, there must be a leak. Incidentally, I found a drop of viscous pink fluid on the garage floor for the first time when I pulled it out. It seems Toyota likes pink fluids, so I'm not 100% sure what it is, but I do see oil collecting below the transition here:

Thoughts on whether this could be AHC fluid, or it not, what is it likely to be? It got dark and I couldn't trace it back to a source today.

That's where things are as of the moment. Bummers all around.

 

[tbisaacs]

Okay, finally found time to dig into this today. Found the problem...

I didn't get the toyota code reader, but I have an OBD2 reader. Connected it and got the same bank 2, oxygen sensor 2 code that the dealership found and then subsequently replaced the O2 sensor for. So, I moved on to the earlier suggestions to check out the harness connectors below the A pillar on the passenger side. There I found a problem. On the lowest connector there appears to be some mild signs of corrosion, but the big problem is I found a pin snapped off, shown with arrow below.

View attachment 3509484View attachment 3509485

I haven't looked up the wiring schematic yet to absolutely confirm this is causing MY issue, but my guess is that it is. Open to suggestions on how to fix this... I guess the right solution is to pull all of this apart, extract the broken pin and repin the connector. Sounds like a nightmare.

On to the AHC issue. Pulled the service cover in the wheel well and found the fluid is about 1/4" below the min line with the height set to the Neutral position. I believe it's supposed to be between low and high in Neutral? So, there must be a leak. Incidentally, I found a drop of viscous pink fluid on the garage floor for the first time when I pulled it out. It seems Toyota likes pink fluids, so I'm not 100% sure what it is, but I do see oil collecting below the transition here:

View attachment 3509491View attachment 3509492

Thoughts on whether this could be AHC fluid, or it not, what is it likely to be? It got dark and I couldn't trace it back to a source today.

That's where things are as of the moment. Bummers all around.

Clean AHC fluid is pink-ish and so is Toyota long life coolant. If it’s oily it’s probably AHC fluid

 

[bloc]

The first pic of pink drops are the bellhousing, correct? If so you most likely have a valley plate coolant leak.

And yes, you'll need to repin that wire. I've done it for much larger connectors.. will dig into the FSM to see if there's any intel on those compact ones.

Edit: that appears to be pin 54 on connector EL1. standby for what it does and possible repair stuff.

 

[lx200inAR]

Especially where you can see it dried to a pink crust. AHC Fluid wouldn't do that, and the coolant definitely does.

 

[Nihilarian]

The first pic of pink drops are the bellhousing, correct? If so you most likely have a valley plate coolant leak.

And yes, you'll need to repin that wire. I've done it for much larger connectors.. will dig into the FSM to see if there's any intel on those compact ones.

Yeah, it is. s***. Is that a big / expensive problem?

 

[bloc]

 

[bloc]

Yeah, it is. s***. Is that a big / expensive problem?

It's not big in that it won't fail dramatically and leave you stranded, it'll just leak slowly and risk you running low if you don't stay on top of it.

The fix itself.. intake manifold has to come off, SAIS valves too (which is the hard part of the job, or so I've read).

Just search for valley plate leak.. lots on this topic.

 

[Nihilarian]

View attachment 3509576

Oh, nice. It’s 54.

 

[bloc]

Looks like pin 54 is for the front right door lighting, though frankly the circuits are pretty confusing.

 

[Nihilarian]

It's not big in that it won't fail dramatically and leave you stranded, it'll just leak slowly and risk you running low if you don't stay on top of it.

The fix itself.. intake manifold has to come off, SAIS valves too (which is the hard part of the job, or so I've read).

Just search for valley plate leak.. lots on this topic.

…so… are these things really the “ultimate in reliability”, or am I in for high maintenance expenses in general to own this thing? There’s a lot wrong with this one at 125k miles and it’s received all of its appropriate service. The newest LC I’ve owned was a 62. I was hoping thing thing would be bullet proof.

 

[Nihilarian]

Looks like pin 54 is for the front right door lighting, though frankly the circuits are pretty confusing.

Okay, weird then… maybe this issue remains unsolved afterall.

 

[bloc]

…so… are these things really the “ultimate in reliability”, or am I in for high maintenance expenses in general to own this thing? There’s a lot wrong with this one at 125k miles and it’s received all of its appropriate service. The newest LC I’ve owned was a 62. I was hoping thing thing would be bullet proof.

Like literally any toyota over the years, there are known problems that if a diligent owner stays on top of, will get many, many miles of great service. But yes these are really complex (in relative terms), so there's more to go wrong.

As compared to most other cars where there are standout issues aplenty, and anything else can go wrong at any time.

For us, valley plate leak, 2008-2018 radiators, early water pumps, sunroof clogs or cowl leaks leading to water in the cabin.

Personally I think it was dumb of them to put such complex connectors so far down on the floor, but I can't imagine the packaging constraints they faced.

If you get on top of these issues your 125k mile LX will go to 400 most likely.

Edit: to answer directly, for this level of luxury and performance, yes they are easily the ultimate in reliability. But it isn't a corolla.

 

[Nihilarian]

Like literally any toyota over the years, there are known problems that if a diligent owner stays on top of, will get many, many miles of great service. But yes these are really complex (in relative terms), so there's more to go wrong.

As compared to most other cars where there are standout issues aplenty, and anything else can go wrong at any time.

For us, valley plate leak, 2008-2018 radiators, early water pumps, sunroof clogs or cowl leaks leading to water in the cabin.

Personally I think it was dumb of them to put such complex connectors so far down on the floor, but I can't imagine the packaging constraints they faced.

If you get on top of these issues your 125k mile LX will go to 400 most likely.

Edit: to answer directly, for this level of luxury and performance, yes they are easily the ultimate in reliability. But it isn't a corolla.

Got it, thanks for the context. It’s had the radiator replaced under warranty according to the service records. So it sounds like I’m basically facing the “known issues” then. Well, I’ll get these couple things fixed and hopefully that’s the end of it for a while.

I’d like to get it into “CarSpec” in Eden Prarie, MN as apparently they’re the Land Cruiser guys in my neck of the woods, but they won’t take new customers without a referral. If anyone’s reading this from MN with experience with these guys, I’d super appreciate a DM.

 

[tacoduck]

Got it, thanks for the context. It’s had the radiator replaced under warranty according to the service records. So it sounds like I’m basically facing the “known issues” then. Well, I’ll get these couple things fixed and hopefully that’s the end of it for a while.

I’d like to get it into “CarSpec” in Eden Prarie, MN as apparently they’re the Land Cruiser guys in my neck of the woods, but they won’t take new customers without a referral. If anyone’s reading this from MN with experience with these guys, I’d super appreciate a DM.

A lot of times there is a reason people sell their vehicle, and it’s usually a string of events that happen and the owner gets fed up with it. Electrical gremlins are usually at the top of the list for people offing a vehicle.

I know 3 people that owned Nissan armadas that had parasitic drain. Truck ate a battery a year, and truck would occasionally need a jump start. When it’s you wife, and it happens at a soccer tourney 3 hours away, and it happens more than once, you sell that problem to someone else.

Let’s hope you got a good truck with a couple teething issues!

 

[08URJ200]

To be fair, you essentially inherited all the known issues from the previous owner at basically the general mileage when all these known issues need to be dealt with or begin to rear their heads. It does suck to have to be the one to correct everything but once you do you will likely go another 125k with no other issues. The previous owner of my LC essentially did the same thing, dropped it right when it needed a bunch of maintenance, mostly preventative. I had to address most of the known issues right at 100k plus went ahead and did a few other things like brakes and fluids. After that, its been 5 years 45k miles later and all I've had to do is change oil and rotate tires every 5k. Consider yourself lucky to have this forum and the contributors on it as I was able to do 95% of the work through information provided by others here or at least gather the information needed to investigate, diagnose and be educated in the issues before going to a dealer or other mechanic. Don't let this experience ruin the ownership, you might have to invest more time, money, effort than you anticipated in the beginning but it should be well worth the trouble in the end. You will also be more educated and familiar with the vehicle moving forward. Good luck

 

[Madtiger]

I am sure that this has crossed your mind……but it seems like your LX is turning into a deep money pit. It can happen to any used car that one buys.

IMHO, if i were in your shoes and financially capable, then get it fixed enough to get rid of error lights and then dump it (aka sell it/trade in). Take the loss and move on.

 

[04UZJ100]

I am an avid online shopper but cannot fathom, under any circumstances, buying a vehicle site unseen on the internet. Let alone a decade old one with over 100k miles on it.......

Mad Tiger may be right. Sell it and move on.

 

[doru]

Sell it and move on ... maybe ... and play the game again buying another "nice looking" truck and going through all the issues again later. As already said these are well-known issues very likely to be hit with other truck.
It all comes to what you feel comfortable with. I went through a much worse experience than yours with a 09 Outback great looking but so run down and damaged under the skin. It was a pain in the butt to bring it back to great shape but also very rewarding. Great looking car, the best looking Outback ever built by Subaru, the "classic".

 

[Nihilarian]

Okay, so it looks like I'm ready to close this out. I got the truck into a competent independent shop and they worked on it for about a week and a half chasing down the issues. Here's the summary:

- Coolant leak - it was in fact the valley plate. Bummer, but fixed now.
- Christmas tree of check engine lights - this one was harder for them to nail down. It was flagging an O2 sensor code even though it had just been replaced. They swapped it with a known good O2 sensor and the code stayed. Tracked it down to what they thought was a loose connection that when fiddled with made it go away... until it came back. Tracked it down to a loose terminal crimp on the O2 sensor harness. Fixed that and it went away. But then... another code. Traced that some more and found another connector bad - this one to the ECM. Fixed that and it looks like the error codes and warning lights have in fact gone away. It's a mystery why there were multiple harness connectors screwed up - but I would bet it was the result of shoddy diagnostic work at the Lexus dealership.
- AHC - The AHC checked out fine. Apparently there's a tolerance on the corner to corner height and my truck was inside that tolerance. Levels were fine, everything else was fine.

In the end it cost me another $2,100, but I don't feel too bad about it. I think the price was more than fair given the amount of hours they had into it.

So, I finally have a fully functioning 200 series. All in, I paid $23k for the truck with 127k miles on it and put around $6k in repairs in. Paid around $800 for delivery, so I'm sitting at right around $30k for a well documented, rust free, no accidents 200 series with 127k miles and all common issues addressed (new radiator, valley plate repaired, new starter, new alternator). Have I done well on this one? I have no idea... probably not, but whatever.

Edit: BTW, CARspec in Eden Prarie, MN... Awesome shop. Competent, fairly priced and don't treat their customers like they're idiots. What more can you ask for? I have a follow up appointment scheduled for them to look at my 80 series. Recommended.

 

[bloc]

Okay, so it looks like I'm ready to close this out. I got the truck into a competent independent shop and they worked on it for about a week and a half chasing down the issues. Here's the summary:

- Coolant leak - it was in fact the valley plate. Bummer, but fixed now.
- Christmas tree of check engine lights - this one was harder for them to nail down. It was flagging an O2 sensor code even though it had just been replaced. They swapped it with a known good O2 sensor and the code stayed. Tracked it down to what they thought was a loose connection that when fiddled with made it go away... until it came back. Tracked it down to a loose terminal crimp on the O2 sensor harness. Fixed that and it went away. But then... another code. Traced that some more and found another connector bad - this one to the ECM. Fixed that and it looks like the error codes and warning lights have in fact gone away. It's a mystery why there were multiple harness connectors screwed up - but I would bet it was the result of shoddy diagnostic work at the Lexus dealership.
- AHC - The AHC checked out fine. Apparently there's a tolerance on the corner to corner height and my truck was inside that tolerance. Levels were fine, everything else was fine.

In the end it cost me another $2,100, but I don't feel too bad about it. I think the price was more than fair given the amount of hours they had into it.

So, I finally have a fully functioning 200 series. All in, I paid $23k for the truck with 127k miles on it and put around $6k in repairs in. Paid around $800 for delivery, so I'm sitting at right around $30k for a well documented, rust free, no accidents 200 series with 127k miles and all common issues addressed (new radiator, valley plate repaired, new starter, new alternator). Have I done well on this one? I have no idea... probably not, but whatever.

Edit: BTW, CARspec in Eden Prarie, MN... Awesome shop. Competent, fairly priced and don't treat their customers like they're idiots. What more can you ask for? I have a follow up appointment scheduled for them to look at my 80 series. Recommended.

My biggest issue would be what else did they do in the harness that may rear it's head later on?

Other than that potentially big thing depending on use case, seems like a decent enough value.

Glad you got it sorted.