Arch Stanton's 2013 GX460 premium & 2020 editions of 2010-2021 Lexus GX460 Repair Manuals (1 Viewer)

[Arch Stanton]

Hi guys,

New to this community. I figured I'd introduce myself & my GX460.

I'm not actually an off-road guy. I decided to join this community because I found more valuable information here than anywhere else when doing research for my GX460 purchase.

I'm coming from the Volvo Swedespeed forums, where I recently took my 2005 Volvo S60R to a hair shy of 200,000 miles before selling it due to a burnt exhaust valve, which I repaired & came back within 5000 miles. I was using the Volvo for AWD in the snow, and its 3300lb tow rating, to tow karts/motorcycles to the track. Here's the Volvo on its last ski trip to Big Sky Montana, circa February 2020:

And an atypical tow duty:

Speaking of which, I've been restoring this 1968 Pontiac Firebird since 2013...

The Firebird gives me all the work I need & frankly I ran out of patience wrenching on my Volvo. After numerous minor issues towards the end of ownership, I decided my next car would be something reliable.

Here's a pic of the 2013 GX460 Premium I settled on. I bought it with 79,000 miles in South Lake Tahoe, California & went to a U-Haul in Nevada to rent a car transporter to tow the Honda Accord I had borrowed back home to Southern California. The GX460 did an outstanding job with this ~5,500lb payload up and down the snowy mountains of the Sierra Nevadas for a grand maiden voyage of ~500 miles. I'm really happy I went with the Premium model, the airbag suspension makes towing much less nerve-wracking.

Anyways, since I do my own wrenching, I figured it would be handy to have the 2013 GX460 service manual on hand...

REPAIR MANUALS

I searched a bit and found that someone has previously posted a factory service manual here, but it looks to be woefully out of date. Even for my 2013, the articles I were reading were lacking key information. I suspect the factory service manual currently floating around is an early edition written for the 2010 model.

I went ahead and got a TechInfo subscription & was able to grab all the info for both the 2013 Lexus GX460 factory service manual, as well as the 2016-2021 Lexus GX460 factory service manual, since I figured there must be people here who also need a more up to date service manual. I then wrote some scripts in bash/awk/javascript/python to collate these into single PDF files, with cross-linking enabled.

Here are the download links:

2013 Lexus GX460 Repair Manual (RM22J0U) - 358MB. Last updated by Toyota February 27, 2020
2016-2021 Lexus GX460 Repair Manual (RM27D0U) - 598MB. Last updated by Toyota October 23, 2020

I didn't bother getting the 2010, 2011, 2012, 2014 or 2015 manuals because I figured that 2013 should cover 2010-2012, and the 2016-2021 manual should cover years 2014-2015 as well.

I hope these manuals are useful to you guys!

Arch Stanton

 

[r2m]

Since this is your post, I'm going to rabbit trail a wee bit.
Looking at that Firebird, it that the 400 with ram-air heads and 4 speed Hurst shifter?
Also, you've hinted at both of my general locations! My home is here in San Clemente, and we have a place up in South Lake Tahoe, at State Line.

 

[Lono]

Even if a person were wearing a beret in an outside cafe, sipping from thimble sized coffee cup with a cigarette between the wrong fingers while extolling the virtues of SPHC, they wouldn't be as European as the pic above. If it weren't for the shape of the plate, this would be a dead ringer for some Dutch/Nordic muscle car enthusiast.

So... the Volvo had problems you say? lol

You're the kind of guy who is going to benefit most from Toyota/Lexus ownership. Welcome. Hopefully it doesn't bore you, but practically speaking, you can forget that your new tow rig has valves.

 

[Arch Stanton]

Even if a person were wearing a beret in an outside cafe, sipping from thimble sized coffee cup with a cigarette between the wrong fingers while extolling the virtues of SPHC, they wouldn't be as European as the pic above. If it weren't for the shape of the plate, this would be a dead ringer for some Dutch/Nordic muscle car enthusiast.

So... the Volvo had problems you say? lol

You're the kind of guy who is going to benefit most from Toyota/Lexus ownership. Welcome. Hopefully it doesn't bore you, but practically speaking, you can forget that your new tow rig has valves.

Hahahah, it's funny you mention that being European-- I agree whole heartedly.

While I am of course a proud American, I really cringe at our tendency to overbuild and overkill things...

I read somewhere that Europeans will buy a car for the 99% use case-- driving to work, dropping off the kids, getting groceries, then wing it the remaining 1% of the time. Whereas Americans will typically buy a car for that 1% use case-- towing their muscle car 60 miles with no drivetrain to get the engine bay painted, then use that same tow vehicle for the remaining 99% of the time. I definitely fall in the former category. I can't believe how many people have pickups these days and never use them. You can build a Harbor Freight folding trailer for about $500, use it the 1% of the time with your sedan when you need to haul something, and fold it up & store it in your garage the remaining 99% of the time... that's what I did.

Yeah, I'm really excited by the possibilities of having more room & a 6500 lb tow rating with the GX460. I got every single ounce of utility out of my Volvo, and I will do the same with the GX.

Full disclaimer: The Firebird does not have an engine/transmission in the above picture, so even with the U-haul dolly, I was under the 3300lb tow rating of the Volvo. As much as I love pushing the envelope, I would *never* condone towing more than your tow rating.

 

[Tanaman]

I’ve owned 3 Rs (2 SR and 1 VR) and as much as I loved those cars, they are just not nearly as reliable as Toyota/Lexus.
As a fellow Volvo R enthusiast and now GX owner, congrats and welcome!

 

[Arch Stanton]

Since this is your post, I'm going to rabbit trail a wee bit.
Looking at that Firebird, it that the 400 with ram-air heads and 4 speed Hurst shifter?
Also, you've hinted at both of my general locations! My home is here in San Clemente, and we have a place up in South Lake Tahoe, at State Line.

It is a 400, but has #13 heads from 1970 which aren't really that great. Unfortunately this one is currently a TH400 automatic. When I have to take the engine out again (it's already been out twice since I've had it), I'll seriously consider some aftermarket aluminum heads (Kauffman? Edelbrock?) & replacing the TH400 with a T56 manual. I think the original 400 block with a modern 6 speed manual would be really cool, though it will involve some cutting to get the shifter in.

Awesome! I'm all over the state-- grew up in Pasadena, have worked SF for the past 5 years, one of my SF skiing buddies has a cabin in Truckee so I'm always in North Lake (Squaw/Northstar) during the winter, and I'm currently down in Del Mar, "working from home" until they call us back into the office. I have Ikon pass this season but haven't used it yet, might consider just deferring to next year.

 

[Arch Stanton]

I’ve owned 3 Rs (2 SR and 1 VR) and as much as I loved those cars, they are just not nearly as reliable as Toyota/Lexus.
As a fellow Volvo R enthusiast and now GX owner, congrats and welcome!

Nice! I got my S60R back in 2008... I was 22 at the time, so the thought of an estate didn't really appeal to me & I went with the sedan. As I got into my early 30s, I realized that the V70R would have been better for my purposes, especially once I adopted a dog. The reliability wasn't awful for me-- it never actually stranded me, but I'm the sort of person that fixes something as soon as it breaks. Towards the end of ownership, I was fixing some minor issue every month or so. When the exhaust valve burnt at ~191k, I rebuilt the head & PCV system & some other stuff, hoping to get the car up to ~250k miles. I really did love that car. But I did a leakdown test right before 200k miles & realized that same exhaust valve was burning again (I guess I didn't address the underlying cause) & didn't have the time to do a *another* head rebuild. So I sold the car while it could still pass California smog & moved on with my life.

 

[r2m]

It is a 400, but has #13 heads from 1970 which aren't really that great. Unfortunately this one is currently a TH400 automatic. When I have to take the engine out again (it's already been out twice since I've had it), I'll seriously consider some aftermarket aluminum heads (Kauffman? Edelbrock?) & replacing the TH400 with a T56 manual. I think the original 400 block with a modern 6 speed manual would be really cool, though it will involve some cutting to get the shifter in.

Awesome! I'm all over the state-- grew up in Pasadena, have worked SF for the past 5 years, one of my SF skiing buddies has a cabin in Truckee so I'm always in North Lake (Squaw/Northstar) during the winter, and I'm currently down in Del Mar, "working from home" until they call us back into the office. I have Ikon pass this season but haven't used it yet, might consider just deferring to next year.

re: Firebird, As you build it up, if you can find one of those external hood tachometers and rear trunk lip spoiler, that would be VERY cool on there!
re: CA. Although born in Glendale, and lived most of my life in San Clemente, my Mom lived in Gardnerville so we were up there every week after Christmas and spend several weeks up there! We get (and have) the Epic season pass. Went up there last year in March just as COVID-19 really hit. They closed down Heavenly Ski Resort the day we arrived. NEVER had a chance to even ski ONE day, zip, zero, null. Epic let us purchase this seasons pass for an 80% discount (big whoop...). Still never had 1 day of skiing last year, so essentially we're paying 120% to ski this year. Fortunately, being active Army reservist, season passes are only $150.00 for my wife and I. For this year, we had to make reservations for Heavenly for what days we wanted to ski. We'll see how that pans out. At least it shouldn't be crowded!