Brauski's LX470 Build "Linz" (1 Viewer)

[brauski]

Welcome! This'll be a log of my experience building and owning my 2002 LX470. I bought this thing in part because I wanted a project. Boy did I get what I paid for... haha Let's start with a nice before after.

Projects Completed
-285/75/R16 BFG KO2s x 5
-Replaced & rebuilt ABS master cylinder/booster/accumulator
-Cleaned throttle body & replaced throttle control motor
-Remounted bumper properly
-Added Trail Tailor rock sliders
-Remounted roof rack securely with Trail Tailor mounts
-Badland ZXR12K Winch Installed
-Wired up radio
-Sunroof drains unclogged x 2
-Trigger 4 light controller installed to run PO's bumper lights.
-Suspension overhaul - KTRS-79s in the rear, cranked stock TBs, flushed AHC fluid
-Power steering fluid flushed & stop leak added to fix seepage
-Replaced heater tees with stainless
-Refoam ML Speakers & Sub
-Prefilter Added
-Depo Black Headlights Installed
-Asinine fender mirror removed
-Shift gate replaced
-YotaMD fob
-Pre-03 Nav Delete - Alpine ILX-w650, Kenwood X802-5, Kicker speakers and sub
-3 Stage sound dampening installed
-PO's sketch alarm & radar detection systems entirely removed
-Former rear wind delfector holes sealed
-Trekboxx Systrem Bravo added
-Door lock motors replaced
-MAF sensor cleaned
-Driver fender liner replaced
-Front/rear differential and transfer case fluid changed
-Rear wiper updated
-Breathers extended (Transmission/Transfer Case/Front & Rear Differentials)
-Rad Rubber engine splash guards installed
-Smoke LED tail lights
-Dissent Modular No-Cut Bumper (aluminum)
-5 x KMC Impacts
-Dissent Skids (aluminum)
-180k Service
-AHC Lift (LC TBs, Kings)
-Power Steering Pump
-Steering rack, outer tie rods, CVs

Future Projects
-Install air compressor and tank
-Attic Rack

Epic Adventures:
- Big Bend National Park, TX - Feb 18
- Pisgah National Forest, NC - Nov 19
- Carova, NC - Nov 19
- Daniel Boone National Forest, KY - Mar 20
- Talladega National Forest - July 20
- Land Between the Lakes - Sept 20
-Trans America Trail, MS/AR/OK/TX - Jul 21
-Ozark National Forest, AR - Jul 21
-Lincoln National Forest, NM - Sept 21
-Engineer Pass, CO - Oct 21

Lots of stories and details to follow, so check it out. Thanks for stopping by!

 

[brauski]

Lurked here for a few months before pulling the trigger and picking up Linz from another member. Had an idea of what I was looking for, did the math, and assumed that buying a rig from another member here would mean that I'd have a solid rig and be able to save some cash. Well the bad news is that's not always the case, but the good news is I now have a project! I've been needing a hobby for awhile, so as my wallet allows, we'll be molding Linz into what I think she should be. Unfortunately, I've already done a bit, so I'll try to catch yall up.

She's a 2002 LX470 with 160k miles
-ML & Nav
-Interior is pretty nice for it's age
-SOFLO front & rear
-Generic roof rack
-RTT & Awning
-Kinda sketch adventure trailer with another awning

I flew down to Florida to visit my friend for New Years 2018, picked her up and drove her home to Texas. What a trip. Picked up the truck, and it had the christmas tree brake lights of death. I HAD to make it back with the truck so I hit the road, driving cautiously as I could, and tiring out my legs whenever I needed to stop. About 4 hours in, the adventure began. At about 69mph, the front left tire catastrophically failed, almost sending me into a car passing me. Managed to get it slowed and pulled over to get the tire changed. Dude was running some crappy chinese 315 33s if I remember right, and he had like a 270 31 on the spare tire swingout. Sweet. Made the swap and limped it to my friends house another 4 hours in the dark. Next morning I replaced all those terrible tires with 285/75/16 KO2s including the spare obviously. Got it all the way back to Texas the next day with no issues. What a start though. haha

 

[brauski]

Took it to the shop to get the brakes fixed since I was TDY and all my tools were in MS. Homeboy wanted $5k PLUS labor to fix it, I asked if he'd install a part I gave him, but of course it had to be a part they bought. So I took the truck back, parked it in the culdesac, and got on ebay. Bought a picked unit with the same warranty as a new factory one (1 year) and a rebuild kit. Ran over to the hardware store, bought a whole new set of tools and got to work. It was a major PITA, but got it swapped out and got the brakes bled. Took it to a different shop and had them triple check my work when they did the registration inspection on it, got the thumbs up!

By this time I'd started noticing some stuff about the truck as I got more familiar with it. It was a 20ft truck. From 20ft, it looked sick. But up close, it was completely hobbled together and just about looks. I had a lot of work to do. Some examples:
-CB antenna and radio, but no wire connecting them
-a winch that was installed, but didn't have the right leads to power up and was broken (and not even mounted properly)
-the bumper was mounted so poorly you couldn't open the hood
-the side awning poles were all broken and unusable
-the mirror is on the wrong side, cause it's a LHD car
-had a jankily mounted ARB compressor in the cargo area that didn't work
-ML speaker foam had died years ago

Most of that doesn't effect actual use though, so in Februrary it was time to take advantage of my short time in Texas and hit up Big Bend NP. Grabbed a buddy loaded up, and we were off. Had a blast down there and the first person we talked to in the park as we were airing down was acutally another MUD member, geanes! Truck did great, we learned alot, and even got to help out some bros. Unfortunately, we lost the prefilter (it was just stuffed in there, with nothing secruing it. Of course...). #RIP

Now it was all worth it.

Well March came around and it was time for me to leave my vacation in San Antonio and head back to my home against my will of the last 3 years, the incredible state of Mississippi. I had two cars in Texas so, I drove back my 06 IS350 and my bro in Texas volunteered to drive my truck back one of the times he was returning to MS to see his GF if I paid for gas and a plane ticket home. Was super stoked, agreed, and a few days later while I was at work received 3 missed calls a voicemail and this pic.

Somebody rear ended him on the interstate while he was just chilling on cruise control in the right lane. Our best guess is cell phone distraction. So now I've got a cop talking to my friend and the terrible drivers, and my trailer isn't registered, cause I was going to just register it in MS where I live... Luckily he didn't care. But... They had to impound the trailer, and took it to a wrecker yard somewhere in BFE Louisiana. They wanted me to pay hundreds for them to keep it until I could pick it up... And i couldn't leave work. My buddy was dealing with them cause he was the one involved and eventually talked them down to just trash it for like $69. So there goes the trailer.

 

[brauski]

Since then I've been wheeling as time allows in MS and slowly trying to fix some of the issues she has. Stickers are almost entirely removed. Took the awning and rooftop tent off for fuel economy, and because the top of the cover is ripped (because of course it would be).

Something was kinda getting loose with the roof rack and the vibration noise was killing me so I decided try and tighten it down. Already knew it was jankily mounted, dude was only using the rear mounting plate, the front was ubolted through the wire mesh... While inspecting, discovered 3 loose nuts chilling in the mounting recesses in the roof because the PO didn't secure them well enough. About this time I rage quit and just took the entire rack off. Bought some Trail Tailor mounts so we can get it done properly.

Also, bought a proper prefilter to replace it's deceased brother. If I had a penny for everytime I had to explain to a local what it is, I could buy another one by now. haha

 

[ClassyJalopy]

Sorry to see you were mislead by the PO and very impressed to see how well you are coping with all these disappointments! How are the SoFlo bumpers treating you? Are you using a winch in the front bumper?

 

[phatdragon]

which pre-cleaner/filter did you go with?

 

[brownfox]

Buying new tools on the road to fix your own rig is some serious man points. Rig looks good too.

 

[jsigone]

good looking truck!!

 

[brauski]

Sorry to see you were mislead by the PO and very impressed to see how well you are coping with all these disappointments! How are the SoFlo bumpers treating you? Are you using a winch in the front bumper?

They get the job done. I see all these new low profile bumpers and really want to get some, but these get the job done. Only real issue I have is that the front bumper seems to have slightly cracked/bent with the catastrophic tire failure I had right after buying it. So the back driver corner of the bumper sits about 2cm lower than it should. Other than that, they've been doing well.

It had a smittbuilt winch - but it was broken (like it wasn't straight, think like 170* instead of 180*), not plugged in, and not bolted down. Sooo I canned it. A nice winch is going to be my next upgrade.

which pre-cleaner/filter did you go with?

I got a Spec-D 3.5" off amazon. Used some random pipe fitting from Lowes to hold it on, have had no issues. Amazon product ASIN B00U6G5FG2

 

[brauski]

Made alot of progress offline in the past few months.

-Repaired the rips in the rooftop tent with silicone and flextape. We'll see how it holds up, but seems to be doing well.

-Remounted the roofrack with Trail Tailor mounts. They're great. Had to cut and reposition the front mounts. Goo thing my buddy just bought a high speed welder. Putting that on the list. Need to sand it down and paint it for protection when I get a chance, but for now I don't care if the rack rusts, don't like it anyways. lol

-Ran the antenna wire the PO had chilling in the engine bay thru the firewall and got it hooked up to the radio. Also bought and mounted a new antenna - with a spring this time. (I did a flex-test the old one... It failed - badly. Whoops!)

-Cranked the TBs up about 4 turns. Got rid of the stink bug look and put my front AHC pressures back in limits. Back is still about 500psi out of limits, so I bought some King shocks and am gonna limit driving it till they're back in limits. We'll get those in there to drop the pressures then may go for an AHC lift, we'll see.

Bought a new Harbor Freight jack, it's changed my life. Don't know how I worked on cars before with that little POS...

 

[brauski]

Today was some more serious wrenching. It's always had a weird, intermittent low idle. It was also throwing P1126 codes when it got cold, then started throwing it all the time. Finally decided to fix that. Ran thru the FSM, and wasn't really getting a good resistance reading. Bit the bullet and bought a new throttle control motor anyways - found one for like $169 from some European store.

Got the TB off. Hoses were hard from age, so to speak, but not brittle so they stayed. Also gave the TB a nice cleaning while I was in there - boy did it need it! I saw some stuff about not using TB cleaner due to some TBs having a protective layer that it strips, causing faster buildup that will need to be cleaned again in about a year. I tried soap and water, but it wasn't good enough for me so I went with the TB cleaner. I'll report up if I notice any issues in the future.

Before:

After!

 

[brauski]

New TCM ready to go in!

And victory! Heat cycled it and drove it around the block. Better throttle response, P1126 is gone, and now idle is stable and normal!

 

[brauski]

Looking good! When I put the new headlights in, one of the headlight surrounds cracked. It's hard to notice they're gone, so they're just gonna stay off for a bit. Lights have a super low cutoff, I need to try and adust them a bit.

We'll see if we can get the winch in this afternoon. Got the HF 12k winch for like $290. Save the Warn conversation, I don't care. I only plan on wheeling with bros, and they all have Warns so I'm good. The reviews of these things seem like they're pretty damn solid proivided you observe the duty cycle and are cool with it being kind of slow. Sounds good to me.

Also made some headway on the '08 Ninja 250 my buddy gave me for free. He was trying to convert it into a fuel injected race bike, so he wrecked the harness and I have no idea where to start as this is my first Ninja. lol I'm gonna grab a new stock harness and try and get it up and running for my roommate to learn how to ride on. Atleast that's the plan - I've had it since the spring and have been avoiding it cause I hate wiring looms. But hey, guess a free bike is the best way to learn, huh? lol Maybe it will eventually become a track bike, who knows.

 

[brauski]

Oh, and no pics, but awhile back the rig was intermittently having trouble starting in the mornings. One day I drove it to work and it finally wouldn't crank. Long story short, it was the alternator. So I switched it out in the parking lot at work. So far I've done more work on this thing in streets and cul-de-sacs than my driveway. That's gotta change, it's getting old. lmao

Also, after a heavy rain storm over the weekend, it appears the sunroof is leaking again. Guess that's next on the list!

 

[Mdej3]

Nice LX!
Unfortunately i ”know” the guy who you bough this Lexus from. It does not surprise me all of the problems.
Looking good so far!

 

[brauski]

Nice LX!
Unfortunately i ”know” the guy who you bough this Lexus from. It does not surprise me all of the problems.
Looking good so far!

He left his work badge in the car, I keep it in there so I can look at it in disgust whenever I discover something new. haha

 

[brauski]

Winch is finally on! Had to cut some reliefs in the front bumper to get the fairlead to fit.

 

[brauski]

Went on a super fun trip for Thanksgiving. Hit Hurricane Creek in Pisgah NF and Carova in the Outerbanks. Hurricane Creek was gnarly and tons of fun. Most technical stuff so far. Wish I had more pictures, but I got a bunch of GoPro max footage I'll post up eventually.

 

[brauski]

Most recent project was fixing my tire carrier. As you may have noticed, I had a red strap around my 5th tire. Annoyingly, the lugs on the tire carrier were a different pitch than the stock lugs. When I got my tires changed mid roadtrip home years ago after owning it, I got the stock lug nuts and promptly crossthreading them massively. So I just made sure they were on there and strapped them up for safety. Finally got around to fixing that.

Bought three M14-1.5 lugs from Oreilly's and found some little pulleys with the perfect ID in Tractor Supply. Cut off and drilled out the holes alittle bit, hammered in the studs, slipped on the pulleys, tightened them down, and voi-la! Perfect fit. The lugs had a super long unthreaded portion, so I'm using the pulleys as super cheap spacers. They work great! Just need to paint it up when the humidity drops to a reasonable level and get some proper OEM lugnuts from the stealership.

 

[brauski]

Took the IS350 for the Christmas roadtrip home. Katana's 28mpg is way better on the wallet than the 14mpg I get in Linz. Of course I had to stop by the Tail of the Dragon, Cherohala Skyway, and Fontana Dam on the way. Had to re-zap the container since someone removed my last one. A Cut Above!

Christmas also brought me 2020's first projects. Stoked!

I've gotten a taste of water crossings recently and between that, watching 4WD Action, and having to explain to people how worthless my snorkel is for the vehicle's health underwater, it's time to do it right and put some diff breathers on. Also lots on the way in the light department. When I was on Hurricane Creek a bunch of Ford bros drove by our camp at night. I had no idea how amazing lights can be - it was like daylight. And having dealt with tryna beat the sunset and get thru an obstacle once, I'm content not doing it again.
Speaking of that, I adjusted my headlights last night. PSA - if you haven't adjusted them, do it. I can finally see at night with the chinese-ium lights. No idea why I waited so long!