Buying a GX470 what to look out for? (1 Viewer)

[swampfoxSC]

So I am looking at these for the wife/myself. Trying get away from the POS Grand Cherokee. I'm a 80 guy but the wife likes these better. The motors appear to be great. In my search I have seen two with over 500,000 miles. A lot pushing 300k. What do I need to look out for? Are there any known issues? And how do the timiybelts hold on these things? Is it interference motor? Finding a lot of nice looking cars in the $8-12k range. With under 150k miles. What advice you guys got for me?

 

[RobertD]

Try to get a 2006-2009 if you can, they updated the diff supports in 2006. Not a big deal, but one less thing to do. 2005 they added VVTI.
2003 and 2004 can use a Tundra 4.7 Supercharger if you can find on and if you want one.

in 2007 for the model year 2008, the GX 470 received styling updates, including a dark metallic grille, liquid graphite wheels, added exterior and interior chrome, revised turn signal lights, and added wood and body color options.

If you want a modern Nav/DVD screen unit, make sure you buy a Non Nav model. If not, you could still upgrade the sound system but you'll only be able to replace the tape player with a single DIN sized unit and you'll have to bypass the stock amp.

KDSS is good if you only plan to do mid travel suspension upgrades, if going long travel, you're better off with a non-kdss version.

 

[JLee]

The diff supports are only a couple hundred bucks -- I wouldn't bother spending an extra $4k on a newer truck just for that. 07+ does have 5th gen nav (wayyy better) and an auxiliary jack, so if you do want factory nav (which is not recommended because you can't really upgrade it) 07+ is definitely worth prioritizing.

Lexus GX470

 

[Arailt]

I bought a 2008 with 50k on the odometer. I've had it for about 2k miles now and both front brake calipers have been replaced as well as both exhaust manifolds.

When you're test driving, make sure you start the engine when it's cold, immediately roll the windows down, put it in drive, and give it a good amount of gas. If the manifolds are leaking, it'll sound like an old farm truck. "Tick tick tick as it drives."

Also on the test drive, try to find someplace to safely brake hard from about 30-40mph. If the truck pulls right or left, a caliper might be seized.

Timing belt should be changed at 90k. There will be a sticker somewhere in the engine compartment if it was.

 

[MaxRex]

Have a transmission shop check the transmission. I test drove mine,checked the tran fluid(which was new) and everything felt good. Then 6 months later it is started to slip and it will need a new transmission soon. Its over 4g to replace so spend the money and get it checked out. Oh yeah and the transfer case too. I had to replace that. That was 3g to replace. Its been a money pit.

 

[Dclain87]

I would try to get one that is up to date on maintenance, especially TB/WP, and maybe even radiator replacement. I bought mine and had to do it all, even though I built that into negotiations, I ended up spending way more than just waiting on one that had it done. I did the rad and a few things myself. But all the baseline was done by a shop, about 2600 total.

Leaky boots, radiator leaking, airbags working, is it bouncy, do shocks feel different through the settings. All things I looked out for.

 

[kmchuk]

Have a transmission shop check the transmission. I test drove mine,checked the tran fluid(which was new) and everything felt good. Then 6 months later it is started to slip and it will need a new transmission soon. Its over 4g to replace so spend the money and get it checked out. Oh yeah and the transfer case too. I had to replace that. That was 3g to replace. Its been a money pit.

That sucks, did you change fluids after you bought it and before it started to slip?.

 

[Perveance]

I bought mine around half a year ago. Drives just fine and I'm generally happy with it except that I noticed a drive train whine a few days after the purchase. If I had noticed it during first initial test drive I wouldn't buy it. Changed all diff/T-case/Tranny fluids and the whine is still there. I'd advise to look for this kind of whine, it's subtle so make sure to close windows and turn off AC/radio.

Here is a yourtube video with the whine:

 

[kmchuk]

I bought mine around half a year ago. Drives just fine and I'm generally happy with it except that I noticed a drive train whine a few days after the purchase. If I had noticed it during first initial test drive I wouldn't buy it. Changed all diff/T-case/Tranny fluids and the whine is still there. I'd advise to look for this kind of whine, it's subtle so make sure to close windows and turn off AC/radio.

Did you check your wheel bearings?, I had a whine in one of my cars which only I could hear and didn't bother others, it took me a long time, but I used two phones, one in each door pocket, to record audio and then used audacity for sound processing to prove that one side has whine above certain speed. When there is no traffic around and you are in speed range where you start hearing that whine, change lanes quick, left to right and right to left, if the whine increases or decreases, then it might be wheel bearing.

Also you can rotate tires and see if the sound changes or could be bearings on serpentine belt?. The sound propagation on the body/frame might be making you doubt the wrong part.

 

[Perveance]

Thanks kmchuk for advice. I ruled out wheel bearing as well as belts/alt at the time I was troubleshooting it. The only thing that completely eliminated the whine was front drive shaft removal and driving with rear drive line only.

After troubleshooting it for a few weeks I came to a conclusion that it's either TC front drive output bearing slowly going bad or stretched TC chain. There were also a lot of suggestions that it's normal drivetrain sound, but I'm still not convinced it is, as I've driven another 07 GX and didn't have this sound.

 

[CharlieBeatBox]

Well... considering I bought the "mother of all" pain in the ass GX470's... The glaringly obvious thing I didn't notice initially was the steering wheel shake when accelerating from about 60 to 70mph... give it a good push in that range. It turned out to be my axle shafts.

 

[jonshonda]

Overall it is a Lexus, and we all know they didn't cut too many corners when they engineered them. The people you are hearing from are the ones who had bad experiences, but there are 50x more people who have zero issues.

Get one that is the newest w/ the least amount of miles and the best service history that you can afford.

 

[JLee]

Overall it is a Lexus, and we all know they didn't cut too many corners when they engineered them. The people you are hearing from are the ones who had bad experiences, but there are 50x more people who have zero issues.

Get one that is the newest w/ the least amount of miles and the best service history that you can afford.

Eh.

My 05 had 179k when I bought it - saved $10k over a newer/lower mileage one. $10k buys a lot of stuff.