After searching and waffling for the last 6 months, even finding other great examples and chickening out last second when it came to putting the money where my mouth was, i finally found and pulled the trigger on a 2005 LX470 in pearl white with the rare grey interior color. 113k original miles owned by a very nice Asian family for the last 15 years to drive the family to church on Sundays (even came with a photo of Jesus in the center console). I had spoken to the buyer the day before and they had another person coming to look that night, i figured it was gone and was pretty bummed out but reached out at 8am the next morning and he let me know they had wanted to check another truck out before buying! I Jumped on the spot, told my boss i had to go, got my girlfriend out of work and we drove 400 miles (7 hours) from orange county to Contra Costa County to take a look at it. Arrived at 5pm and an hour later i was driving it home. Had no issues and it preformed perfectly other than dead oil pressure gauge and dead mark levinson amp (no radio!)
I really dug into lexus dealership records when i got home because there was no timing belt sticker. I found a timing belt recommended at 89k but no service done, then every successive oil change and world class inspection after that has no mention of it. I opted for peace of mind and since i like to learn and am confident in doing the work myself, i ordered up all the asin parts plus other maintenance parts like thermostat, heater T's, belt, oil sending unit, ect.
I have to give god some credit, my parts seemed to arrive within 2 days and it happened to line up with me getting out of work early on saturday so i emptied my garage, got the truck inside and tore it down.
I was shocked to find the original belt and water pump on the motor, and the water pump had been leaking coolant horribly not just from the weep hole but from the pulley itself, resulting in a very large amount of crusty red coolant flakes dried up behind the idler pulley and crammed around the crank gear. The belt didn't look awful but the edges had started to fray, and the wear bands on it were visible. Very little pitting or corrosion on anything so it cleaned up very well, I spent a few hours cleaning up the engine, PS rack, and any grease i could find. This girl is clean and i'm going to keep her clean.
On to the other issues that a 20 year old truck inevitably has, driveshaft clunk as front diff bushings appear to be shot, easy fix. Mark levinson amp is dead, plays for 5 seconds, cuts out with a loud whine. Orderd a teyes cc3 to replace it, as much as i hate chinese radios replacing the amp and the slightly yellowed old screen are too much of a turn off.
Another big issue i'd like to tackle is my oil pressure gauge not working. I changed the sender when doing the belt and had no change and after reading about it, looks like these clusters are problematic and finding the proper lx470 stepper motors is difficult or impossible now. All my gauges shudder and shake on startup but only oil pressure doesnt work, going to try to re-glue the stepper motor if i find that to be the issue
Thought others might want to see what a bad pump looks like and also wanted to doccument the work for myself in the future.
I really dug into lexus dealership records when i got home because there was no timing belt sticker. I found a timing belt recommended at 89k but no service done, then every successive oil change and world class inspection after that has no mention of it. I opted for peace of mind and since i like to learn and am confident in doing the work myself, i ordered up all the asin parts plus other maintenance parts like thermostat, heater T's, belt, oil sending unit, ect.
I have to give god some credit, my parts seemed to arrive within 2 days and it happened to line up with me getting out of work early on saturday so i emptied my garage, got the truck inside and tore it down.
I was shocked to find the original belt and water pump on the motor, and the water pump had been leaking coolant horribly not just from the weep hole but from the pulley itself, resulting in a very large amount of crusty red coolant flakes dried up behind the idler pulley and crammed around the crank gear. The belt didn't look awful but the edges had started to fray, and the wear bands on it were visible. Very little pitting or corrosion on anything so it cleaned up very well, I spent a few hours cleaning up the engine, PS rack, and any grease i could find. This girl is clean and i'm going to keep her clean.
On to the other issues that a 20 year old truck inevitably has, driveshaft clunk as front diff bushings appear to be shot, easy fix. Mark levinson amp is dead, plays for 5 seconds, cuts out with a loud whine. Orderd a teyes cc3 to replace it, as much as i hate chinese radios replacing the amp and the slightly yellowed old screen are too much of a turn off.
Another big issue i'd like to tackle is my oil pressure gauge not working. I changed the sender when doing the belt and had no change and after reading about it, looks like these clusters are problematic and finding the proper lx470 stepper motors is difficult or impossible now. All my gauges shudder and shake on startup but only oil pressure doesnt work, going to try to re-glue the stepper motor if i find that to be the issue
Thought others might want to see what a bad pump looks like and also wanted to doccument the work for myself in the future.
