Fool me once...shame on you, but the 3rd time? '00 LC! (1 Viewer)

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Thanks SmoothLC!

Found some time this weekend to keep chipping away at simple things while waiting for the interior carpet to air dry.

Both of my previous LXs have had cabin filters, but I was surprised to read that some LCs didn't. Decided to remove glovebox to take a look...was greeted by the familiar cabin filter cover, but with NO filters inside. Wasn't that surprised based on previous threads I've seen, but was fortunate to not have to do the retrofit mod.

Took the trip to local parts store and asked for cabin filters for a 2000 Toyota LC. Guy punches it into the system and says, "you sure? Shows here that car doesn't have cabin filters."

I told him to change the search based on a 2000 LX470 and headed home with the filters.

Before slapping them in, I vacuumed the evap canister as thoroughly as possible (it was pretty filthy), and followed up with a few passes of a foaming cleaner. I prefer this one specifically because it shoots a narrow, viscous jet you can control and "paint" across the face of coils. Others I've used in the past are just a standard cone spray, and given the narrow "window" you've got to work with, it just gets sloppy.

After a few minutes of dwell time it started seeping out of the drain hose in the engine bay (and also reminded me to make sure to do the drain hose relocate mod to avoid constant frame dripping).

I then used a thin brush to loosen away any stubborn crud, and did my best to get my vacuum head in there. My little Milwaukee vacuum has a short and stubby head so it did a decent job of getting the lower portion of the evap coils through the blower motor location (I removed it for cleaning and removing a few leaves from it).
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After all said and done, slide the cabin filters in, cassette style. First one drops, and second slides right over it, centered via the plastic rails. Don't force it if it isn't correctly aligned!
 
Happy New Year all! This is quickly becoming the most boring "project car" I've ever had! 😂 She's great and only asks for 87 in return.

Now that I've said that, I'm sure things will start needing attention...

Anyways, easy project for today. For the past few weeks, now that it's actually getting cold out, I've noticed my temperature knob doesn't do what it should. Setting it to 70-72F results in pretty cool air, so I've had to resort to turning it up to max hot and blasting the cabin, then turning the fan off until things cool down. Rinse and repeat.

Seems like a common issue, so I pulled the driver's lower dash cover to inspect the climate control sensor. Like most others have documented, hose leading towards the sensor was disconnected and the sensor probe was pretty filthy.

Reattached, cleaned, and good as new! Now I've got back my temperature ranges.

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Unrelated, but picked up a proper project car this weekend since the LC wasn't scratching my itch. '03 Tundra Limited Side step bed with a blown transmission!

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Little mid-week work from home project -- HEATER TEES. F'ing change them.

Visually they looked pretty okay, no leaking or crusty dried coolant around the ends. But since I brought it home the Tees have been in the back of my mind. With winter in full swing, all I could imagine was one of them blowing on the way up to Vermont in the middle of nowhere.

So since I was at Toyota getting transmission pan bolts for the project Tundra, I picked up a pair of tees.

Here's what they looked like visually.

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This thing is pretty handy for those hose clamps. All of the ears are facing away/down so it's a bit of a pain in the ass to get to them with a vice grip.
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Not much force needed for these to let go. Change them!
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Tried to put an 01/25 on them for future reference. CHANGE THEM. 45min of work to prevent a bunch of headache.
 
FYI -- when I removed the first heater T I was greeted by a semi-familiar pale yellow coolant instead of the Toyota Pink -- Prestone.

Documentation shows Densor radiator was installed about 20k miles ago. We've got daily highs in the high 20's to low 30's for the foreseeable future. Would you guys sleep okay at night knowing this, or would you do a full flush ASAP and get Toyota coolant in there.

I guess I'm asking how urgent this is? My first Toyota where I was totally surprised by the coolant color coming out of it.

Thanks!
 
I can't answer any question, one-banana guy here, but I'm in MA and following this thread!!
 
I wouldn't overthink the coolant. Be sure the concentration will support low temps. Change it (and flush the block with distilled water) when you can. Nice work on this truck. I would sure rustproof the crap out of it and not relegate it to 'winter beater' status in Mass. A winter beater is a valueless Chrysler product.
 
Like most of us (probably), my morning ritual before the kids get up consists of a hot cup of coffee and a browse through FB Marketplace for some goodies.

The Falken Wildpeaks that came on the car don't have too many months left in them, so I've been looking for some clean Tundra 18's (they just seem much easier to find) to use for spring/summer/fall and to keep the 16"s for a dedicated winter tire.

Anyways, some guy had just listed his 06 LC 18"s and wanted $200. They were sitting in his storage locker in NJ and he needed to get rid of them ASAP to close out the locker... At least that's the story he gave me. I countered with $150 and I'd be there before 3:00pm and he accepted.

About an hour and a half ride later and over the GW bridge and loaded them up! 20 lugs + center caps included .

Not sure of the condition of the existing tires but I didn't particularly care. Now to find some new meats...

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