Builds Grizzly Clint's 2010 GX460 build

[mcnaughty]

Well Mr Torgue,

I have a 2012 with 105k, and I think you have mostly hit the nail on the head with your observations, although my feelings about those are a little different than yours.

• Wind noise - I am at 65 db at 65mph on a smooth road ( sunroof shade closed!), and even at 80, it's easy to talk normally between passengers. Check door seals?
• Cruise control hunting. YES. This is my biggest issue with this car. It seems really poorly tuned. I put it in S5 to get a break from having to pedal it - but honestly it should shift down earlier if it can't hold speed... and for gosh sake, would cruise control quit getting 4mph below set speed, redlining it to quickly get back to speed, overshooting by 4 mph, shifting way up to 6th, and rinse and repeat. OMG Lexus.
• I find the motor has enough power.
• I'm 5-10, seat works well for me. I have heard that tall people LOVE the seat once again with a seat spacer kit.
• Steering wheel is fine for me.
• Petrol tank size works for my significant other's bladder just fine...

But, at the end of the day, if these are deal breakers, seems like you probably should have fun modifying and customizing a 470 to your hearts content?

Thanks for your trip review!

Here's a few pics of our Black beauty out doing her thing in the BigHorns.

 

[giovanni]

I agree with mcnaughty - mine is not loud at all. Something isn't right there.

The cruise control hunting issue is real - and it has been the same on every Toyota and Lexus product I have ever driven. Piss poor tuning.

 

[Washingtontaco]

You are running larger than stock tires this will affect drivability. If you haven't regeared that's where I would start. I initially planned on going to 4:56 gears but have been rethinking my plans. The stock 3:90 gears are tall for such a heavy rig, 4:56 are the closest available to bring it back to stock with 33"ish tires, slightly lower than stock.

With the extra mod weight and my tires are actually 34" I think the math is better for me to go to 4:88. Depending on availability new gears and lockers for me in the fall.

 

[offroad47]

You are running larger than stock tires this will affect drivability. If you haven't regeared that's where I would start. I initially planned on going to 4:56 gears but have been rethinking my plans. The stock 3:90 gears are tall for such a heavy rig, 4:56 are the closest available to bring it back to stock with 33"ish tires, slightly lower than stock.

With the extra mod weight and my tires are actually 34" I think the math is better for me to go to 4:88. Depending on availability new gears and lockers for me in the fall.

Good Math Taco. For those who just want to stay around 32 ish there is of course the 4.30 gears. If I was going to spend the bucks on buying new gears I would definitely go with 4.56 . If you know you will be towing your rig behind a RV which I plan on doing Lord willing I would put in 4.88 and know you have a little gear in the bank.
Taco do you ever refigure the NET running gear based on the aired down height?

 

[Washingtontaco]

Good Math Taco. For those who just want to stay around 32 ish there is of course the 4.30 gears. If I was going to spend the bucks on buying new gears I would definitely go with 4.56 . If you know you will be towing your rig behind a RV which I plan on doing Lord willing I would put in 4.88 and know you have a little gear in the bank.
Taco do you ever refigure the NET running gear based on the aired down height?

No, as the drag from airing down and unimproved road surface would be difficult to figure, consider all the types of surfaces.

 

[r2m]

After re-gearing, I have never had any issues with "gear hunting", even in cruise control and that's going over some pretty steep passes that we have getting out of So. Cal like the Cajon Pass and Grapevine. Those passes will cripple tractor trailers under load down to 20 - 30 MPH and older cars not much more than 50 MPH.

 

[Washingtontaco]

After re-gearing, I have never had any issues with "gear hunting", even in cruise control and that's going over some pretty steep passes that we have getting out of So. Cal like the Cajon Pass and Grapevine. Those passes will cripple tractor trailers under load down to 20 - 30 MPH and older cars not much more than 50 MPH.

I looked in your build thread but didn't see what ratio you installed? I did give up at page 4 though.

 

[r2m]

I looked in your build thread but didn't see what ratio you installed? I did give up at page 4 though.

Okay, I've been asked so many times and for the life of me I cannot find my invoice, email or paperwork for my lockers and gears. So I finally called Just Differentials and gave them my name and email. They still had me on record and were kind enough to email my invoice so now I have one.
I've posted the invoice on my build thread at post #4: Builds - R2M 2013 GX460 Overland Build - https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/r2m-2013-gx460-overland-build.1104719/
The invoice will have all the info you'll ever need for your GX if you're going with ARB and Nitro gears. I was originally going to go with the 4.88 gears but Eric, the owner of YotaMasters suggested I go with the 4.56. No regrets.

 

[jmanscotch]

Toyota's cruise control hunting issue is so frustrating. We just took a road trip in the wife's new VW Tiguan and that turbo 4 cylinder would hold 90 MPH through all the mountains, flats, downhill, uphill, wind, etc like it was nothing...something no Toyota I've ever owned could ever do. Why can others get it right and Toyota fails so horribly at it?

I have zero complaints about road noise (with sunroof shade shut), so I'd definitely think yours has some sorta issue with the seals or something.

I agree the gas tank and mileage is annoying but can live with it.

Power and driveability at elevation is something I'm familiar with and only have minimal complaints about. I live at 6,500 ft and play regularly at 10,000 ft and above. Most cars are underpowered here, the GX is no real exception, but I haven't found it to be too bad IMO either. Yours might not be relearning the air density as quick as it should and could just be running a bit air lean (aka rich, but due to undersupplied air intake),

Really, most of those seem solvable (seals, gears/tire down, aux fuel tank, reprogramming or time for the PCM to adapt) at least with appropriate effort. The leg room, seat comfort and steering wheel are things I think will ultimately convince you to sell. Just too hard to be worth the effort to fix, with the other items present.

If I were in your shoes, already owning a 470 that you like and could use for these adventures, I'd go for the more comfort focused family car for a while, the one that checks a different set of needs for the family: long range comfort, daily comfort, gas mileage, features, etc. So that Lexus you mentioned or something similar.

 

[Rednexus]

Regarding the power, my GX470 with long tube headers and a cold air intake has plenty. Not a speed demon but we were able to pull some big passes on CO at 70 mph with power to spare, even loaded up with a family of 4 and gear. Frankly it feels faster than my Mazda. I eventually plan to do a 4.10 or 4.30 regear to help even more.

It seems that very few if any performance parts are available for the 460, while at least some are out there for a 470. So the power issue is slightly easier to address on your 470, although big power is probably off the table without spending $$$$ on forced induction.

 

[r2m]

Added my comments in bold in your quoted post. The conundrum I have is if I sell my 460 for what it's worth on today's market it may bring in a healthy price but the 200's have skyrocketed in price so much that they are out of my price range. Trust me, I'd love to get a 200 series, but I do not think it would be in the cards. Plus with the 200 series' heavier weight would you even notice the extra horsepower and torque? I think it would be similarly affected by higher altitudes as well. It also has the 6spd auto like the GX so it may just gear hunt too.

I'm debating on focusing on the driving experience that doesn't include the engine performance since I know that would be the deal breaker. I need to figure out how to get the seat mounts or get brackets to give me another 3" of leg room. I am tossing the idea around of getting a 2020 GX's steering wheel from a wrecked one--which will happen at some point--which will solve the steering wheel problem. Don't really care about the buttons but I'd figure out how to make them work. The wind/road noise will likely have to be solved with all new seals and some serious sound insulation plus finding double pane front windows may help too. I was also wondering if adding a fairing or wind deflector would help with keeping the wind noise away from the sunroof... All of that isn't going to be cheap and I know I'll never get that money back if I do ever end up wanting to buy a 200 series. Perhaps I should concentrate on modifying my wife's 470 and I'll sell/trade my 460 for something else like a 2022 Lexus NX350h/450h for the daily driver when it comes out later this year or get a Toyota Rav4 Prime or Venza.

Also, have you looked at this thread titled: Squeezing more out of the 4.6L V8

Squeezing more out of the 4.6L V8

So I've had a GX470, and a 5.7L Tundra and I will say that owning a GX460 with the 4.6L has kind of made me miss both of them. The low end grunt that I'm used to I just don't get out of the 4.6L so I'm out to see what I can squeeze out it to help kick it in the rear. My truck is a 2011 base...

forum.ih8mud.com

 

[GrizzlyClint]

thanks for the replies, when I’m near my notebook I’ll reply! Doing this multireply thing on my phone is tedious.

 

[GrizzlyClint]

Thanks all for the posts. I’m going to address the seals and add some additional sound deafening. That should solve the noise issue. The steering wheel will be addressed when I’ve got $1,500-2,000 to spare for the 2020 GX stewing wheel.

The front legroom is something I need to dive in to. But at a later time. It isn’t too bad that it’s an issue unless on a long road trip.

The power...

 

[offroad47]

I found a large source of road noise on both of the back doors. The trim mounted to the body had slipped down in the back corner of both doors .
pushed it back in place for an easy fix. The K&N engine air filter added power and MPG. I have put more than 400k miles on various vehicles with K&N air filters with no ill effects to the motor.

 

[GrizzlyClint]

I found a large source of road noise on both of the back doors

Yea my seal does seem to move or come undone more often than it should. I’ve had to adjust and re-seat them three times total.

 

[offroad47]

Yea my seal does seem to move or come undone more often than it should. I’ve had to adjust and re-seat them three times total.

GM uses a sealant that is a very thin sealer. It’s made by Permatex . I will loook up the product number for us .

 

[offroad47]

Here we go. They did make this in two colors. Black is the best. If you squeeze the sealer gently in the slot of the trim and than push the trim on you will not have any clean up. I think this is a less is better product.

 

[r2m]

For the price, can't beat it!

 

[GrizzlyClint]

Here we go. They did make this in two colors. Black is the best. If you squeeze the sealer gently in the slot of the trim and than push the trim on you will not have any clean up. I think this is a less is better product.

View attachment 2744010

Thank you.

 

[GrizzlyClint]

10,000 mile tire update. Bought some DX4 Rebel wheels and Nitto Ridge Grapplers in 265/70/17 in 2020. And here are the pics and some pros and cons. As you can see in the pics the wear is minimal and there are still tons of life left.

Pros:
Inexpensive
Absolutely brilliant in mud and snow
Road noise is minimal
So far wear is phenomenal
Surprising grip on pavement

Cons:
That I didn’t buy these sooner
Ice performance is lacking, though that is mainly because they really aren’t designed for ice
Has gone up a bit in price since I bought