Pete, not sure if I'm supposed to just throw this down right on the main stream, but here goes.
I'm pretty new to Land Cruiser territory, but I picked up a nice, clean, bone stock, always dealer maintained, low mileage (145k), southern, 2002 LX470 Mall Cruiser last fall from the absolute nicest guy who loved the thing dearly, but needed to put the money elsewhere, and brought her home to crusty, salty Buffalo, NY. I deluded myself and looked at a bunch of tired GX470s on that trip south, but they were all beat and I was pretty sure about the LX before I left home. My last truck was a Chevy Colorado (seen in one of the pics below, which was always very good to me), also southern, actually newer than this LX, that I thought I did a good job keeping alive to a whopping 227k, only to find this bunch of crazy people, where it seems the average odometer here reads much greater than that! I loved the true 4x4 in the Chevy, and I'm loving the LX as well, she's a super stout driver, and waaay more comfortable to boot! Here's what she looked like at the seller's place when I bought her.
I will admit that I've had nothing but problems with it since I drove back from Virginia, but I'm hopeful that after these first few growing pains are worked out I'll have as close to my forever truck as I can get.
For those interested, the truck was bone stock when I bought her. No tow hitch, original sized tires, the most un-stock things were a subwoofer and some tints, which honestly I didn't expect to love this much. I brought her home, put 285/75r16 mud/snow tires on the original rims, slapped a tow hitch on there, and called it a win. Known issues at purchase were basically all to be expected of this make/model/aged truck. The globes were tired, and it had a valve cover leak, and has fewer than average bumps and bruises, and the tires were balder than my uncle Ron, which is saying something.
To date, the repaired valve covers are leaking again, for which it's going back to my mechanic tomorrow, there's coolant leaking from the tees, which will be addressed/flushed by my mechanic (might have done that myself if not for the other appointment), and the AHC has been a real saga. Being winter in Buffalo and not owning a garage, I had my mechanic change the old globes for me. Seemed simple enough. I had personally bled the system to see if I could avoid globes for a while, which resulted in the usual black crud, but no improvement. When the AHC OFF light came on a week later I thought for sure it was an air lock, but when I brought him some info on the system and what I thought needed to be done, he basically refused to dive into it, and referred me to a "foreign" car specialist, ie German, who seemed pretty legit. After two weeks of pestering him for updates he threw in the towel, though he did tip me off to it likely being the height control valve assy, so I figured out which wires were broken and rerouted, in 25F weather, the best day we had had in a week. Now she's going up and down and riding smooth! Got all the AHC sensors in spec and torsion bars tuned today. My pump does sound like it's struggling, but I think I'll wait a few weeks before tearing that apart to clean the screens. Good thing I'm getting familiar though because I think I'm on my own in this town, at least as far as the AHC goes.
I don't plan on wheeling much, not much available in WNY that I'm aware of. I do plan to take her skiing and hunting and camping and all that, and I find I like driving in snowy weather that nobody in their right mind would be out in, and we go up north regularly where there are some dirt roads, so maybe I'll test her out a little bit after some more shake down. I understand they're pretty darn capable stock anyway. Maybe someday I'll take a cross-country trip and regret not having sliders and a winch and all that, but at this point being a sleeper is ok by me. I sought out this tank under the understanding that with the right maintenance they're pretty bulletproof, and I am literally hoping to drive this thing as long as possible. Due to the lack of trails in my future however, I don't plan for many mods, and stock is always more reliable. I hear there's a 2UZ-FE Tundra or two that hit a million miles, and I've seen more than a few listings for these things with +350k, so I think I've got a shot at a lifer. I will likely put on a roof rack for the odd sheet of plywood and road trip gear though, and maybe a canopy, for you folks who just love adding farkles.
I already owe the forum a huge thanks for helping me begin the process of baselining this former dealer queen. I'm sure I'll be needing more to keep her respectable in the years to come, but I don't think I'll be outgrowing her any time soon. Cheers!
I'm pretty new to Land Cruiser territory, but I picked up a nice, clean, bone stock, always dealer maintained, low mileage (145k), southern, 2002 LX470 Mall Cruiser last fall from the absolute nicest guy who loved the thing dearly, but needed to put the money elsewhere, and brought her home to crusty, salty Buffalo, NY. I deluded myself and looked at a bunch of tired GX470s on that trip south, but they were all beat and I was pretty sure about the LX before I left home. My last truck was a Chevy Colorado (seen in one of the pics below, which was always very good to me), also southern, actually newer than this LX, that I thought I did a good job keeping alive to a whopping 227k, only to find this bunch of crazy people, where it seems the average odometer here reads much greater than that! I loved the true 4x4 in the Chevy, and I'm loving the LX as well, she's a super stout driver, and waaay more comfortable to boot! Here's what she looked like at the seller's place when I bought her.
I will admit that I've had nothing but problems with it since I drove back from Virginia, but I'm hopeful that after these first few growing pains are worked out I'll have as close to my forever truck as I can get.
For those interested, the truck was bone stock when I bought her. No tow hitch, original sized tires, the most un-stock things were a subwoofer and some tints, which honestly I didn't expect to love this much. I brought her home, put 285/75r16 mud/snow tires on the original rims, slapped a tow hitch on there, and called it a win. Known issues at purchase were basically all to be expected of this make/model/aged truck. The globes were tired, and it had a valve cover leak, and has fewer than average bumps and bruises, and the tires were balder than my uncle Ron, which is saying something.
To date, the repaired valve covers are leaking again, for which it's going back to my mechanic tomorrow, there's coolant leaking from the tees, which will be addressed/flushed by my mechanic (might have done that myself if not for the other appointment), and the AHC has been a real saga. Being winter in Buffalo and not owning a garage, I had my mechanic change the old globes for me. Seemed simple enough. I had personally bled the system to see if I could avoid globes for a while, which resulted in the usual black crud, but no improvement. When the AHC OFF light came on a week later I thought for sure it was an air lock, but when I brought him some info on the system and what I thought needed to be done, he basically refused to dive into it, and referred me to a "foreign" car specialist, ie German, who seemed pretty legit. After two weeks of pestering him for updates he threw in the towel, though he did tip me off to it likely being the height control valve assy, so I figured out which wires were broken and rerouted, in 25F weather, the best day we had had in a week. Now she's going up and down and riding smooth! Got all the AHC sensors in spec and torsion bars tuned today. My pump does sound like it's struggling, but I think I'll wait a few weeks before tearing that apart to clean the screens. Good thing I'm getting familiar though because I think I'm on my own in this town, at least as far as the AHC goes.
I don't plan on wheeling much, not much available in WNY that I'm aware of. I do plan to take her skiing and hunting and camping and all that, and I find I like driving in snowy weather that nobody in their right mind would be out in, and we go up north regularly where there are some dirt roads, so maybe I'll test her out a little bit after some more shake down. I understand they're pretty darn capable stock anyway. Maybe someday I'll take a cross-country trip and regret not having sliders and a winch and all that, but at this point being a sleeper is ok by me. I sought out this tank under the understanding that with the right maintenance they're pretty bulletproof, and I am literally hoping to drive this thing as long as possible. Due to the lack of trails in my future however, I don't plan for many mods, and stock is always more reliable. I hear there's a 2UZ-FE Tundra or two that hit a million miles, and I've seen more than a few listings for these things with +350k, so I think I've got a shot at a lifer. I will likely put on a roof rack for the odd sheet of plywood and road trip gear though, and maybe a canopy, for you folks who just love adding farkles.
I already owe the forum a huge thanks for helping me begin the process of baselining this former dealer queen. I'm sure I'll be needing more to keep her respectable in the years to come, but I don't think I'll be outgrowing her any time soon. Cheers!
