About Me: I’m pretty new to wrenching on cars. I just started doing my own oil changes in 2021. That being said, I’m an engineer and I’ve taken an interest to maintaining my vehicles. With my family growing, I decided something bigger than my Honda Civic was warranted. The car market was in pandemic mode and I really do hate a car payment. This put me on a search for a quality used vehicle. I was cross shopping between a Crewmax Tundra, GX or Land Cruiser. It was interesting that the GX and LX seemed to have a better bang for your buck when I was searching — no complaints there! Ultimately the Land Cruiser’s rear legroom, split tailgate (read: changing table for baby) and ability to fit in the garage were 3 features that cemented the choice.
The purchase: I found an ’05 LX470 with 192K for sale on craigslist. PO had it undercoated and also was a nut about washing the rig - he outfitted a car wash inside his garage. The LX was in great shape for an ’05 and my primary concern about buying one of these was rust. He did well keeping rust at bay, I’ll aspire to keep that up.
Build Motivation: The word build might be a misnomer - my LX470 probably won’t get a lift, RTT, LED bars or other goodies. I think the LX470 is incredible stock and my focus is refreshing everything and getting it running like a top. I’ve only done a few “mods,” and most of this post will detail my baselining.
Day 1: Bought it and went for an inspection the following day. Failed for the aftermarket tints on the front windows. Put my wife’s clothes steamer on em and took them off with a razor and a careful hand. Got my sticker right after.
I felt like it was taking long to crank. Checked out the battery at autozone. Tested good. Ended up changing my fuel filter, and then kind of gave up looking into this one. Might replace the battery at some point, I think maybe it’s just a difference between my Hondas and this car. Will tackle the spark plugs later.
Serp belt was squealing so that was next. Called a friend to help me with this one as I was a half banana mechanic at this point in time. A few bulbs were burnt out so addressed that and upgraded the reverse lights to LED bulbs at the same time. Probably wouldn’t do that without the right kits for other bulbs but figured reverse is fine.
Next up was removing the plastidip on the rear badges. Wd40, plastic “pry” bars and a cloth and all set in no time. Nice chrome underneath the Lexus and the LX470. Under the “L” symbol is gold, so I left those dipped for now. I’ll have to circle back and match ‘em.
My first decent sized solo job was putting in the grom vline2 for apple car play. Electrically it was a simple plug and play. To get there, you really gotta get into the guts of the nav unit. I was impressed that none of the trim snapped in this process. I ended up mounting the unit in my glove box. I later took out the cigarette lighter to install a USB pass through. At the same time, I mounted the microphone behind the rear view mirror. Install came out CLEAN by the end of it.
With a few refinements done, it was time to start baselining the rig. Took care of the following without much issue.
Grease driveshaft
Rear differential
Front differential
Transfer case
Transmission (fluid pan drain and fill 3-4L)
AHC hi/lo test gave me 8+ graduations. Had some issues running tech stream. Opted for a double flush (5L), will truly work on the system in the future.
As the summer came about, I started to have a water leak in the passenger seat. The evaporator box was missing the gasket to seal the box. Put in a fresh one and changed the cabin air filters while I was in there. My nephew, 6, helped with this job.
Had my headlight flooded with an inch of water. Surprised it still worked. Got two bolts loose but had to cut off the third with an oscillating power tool to remove the headlight. Drained it, dried it with my wife’s hairdryer and found a decent crack. Sealed it up with RTV and reinstalled. The bolt that I cut lived in a little well on the headlight assembly. The hairdryer softened the glue in the well and I removed the bolt with pliers. Dumped some RTV into the well, put in a new bolt, and reinstalled the headlight so the bolt cured in the right position.
Getting a little more comfortable mechanically, it was time to address the wheel bearings. The pre purchase inspection noted a failing wheel bearing, passenger side. I noted nothing when driving and didn’t feel excessive play in the wheel when I had the vehicle jacked up, but I did know the bearings need to be repacked every 30K. Opted to bang out rotors, brakes and brake fluid “while I was in there.” Rotors were probably ok without replacement, but brakes needed some love.
On the passenger side I wasn’t happy with my seal installation. The seal was noticeably deformed. I should have used something bigger to evenly tap in the seal. When I put everything back together I could hear noise when spinning the rotor on the shaft. I pulled it all out and put in a new seal, also I packed a bit more grease in my inner bearing in case that was the source of my noise.
On the drivers side, I had a hell of a time with rust. Root cause was the “Knuckle Spindle Oil Retainer” was shot. I had to order a new gasket, hardware and neck. The passenger side wasn’t as bad, but will plan on replacing the retainer next time.
The purchase: I found an ’05 LX470 with 192K for sale on craigslist. PO had it undercoated and also was a nut about washing the rig - he outfitted a car wash inside his garage. The LX was in great shape for an ’05 and my primary concern about buying one of these was rust. He did well keeping rust at bay, I’ll aspire to keep that up.
Build Motivation: The word build might be a misnomer - my LX470 probably won’t get a lift, RTT, LED bars or other goodies. I think the LX470 is incredible stock and my focus is refreshing everything and getting it running like a top. I’ve only done a few “mods,” and most of this post will detail my baselining.
Day 1: Bought it and went for an inspection the following day. Failed for the aftermarket tints on the front windows. Put my wife’s clothes steamer on em and took them off with a razor and a careful hand. Got my sticker right after.
I felt like it was taking long to crank. Checked out the battery at autozone. Tested good. Ended up changing my fuel filter, and then kind of gave up looking into this one. Might replace the battery at some point, I think maybe it’s just a difference between my Hondas and this car. Will tackle the spark plugs later.
Serp belt was squealing so that was next. Called a friend to help me with this one as I was a half banana mechanic at this point in time. A few bulbs were burnt out so addressed that and upgraded the reverse lights to LED bulbs at the same time. Probably wouldn’t do that without the right kits for other bulbs but figured reverse is fine.
Next up was removing the plastidip on the rear badges. Wd40, plastic “pry” bars and a cloth and all set in no time. Nice chrome underneath the Lexus and the LX470. Under the “L” symbol is gold, so I left those dipped for now. I’ll have to circle back and match ‘em.
My first decent sized solo job was putting in the grom vline2 for apple car play. Electrically it was a simple plug and play. To get there, you really gotta get into the guts of the nav unit. I was impressed that none of the trim snapped in this process. I ended up mounting the unit in my glove box. I later took out the cigarette lighter to install a USB pass through. At the same time, I mounted the microphone behind the rear view mirror. Install came out CLEAN by the end of it.
With a few refinements done, it was time to start baselining the rig. Took care of the following without much issue.
Grease driveshaft
Rear differential
Front differential
Transfer case
Transmission (fluid pan drain and fill 3-4L)
AHC hi/lo test gave me 8+ graduations. Had some issues running tech stream. Opted for a double flush (5L), will truly work on the system in the future.
As the summer came about, I started to have a water leak in the passenger seat. The evaporator box was missing the gasket to seal the box. Put in a fresh one and changed the cabin air filters while I was in there. My nephew, 6, helped with this job.
Had my headlight flooded with an inch of water. Surprised it still worked. Got two bolts loose but had to cut off the third with an oscillating power tool to remove the headlight. Drained it, dried it with my wife’s hairdryer and found a decent crack. Sealed it up with RTV and reinstalled. The bolt that I cut lived in a little well on the headlight assembly. The hairdryer softened the glue in the well and I removed the bolt with pliers. Dumped some RTV into the well, put in a new bolt, and reinstalled the headlight so the bolt cured in the right position.
Getting a little more comfortable mechanically, it was time to address the wheel bearings. The pre purchase inspection noted a failing wheel bearing, passenger side. I noted nothing when driving and didn’t feel excessive play in the wheel when I had the vehicle jacked up, but I did know the bearings need to be repacked every 30K. Opted to bang out rotors, brakes and brake fluid “while I was in there.” Rotors were probably ok without replacement, but brakes needed some love.
On the passenger side I wasn’t happy with my seal installation. The seal was noticeably deformed. I should have used something bigger to evenly tap in the seal. When I put everything back together I could hear noise when spinning the rotor on the shaft. I pulled it all out and put in a new seal, also I packed a bit more grease in my inner bearing in case that was the source of my noise.
On the drivers side, I had a hell of a time with rust. Root cause was the “Knuckle Spindle Oil Retainer” was shot. I had to order a new gasket, hardware and neck. The passenger side wasn’t as bad, but will plan on replacing the retainer next time.
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