Hey everybody!
I just bought a 2003 LC with approx 250k on the odo. This is my first LC and I'm a noob at serious off road stuff despite owning all 4wd/AWD vehicles and living in an area with abundant opportunities for offroad exploration!
The Good: The cruiser is really clean and good to great condition for a 20 year old vehicle. Frame and body very clean with (what I think) little rust and very clean engine compartment. Lots of service records via Carfax and the cruiser was a California truck until it migrated to Inland Northwest (my AO) about 5-6 years ago... The truck is bone stock as far as I can tell and rides butter smooth at highway speed. Engine feels solid and sounds good. HVAC blows super hot and cold. Timing belt and water pump changed at 190k per CarFax record.
The Bad (in no particular order):
-Radio antenna actuator sticks at 1/4 mast and does not extend, but retracts fully at power off.
-OEM front seats replaced w/ unknown and seat heaters do not function.
-Steering wheel slight "plasticy" grinding sound while turning.
-Steering wheel cover very worn out.
-Steering wheel tilt actuator intermittent.
-NAV/GPS map is wonky and isn't properly calibrated.
The Ugly:
Yesterday, the CEL, "VSC TRAC" and "VSC OFF" lights illuminated alltogether on second drive after taking possession from the Honda dealer that I bought it from. At first I was worried that this was the dreaded imminent brake failure so I returned home ASAP, there was no ABS light or alarm, so hopefully that's not something that's in store for the future. Truck seemed to function normally on the 2-3 mile return trip home. I'll be searching the site for info on possible cause. According to CarFax, the truck was serviced multiple times at a local shop, so I might drop by there to see if they might be willing to talk about some of the vehicle history. Any thoughts, suggestions, or referrals to links is greatly appreciated!
First things first is to sort out the "VSC" issue and baseline the truck. Then, my plan is to run this truck as an alternate daily driver and forest roads cruiser. Not much of a camper these days (my kids are grown), but there are miles and miles of forest roads to explore in North Idaho and I'm excited to get out to some cool places! Not really looking to do serious wheeling or rock crawling, but would like to have some capability, so eventually looking to mod with lift, wheels/tires, sliders, bumper(s), etc.
Looking forward to joining this community and maybe someday contributing with some adventure stories!
-Scott
I just bought a 2003 LC with approx 250k on the odo. This is my first LC and I'm a noob at serious off road stuff despite owning all 4wd/AWD vehicles and living in an area with abundant opportunities for offroad exploration!
The Good: The cruiser is really clean and good to great condition for a 20 year old vehicle. Frame and body very clean with (what I think) little rust and very clean engine compartment. Lots of service records via Carfax and the cruiser was a California truck until it migrated to Inland Northwest (my AO) about 5-6 years ago... The truck is bone stock as far as I can tell and rides butter smooth at highway speed. Engine feels solid and sounds good. HVAC blows super hot and cold. Timing belt and water pump changed at 190k per CarFax record.
The Bad (in no particular order):
-Radio antenna actuator sticks at 1/4 mast and does not extend, but retracts fully at power off.
-OEM front seats replaced w/ unknown and seat heaters do not function.
-Steering wheel slight "plasticy" grinding sound while turning.
-Steering wheel cover very worn out.
-Steering wheel tilt actuator intermittent.
-NAV/GPS map is wonky and isn't properly calibrated.
The Ugly:
Yesterday, the CEL, "VSC TRAC" and "VSC OFF" lights illuminated alltogether on second drive after taking possession from the Honda dealer that I bought it from. At first I was worried that this was the dreaded imminent brake failure so I returned home ASAP, there was no ABS light or alarm, so hopefully that's not something that's in store for the future. Truck seemed to function normally on the 2-3 mile return trip home. I'll be searching the site for info on possible cause. According to CarFax, the truck was serviced multiple times at a local shop, so I might drop by there to see if they might be willing to talk about some of the vehicle history. Any thoughts, suggestions, or referrals to links is greatly appreciated!
First things first is to sort out the "VSC" issue and baseline the truck. Then, my plan is to run this truck as an alternate daily driver and forest roads cruiser. Not much of a camper these days (my kids are grown), but there are miles and miles of forest roads to explore in North Idaho and I'm excited to get out to some cool places! Not really looking to do serious wheeling or rock crawling, but would like to have some capability, so eventually looking to mod with lift, wheels/tires, sliders, bumper(s), etc.
Looking forward to joining this community and maybe someday contributing with some adventure stories!
-Scott
