LC250 Stop Sale

[OregonLC]

Is the problem that the drains are clog easy or that the seal is not being maintained? In order for the drains to get clogged there has to be moisture which implies it's getting past the seal. I live in the PNW, no stranger to moisture and have never had a sunroof drain clog on any vehicle including (2) 100's and (1) 200 (along with 20 some other vehicles I've owned over the years). I just 303 the seals when I wash and everything is happy.

That said, sunroofs are indeed a waste of weight and headroom if only to be covered with a roof rack.

 

[Rednexus]

Very interesting of the clogging issue on other platforms. We've been getting 45-50 in/rain a year hear since I've had my GX....8" in a night....tons of leaf debris....and it's sat out side for all of that. Perhaps the GX and 100 have the best designed sunroof drains of all time? When I pulled my A-pillar trim off there were literally zero debris in mine, but they were discolored from water flowing through them.

 

[Jetboy]

The hoses on my 5th gen 4R clogged constantly, it was unbelievably annoying to have rain water spill onto your lap while driving or open your door after parking outside to find the floor mats full of water. This was when the truck was barely 2yrs old. Compressed air was the only remedy.

Our 100s and 460 have never had a clogged drain problem, same driveway and same office parking lots.

Now I hope we can eventually get a sunroof delete option on the LC Premium, any whiff of another drain issue and Im out.

That's interesting because the GX460 and 5G 4Runner (and LC200/LX570) share very similar sunroofs and share many of the same parts for the sunroof. Wonder if something is different on the 4R drains. My 5th gen never had issues. I also lived in a dry climate and it parked inside, so it would be pretty unusual for it to have buildup in the drains so I'm probably not a good test for it.

Something I do find distracting in my Tundra is that it has a servo that adjusts the front pop-up air deflector when the sunroof is open depending on speed. You can hear it adjust to a different height as you hit 50mph or drop below 40mph. The noise of a servo moving when you don't expect it triggers some sort of response from me to look around or think about.

Visually the 4R and GX appear nearly identical. Wouldn't surprise me if they were the same part other than the part numbers aren't the same.

 

[SanJuanJ]

Sunroof drains clog on every modern vehicle I've ever heard of. "Cleaning out sunroof drain hoses" is a common maintenance item.

I never had a sunroof drain problem on my 95 FZJ80, but that thing did rattle like crazy after a while.

Sunroofs are just too much problem and hassle for their worth. For me, it's either no sunroof at all, or a full removable top.

Really? I can think of at least 10 vehicles that I've owned with sunroofs including a 4th gen 4Runner that I had for 8 years and 5th gen 4Runner that I've owned for 7 years, and I've never one time (a) cleaned out a sunroof drain hose, or (b) had a sunroof leak.

 

[Acrad]

Definitely maintain your sunroof drains.. it happens on all rigs including the GXs. I also would be careful using compressed air or if clogged you might blow the hose connector off at the sunroof. I use weed eater line and then run windshield wiper fluid down the lines a couple times a year and mine is in a garage. If outside definitely keep them clean if you don’t normally park on flat ground. IE: Right front blocked but parked down at an angle… waterfall pillar syndrome on the ECUs below.

That happened on my Infiniti and took out the nav ECU. On that vehicle the factory flaw was the way it drains on the other end at the firewall… I tied in the plumping into the HVAC evap drain so it won’t happen again.

Also on that vehicle the vinyl tubing from age (it’s a 2007) pulled away from the sunroof and I just noticed it during one of my maintenance routines.

Front sunroof drain cleanliness should be part of your maintenance schedule and you will pretty much find issues on any make, model, or year with a sunroof.

Consider the residue of the trees you park under. If you don’t park under trees or other vegetation possibly a moot point. With the rain in my area…. I get almost a green sludge off of the conifers trees. A large thread on CL 460 and significant number are clogged sunroof drains related to interior leaks.

Summer on its way! SUNROOF / MOONROOF DRAIN-CLEAN-MAINTENANCE reminder (With links)!

Hi all! As someone who just spent way too much time with a water intrusion caused by a number of things, here's a reminder to check and clean your drainplugs for your sunroof; snake them all the way down, and make sure your rocker panels aren't full of water...and clean the pinch welds. I...

forum.ih8mud.com

How did you clean/clear your sunroof drain?

Tried to clean/clear sunroof drains of a friends 05LC today but was not able to find anything that go down in drain holes. Tried with cloth hanger wire, fuel line, some wires but couldn't get any of these down there because either not rigid enough or too rigid to go in. Those who successfully...

forum.ih8mud.com

Sunroof drain cleaning tool

I recently had to deal with two inches of water in one side of the floor board of my daily driver due to clogged sunroof drains. Fortunately it doesn’t have a harness on the floor like our 200s do, but the process of preventing the issue in the future got me hunting for equipment. Everyone...

forum.ih8mud.com

Water Leaks - Interior - ClubLexus - Lexus Forum Discussion

GX - 2nd Gen (2010-2023) - Water Leaks - Interior - So I go to this fancy laser carwash and notice the back of my head getting wet. Seems the back of the moon roof is letting in water when the high pressure jet passes over, it's not a lot but, this never happened to my other vehicles at the same...

www.clublexus.com

 

[04UZJ100]

20 year old 100 with over 300k on it. Never touched drains. Approaching 750k combined in Toyota trucks with moonroofs. No issues.

 

[1NTRANSIT]

That's interesting because the GX460 and 5G 4Runner (and LC200/LX570) share very similar sunroofs and share many of the same parts for the sunroof. Wonder if something is different on the 4R drains. My 5th gen never had issues. I also lived in a dry climate and it parked inside, so it would be pretty unusual for it to have buildup in the drains so I'm probably not a good test for it.

Something I do find distracting in my Tundra is that it has a servo that adjusts the front pop-up air deflector when the sunroof is open depending on speed. You can hear it adjust to a different height as you hit 50mph or drop below 40mph. The noise of a servo moving when you don't expect it triggers some sort of response from me to look around or think about.

Visually the 4R and GX appear nearly identical. Wouldn't surprise me if they were the same part other than the part numbers aren't the same.
View attachment 3658062View attachment 3658063

Agreed, I feared we’d have a similar issue with the 460 but 6yrs later and no issues. Seems counter intuitive but perhaps its the slope of the pillar? The 5G4R has a more upright pillar (as does the 250) and the 460 is more sloped. The outlet could be wider on the 460 as well. I found it impossible to get weed whacker string all the way through on the 4R.

 

[OSS]

If all vehicles came with a sunroof as standard — I would pay extra to get a model that didn’t have one

 

[Adam R]

It's good to see that there are no first year issues with this platform......cough, cough.....

Definitely waiting a year so Toyota can get their act together on this one.

 

[NYCGX]

I've never had a sunroof drain issue. But I've also never lived in a climate where mold and moss are problems. I suspect that's the issue more than foreign debris. Probably some chemicals could fix it with occasional use. Maybe the solution is to have the windshield wiper fluid flush it occasionally or something like that. I think it would be enough to kill whatever is growing in there.

Maybe we need a really long pipe cleaner?

Seems like in most cases a kinked tube could be opened up by either compressed air or running a rod down the drain. And aren't there usually 4 drains? Are they all kinked or just one?

Per the SA, all of the drains were clogged because of "existing" debris not allowing all the water to drain quick enough from the heavy rainstorms, their solution was clearing out with compressed air, no kinked hoses.

Zero sunroof drain issues on my 2007 GX470. It's parked outside under lots of trees as well, including some maples. The drains are still clear and free. I can hear them working in the drain (drip/trickle noise in the A pillar).

So......Toyota should know how to design one that drains without issue .

Like a few others on here, never had this issue nor had to get sunroof drains cleaned on any of my other past or other current vehicles (6+ over 10+ years) until the RX.

My thought is that the sunroof drain issues are more specific to that generation RX which is why it wasn't affecting my decision to pickup a LC or GX but now my concern is that whoever designed/engineered the sunroof drainage on the RX was involved with the GX/LC.

 

[onemanarmy]

Car enginners and designers and suppliers change things all the time just to do it

gotta keep themselves employed!

 

[Rednexus]

I’m inclined to agree with you. I lease my new vehicles for my business, so I don’t really factor resale into it much. I might gain some money back by selling a Toyota at higher than lease end value, but my current Tundra lease in this market is underwater by about $12k. I’ll drop it off and walk. The Broncos went through similar teething pains as the new TFNGA or whatever the new chassis designation is. The difference now is, Ford has sorted the issues out, and things are “normal” again. Will Toyota sort out the issues with the new lineup? Of course. And maybe in 2028/29 when the Bronco lease is up, we’ll revisit the LC or 4Runner option.

I do think the LC250/GX550 will be pretty awesome vehicles once these teething pains are sorted.

Agreed that if you are leasing - and writing off lease costs as a business expense - it would be hard to justify a Toyota. I own vehicles for personal use 10+ years and go by a "buy once, cry once" philosophy, so I don't mind paying the Toyota tax as it works out over the long term.

 

[joseywales]

I do think the LC250/GX550 will be pretty awesome vehicles once these teething pains are sorted.

Agreed that if you are leasing - and writing off lease costs as a business expense - it would be hard to justify a Toyota. I own vehicles for personal use 10+ years and go by a "buy once, cry once" philosophy, so I don't mind paying the Toyota tax as it works out over the long term.

I only keep one lease going, and own the rest of my fleet of 8 vehicles. The two longterm ones are an ‘03 Sequoia with 400,000kms and a ‘97 Tacoma with 595,000kms. If I took leasing off the table, I’d be VERY concerned about my next new purchase. It’s all a crap shoot these days.

I do agree Toyota will get this all sorted out eventually, but the Tundra engine issues are 3 MYs old and apparently still ongoing? It’s not exactly confidence inspiring. The new 4Runner is under consideration too, but I think the lean is still towards the Bronco. My Tundra is around until next spring, so I’ll just enjoy the show until then, and see how things play out.

 

[Jetboy]

I'm trying to find the correct source, but I heard recently that there are 44% more Toyota tundras currently registered in the United States with more than 200,000 miles than f-series trucks not adjusted for sales numbers. When you consider that the sales are roughly 7 to 1, that's roughly suggests that a tundra is about 10 times as likely to make it to 200,000 miles as a F series.

That's pretty stark difference if true.

I don't have any way to verify the background data though so I don't know for sure if that's true. It wouldn't surprise me.

I'm not sure the next gen will have similar longevity. Not sure it won't. I absolutely would pay it premium either in higher sale price or lesser comfort for that extra longevity. But that only works if the longevity part holds.

 

[Acrad]

One article on longevity

Study Shows Which Pickup Trucks Will Last Over 250k Miles

Discover the top trucks proven to last over 250,000 miles and learn expert tips to keep your truck running strong. Find out which models are built to go the distance.

www.worktruckonline.com

 

[Roonie]

My current FJ62 has over 200k miles on it and everything is OEM. I can personally speak to the longevity of a Toyota product and I have no fear of it breaking down driving it anywhere.

 

[OSS]

My current FJ62 has over 200k miles on it and everything is OEM. I can personally speak to the longevity of a Toyota product and I have no fear of it breaking down driving it anywhere.

Spend some time reading the FJ62 no-starts threads in the 60’s section. I don’t trust that vehicle anymore and neither should you.
A history of reliability with the 62 is no guarantee that the future will be the same.

Personally… if I had a 62, I’d sell it because I no longer trust it.

 

[Rednexus]

One article on longevity

Study Shows Which Pickup Trucks Will Last Over 250k Miles

Discover the top trucks proven to last over 250,000 miles and learn expert tips to keep your truck running strong. Find out which models are built to go the distance.

www.worktruckonline.com

View attachment 3658658

F250 and F350s are in many ways quite overbuilt, similar to a Toyota. Being HD trucks they also aren't subjected to the same reliability-killing emissions items as a half-ton truck (which is also probably why the GM 2500s rate higher than the 1500s). No cylinder activation, no weight reductions, bigger axles, etc. The Gen 2 Tundra has none of those features....probably because it was such a slow seller that it didn't drag down CAFE ratings like the GM/Ford/Dodge half-ton trucks did (as those are their bread and butter and comprise most of their US sales).

Toyota has now adopted the same MPG-boosting, reliability-killing tech as Ford and GM (TTV6, 10-speed auto), likely because they had to. For a new pickup purchase today, I'd personally want a F-250 or GM 2500 gasser for the better reliability than really any current 1/2 ton truck.

 

[Roonie]

Spend some time reading the FJ62 no-starts threads in the 60’s section. I don’t trust that vehicle anymore and neither should you.
A history of reliability with the 62 is no guarantee that the future will be the same.

Personally… if I had a 62, I’d sell it because I no longer trust it.

HAHA got to love this forum. There is always someone telling you something sucks and you should feel the same way they do about it. Not going to sell my FJ62 because YOU don't trust it anymore.

 

[Jetboy]

One article on longevity

Study Shows Which Pickup Trucks Will Last Over 250k Miles

Discover the top trucks proven to last over 250,000 miles and learn expert tips to keep your truck running strong. Find out which models are built to go the distance.

www.worktruckonline.com

View attachment 3658658

I think both could be true. The HD trucks make up some smaller part of the total f series. And they are often fleet trucks that tend to have short lives. For example they might get 200k in 10 years and scrapped while Tundras might be registered for another 15 years after the 200k mark because they're used by private owners as personal vehicles. And the tundra tends to be far less expensive over time.


I'd also say that it's unlikely at best to get a modern diesel past 200k without major engine work. At a minimum they'll typically need injectors, EGR system work, and almost all will have had at least one high pressure fuel pump replaced. Especially anything with a CP4 pump. Just the typical maintenance and upkeep would more than cover the cost of a 5.7 swap every 200,000 miles. But the 3.3tt is really $$ so I hope it lasts a long time.