Lex Do It! OG's '98 LX 470 (1 Viewer)

[OG 91 LC]

I went for a test drive and ran through the Low and High settings several times. I did not change any setting from comfort to sport. I'm not sure I noticed a difference. Then again I just cruised around my neighborhood.

 

[OG 91 LC]

Not sure if you guys had a chance to hop on over to 80 series tech. There was a thread on there "if you had to do it all over again. What would you do differently" and it got me thinking. I don't need to spend $$$ on powder coating my wheels. I'm gonna rock the chromies!!!!!!

So I headed over to my local Costco.

Got my LX some 285/75/16 BF Goodies KO2s on my chromies!!!! And I love it!!!!

With my recent AHC fluid swap and new tires its feeling and driving great.

On to my next projects. I have owned this vehicle for close to 5 months and I haven't even cleaned the inside since I bought it. Gonna get some Griots cleaner and some Leatherique and clean it up a bit. Also in line is my lame starter. It's actin' up. Gonna be removing hoses and manifold to get in there. Also on the list. I need to get a new key fob. The only one I have is cracked. I would like to replace asap.

Btw. These 200 series wheels and tire are up for sale on the classifieds.

 

[krice118]

I like the chromies bc it's stock! I love keeping looks factory! But I still want bumpers and TRD rock warriors....

 

[Fuge]

Great thread. Good luck on the rest of your build.

 

[bucfl]

Same size i want to go with...looks to fill in nicely.

 

[OG 91 LC]

Well I knew I had a starter issue. Truck would start on some days and on some other days it would not. I would hear the "click." Try again and hope that it would start. Yesterday I heard it trying to start and it faded. "Click." "Click." No deals. I asked my cousin who works at Toyota and he said this. When you hear the "click" it's the contacts in the starter.

My 80 was so much easier to start when the starter was going out. Replacing it as well.

From inside the wheel well.



So off to my local Toyota to get a new starter. Yes I know I could just buy the contacts, but sometimes it could be a few other components inside there not working. Not taking my chances. Went with the reman.
Bought some upper and lower gaskets for the manifold. My cousin suggested "while I'm in there" to get a new fuel filter. Done.

It has been suggested that perhaps the starting issue may be an efi fuse, an efi relay, or perhaps a faulty fuel pump. Don't have the typical fuel pump symptoms.

Never worked on a 100 series before. Read some threads. Watched some YouTube vids. Prob gonna put up some questions. ................and so it begins.

I'm giving myself until Friday to get this done.
Def gonna take lots of pics for my visual learners.

 

[NC-Grayson]

Nice work thus far. I'm in the 98 LX club as well, similar mileage to yours as well. I'm in the same boat with my interior. It's clean from the p/o, but I haven't touched it in the 2 months I've had it. I ordered leatherique and it showed up yesterday. Everything I've read says do it in the heat of heat. It's not as hot here now as it was a few months ago, should I wait until it warms back up again?

Anyways, thanks for the pics on my he AHC fluid DIY.....that's my next project after the leatherique. Oh, and new tires! My build page will basically look like yours lol.

 

[OG 91 LC]

Day 2 of my starter replacement. I watched a video and I disconnected a whole bunch of stuff. I labeled, numbered hoses and bolts, and their placement. I'm at a point where I'm not too sure what to do next. I don't have an fsm. I have some questions so I'm gonna post them on another thread, then compile the info onto this thread.

I took a bunch of pics. Here are a few.

 

[OG 91 LC]

Well I gave myself until this past Friday to swap the starter and put everything back. No deals. I was still unbolting stuff and taking hoses off on Saturday. The reason for trying to get it done by this weekend was that my LX is parked on the Monday street sweeping side. Last Monday was Columbus Day so I got lucky and didn't get a ticket.

It was tough in that I still had everyday life stuff to get done. Bdays, soccer game, and taking care of my kiddos and making sure wifey was happy and chill.

Of course I will do a full write up for my visual learners.

As I stated earlier I have never worked on a 4.7 V8 UZJ100 Toyota engine before. Man did I learn a lot in a week. Mentally I'm exhausted and I'm a wreck, but it feels real good.

Here's a few pics.

Starter sneak peak through manifold.

Starter sneak peak to the rear of manifold near firewall. Firewall on the left.

Upper manifold off with gasket.

Lower manifold off with gaskets and ports covered with towels. Lay of the land. Old starter still in there. Notice I removed the throttle body, but I did not disconnect the coolant line. I just put off to the side.

New starter in. Old lower manifold gaskets.

Notice the critter food/fesses alone the side of gaskets.

Put everything back. Really really nervous.

Key in the ignition. Turn the key.

Viola!!!! It started!!!!!! No more "click click." Super stoked!!!


Lond long long day.

 

[brenmallari]

Not sure if you guys had a chance to hop on over to 80 series tech. There was a thread on there "if you had to do it all over again. What would you do differently" and it got me thinking. I don't need to spend $$$ on powder coating my wheels. I'm gonna rock the chromies!!!!!!

So I headed over to my local Costco.

View attachment 1144651

Got my LX some 285/75/16 BF Goodies KO2s on my chromies!!!! And I love it!!!!

View attachment 1144652

View attachment 1144653

View attachment 1144654

View attachment 1144656

With my recent AHC fluid swap and new tires its feeling and driving great.

On to my next projects. I have owned this vehicle for close to 5 months and I haven't even cleaned the inside since I bought it. Gonna get some Griots cleaner and some Leatherique and clean it up a bit. Also in line is my lame starter. It's actin' up. Gonna be removing hoses and manifold to get in there. Also on the list. I need to get a new key fob. The only one I have is cracked. I would like to replace asap.

Btw. These 200 series wheels and tire are up for sale on the classifieds.

Hi,
Do the BFG's rub when turned all the way?

 

[OG 91 LC]

Not at all. Free and clear.

 

[OG 91 LC]

So current project is removing my factory roof rack.

In the mean time. I have been driving around with only one factory key fob. When I purchased the truck the seller only handed one key.

Here's what I did.

I hopped onto Amazon. Keyed in 1998 Lexus LX470 key and came upon this.

Read the product description.

Cool. Transponder keys with 4C chip for my '98 Lexus. $16.11 for two keys!!!??? SCORE!
Placed my order.

They arrived today.

I headed over to my local locksmith. I had paid them a visit last week and inquired about Lexus " laser cut" keys. They told me that they could cut them for me. The keys are not laser cut. The machine that makes the cut is "laser" calibrated. Since I supplied them the above key( I only had them cut one key to see if it worked) they charged me $45.

Key was cut so I headed home to give it a try. Here is a pic of the OG transponder key, cut key from locksmith, and blank uncut key.

Closer view.

Everything looked cool. Now time to go out to the truck and try it.

 

[OG 91 LC]

So I went out to the truck. I used my new cut transponder key to open the door. Cool. It opened up the truck.

I went to my saved detailed instructions on how to program a new key from the thread here on Mud. Made sure all windows were closed. Made sure I locked all my doors and manually unlocked my driver's side door. I then followed the following procedures specific for 4C 1998-2002 LC/LX programming.

And the "sequence E" procedure.

After step 8 I put the key back into ignition. Gave it a shot. VIOLA!!!!!!! I now have a new transponder key programmed for my truck that cost only $53!!!!!!!!!

Once again. Thanks Mud!!!!!

For those of you that are local to San Clemente, Cali. here is Tony's Locksmith info.

 

[SS100]

Nice write-ups. Appreciate the many pics. Looking forward to the next post/mod/repair.
Thanks for taking the time to post.

 

[OG 91 LC]

I'm still stoked that I was able to duplicate another key for $53.

So back to my factory roof rack. I've been a bit nervous about removing the rack wondering if I would find any surprises while removing it. I did take off the caps on the four ends. The torx bolts were not that tight. So I tighten them.

So kept continplating and continplating whether I should just go for it and remove my factory roof rack. I really don't have any use for my rack. Even if I decided to slap on my RTT on top of it the crossbars wouldn't work with the fasteners that are currently on there.

So........................ It's coming off!!!!!!

Without using any tools I took my nails and grasped onto the rear bottom of each cap and pried them off.

I then used a 40 torx bit to take off the bolts on all 6 feet of the rack.

And bolts coming off.

So now that all four corners had the bolts off I had to slide the entire rack forward about an inch to remove both center feet. So since I was doing all this by myself I decide to wrap each of the four corner feet with some towels and tape, so as to not scratch the truck, and slid the rack forward.

 

[OG 91 LC]

Here is the way the center mounts to the rack.

A closer shot.

Before I took off the middle feet I wrapped the middle of the rack with towels and slid the rack off to the driver's side using the footing as a lever.

And utilizing the middle footing.

And rack is off!!

Now to take off the middle feet. Hopefully no surprise.

 

[OG 91 LC]

Here is the middle footing on the inside.

Bolts came off with ease. I can see now why this may become an issue. If water seeps in there and sits there you're gonna get some rusty blob for bolts. No rust here!!!!!

Footing coming off.

No rust inside either!!!!! Stoked!!!!

Keeping all pieces together.

And a sneak peak of the roof rack off.

Now to tackle sealing the holes.

 

[OG 91 LC]

To seal the holes this is what I'll be using.

Stainless steel hex cap bolts. I only used the 0567 O-Rings since the side wall was 1/8". Larger wall is mo' betta.

I wanted to use the thread sealant, but with the idea that I will be replacing with an aftermarket rack I didn't want the thread sealant to become an issue later. I used 3M sealant and only the flowable silicone.

3M sealant.

So I took the O-Ring onto the bolts. Used the 3M sealant between the head and the O-Ring.

Then I used a 13 mm socket and tighten up the bolts.

 

[OG 91 LC]

I used the flowable silicone to seal around the bottom of the O-Ring. I wish it would have looked a bit cleaner, but then again it's flowable for a reason

I'm cool with it. Doesn't harden. They will be covered anyways.

Roof drip moulding from Toyota.

Outside of package.

And the underside of the moulding.

They will attach to the top like this.

Pic above is with the moulding sitting on top; not fully sitting clipped in.

 

[OG 91 LC]

Removing the rack was very simple. Seriously it took about 15-20 minutes. I was really lucky that there were no funky surprises.

Here are a few pics of the LX rack-less!!!!

Cool Saturday morning project. Visual learners. Hope this helps.