Lx470 Stuck in low and Cant Raise Back Up (1 Viewer)

[tjb]

Pump has been flagged by the diagnostic software, and was acting up for a while.

My mechanic wanted to replace it last time I was in (based on the flag) but it seemed to be working so I didn’t trust the diagnosis.

I’ve had the chocolate foam fluid and I did at least two fluid changes with the dreaded plastic bottle fluid, and I may be overthinking it.

 

[J1000]

Pump has been flagged by the diagnostic software, and was acting up for a while.

My mechanic wanted to replace it last time I was in (based on the flag) but it seemed to be working so I didn’t trust the diagnosis.

I’ve had the chocolate foam fluid and I did at least two fluid changes with the dreaded plastic bottle fluid, and I may be overthinking it.

Have you done serious off-roading since replacing the globes? The globes are pretty robust so I would doubt they would fail after only a few years without some serious abuse. Pump is cheap, like $125, and easy to replace.

 

[tjb]

Have you done serious off-roading since replacing the globes? The globes are pretty robust so I would doubt they would fail after only a few years without some serious abuse. Pump is cheap, like $125, and easy to replace.

I haven’t.

I have foamy fluid, first guess was bad globe introducing gas into the fluid.

Gonna try to swap out the fluid tomorrow when it’s supposed to get above 20F.

 

[BadMechanic]

Watching. Similar situation with a new to me 04 w 237k. Lost count of bleeding cycles and now removed the pump. Getting ready to rip apart but feel like ordering the sub assembly just cause it's old.

 

[GremlinMobile]

Curious what you find too. My 2003 has 270 miles on it and I have no idea if the globes were ever swapped. I just did the gradation test and counted 11 ticks. That's pretty good from what I understand. I wonder if that rules out a busted globe? Because if it does, then why is my ride so s***ty, and why does my fluid bleeding always result in foamy fluid too?

 

[TexLexican]

Curious what you find too. My 2003 has 270 miles on it and I have no idea if the globes were ever swapped. I just did the gradation test and counted 11 ticks. That's pretty good from what I understand. I wonder if that rules out a busted globe? Because if it does, then why is my ride so s***ty, and why does my fluid bleeding always result in foamy fluid too?

foamy fluid means busted globe. There is a serial number on the globe where either the first 2 or last 2 digits are the year of manufacture, pretty sure it’s the first 2. 11 graduations is pretty good though.

 

[BonS]

Curious what you find too. My 2003 has 270 miles on it and I have no idea if the globes were ever swapped. I just did the gradation test and counted 11 ticks. That's pretty good from what I understand. I wonder if that rules out a busted globe? Because if it does, then why is my ride so s***ty, and why does my fluid bleeding always result in foamy fluid too?

I just replaced my globes at 203,000 miles. Date code 2002. Graduations at 10 or more. Globes bleed foamy. All passed the pencil test. Night and day difference with the new Impex globes. Full comfort mode gives a super smooth ride without any bouncing or excessive body roll. Very, very, nice. I used to rely upon Sport mode to keep the body in control. I waited way too long.

 

[tjb]

I haven’t.

I have foamy fluid, first guess was bad globe introducing gas into the fluid.

Gonna try to swap out the fluid tomorrow when it’s supposed to get above 20F.

Just wanted to update this …

Background:

Last winter my AHC started to fail (reverted to L and the OFF light was flashing). I was able to flush the fluid, which was “chocolate milkshake” in character and get the truck back to N. I didn’t look further into it, but did not raise or lower the truck afterward.

In a cold snap about a month ago, the same problems started occurring - the truck wanted to go to L, and with much agony got back to N, briefly. For some time I could hear the pump laboring when the car would start and first start driving (it could be that it was laboring all along but that at some point road noise obscured it). I was getting C1751 and C1762.

I drove it around for a while in this condition - L and flashing off - mostly waiting for a break in the weather to try and get after it. But finally the back end of the truck fell to the bump stops, and following sound advice here (that I should not have needed), I decided to get after it.

I tried to flush it again. Because of the foam and the fact that it happened twice, about a year apart, I speculated that one globe and then another failed. Second guess was the introduction of gas from a problem with the AHC pump.

I got a good bit of foam out this second time - much lighter color than last time and 99% foam, almost no liquid - but I couldn’t get the pump to run to push the new stuff through, even when trying to activate it in diagnostic mode.

Too cold to continue dabbling with it outside and tired of my house smelling like AHC fluid, I broke down and had my truck towed to Lex Connection in Portland, ME. (That’s about 150 miles for me.)

They diagnosed a bad pump and controller. I took their word for it - I’m always skeptical that people have the expertise for this - but they’re a reputable shop and everyone involved jumped on the phone and/or to the service counter to talk about what they went through. They flushed it four times to get the foam out. (They recommended burning the clothes that I have washed four times.)

They had just done a conversion on another LX, so had a used pump assembly and controller, which they sold me for $2k. (You can get those two pieces - pump assembly 48910-60012 and the ECU 899290-60041 - for a little over $1,700 plus shipping from Amayama and probably a little less from IMPEX, but I opted to take the used pieces. )

Bottom line: $3,600. Seems to be running well now. Lex Connection thought all the globes were good (IMPEX, put ‘em on about 70,000 miles ago). I haven’t done a graduation test or the FSM test to try and assess the individual globes, still too cold and snowy up here.

My truck was an Alabama/Texas resident when I bought it six years ago, and it’s been bathed in Fluid Film about four times since I brought it up here. So it’s pretty solid underneath, although enough rust has shown up that I couldn’t whack off the lower ball joint myself about 18 months ago.

Just passing on for information. Had I had a spot to work on it, I probably would have started with replacing just the pump sub-assembly and started to work up from there, but I just didn’t have a space to do it.

 

[BadMechanic]

Update on mine. Was the pump strainers. Damn near 2 cans of brake parts cleaners to get that pressurized plaque off the strainer. After cleaning, I put back together and turned the truck on. Came up in seconds.