After my plans to build a unique overlander out of my Porsche Cayenne Turbo were sunk by a broken piston ring that is too expensive to fix, I decided to go with the reputation of the 100's and bought a not so great example of a 2003 LX470. I have worked on every make of vehicle except a Toyota it seems, so something new to try. These are really hard to find in Canada these days, and although I swore I never would, I bought it from a car flipper - first mistake. Second was buying it a few weeks before a trip to Washington which was to include a shot at the Backcountry Discovery Route. Which was at least partially successful; this is coming up to Chumstick Peak on the Cashmere to Chelan leg of the route.
I knew it had a bit of rust, but the frame looked solid and overall in good shape. First thing that surprised me was that although the rust level didn’t seem too bad, almost every bolt on the underside broke - I spent 4 days getting the skid plates off, each bolt had to be drilled out and re-tapped. But I got it off and did the mission critical stuff like:
- lube the slip yokes and u joints (got rid of the clunk)
- unseized the spare tire cable mechanism
- buy the missing tools to wind down the spare, and bought a LX470 jack.
- fixed the frozen solid bell levers on the parking brake so I could set it when test jacking the front of the truck so it won't shift and fall off the jack, again (this can in fact be done with a large hammer, a vice and a torch btw)
- buy a set of used Tundra rims and a new steel rim for a full size spare
- made my tire choice, something I traditionally labor over for months. Went with Geolander G015's and couldn't be happier with them. Was going to get 275/70R18 after reading a lot of posts here, but got a 60% off deal on 265/70R18's and it turns out for what I do these might actually be better.
- bought a set of used 2" spacers, looked and rolled great (increased stability) but slightly illegal re the fenders so bought the cheap 1.5" ones from Amazon, which worked out perfect.
- got my mini VCI Techstream setup working
- new plugs and all the usual tuning up stuff
- built a shelf for the back with roll out storage compartments
- put in new O2 sensors to try and get rid of a P0430 fault...long story on this for later.
So a day before leaving it was running really well, but I realized that the car flipper had lied big time when it came to the air conditioning, which he swore worked well in the back. I didn't know how easy this was to check at the time I bought it, but then realized the lines to the back had been capped. That made me not trust anything he said, including that the timing belt had 20,000 kms to go until needing changing. I cracked open the cover on one side enough to peek in - every single part of the belt above a tooth was cracked, this had to be the original 270K km belt. I think this must set some kind of record for how bad a belt can be without exploding the engine. I search the internet and couldn’t find a worse belt so some pictures:
Took me about 48 hours to get the parts and replace it - I am new to Toyota engines, had to make my own harmonic balancer puller tool etc., but got it done and left a day late with very little testing. I had a new OEM water pump, but the old one seemed tight and fine, and I will have to go back in to replace the pulleys I didn't get the parts for in time anyway so I left the old one in.
It performed amazing on the trip, this is a really capable off road vehicle (as you all know of course). We did bail on the overlanding after the picture above was taken however; we started smelling gas in the cabin, and that combined with it being 109 degrees out (damn), the family voted for a motel rather than a roadside camping experience. Also, the brakes were fading pretty badly on the downhill parts, even with lots of engine braking. I must admit I was in agreement, it was just too hot to enjoy. Although I am really impressed that the temperature gauge stayed rock solid normal even doing this with the a/c on at times. This is a really well designed engine - nothing like the power out of a Porsche V8, but I can see why it is so reliable.
So I will save the questions for the next post; glad I made the switch to Toyota for this build, it got us home and I don't know if my Cayenne or Jeep would have done so well. Now to figure out this P0430 mystery...
Mike
Btw, I have rebadged it as a Maibatsu Monstrosity – GTA3 players should get this!
I knew it had a bit of rust, but the frame looked solid and overall in good shape. First thing that surprised me was that although the rust level didn’t seem too bad, almost every bolt on the underside broke - I spent 4 days getting the skid plates off, each bolt had to be drilled out and re-tapped. But I got it off and did the mission critical stuff like:
- lube the slip yokes and u joints (got rid of the clunk)
- unseized the spare tire cable mechanism
- buy the missing tools to wind down the spare, and bought a LX470 jack.
- fixed the frozen solid bell levers on the parking brake so I could set it when test jacking the front of the truck so it won't shift and fall off the jack, again (this can in fact be done with a large hammer, a vice and a torch btw)
- buy a set of used Tundra rims and a new steel rim for a full size spare
- made my tire choice, something I traditionally labor over for months. Went with Geolander G015's and couldn't be happier with them. Was going to get 275/70R18 after reading a lot of posts here, but got a 60% off deal on 265/70R18's and it turns out for what I do these might actually be better.
- bought a set of used 2" spacers, looked and rolled great (increased stability) but slightly illegal re the fenders so bought the cheap 1.5" ones from Amazon, which worked out perfect.
- got my mini VCI Techstream setup working
- new plugs and all the usual tuning up stuff
- built a shelf for the back with roll out storage compartments
- put in new O2 sensors to try and get rid of a P0430 fault...long story on this for later.
So a day before leaving it was running really well, but I realized that the car flipper had lied big time when it came to the air conditioning, which he swore worked well in the back. I didn't know how easy this was to check at the time I bought it, but then realized the lines to the back had been capped. That made me not trust anything he said, including that the timing belt had 20,000 kms to go until needing changing. I cracked open the cover on one side enough to peek in - every single part of the belt above a tooth was cracked, this had to be the original 270K km belt. I think this must set some kind of record for how bad a belt can be without exploding the engine. I search the internet and couldn’t find a worse belt so some pictures:
Took me about 48 hours to get the parts and replace it - I am new to Toyota engines, had to make my own harmonic balancer puller tool etc., but got it done and left a day late with very little testing. I had a new OEM water pump, but the old one seemed tight and fine, and I will have to go back in to replace the pulleys I didn't get the parts for in time anyway so I left the old one in.
It performed amazing on the trip, this is a really capable off road vehicle (as you all know of course). We did bail on the overlanding after the picture above was taken however; we started smelling gas in the cabin, and that combined with it being 109 degrees out (damn), the family voted for a motel rather than a roadside camping experience. Also, the brakes were fading pretty badly on the downhill parts, even with lots of engine braking. I must admit I was in agreement, it was just too hot to enjoy. Although I am really impressed that the temperature gauge stayed rock solid normal even doing this with the a/c on at times. This is a really well designed engine - nothing like the power out of a Porsche V8, but I can see why it is so reliable.
So I will save the questions for the next post; glad I made the switch to Toyota for this build, it got us home and I don't know if my Cayenne or Jeep would have done so well. Now to figure out this P0430 mystery...
Mike
Btw, I have rebadged it as a Maibatsu Monstrosity – GTA3 players should get this!
