New GX470 owner

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IanB

IanB

10 Year 15 Year
Joined
Jan 23, 2010
Threads
55
Messages
4,513
Location
Winnipeg, MB
We had a garage fire on Friday, which claimed all of our vehicles. This included my beloved HDJ81, another HDJ81 parts truck, my snowmobile, and my wife's Legacy. I have no idea what I'm going to do for myself, but we found a replacement for the wife and should take ownership of it this weekend.

We found a very clean '04 Lexus GX470 Premium, she loved it, and I couldn't find much wrong with it outside of the awful wheels the PO replaced the pitted originals with. I've tracked down a local set of 5 FJ Cruiser 6-spokes, and will be putting some 265/70/17's Goodyear Duratrac's on them for it.

I've only got a few pics from the FS ad right now, but we're looking forward to it!
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$(KGrHqFHJEQF!d5HtvL-BQg)d7043w~~48_20.webp
$T2eC16dHJGYE9noojie6BQg)c)!ViQ~~48_20.webp
 
kashmir said:
Damn, sorry to hear that.

Will insurance cover any of your extra builtup parts?

Are those wheels 16" ?
Click to expand...

My understanding is there is a limit on "car parts" under my homeowners policy that caps it at $2500, so I'm going to lose out big there unfortunately. That would include my parts truck, any uninstalled parts I had in there (which was a LOT), spare wheels/tires, all the parts I had removed from the parts truck for sale, etc.

Those are 17" wheels with the stock tires on them. Hopefully these are the only pics I'll have with this setup, I should be picking up the FJC wheels tonight, and dropping them off with my tire guy to get the Duratracs mounted up.
 
nice! I agree with getting rid of those wheels
 
Here's the finished product!
Lexus.webp
 
I like that much better!
 
SouthernSS said:
I like that much better!
Click to expand...

Oh me too! Looks so much better, handles far better in these winter conditions too. You can feel the gearing difference going from 31's to 32's, and the ride is a bit firmer, but I'm very happy with the change in tires. It's got lots of grunt to move the vehicle, but I'm curious to see what kind of mpg I'll be getting with this thing.
 
IanB said:
We had a garage fire on Friday, which claimed all of our vehicles. This included my beloved HDJ81, another HDJ81 parts truck, my snowmobile, and my wife's Legacy. I have no idea what I'm going to do for myself, but we found a replacement for the wife and should take ownership of it this weekend.

We found a very clean '04 Lexus GX470 Premium, she loved it, and I couldn't find much wrong with it outside of the awful wheels the PO replaced the pitted originals with. I've tracked down a local set of 5 FJ Cruiser 6-spokes, and will be putting some 265/70/17's Goodyear Duratrac's on them for it.

I've only got a few pics from the FS ad right now, but we're looking forward to it!
Click to expand...

Ian: My condolences on the loss of your HDJ's. That's some bad luck. Hopefully no injuries or major damage to your house. Please tell me it wasn't your newly installed circulating heater that caused the fire :eek:

Good luck searching for a replacement ride for yourself. Just don't go to the darkside out of frustration.
 
finderscuba said:
Ian: My condolences on the loss of your HDJ's. That's some bad luck. Hopefully no injuries or major damage to your house. Please tell me it wasn't your newly installed circulating heater that caused the fire :eek:

Good luck searching for a replacement ride for yourself. Just don't go to the darkside out of frustration.
Click to expand...

Thanks, everyone was alright thankfully, and we were only out of the house for a week while they cleaned the smoke damage up and stuff. They don't know the cause of the fire, so I'm trying not to dwell on it as I'll just lose sleep over it.

I have no idea what I'll get for myself, I can't find another HDJ81 like what I had so far, and I can't even really imagine getting another until after I have a garage and tools back in place as they are a time intensive vehicle to own, especially at the outset to bring everything up to spec.

I test drove a '98 Tacoma hoping it would do the trick for now and possibly keep around as a 3rd vehicle down the road, but it was too small inside by far. With the construction and replacing of items that will have to take place this summer I figured a truck would be handy, but at the same time I want another SUV as it just fits my lifestyle so much better with the additional interior space.

I had that locker switch blank sitting on my workbench for you, just didn't bump into you again in time.
 
Got some work done on the GX last night. Went over to a buddy's place and repaired the harness under the driver's seat so the SRS dash light doesn't come on anymore, and disabled the TPMS dash light. 2 things that were really bugging me off the list!

Also swapped the running board lights over to LED's that my buddy had kicking around, as I had a burnt out bulb on the passenger side, not sure if I like them or not. The light is bluish-white compared to the stock incandecent bulbs, looks good on their own, but doesn't match with the rest of the truck, and I don't want to convert everything on the truck over to LED, so this might be a temp change.

Also bought some Denso oil filters off him that he had no use for and fit this truck, at $4.25 each I couldn't go wrong.
 
good to hear a pesky garage fire cant stop the music! What method did you use to disable the TPMS? I'v been meaning to do that for a long time now.
 
Put in some weathertech digital floor liners and cargo liner yesterday, really nicely designed units! I also have a GROM iphone/USB/bluetooth input device, waiting for some warmer temps as I'll have to install this in the driveway.
 
Snapped a few pics this weekend after putting some serious elbow grease into the Lexus. Vacuumed, steam cleaned, magic eraser on any scuffs in the plastic, scrubbed out any stains in the carpet, armor-all'd, cleaned the headliner, leather protectant, a real good exterior cleaning and some time spent with the paint touch up pen, and it's finally feeling like mine (well, the wife's technically).

Picture 001.webp


Picture 004.webp


Picture 007.webp
 
Picked up my parents '05 MDX for the wife this week as they were replacing it, and shifted the GX over to me to use as my daily driver for the time being!

I also got the GROM USB2 w/ bluetooth installed, but I can't seem to get the USB input working yet. I think it's related to the formatting type, I'll have to keep playing with it.
 
How are your duratracs holding up mileage wise? Do you like them? Do they do well in the rain?



IanB said:
Got some work done on the GX last night. Went over to a buddy's place and repaired the harness under the driver's seat so the SRS dash light doesn't come on anymore
Click to expand...

When you say harness, are you referring to the seat belt buckle w/ the attached harness?
http://s140.photobucket.com/user/rrcompton/media/Lexus GX470/7323060420B0.jpg.html

My light recently came on. I removed the buckle and cut away the wire sheathing but I didn't find any damaged wires. I'm tempted to just replace the buckle anyway to see it it fixes the problems since it's cheap.

http://www.oemtoyotascionparts.com/oem-part/oem-lexus/buckle-end-left/7323060420b0
 
If memory serves me, the broken wire was on the chassis side of the buckle harness, replacing that involves tearing apart the driver side dash. It's from the power seat moving back and forth, fatigues the wire and eventually breaks.

As for the duratracs, they are at 16/32 tread after about 26,000 kms of use, new is 18/32, so I'd say they are wearing very well. They are good in the rain, but where they really shine is the packed snow and ice conditions we deal with 5 months of the year, I've had them on my last 3 trucks, love them.
 
Last edited:
Ok thanks.

I just pulled the code and got a B0101/14, so more than likely it's the clock spring. I've had problems w/ the volume not working on the steering wheel controls unless I have the steering wheel at full lock...so I'm hoping that's the problem. If not it gets a LOT more expensive if it's the center airbag sensor.
 
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