Newbie and soon to be LX450 owner (7 Viewers)

[SchniperJB]

Hello All,

My name is Jeremy, and true to newbie form, I will introduce my self and ask for assistance. I am finally re-entering the world of the FJ. Owned a '40 in school, long ago. When I sold it, I made the wife give me a chip that I could cash in later for another cruiser. Now that we have a little one, my 2 seater will not suffice, so I have been looking for an '80. This brings us to today.

Parked outsiode is a '96 LX, and I have a few questions for the experts before I buy it. The truck has a slight leak (seepage) looks to be from the crank seal. How bad is this to repair? This truck has more junk under the hood than my old FJ40 did, and looks like there is a decent amount to be removed to get to the seal.

Any advice/help is greatly appreciated. I do not have the time or energy to get into many repairs now, and I prefer to do my own work.

Thank you,

Jeremy

 

[e9999]

Nah, you're not a newb if you had an FJ.
Welcome, dude!
Most important before you buy an LX is to make sure it comes with the OEM pink panties! LX owners swear by them...

 

[BOUNDER]

Most important before you buy an LX is to make sure it comes with the OEM pink panties! LX owners swear by them...

It's up and it's good!

 

[NorCalDoug]

First of all...
Jeremy - Welcome aboard

How bad's the leak? Would it be possible to take a pic and post it here?


Don't mind Eric and his pink panties comments -- he's just jealous that all he got with his cruiser was rust under his OEM rack. I know he's dying for the chance to slip into one of my pairs of pink panties

 

[fzj80kidpen]

Welcome,
About that leak. Is it front or rear?
Front is not that hard to do. Rear is.
Could just be the crank position sensor if its a slow leak.
That would really easy.

 

[Tools R Us]

How bad is the seep? Are you sure it's not from the rear of the valve cover? Mine had some oil film down there when I bought it, washed it off and it hasn't returned.

 

[SchniperJB]

The leak is on the front, behind the pulleys. I doube that it is valve cover related, the cover gasket is clean. I do not have my camera available, so no to the pic now.
to describe it, the splash guard has some oil on it, and looking from behind the pulleys, on the passenger side of the front of the engine, i can see some seepage. have not had the truck long enough to determine how bad it is, since it's last change, there are about 500 miles on it (guess) and the dipstick is still full. Not a solid indicator - but atleast it tells me to not panic.

Thanks for the welcomes and advice.

 

[reffug]

Don't mind Eric and his pink panties comments -- he's just jealous that all he got with his cruiser was rust under his OEM rack. I know he's dying for the chance to slip into one of my pairs of pink panties

Most important before you buy an LX is to make sure it comes with the OEM pink panties! LX owners swear by them...

I think your both sick, in the head...............................

 

[Rookie2]

You probably need to clean the area off real well with degreaser and try to confirm the origin of the leak. The upper oil pan mates the arched surface of the timing cover chain just below the crankshaft seal, and that could also be the source of a slow leak.

I haven't replaced the crankshaft seal so I don't know first hand... but in looking at the FSM and previous discussions here, the main hurdle is being able to remove and torque the crankshaft pulley bolt (304 ft-lbs). The rest doesn't look to bad. You'll basically need to remove the radiator, fan assembly and maybe a couple of other things that are in the way.

and Welcome.
Rookie2

 

[Romer]

My LX leaked at the Valve cover. The gasket and sprak plug gromments was less than $100, A shop gave me a qoute for $233. I hope thats what you are describing.

Does it have lockers? That was arequirement for me. If you ever plan to wheel you might want to wait for one that has lockers.

 

[4x4CPOSEADOG]

Welcome on board.

 

[LX_TREME]

Welcome aboard and let see pics of the LX...

 

[Docmallory]

The leak is on the front, behind the pulleys. I doube that it is valve cover related, the cover gasket is clean.

I recently had a similar leak. After reading many of the old posts on this board I learned that a leak in that area is most likely related to one of the following:
a) front crank seal
b) upper oil pan arch
c) Oil pump cover seal
d) crank position sensor

Based on the numbers of posts about each of these leaks, my guess-timate is that they are also ranked in order of probability, with "a" being most likely (maybe Robbie could verify that). Only "d" is an easy fix. The rest are relatively involved to fix, and the steps have been described numerous times in the past. A search of the archives will provide you with a lot of info. If I were you, I'd pull off the splash guard and clean things up, then watch for the leak to return over the next few days. That should hopefully help you localize it better.

Good luck!