Hello fine people of IH8MUD. This is a very impressive forum! The amount of help I have gleaned by searching here the last few weeks is amazing and has saved me literally thousands of dollars, so I’m going to be posting a bit of the simple LX470 improvements I have made over the last few weeks in the hopes it helps someone else, and ask a few more questions along the way. I am new to the 100 Series, but not new to Toyota 4x4s, this my 9th Toyota 4x4, and I’ve put well over half a million miles on a string of Tacomas (96, 01, 2013) and 4runners (4 different 3rd gens, and a 1984 1st Gen that I still own), I even had a 74 FJ40 for some ‘Mud street cred but that project went to my brother in law years ago.
This project had a specific purpose, our family has a house about 50 miles from us near Graeagle, CA and after my son was born we realized we needed something else to schlep the two of us, our two dogs, the kid and his future sibling and a load of baby gear up to the mountains. Hence the name “CabinCruiser”. My wife’s Outback is too small for the dogs, and my trucks leave my old heat sensitive Chesapeake Bay Retriever in the truck bed with the gear and diesel smoke. I got a shell and looked into adding an auxiliary AC unit to the Ram MegaCab bed for the dogs, but scrapped that project when I realized I would be in it 5k+. Obviously time for another SUV!
I considered several SUVs in my price range of 12-15k
4th Gen 4Runners, preferably an early Sport model with the V8
1st Gen Sequoias
2001-2005ish Suburban/Yukon 2500. The 3/4 tons are a rare breed and hold up pretty well from my experience with my wife’s old 2500HD with the 6.0 Vortec, but hard to find a clean one.
7.3 Diesel Excursions-Honestly my first choice since I have really liked my 7.3 F350, would have been an easy sell but never found the right one and prices are all over the place on these things.
And of course, the LC100. Always liked them.
6 months of casual Craigslist searching and this thing happens to show up while I’m drinking my coffee on a day off, 40 miles away.
First Photo at Home
2001 LX470 with 181k for $8999, Private Party listing. I was there an hour after it was posted. Definitely a few more miles and a little more roughed up on the exterior than I was looking for, but the price was right for my area, it was the right color to match the “fleet”, and thanks to some ‘Mud searching on the drive down I sealed the deal based on my first hot tip from here.
Service Records from Lexus Online Lexus Service History | Lexus Drivers
Fat stack from Carlsbad Toyota, every 5-10k from New through 132k miles. California car since new, not a spec of rust underneath. Car fax showed regular oil changes, and interestingly enough a stolen vehicle report from 2003 in Mexico, which matched the parking pass from a Rosarito time share on the front windshield. Clearly it was recovered and continued to be owned by the same people for the next 12 years, so I didn’t worry much about it. Left the sticker on the window for a cool story later. Can’t believe I’ve owned so many Toyota’s and never new about the Toyota and Lexus Owners service records.
I negotiated the price down based on a leaky CV boot, bad alignment, some vibration and it really didn’t ride like I thought a Lexus should. More on that later, obviously.
.......
First stop was the alignment shop. Here’s where I fail the MUD test. I take it in to my local shop for the alignment and to check out the CVs, suspension, brakes. A week later I get a phone call saying it needed two new CVs, rear brakes, and over 2500 dollars in work on the “air suspension”. I tell them to do the CVs and brakes while I research the suspension. I pick it up and it does drive straight with no vibrations, but of course, I have “the clunk” shifting from Reverse to Drive
Space held to post video
Shop states these are new CVs, not remans, and they get their parts from a NAPA supplier so I am guessing these are the Napa/Cardone shafts that are used with moderate success around here. I’m going to pull and inspect/probably replace the drive flanges and splines on the shafts. If that fails to fix the R to D clunk, I’ll probably pony up for new OEM CVs because it bothers me.
.......
Queue the AHC Freakout
$2500+?! No way. Gut reaction, yank it out for OMEs like some of my prior 4runners had. Gotta say guys, especially @PADDO and @uHu, you have done the community a great service with your contributions on this topic. I dove into this rabbit hole for a solid week. The shop I took it to said it needed new “shocks” as mine were leaking, which was the entire 2500 quote once parts from Lexus (400+ each) and labor was added in. No mention of anything else. Clearly they are not well versed with AHC, can’t blame them, these guys work on big rigs all day and service my work truck. A quick call to the local Toyota dealer led me to believe I wasn’t going to get much help there either (“you want what? Suspension pressures?”) . Might as well be asking for my blinker fluid to be checked and dump my wallet on the floor of the dealer. After days of MUD searching, I decided to throw ~500 bucks at the AHC, and see what happened. I got about 9 graduations on the AHC reservoir tank so I figured it was worth a shot.
The Cable:
Mini VCI cable (note:these items get pulled from Amazon all the time. Probably the bootleg software. There is at least 8 vendors selling the same cable at the time of writing)
Amazon product ASIN B083JSGJTZ
The Thread:
Throw the disc that comes with the cable in the trash. I never got it to work on my Windoze laptop.
Techstream in 5 Minutes had me up and running in, well, 10 minutes on an old MacBook Pro using Virtual Box
forum.ih8mud.com
One note: You don’t need to download VirtualBox separate, just click the link, super easy.
The Stats:
Front Pressure Goal 6.9 mPa +/- .5 : Rear Pressure Goal 5.6-6.7 mPa
First Run
Way off. I adjusted the ride heights to spec (19.75 Front and 20.5 rear from center of hub to fender). Then cross leveled (vehicle off, AHC in off, not sure of the AHC off matters though). I used a laser level on the hood but that was probably overkill. Took about 2 turns up on the passenger side and 2 turns looser on the drivers side to balance L to R, I would have figured the opposite due to wear from drivers weight, but oh well. After leveling, I tightened up the torsion bars equal turns on each side to bring the pressures in spec. I guess I didn’t snap a pic of that, but front pressure was 6.1 and rear was on the upper end of normal, so I went ahead and ordered new AHC rear springs from LexusPartsNow.com and AHC fluid from McGeorge Toyota. I bought 3 bottles from McGeorge, ended up reading that I needed 5 somewhere and ordered 2 more bottles from EBay for a few bucks less with free shipping. Using Paddo’s flush method, you only need 3. I’m actually not sure what method could use all 5 unless you’re just pouring it out for fun.
Part numbers visible for ya
Wow. Are these the same part # springs, or were mine just that worn out? Big difference in height.
Changing the springs is a no joke 1 banana job. Took off the lower rear shock bolts and unhooked the sway bar, dropped the axle, and the springs almost fell out. Had to slightly push down on the axle to get the new (taller) springs in but I don’t even think the whole job took an hour from start to finish.
Final AHC Numbers
(On the next post, too many attachments)
This project had a specific purpose, our family has a house about 50 miles from us near Graeagle, CA and after my son was born we realized we needed something else to schlep the two of us, our two dogs, the kid and his future sibling and a load of baby gear up to the mountains. Hence the name “CabinCruiser”. My wife’s Outback is too small for the dogs, and my trucks leave my old heat sensitive Chesapeake Bay Retriever in the truck bed with the gear and diesel smoke. I got a shell and looked into adding an auxiliary AC unit to the Ram MegaCab bed for the dogs, but scrapped that project when I realized I would be in it 5k+. Obviously time for another SUV!
I considered several SUVs in my price range of 12-15k
4th Gen 4Runners, preferably an early Sport model with the V8
1st Gen Sequoias
2001-2005ish Suburban/Yukon 2500. The 3/4 tons are a rare breed and hold up pretty well from my experience with my wife’s old 2500HD with the 6.0 Vortec, but hard to find a clean one.
7.3 Diesel Excursions-Honestly my first choice since I have really liked my 7.3 F350, would have been an easy sell but never found the right one and prices are all over the place on these things.
And of course, the LC100. Always liked them.
6 months of casual Craigslist searching and this thing happens to show up while I’m drinking my coffee on a day off, 40 miles away.
First Photo at Home
2001 LX470 with 181k for $8999, Private Party listing. I was there an hour after it was posted. Definitely a few more miles and a little more roughed up on the exterior than I was looking for, but the price was right for my area, it was the right color to match the “fleet”, and thanks to some ‘Mud searching on the drive down I sealed the deal based on my first hot tip from here.
Service Records from Lexus Online Lexus Service History | Lexus Drivers
Fat stack from Carlsbad Toyota, every 5-10k from New through 132k miles. California car since new, not a spec of rust underneath. Car fax showed regular oil changes, and interestingly enough a stolen vehicle report from 2003 in Mexico, which matched the parking pass from a Rosarito time share on the front windshield. Clearly it was recovered and continued to be owned by the same people for the next 12 years, so I didn’t worry much about it. Left the sticker on the window for a cool story later. Can’t believe I’ve owned so many Toyota’s and never new about the Toyota and Lexus Owners service records.
I negotiated the price down based on a leaky CV boot, bad alignment, some vibration and it really didn’t ride like I thought a Lexus should. More on that later, obviously.
.......
First stop was the alignment shop. Here’s where I fail the MUD test. I take it in to my local shop for the alignment and to check out the CVs, suspension, brakes. A week later I get a phone call saying it needed two new CVs, rear brakes, and over 2500 dollars in work on the “air suspension”. I tell them to do the CVs and brakes while I research the suspension. I pick it up and it does drive straight with no vibrations, but of course, I have “the clunk” shifting from Reverse to Drive
Space held to post video
Shop states these are new CVs, not remans, and they get their parts from a NAPA supplier so I am guessing these are the Napa/Cardone shafts that are used with moderate success around here. I’m going to pull and inspect/probably replace the drive flanges and splines on the shafts. If that fails to fix the R to D clunk, I’ll probably pony up for new OEM CVs because it bothers me.
.......
Queue the AHC Freakout
$2500+?! No way. Gut reaction, yank it out for OMEs like some of my prior 4runners had. Gotta say guys, especially @PADDO and @uHu, you have done the community a great service with your contributions on this topic. I dove into this rabbit hole for a solid week. The shop I took it to said it needed new “shocks” as mine were leaking, which was the entire 2500 quote once parts from Lexus (400+ each) and labor was added in. No mention of anything else. Clearly they are not well versed with AHC, can’t blame them, these guys work on big rigs all day and service my work truck. A quick call to the local Toyota dealer led me to believe I wasn’t going to get much help there either (“you want what? Suspension pressures?”) . Might as well be asking for my blinker fluid to be checked and dump my wallet on the floor of the dealer. After days of MUD searching, I decided to throw ~500 bucks at the AHC, and see what happened. I got about 9 graduations on the AHC reservoir tank so I figured it was worth a shot.
The Cable:
Mini VCI cable (note:these items get pulled from Amazon all the time. Probably the bootleg software. There is at least 8 vendors selling the same cable at the time of writing)
Amazon product ASIN B083JSGJTZ
The Thread:
Throw the disc that comes with the cable in the trash. I never got it to work on my Windoze laptop.
Techstream in 5 Minutes had me up and running in, well, 10 minutes on an old MacBook Pro using Virtual Box
How-To: TechStream In 5 Minutes
Getting Techstream up and running can be a bit of a pain. Hopefully this helps someone get started quickly. Step 1: Purchase an OBD-II / Mini-VCI interface. - I have sold out of my cables and supply chains are back in order, so no reason to purchase more. Anything like this will work: Mini-VCI...
forum.ih8mud.com
The Stats:
Front Pressure Goal 6.9 mPa +/- .5 : Rear Pressure Goal 5.6-6.7 mPa
First Run
Way off. I adjusted the ride heights to spec (19.75 Front and 20.5 rear from center of hub to fender). Then cross leveled (vehicle off, AHC in off, not sure of the AHC off matters though). I used a laser level on the hood but that was probably overkill. Took about 2 turns up on the passenger side and 2 turns looser on the drivers side to balance L to R, I would have figured the opposite due to wear from drivers weight, but oh well. After leveling, I tightened up the torsion bars equal turns on each side to bring the pressures in spec. I guess I didn’t snap a pic of that, but front pressure was 6.1 and rear was on the upper end of normal, so I went ahead and ordered new AHC rear springs from LexusPartsNow.com and AHC fluid from McGeorge Toyota. I bought 3 bottles from McGeorge, ended up reading that I needed 5 somewhere and ordered 2 more bottles from EBay for a few bucks less with free shipping. Using Paddo’s flush method, you only need 3. I’m actually not sure what method could use all 5 unless you’re just pouring it out for fun.
Part numbers visible for ya
Wow. Are these the same part # springs, or were mine just that worn out? Big difference in height.
Changing the springs is a no joke 1 banana job. Took off the lower rear shock bolts and unhooked the sway bar, dropped the axle, and the springs almost fell out. Had to slightly push down on the axle to get the new (taller) springs in but I don’t even think the whole job took an hour from start to finish.
Final AHC Numbers
(On the next post, too many attachments)
Last edited:
