The Mule (1 Viewer)

[OregonLC]

Allow me to introduce you to The Mule.

If figured this old girl needed her own thread.

2004 LX. Purchased in Oct 2013 with 71k out of Reno, NV. The last eight years she's served kid duty as Mrs. OregonLC's daily driver.

 

[OregonLC]

Not much had changed since then. There have been a few bumps along the way.

A minor rear-ender back in 2015.

And a disagreement with some landscaping a few years later.

View attachment 3155223

And a disagreement with some landscaping a few years later.

But aside from that she stayed straight and stock, serving us well.

 

[OregonLC]

As for 'The Mule' moniker... we currently have three rigs in the fleet. A 2013 200 ('Tom Cruiser') and a 2021 Ram ('Sly' as in Rambo). Both the 200 and the Ram are 'built' rigs and as such don't offer the same utility as the LX. Hence it becoming The Mule of the fleet.

The current stablemates:

Tom Cruiser

Sly

On paper The Mule is definitely the Cinderella of the fleet. Oldest. Lowest power. Archaic infotainment. Most miles. Fading paint. And up until last months bone stock. But I gotta say, there's a love for this old girl that surpasses the other. I don't know if it's character, nostalgia, familiarity or what. But I love this truck. She's just so honest about what she is and what she can do. The 2UZ is just butter and makes great sounds. The A750F is simple and flawless. She just works, and I love her for it.

 

[OregonLC]

This was how she sat Sept 18th.

But at 173k the AHC was beyond failure. And the Lexus projectors were barely better than a bic lighter on dark Central Oregon nights. So my good friends over at @Ironman 4x4 USA helped me out we a few updates

 

[OregonLC]

And... I'm really glad I took them up on the offer. When the skids were removed there was a bunch of pink crust visible on the bottom of the engine. No drips on the ground, no sweet smell of coolant. I had topped off the overflow a few times and in hindsight that should have warranted a deeper dive. With winter fast approaching, I didn't take any chances and took it down 10k miles early for her next timing belt job and look what I found!

I had been seeing a few pink crunchies at the top but had no idea what was going on inside. I'm still not 100% certain as to the cause.

It was definitely on the top left side of the water pump. The gasket revealed no failure point and the heater hose o-ring was intact. There is a bit of a back story. Back in 2015 when I did the first timing belt job I had two problems with the replacement water pump. The first was casting problem. You can see the occlusion in the image below. Didn't notice this until the pump was installed. So off it came. Then on re-install I ended up shearing off one of the bolts and had to remove it with an easy-out. My guess is that this was a defective Toyota pump and I shouldn't have continued to use it. I never checked the flatness of the mating surface, entirely possible it wasn't a flat plane. I did replace the gasket, but obviously something else was going on. At the time, this was only the 2nd 2UZ belt job I had done. As of today I've done five. None of the others have had problems.

 

[OregonLC]

Fast forward to today, she's all bright and happy again. Extremely thorough timing belt job including every major and minor hose. New radiator, new alternator, new fan clutch, fan bracket, spark plugs, PCV valve, trans cooler hoses. The works.

She still has a shopping list of replacement items before I'll consider it a full refresh. Steering rack is leaking so next spring I'll do pump, rack, and hoses. In the garage I have new factory LCAs and bushings. Nitro UCAs are ordered. When I do that job I'll also do CVs and drive flanges. In the rear I'm planning on upper/lower links as well as an adjustable panhard rod. And a complete swaybar refresh kit is on the work bench. Also needed are O2s, APPS, and blower motor.

It may seem like a lot, but The Mule is here to stay. In my economy, it's an investment not an expense.

 

[OregonLC]

A few more beauty shots from today. You know you're in love with a gal when you can't stop taking pictures of her.

 

[tip]

Nice fleet and super clean LX. Blue Vapor has really grown on me.

How do you like the Ironman so far?

 

[excessive]

nice rig, one of my fav colors the 100 came in

I see the "jiggle valve" on the T-Stat in this photo, isn't that supposed to go in the 12 o clock position?

 

[OregonLC]

Nice fleet and super clean LX. Blue Vapor has really grown on me.

How do you like the Ironman so far?

This is the 2nd Ironman bumper I've had. The first was on 'Brown Thunder', a formerly owned 2000 Desert Bronze Metallic. This one has the newer LED fogs and marker lights. The markers are white and put off almost as much light as the factory low beams. This is a bit of an exaggeration. They do, cast some good light though and it tends to light up the fog line. The Fog Lights themselves are really good. More light than the factory high beams. I still want to add some aux lights to really throw some candlepower downrange, but for now this is a game changer for night driving with no additional mods.

nice rig, one of my fav colors the 100 came in

I see the "jiggle valve" on the T-Stat in this photo, isn't that supposed to go in the 12 o clock position?

You're correct on that. I know for certain that on the current job it was on the 12 o'clock. My guess is that on the previous this got inadvertently positioned when the pump issues were being worked. Stuff like this happens when there's a break in continuity of work and I remember there being a good deal of panic when one of the pump bolts sheared. I don't believe, however, that was related to the weeping. Good catch though.

 

[OregonLC]

One tip on the TB job. This 'tool' worked great for getting the crank gear off. The coolant leak had caused adhesion and this worked great. Just add square washers if needed as the bolts bottom out.

 

[OregonLC]

Old girl got a little snowbound today.