Thinking about buying 97' LX450...need advice! (1 Viewer)

[NorCalDoug]

Paul,
Did you check for the pink panties?
Geez guy, I can't believe no one's asked him about the panties yet

Welcome aboard and congrants on the rig. She's a beauty.

I would suggest you leave the cladding and flares on unless you really need to take them off. Removing them are a real PITA. With the LX 450, you either keep the flares and cladding or you remove both -- anything in between will not look good, IMO.

I would suggest you keep the running boards on until you decide on which brand of sliders you want for your rig -- two of the more popular ones are from www.sleeoffroad.com and from www.hannaquality.com -- I have Slee's on mine and his newer step sliders for my wife's 450 (although these are not yet installed). Romer has the step sliders on his 450 and they look nice.

When you remove the running boards, the bottom of the front flare will look unfinished. Many have picked up front mudflaps from 95-97 Land Cruisers and have added them. Others, such as Romer, either modified the "L" shaped piece or, I think Slee sells something that will fit to provide a much more finished look.

The OMEs are not difficult to install -- make sure you spray your shock bolts/nuts with plenty of PB Blaster or something similar for a few days before you attack the job. You'll find plenty of write ups here covering the installation -- exercise that search feature.

Price? We paid $19k for my wife's 450 about a year and a half ago. It was absolutely spotless, but had 68k miles on it. The original asking price was $26k at the dealership, so I think we did okay. Given that super clean rigs with ultra-low miles are getting more and more rare, I think $22k is a fair price. If you're happy with it, it doesn't matter what anyone else thinks.

Speaking of low miles, you might be able to take the easy route with the tranny oil change and simply drain the pan each time you change your oil. After a few oil changes, you'll essentially have new tranny fluid in there and if you continue with this process, you'll always have "fresh" tranny fluid.

Here are some pics of mine -- you'll notice I removed the flares and cladding. To answer your question about holes -- there's about 50 holes per side -- on the quarter panels and doors.

 

[paulphilly]

Paul,
Did you check for the pink panties?
Geez guy, I can't believe no one's asked him about the panties yet

Welcome aboard and congrants on the rig. She's a beauty.

I would suggest you leave the cladding and flares on unless you really need to take them off. Removing them are a real PITA. With the LX 450, you either keep the flares and cladding or you remove both -- anything in between will not look good, IMO.

I would suggest you keep the running boards on until you decide on which brand of sliders you want for your rig -- two of the more popular ones are from www.sleeoffroad.com and from www.hannaquality.com -- I have Slee's on mine and his newer step sliders for my wife's 450 (although these are not yet installed). Romer has the step sliders on his 450 and they look nice.

When you remove the running boards, the bottom of the front flare will look unfinished. Many have picked up front mudflaps from 95-97 Land Cruisers and have added them. Others, such as Romer, either modified the "L" shaped piece or, I think Slee sells something that will fit to provide a much more finished look.

The OMEs are not difficult to install -- make sure you spray your shock bolts/nuts with plenty of PB Blaster or something similar for a few days before you attack the job. You'll find plenty of write ups here covering the installation -- exercise that search feature.

Price? We paid $19k for my wife's 450 about a year and a half ago. It was absolutely spotless, but had 68k miles on it. The original asking price was $26k at the dealership, so I think we did okay. Given that super clean rigs with ultra-low miles are getting more and more rare, I think $22k is a fair price. If you're happy with it, it doesn't matter what anyone else thinks.

Speaking of low miles, you might be able to take the easy route with the tranny oil change and simply drain the pan each time you change your oil. After a few oil changes, you'll essentially have new tranny fluid in there and if you continue with this process, you'll always have "fresh" tranny fluid.

Here are some pics of mine -- you'll notice I removed the flares and cladding. To answer your question about holes -- there's about 50 holes per side -- on the quarter panels and doors.

Doug, wow man, that is a nice rig. Super sharp and looks like it could climb a tree. This is something simliar to what I want. Me and my fiancee are looking to get out doors more and I told her about off roading and rock crawling adventures. She is as excited as I am. So, I plan on making my low mileage 450 even more capable than already is. But, unfortunately, my rig doesnt have diff lockers which I assume was an option for the 450. So, I am kinda hating life right now because after researching some threads, it appears that lockers are very advantagous. I guess I can always add them later on. But, its still hard to figure the advantage of this system when I already have full time 4X4. Oh well. i need to read the thread about diffs for dummies again, cause I am still a little confused. I wonder why all of the 450's didnt come with this option if its something that will only aid 4X4 trips better? Enlighten me if you can please. Thanks.
Paul

 

[NorCalDoug]

Paul,
Reportedly about 7% of the US 80 series came with lockers. In Canada, all LX450s had lockers.

You can add lockers later, it's not that big of a deal. Most go with ARB lockers in the front and rear. Cost runs about $3000 after all is said and done if you have someone install it for you -- it'll be less if you have someone do it for you. Here's Biff's thread on his ARB install.

IMO, I'd pick up a sweet, clean, super-low miles 80 and add lockers rather than a high mileage, not so clean one with lockers. I think you did the right thing.

Lockers come in handy when you hit the really extreme stuff. With any 4wheel drive system, you're actually only have power delivered to 2 wheels -- 1 in front and 1 in the rear. If either of those two wheels loses traction, you'll just sit and spin your tires. The diff locks allow you to lock one or both axles so BOTH tires on that axle will spin and you'll be better able to extract yourself.

 

[sonoranfun]

I don't see the point honestly, you basicly paid $10,000 for 60,000 miles if you ask me. I would much rather buy a $12,000 97 with 110K and spend another $4,000 getting it how I wanted it. I just went through this myself and that's that I did.

I baselined a price of $12,000 for a rig with 100k on it +/- 5k either way. I then decided I'd pay an extra $1,000 for every 10k less it had. Ended up with a 96 with 105k for $10,800 and lockers. I wouldn't even consider buying one without the lockers as that's $3,000 down the road and not as good as factory lockers anyway.

Not saying your choise is wrong, it's had say 1/6 of it's life used and you paid half of what it cost new.... That's never bad.

 

[bluto]

From what I understand (please correct or add), simply, all wheel drive allows you to have a certain amount of power (torque) to all four wheels when the vehicle is moving. As long as one tire does not slip or lose traction, you will have the power distributed to all four tires. More efficient in pushing a vehicle on a slippery surface (but still have some traction). Max power to all 4 wheels. When you lose traction to one tire in front or back, that axle or set of tires will not turn - even though you have awd. At this point the power is available to the axle or set of tires that still has traction ("the beuty of all wheel drive"). If you have a front or rear wheel drive car and you lose traction to the driving wheels - you have no traction on all axles. The beauty of front or rear lockers is that when you lock both you can imagine your LC like a Matchbox truck. If you tip the Matchbox to one side, the two tires that are in the air has no traction. If you lock the front and rear diffs, the tires of the Matchbox that is on the surface will still be able to drive the vehicle forward . All power will be transferred to the one with traction (the one side with the tires on the surface). This is all theory of course for me since I never wheeled my LC. For experience ask others on this forum - everybody is very knowledgeable or expert at one or many things.

 

[tarbe]

An open 80 with OME and good tires will do quite well on stuff that 75% of all cruiser owners (not us here!) would balk at trying.

I personally wouldn't buy one without lockers. They are "free" on a used vehicle and they are the certainly useful when the going gets tough. But if you are already committed to this vehicle, don't lose sleep over it.

As has been said, you can add ARB's later if your wheeling gets serious enough to warrant the $2.5K or so.

80's are really pretty good out of the box. Add an OME lift and some 285 or 295 BFGs and hit some trails! You'll be surprised what you can do. Go with some experienced guys and don't forget to air down!

 

[paulphilly]

What does everyone think about the infamous head gasket problem?? I have read numerous threads and it appears that its almost inevitable at sometime the head gasket will have to be replaced. Is this correct? And, with my 97' having only 42K miles on it, is this something that I still should worry about? What can i do to prevent this and how much would it cost me if I had to get a new one?
Paul

 

[NorCalDoug]

What does everyone think about the infamous head gasket problem?? I have read numerous threads and it appears that its almost inevitable at sometime the head gasket will have to be replaced. Is this correct? And, with my 97' having only 42K miles on it, is this something that I still should worry about? What can i do to prevent this and how much would it cost me if I had to get a new one?
Paul

I haven't had a problem with the head gasket in mine. It's a '97 with 119k miles on it. The HG issues seems to be hit or miss. Some have had problems. Thankfully, most have not. it's not something I lose sleep over.

 

[OZCAL]

Paul,
Did you check for the pink panties?
Geez guy, I can't believe no one's asked him about the panties yet

Remember the P/O was a lady - those panties are long gone.

Welcome


David

 

[tarbe]

Paul

Most of us here have NOT had a problem with our headgasket. Read up on cooling system maintenance. A bit tedious, but cheap. It should be one of the things you take care of soon after delivery, along with "baselining" the fluids and filters as has been mentioned.

Having a HG changed is a pricey adventure that you would rather avoid! There may be someone here who has paid to have it done who can chime in with the price.

Remember, you are dealing with a Toyota here. A "problem area" for this vehicle might not even register on the problem log of a lesser brand/model.