Tremek's '97 LX450 Project Thread (1 Viewer)

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The carpet snaps out pretty easily, I've seen several that have had good luck with pressure washing it. Eliminating the source of the odor will definitely keep it from coming back.

Might not be a bad idea to replace the window runs while the door panel is off. I'm waiting to do runs, speakers, and refresh the window motors at the same time.
 
The carpet snaps out pretty easily, I've seen several that have had good luck with pressure washing it. Eliminating the source of the odor will definitely keep it from coming back.

Might not be a bad idea to replace the window runs while the door panel is off. I'm waiting to do runs, speakers, and refresh the window motors at the same time.
2nd on the pressure wash. I tried some "professional" ozone treatment, Febreeze, other deodorants and air fresheners to no avail, but a simple washing of the carpet dId the trick. it was like night turned to day. I never got around to a good cleaning of the headliner.
 
Definitely going to power wash both the undercarriage and the carpets once I get around to dismantling the interior.

Update: exhaust is on! The shop I took it to (A&H Auto Repair in Englewood) got it done with no drama today, which has been my experience with them for 15+ years.

While it was up on the rack I also got an opportunity to pop my head under it and look at the oil pressure sender, which isn't registering on the dash - Surprise, surprise, the harness is broken on one wire on the sender plug. Should be a relatively easy fix!

I/we cleared the codes after getting the exhaust on, and as expected the CEL came back on - but with only the P0330 for the knock sensor, so that's great news so far! Once my Chinese knock sensors show up I can slap the rear in and I bet this beast will pass emissions.

While driving home the driver's side front turn signal died, but some speakers were on the porch so that makes up for the minor insult.

Goals this weekend: repair the oil pressure sender harness, install door speakers and tighten every fxxxing screw in the doors as there's a few rattles. I hate rattles. Also need to find a rear-view mirror.

ABS light is also still on. Anyone have any good threads re: where to start on diagnosing the ABS? No codes...

Ben: what are the window runs you speak of, and do you have a part # / diagram to look at?
 
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OK - digging into the oil pressure sender/sensor issue, and I'm a little confused.

I pulled the entire harness section that begins with a plug on the passenger side fenderwell, that goes across to the oil pressure sensor. As it sat the harness had two plugs plugged into plugs on the block - one that's a flat tab on the oil pressure sender directly, and then a round connector that was plugged onto what looks like the AC compressor?

However the harness on that end also has a bare wire, and so digging through the EWD it looks as though there should be a 3rd plug going somewhere - but the problem is I can't figure out what that plug looks like, or where it plugs in!

Here's what I have:

FgG3qI3h.jpg


You can see the bare/broken off wire -

Here's those two plugs:

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If I'm interpreting the EWD correctly this harness (which I think is Toyota part # 82221-60020) should have the EY1 connector on the harness-end, and then on the sender end, should have plugs N2, O2, and O3. I can't figure out what I have, or where the 3rd plug is and/or should go.

Here's a pic from page 167 of the EWD of theoretically what the various connectors should be (ignore O1, that's the oil level sensor that I repaired last week):

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And on page 162 of the EWD, here's the diagram I see:

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In the pic above the flat grey plug came off the sender itself, and the round plug came off of what I think is a plug attached to the AC compressor? However what's even stranger is the round plug that came off the plug on the compressor doesn't seem to correlate to any of the plugs detailed above from the EWD.

In short I'm very confused.

Any help appreciated, thank you!
 
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Can someone take a picture of their properly-connected oil pressure sender?

Also, are there two plugs on the sender itself that interface with the harness?

Edit: @benjrblant was a rockstar and texted me a photo of his sender:

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Which confirmed what I thought, that there were two connectors going to the sender - which then prompted me to go dig around on my sender and lo and behold, I found the mysterious 3rd plug:

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So now to figure out how to disassemble the plug and get the pin out, but I'm betting this thing will work once re-soldered! Documenting this in here for the next poor soul that has to puzzle all this together. :)
 
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Update: SUCCESS

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From the time I found the plug and the time it took to disassemble (pop up plastic clip on back and pull the metal piece out) to soldering it to reinstalling it in the car took 10 minutes. I held my breath as I turned the key and it didn't move for the first second or so - and then started rising! Very satisfied with this, thanks again @benjrblant for the help!

I also started disassembling the passenger side front door and got one of the Pioneer speakers installed using the factory harness off the original speaker. Got it working, but ran out of daylight, so repairing the map pocket on the door card will be on the docket tomorrow too.
 
Re: CO partout - I had good luck with a place called Foreign Used Auto Parts, 2424 E 40th Ave. The place was sketchy as hell but, at least in February, they had an 80 when I needed a taillight lens and a DS mirror.

There's also an LKQ in Denver where I scored a few glass pieces and a tailgate very cheaply, but that's of course hit or miss depending on whether they actually have an 80.
 
@suadero - I managed to pick up a headlight and taillight from @nuclearlemon and they work great! Theoretically anything else I would want from a yard is a nice-to-have at this point (like the rear quarter fender flare and body trim etc.) but I will check the local yards.

More successes today - the heat now works! Replaced the heater control valve and it was obvious that the old one was toast:

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The hose on the right had coolant in it, but the hose on the left was dry! Almost as soon as I had the new unit in I could tell it was working. I even managed to get some heat from the rear heater while there was load on the engine - is that an indication of anything meaningful?

I also dismantled both door cards, fixed the pocket on the passenger side and reinforced both pockets with beefier screws, tightened the bolts on the driver's door as one of the bolts holding the window mechanism had fallen out and was sitting between the plastic seal and the door body. I also scrubbed the hell out of both door cards as it was obvious a smoker once owned this truck, blech.

Last but not least I got new Pioneer speakers installed and they sound immensely better than the blown units that were in there. I used some weatherstripping behind the edges of the speakers so as to space them out from the window track behind.

Overall I think they came out well -

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Much cleaner. When the yokel PO ripped the door pocket off at some point, they also took the plug on the end of the harness that goes into the door's marker light - note the missing receptacle on the pic above as I have the box out until I can get a plug.

Below is my driver's side plug - anyone know where I can find one of these plugs?

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Feeling like I'm continuing to make progress on the truck! Heat working is a big relief. However, just as I was buttoning it up, I saw these copper flecks in the coolant:

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Are those of concern? I'm assuming at a minimum I should drain what's in there and put in new coolant? Thanks!
 
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Ben: what are the window runs you speak of, and do you have a part # / diagram to look at?

p. BO-11 in the FSM. Toyota refers to them as "Door Glass Run." It's the little rubber strip that holds the window glass in place. Over time it hardens and slows the window when raising/lowering and this puts additional stress on the window motor. If you're removing the door panel, it should be pretty easy to access. There's a few threads with walkthroughs on it and Summit Cruisers has a good detail on refurbishing the window motors: Got Slow Windows? Here's the Fix.

Also seems that it's not necessary to remove the door card to change this part, but as I haven't done it yet, I can't really say.

Front window run, Passenger Side: 68141-60010
Front window run, Driver(US) Side: 68151-60010
Front right belt molding: 75710-60021
Front left belt molding: 75720-60021
 

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Not seeing any coolant hit the ground - the radiator is definitely new-ish... I wonder if they did something terrible like put the same coolant back in the truck. Think I'm going to drain it and start over.
 
re: the plug I need on the harness side of the puddle/courtesy light - can anyone tell me if they think this is the right connector?

hi-1000 RakutenIchibaten | Rakuten Global Market: Sumitomo 090-2 series 2-pole female Terminal side Capra Kit - white F090-SMTS/2P090K-5218-F

The driver's side has "11148" stamped into it. I can't tell if that's also what that plug has stamped into it - might be 11148 or 11146. I tried looking up the Toyota part # in the description and got later Land Cruisers on a Google link but not the LX/80 series.
 
I'm going to bet the copper crap is left over stop leak because the head gasket was going bad. I wouldn't flush the coolant just make sure you keep it topped up and drive it till it fails.
 
Got a new windshield put in the truck this morning - pic snapped while it was out:

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The tech's comment was that it looked as though it had seen a few windshields installed over the years, but in spite of some surface corrosion on the A pillars (one of the only locations of any rust on this truck - sunroof drain maybe?) the windshield frame itself had no rust whatsoever.

New glass is such a huge difference between the pitted cracked and sandblasted mess that was in it!
 
Craigslist is the great equalizer:

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315/70/17 Duratracs on American Racing Outlaw II 17x8 6x139.7 wheels with 4.5" backspacing as a package - they fit and I think they look good! They were cheap too - sometimes you get lucky.

Now to find a lift... and bumpers, and sliders, etc etc...
 
As of this morning (highly productive - also made breakfast burritos!) the rear knock sensor has been replaced and the CEL is off!

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This week a member of the Rising Sun 4x4 Club offered for me to come up and pull a knock sensor off his wrecked '94 truck if I could trade some labor in helping him do a few things to his new/replacement '94 truck; he just had a knee replacement surgery and the truck he bought (which I had also driven before buying my LX) had funky nonadjustable Sparco front seats etc. in it. So as the front fascia of his wrecked truck was already off largely due to the accident, I was able to reach in and grab the front knock sensor in a matter of minutes. I brought my two oldest boys (4 and 3) with me and they 'helped' while we spent the remainder of the time pulling his new truck's rear seats and swapping the front seats between the two trucks.

Regardless, I came home with a presumed-working knock sensor in hand - which given the difficulty and expense in finding these is a victory all in itself!

Got the truck chalked and up on jack stands this morning, pulled the driver's side wheel off, cheated and used a flex connector on extensions to hit the rear sensor through the wheel well with a 27mm socket and my impact, and out came the old and bad sensor. Got the new one in similarly quickly, then decided that that the plug on the end of the harness for the sensor looked disgusting, so I was going to replace it with one of the new plugs I had ordered.

Threw a butt connector between the harness wire and the plug, plugged it in, buttoned everything up and got the truck back on the ground, cleared the CEL, and took it for a test drive -

CEL stayed off! Highly satisfying.

Now to get enough cycles/miles on the truck to get it ready to go pass emissions.
 
Got more done today:

Pulled the driver's side kick panel off and replaced the flasher relay with a new relay to facilitate using LEDs in the turn signals. I then threw LED 1156 bulbs in the 3 out of 4 corners that I could; it appears I had too much blinker fluid in the driver's front turn signal:

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Ordered clear front turn signals and amber LED bulbs that should be here this coming week. Either way the other 3 out of 4 turn signals are now working great and are far brighter.

While doing this I also had an unexpected visitor:

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I saw a flutter out of the corner of my eye around the side of the truck, and when I poked my head around I thought a pigeon had just landed in my driveway - nope! This small raptor flew up to sit on my neighbor's Suburban for 15 minutes, watching me and the neighborhood, and then spent another half an hour in our cul-de-sac (after swooping fairly close to me once) observing what we were up to.

Also managed to get the rear door speakers installed which also entailed scrubbing the hell out of the door cards as well as putting in LED puddle lights.

During this process I had a helper:

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My middle son came out to assist in ways only a 3 year old can.

Two unrelated problems arose this PM:

1) the right-rear door (which pretty clearly has been replaced from some form of an accident) opens and closes fine but the dome light doesn't come on when the door opens. Looks like prevailing advice is to pull the rubber boot off the body switch and spray some contact cleaner in it, but alas, I have no contact cleaner.

2) I checked codes again after sending my wife out with the truck for an errand she had to run, and it looks like it may have a stored P0401 now. Need to do some reading on this but if it's not one thing, it's another?
 
New problem: P0401 code. Drove the kids to school in it this AM and the CEL tripped on the way home.

After doing some reading I ordered an EGR valve assembly/actuator (the brown disc on top of the motor?) that should be here tomorrow and after doing more reading I'm thinking about teeing up a VCV too in case I need it. I need this beast to pass emissions this week, damnit.
 
Replaced EGR Vacuum Modulator (brown disc with blue label) on top of the back of the head; P0401 seems to persist.

I noticed today that the nut on the metal pipe that I have highlighted red in the diagram below looks to be completely loose and just sitting on the pipe - any chance that's the culprit for the P0401?

IrZO4o9.png
 
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