I have nothing to do with these videos, just thought they might help someone as much as the helped me!
Thanks to the write up by scottm in FAQ section I had a good baseline for what I was doing along with some very helpful tips and tricks from everyone that posted on there. Definitely read that entire thread before starting if you’re like me and have never done this before. Helped me tremendously! This is not a very difficult but very time consuming. I used these 2 videos from YouTube....
They are long, about an hour each, but walk you through taking everything off to putting everything back on. I had the laptop in the garage, would watch him do something, pause, go do it, start the video again. Took much longer doing that but made me feel much better about doing the job.
I ordered everything OEM I could from Amazon and what I couldn’t find on there I ordered from lexuspartsnow.
Toyotapartsnow is cheaper but i have a LX so wanted to make sure I was ordering correct parts (it has the “exact match” when looking at parts, made me feel warm and fuzzy). Lexuspartsnow was only $20ish more for all the parts I ordered, cheap piece of mind.
AS POINTED OUT BY SOMEONE ELSE, BEFORE YOU START DEFINITELY TURN THE WHEELS DRIVERSIDE, this allows you to have much easier access to the lower A/C bolt via socket extensions. Also, you don’t have to remove the upper A/C bolt completely, just get it unbolted from the fan bracket and leave it in its hole, I actually left my small ratchet connected to it for reinstall, saved some time not having to find the bolt hole again.
I did have trouble separating the fan clutch and pulley from the fan bracket. They were kinda rusted together at the very tip of the fan bracket (see picture). I actually had a screw driver and a pry wedged between fan clutch and pulley before it finally popped off. Pulley just fell off once the fan clutch was removed, it wasn’t rusted at all. Oklahoma truck entire life so not rust belt, I just got lucky I guess. I ended up taking the fan clutch and fan bracket out together and working on them in the garage. I can’t imagine trying to separate them in the engine compartment. Took about an hour of hammering. I let PB Blaster work over night but I really don’t think that helped at all, so just get right to hammering. It definitely sucked taking them out together but again, allowed me to really hammer away without worrying about hitting something else in the engine. I was putting on a new fan bracket so had to separate them. I used 2 putty knives, flat headed screw driver and a ply bar. If this happens to you put a bolt back on the fan clutch before trying to separate them because it will pop off and probably snap a fan blade when it hits the ground.
I also broke my fan shroud, well cut it in one spot then it broke in another, removing everything together. I cut up some old plastic we had in the garage and used rivets and the black sealant used on the thermostat housing as a patch. Looks like hell but was very stout after drying over night and didn’t cost me $100 for a new piece of Lexus branded plastic.
One of my fan shroud bolt tabs was snapped too, I used epoxy to glue it back together and also epoxied some washers on both of them for extra durability.
Thanks to the write up by scottm in FAQ section I had a good baseline for what I was doing along with some very helpful tips and tricks from everyone that posted on there. Definitely read that entire thread before starting if you’re like me and have never done this before. Helped me tremendously! This is not a very difficult but very time consuming. I used these 2 videos from YouTube....
They are long, about an hour each, but walk you through taking everything off to putting everything back on. I had the laptop in the garage, would watch him do something, pause, go do it, start the video again. Took much longer doing that but made me feel much better about doing the job.
I ordered everything OEM I could from Amazon and what I couldn’t find on there I ordered from lexuspartsnow.
Toyotapartsnow is cheaper but i have a LX so wanted to make sure I was ordering correct parts (it has the “exact match” when looking at parts, made me feel warm and fuzzy). Lexuspartsnow was only $20ish more for all the parts I ordered, cheap piece of mind.
AS POINTED OUT BY SOMEONE ELSE, BEFORE YOU START DEFINITELY TURN THE WHEELS DRIVERSIDE, this allows you to have much easier access to the lower A/C bolt via socket extensions. Also, you don’t have to remove the upper A/C bolt completely, just get it unbolted from the fan bracket and leave it in its hole, I actually left my small ratchet connected to it for reinstall, saved some time not having to find the bolt hole again.
I did have trouble separating the fan clutch and pulley from the fan bracket. They were kinda rusted together at the very tip of the fan bracket (see picture). I actually had a screw driver and a pry wedged between fan clutch and pulley before it finally popped off. Pulley just fell off once the fan clutch was removed, it wasn’t rusted at all. Oklahoma truck entire life so not rust belt, I just got lucky I guess. I ended up taking the fan clutch and fan bracket out together and working on them in the garage. I can’t imagine trying to separate them in the engine compartment. Took about an hour of hammering. I let PB Blaster work over night but I really don’t think that helped at all, so just get right to hammering. It definitely sucked taking them out together but again, allowed me to really hammer away without worrying about hitting something else in the engine. I was putting on a new fan bracket so had to separate them. I used 2 putty knives, flat headed screw driver and a ply bar. If this happens to you put a bolt back on the fan clutch before trying to separate them because it will pop off and probably snap a fan blade when it hits the ground.
I also broke my fan shroud, well cut it in one spot then it broke in another, removing everything together. I cut up some old plastic we had in the garage and used rivets and the black sealant used on the thermostat housing as a patch. Looks like hell but was very stout after drying over night and didn’t cost me $100 for a new piece of Lexus branded plastic.
One of my fan shroud bolt tabs was snapped too, I used epoxy to glue it back together and also epoxied some washers on both of them for extra durability.
