What Did You Do With Your 120 Today?

[GrandpaGold]

My LCA bushings were cooked so i replaced the whole unit on both sides with super pro LCAs. Unfortunately 3 of the 4 alignment bolts were completely seized in so i had to attack them with an angle grinder to get them out. I tried heat, a sawzall, a sledge hammer… finally gave up and cut them out with the grinder.

Also unfortunate- i nicked the inner tie rod boot with the angle grinder, but was able to patch it with a self vulcanizing inner tube patch kit and rubber cement.

Wife said the ride was too harsh with the ironman 2” medium weight springs and rake was pretty bad, despite 2.5” medium weight front springs. replaced with 1.5” light springs from ironman and the ride is much better, and rake looks more normal. Unfortunately every last one of the rear sway bar bolts was rusted in and snapped off, so i ended up just taking the rear sway bar out completely rather than drilling out all 4.

Handling is much better now that weight is balanced front to rear, it actually still corners better than it did with the heavy rear springs and bad rake angle even though the RSB is gone, maybe due to the position of the panhard bar? Not sure. Before it felt like there was a break-over point and the whole weight if the vehicle shifted dramatically after a certain amount of body roll toward the driver side.

 

[Ignignot]

Picked up a used wheel from a Toyota Sienna and pit a "solid brown leather" loncky cover on it. Looks great and feels amazing. Makes me want to replace the cracked dash real bad. View attachment 3771036

Also called around town trying to find someone to do timing belt and water pump. Finding more mechanics who dont want to work on the "big Lexuses" (thier words) than ones who do.

Followup on this about a year later. The leather has settled and looks as good as OEM. Still looks and feels like brand new. Would absolutely recommend picking up a sienna wheel instead of wrapping the wood trimmed wheel. Slight mismatch in color but the interior has so many different shades of tan/taupe/beige/khaki/sandalwood already it doesnt look out of place. It actually ended up being a perfect color match to my weathertech floor liners.

Fyi they have 2 options "with mahogany" and "no mahogany". This is referring to wood trim in the wheel. The 4 posts are slightly different sizes between the wood/no wood wheels. If you buy a wheel from another toyota with no wood trim go with the "no mahogany" if you are going to re skin your wood trim wheel pick "with mahogany".

 

[efjayatee]

My LCA bushings were cooked so i replaced the whole unit on both sides with super pro LCAs. Unfortunately 3 of the 4 alignment bolts were completely seized in so i had to attack them with an angle grinder to get them out. I tried heat, a sawzall, a sledge hammer… finally gave up and cut them out with the grinder.

Also unfortunate- i nicked the inner tie rod boot with the angle grinder, but was able to patch it with a self vulcanizing inner tube patch kit and rubber cement.

Wife said the ride was too harsh with the ironman 2” medium weight springs and rake was pretty bad, despite 2.5” medium weight front springs. replaced with 1.5” light springs from ironman and the ride is much better, and rake looks more normal. Unfortunately every last one of the rear sway bar bolts was rusted in and snapped off, so i ended up just taking the rear sway bar out completely rather than drilling out all 4.

Handling is much better now that weight is balanced front to rear, it actually still corners better than it did with the heavy rear springs and bad rake angle even though the RSB is gone, maybe due to the position of the panhard bar? Not sure. Before it felt like there was a break-over point and the whole weight if the vehicle shifted dramatically after a certain amount of body roll toward the driver side.
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Iron man is a budget tier suspension, even OME is slightly better but both are stiffer on their coils and the rebound is not as smooth as the likes of Icon, Kings and Dobinsons. Terrain Tamer suspension is made in Australia and is very popular there.
My LC had OME when i bought it and it was harsh when compared to Dobinson after the swap.

 

[GrandpaGold]

Iron man is a budget tier suspension, even OME is slightly better but both are stiffer on their coils and the rebound is not as smooth as the likes of Icon, Kings and Dobinsons. Terrain Tamer suspension is made in Australia and is very popular there.
My LC had OME when i bought it and it was harsh when compared to Dobinson after the swap.

My friend had a full OME setup on his v8 4runner with a similar curb weight (steel bull bar, winch, drawers in rear) and it was a lot harsher than the ironman setup was, even with the heavy duty springs in the rear.

 

[GrandpaGold]

My LCA bushings were cooked so i replaced the whole unit on both sides with super pro LCAs. Unfortunately 3 of the 4 alignment bolts were completely seized in so i had to attack them with an angle grinder to get them out. I tried heat, a sawzall, a sledge hammer… finally gave up and cut them out with the grinder.

Also unfortunate- i nicked the inner tie rod boot with the angle grinder, but was able to patch it with a self vulcanizing inner tube patch kit and rubber cement.

Wife said the ride was too harsh with the ironman 2” medium weight springs and rake was pretty bad, despite 2.5” medium weight front springs. replaced with 1.5” light springs from ironman and the ride is much better, and rake looks more normal. Unfortunately every last one of the rear sway bar bolts was rusted in and snapped off, so i ended up just taking the rear sway bar out completely rather than drilling out all 4.

Handling is much better now that weight is balanced front to rear, it actually still corners better than it did with the heavy rear springs and bad rake angle even though the RSB is gone, maybe due to the position of the panhard bar? Not sure. Before it felt like there was a break-over point and the whole weight if the vehicle shifted dramatically after a certain amount of body roll toward the driver side.
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View attachment 4028826

The grease inside the tie rod boots seemed to be degraded/separated and is runny enough to weep through the patch. I purchased a grease needle and pumped the tie rod boot that i nicked chock full of most of a tube of lucas oil red lithium grease. Presumably it would take quite a bit of leaking for it to run out now.

 

[zzyzx85]

The other night I noticed one of the LED 168 bulbs I installed in the headlamp (parking marker light?) was flickering.

Flickering LEDs bug me so I bought new incandescent ones to replace the LEDs.

Any recommendations on good LED bulbs? I had Lasfits and they only lasted 18 months.

 

[Rednexus]

Diode Dynamics are about all I mess with any more. So many of the Amazon LEDs are junk.

 

[kody472]

I bought the ones from Running for Tacos. They have a built in resistor. Not cheap, but good quality.

 

[GX470TX]

Diode Dynamics are about all I mess with any more. So many of the Amazon LEDs are junk.

This x2 have had mine for a bit over a year trouble free so far.

 

[OG Zuninja]

Found this cup holder replacement on Etsy:

The fit isn't perfect but it does the job. Maybe a v2 is in the works? Link for the cupholder.

 

[Ignignot]

Gps brought me on a seasonal road in vermont for 10 miles. GX ate it up!

 

[GX470TX]

Installed the cross industry mount for my 5th wheel/tire. Awesome product for a good price. Definitely recommend.

 

[GX470TX]

Diode Dynamics are about all I mess with any more. So many of the Amazon LEDs are junk.

LEDs

 

[BigNick]

Installed PowerBass 6x9s up front and a Skar out back. Should have done this mod sooner. I replaced the rings on the oem (Mark Levinson) 2 years ago from simply speakers, but they didnt last.

 

[Rednexus]

Installed PowerBass 6x9s up front and a Skar out back. Should have done this mod sooner. I replaced the rings on the oem (Mark Levinson) 2 years ago from simply speakers, but they didnt last.

I was gonna re-foam my old speakers over the holidays but just bought the Skar and PowerBass instead after reading your post. I don't want to rip the interior apart again in 2 years .

 

[BigNick]

I was gonna re-foam my old speakers over the holidays but just bought the Skar and PowerBass instead after reading your post. I don't want to rip the interior apart again in 2 years .

Exactly, I hated to do it but it was necessary. That video he replaces the mids too, I bought them but didn't put them in as my Levinson mids looked great. I used a high speed with a cutting wheel to trim the skar down , tedious work but I still have all my fingers and didn't damage the sub.

 

[BigNick]

My latest creation, I wanted to keep the cooler and other equipment in its place. So this is my idea. Not many, at least I couldn't find many threads that discuss this. The cargo net from Gladiator, hardware, tractor supply.

 

[Hardazclay]

Finally got around to changing my spark plugs. I'm relieved I didn't snap any of retainer clips on the ignition coil plugs. I also replaced the ignition coil boots and cleaned the throttle body while I was at it.

I'm pretty confident these are the original plugs from 20 years ago and with 162k miles on the clock. They are the same plugs recommended by the service manual which were discontinued at some point. I've also never seen a letter marking on the top of the plug like this. Every plug had a P on the top and makes me wonder if that's a factory thing. All of them still gapped between 1.0 and 1.1mm. I didn't have any misfire or reasons to change them other than I had no service history and felt like it.

 

[aztoytec]

Finally got around to changing my spark plugs. I'm relieved I didn't snap any of retainer clips on the ignition coil plugs. I also replaced the ignition coil boots and cleaned the throttle body while I was at it.
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I'm pretty confident these are the original plugs from 20 years ago and with 162k miles on the clock. They are the same plugs recommended by the service manual which were discontinued at some point. I've also never seen a letter marking on the top of the plug like this. Every plug had a P on the top and makes me wonder if that's a factory thing. All of them still gapped between 1.0 and 1.1mm. I didn't have any misfire or reasons to change them other than I had no service history and felt like it.
View attachment 4049778View attachment 4049193
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Those are factory spark plugs!!

 

[Rednexus]

If you rig is like mine, you'll be surprised how much better it runs with new plugs! I put in Denso Iridium Power plugs and will change them about every 50K from here on out. Mine were not original FWIW - they were Densos but didn't have the "P" on them.