Project Chronicle

I regret to inform you I did not escape the dreaded headgasket failure on my '97 LX450. 

Truthfully, I saw it coming. I had ignored some of the tell-tale signs and written them off as irrelevant. The entry in the history file indicated around 230,000 miles, an overheating event occurred, with subsequent entries showing a new thermostat, water pump, and radiator did not resolve the issue. Then it goes quiet, and another 20,000 miles are logged before I buy it. 

I noticed a good amount of dense steam at startup - warm weather or cold - that looked like condensation but also had that awful smell that only burnt coolant smells like. But it would go away once the truck was warm, and I wouldn't see it again until the next cold start. 

Then, an overheating event on the way back from vacation seemed to be tied to a dead fan clutch. Two more months of even-temperature gauge bliss. But in December, on a frigid night, I ran out of heat and the truck began to run warm. It was parked at the local Lexus dealer for a month wherein my friend Joe, the lead tech, observed the radiator was empty. He thought it was not the headgasket as a pressure test revealed no sign of exhaust gases in the system. But with no other explanation as to where the coolant was going, and the radiator otherwise intact, he pulled the spark plugs and saw the dreaded sign of internal coolant leaks. 

To be perfectly honest, this was not an expense I anticipated. And I had just decided my plan going forward was to sell my E91 in the spring to shore up the maintenance budget; buy a 996; and use the LX450 and Dakota R/T for occasional daily driving duties. 

The new plan is to get the Lexus down to my friend Jay, who revived the Trooper, and works almost exclusively on old Toyotas. This pushes everything off a bit but I need to get the Lexus buttoned up once and for all. And truthfully, once the HG and chain are done, there's very little else that can go wrong on this thing. God willing. 

As you may recall, the Lexus LX450 - what should be the most reliable project in my fleet - has been sitting at Lexus of Warwick after an intermittent loss of heat and temperature gauge spike occurred one early winter night. The heat would cut in and out and then just stopped, and the only way to get the temperature gauge down was to open the vents up to full-blast mode. 

This was maddening, as the cooling system has been completely gone through. My mind jumped to a heater core job (miserable and expensive on this era of Land Cruiser) or worse, a failed head gasket. 

I left it alone for several weeks, getting through Christmas without so much as texting Joe Manzi, my mechanic. I finally broke down and asked him to give me the news, which turned out to be better than expected. Joe couldn't find any leaks and even tested the cooling system to make sure it was free of any exhaust gases. The only culprit he found was a radiator that had lost a gallon-and-a-half of coolant. Now, this is good news because more than likely we are dealing with a faulty radiator as Joe noticed dried coolant around the base of the radiator and the previous owner swapped in a Chinese-made replacement not long before I bought the truck. 

It could be a case of it being too good to be true and to be honest, I haven't heard from Joe since last week (guessing he's moved on to other things after babysitting my truck for a month and potentially finding a root cause.) I would be ecstatic if this mysterious heating/cooling issue turned out to be a case of a faulty radiator. 

The LX450 was supposed to be my gateway into Porsche ownership. Why? Because if the LX450 proved reliable enough, I would sell my E91 - which, as I've noted, is growing long in the tooth - and use that money to buy a decent but cheap 996-chassis 911. 

The problem is the LX450 has not exactly been, how do you say - daily-ready. I bought it knowing there would be a fair amount of deferred maintenance to deal with. It had been used as a daily by the previous owner, but like most older vehicles, the list of non-essential repairs left for someone else to deal with began to grow. 

We've sealed every leak; changed every fluid; replaced every cooling component; and fixed a variety of issues, from a seized A/C system to blown rear shocks to a spare tire mount so rusty it was deemed a road hazard.

I got to drive it for several weeks without issue, sort of a litmus test for becoming my eventual daily. I was going to have some rust repaired and move it over to a conventional insurance policy. But then last week, the heat became intermittent and my temp gauge began rising and falling, rising and falling. 

The truck was already slated to go back to Lexus for a quick oil change to a heavier-weight oil to see if it helped with some to-be-expected oil consumption, transitioning from synthetic to Shell Rotella 15W-40 diesel oil. Except now, we also get to diagnose whether the heater core needs to come out. 

As you can see, the seemingly most reliable vehicle in my fleet is becoming a bit of a nuisance. 

We took the LX450 to Martha's Vineyard this past week, where my entire goal of getting it over-serviced was driven by the goal of driving it on the beach. So, we did this and it was awesome. Combine the experience of driving overland with the shoulder season dynamics of there being far fewer people on vacation than at the height of the summer and we had the whole place to ourselves. We cannot wait to do it again.

Prior to leaving, I grabbed my Scan Gauge tool out of the Eurovan so I could turn off a pesky check engine light with the dreaded P4101 code, which is usually an impossible-to-find vacuum leak. In keeping it hooked up, I was also able to monitor the temperature. 

Now, a few things were happening in the background that gave me pause: one, I didn't hear a fan roar when the aux unit should kick in, and I didn't notice a dip in the RPMs when said fan kicked on. I also saw on the first drive out onto the beach with low range selected that the temperature gauge moved ever-so-slightly (which, in this truck, it never has.) 

I have driven the LX pretty regularly since I got it, and never noticed the temp gauge so much as wiggle. I chalked it up to my being overly-cautious in my first time on the sand and also having low range engaged. However, this was the definitive "canary in the coal mine" moment. 

When driving home, I kept an eye on the Scan Gauge and noted it was sitting right at 194, which is exactly where it should be. Once or twice, it kissed 210 on the island, but with operating temp range being 180-210, this was not out of line. However, a diversion into congested Providence to pick up a cake saw the gauge move in dramatic fashion towards the red, and temps spike to 220. We had to keep shutting the truck down and waiting for gaps in traffic to make it home without overheating, but given the water pump, thermostat, and radiator are all new - and combined with the silence of the fan blade assembly - I am very confident we have a dead or dying fan clutch that may have given up the ghost when the truck was working hard over the sand. 

Needless to say, I ordered what is known as a LandTank modified Aisin fan clutch that is customized to trigger the fan at 95 degrees and also uses a higher-threshold fluid to ensure steadfast, high-performance operation. Hopefully, there's no long-term damage caused by the brush with the danger zone and this modification otherwise makes what was an excellent first outing with the truck repeatable without the panic of a rising temp needle. 

I have been on a bender with the Lexus Land Cruiser. Here's why: we leave for Martha's Vineyard in a few days and I want to drive it on the beach. This means my wife and two young children will be in tow. 

So, that's why the A/C had to work; why the leaks had to be stopped; why the bodywork couldn't be dented; and so on. It was a mixture of having it be comfortable and also not look like a heap (my wife is more concerned about that last part than I am.) 

The A/C was a big deal; the truck is very comfortable inside. But grinding my gears on a personal level was the trashed driver's seat and the not-much-better passenger bucket. The good news is a company called L-Seat out of Houston sells very reasonable genuine leather kits, and in a color called "Oak" which is a very good match for the Lexus leather. 

I took the truck up to my new go-to for upholstery work, Charles St. Auto and Boat Top. Dave, the owner, works very quickly and does great work. The kit also included new material for the center armrest and armrests above the door handles. I also spent a ton of time steam cleaning the entire cabin, removing what stains I could, and refreshing the rest of the leather. 

Overall, it feels clean; smells good; and the front buckets will make both me and my wife very happy to spend a week in this truck. It goes back to Lexus tomorrow for a very quick check-over before we leave the mainland. 

As I mentioned, a friend of mine (Joe) works for the local Lexus dealer and he's worked on my vintage projects in the past. He agreed to take on the LX450 and has been dissecting the truck in a fairly comprehensive fashion. Here are the updates on what we knew and what we didn't:

-The A/C system is completely seized up. Basically doing a complete tear down here, in addition to replacing the condenser and compressor. 

-The power steering leak actually wasn't the cooler but just every damn hose. Effectively, every hose is being replaced. 

-The suspension is pretty tired. Shock bushings = gone, same for sway bar bushings. I'm going to save a major suspension refresh for when we lift it but replacing all bushings and rear shocks in the meantime.

-Rear hatch didn't work because the inner latch was gone. Pretty simple fix. 

-Going to replace water pump, thermostat, and flush transmission fluid proactively. 

-Crank seal leaking oil. Joe is going to try and sneak this into the A/C job. 

-Spare tire mount is completely rotten. Replacing chain mechanism with assembly from a Texas truck. 

More I'm forgetting! It's a long list but nothing too scary, and will make me way more confident putting the family inside and heading out to beach at some point this summer. 

I have a connection with the local Lexus dealer that has proven helpful over the years. Joe Manzi, a former technician with the now-defunct Oxford Motorcars, joined the Lexus dealer technician team in Warwick, Rhode Island, a few years back. Joe worked on my E21-chassis BMW 320 and my extremely obscure 1981 Toyota HiAce wagon. He was a life-saver time and again on that HiAce and I'm sure he was grateful to see it go onto a new owner. 

The Lexus LX450 I picked up recently had some needs. The power steering leak, non-working rear hatch, warm A/C, and no evidence of recent transfer case or transmission fluid changes. All told, I wanted to get Joe's capable eyes on it to address some standard, deferred maintenance along with flagging anything I should be mindful of over the long-term. 

He has yet to text me with an update, which is good and bad. It either means he's found nothing out of the ordinary or the list of needs has quadrupled he's afraid to call me. To that end, you have to take advantage of the few perks going to a dealer affords you, so I didn't hesitate to take the complimentary loaner car they offered me while they work on a 248K mile LX450 that is profusely leaking power steering fluid. 

And hey, for a brief minute, the neighbors may even think I've come to my senses and purchased a reliable, late-model vehicle. Joke's on them! 

The Lexus LX450 arrived with a pretty powerful stream of fluid terminating from below, and the best guess so far is the power steering oil cooler. Of course, the cooler consists of hard lines and therefore can't be replaced. 

There's the possibility that the leak is coming from the power steering reservoir itself, as there's a few accounts online of a misdiagnosed leak being traced back to the very cheap fix of replacing some O-rings inside the tank itself.

My friend Jeff, a professional mechanic who arranged the sale of the LX450, said it's the hard lines going into the cooler. I have no reason not to believe him, so I tracked down a used cooler assembly from a place in New Hampshire that deals exclusively in Land Cruiser parts. I've also got an appointment on the books for the truck to go to the local Lexus dealer for this repair along with proactively swapping the water pump, thermostat, and drive belts while it's there. My good mechanic friend Joe Manzi, from the now-defunct Oxford Motorcars, will be handling this job, which I'm pretty psyched about. Joe's a great guy and an excellent mechanic. 

The tags from Vermont should arrive shortly, and then we can get this thing some beach passes and take it on the sand! 

Well, although it seemed like a pretty done deal, I confirmed today I will finally be a Land Cruiser owner as of tomorrow. I've been searching for a very specific truck - the FJ80-series Land Cruiser with the Lexus trim, otherwise known as an LX450 - and my friend Jeff, a local mechanic, snagged this one from a customer. 

The cherry on top was to find one wearing the pretty shade of blue/green paint that was unique to the Lexus variant. This truck, which I inadvertently took a picture of in the background of a photo of my departed Trooper, belongs to a family from Newport, RI. I visited it in person today and while it needs a serious detailing and has some rot issues to resolve, it's surprisingly solid for a New England truck. 

It drives nicely; runs cool; and any negative surprises (so far) have been pleasingly mild. I keep forgetting this is a Lexus from the golden-era of Toyota's luxury arm over-engineering everything they built. The Lexus does have some leaks, primarily an oil leak from the pan gasket area and a power steering leak. The rear hatch took a direct hit near the lock mechanism, and as such, it doesn't open. The driver's window falls off the track if it goes down all the way, and the radio just blows static.

Overall, minor faults, and while the rust will need to be addressed, it's contained and I have a good local resource now for rust repair (even though he hasn't called me back about when the Cosworth can come by....) More to the point, we can use it as I've always intended, which is a vehicle we all fit into that can drive down to the beach and back when called upon. 

And, when funds allow, we'll find some must-have off-road pieces, like a set of wheels from 1552, larger tires, and an ARB brush guard with some period-correct off-road lights. Exciting!