kkamakasi

First post.
Posting for a friend who owns a 2013 GS 350 (2wd).

Went fishing with him yesterday. His car got stuck in the sand.
Tried everything but the rear wheels just kept digging deeper and deeper into the sand.
Finally, a fellow fisherman in a lifted 4x4 Tahoe offered to assist.

Not knowing where the jackpoints are on the back of his car, my friend asked the fisherman to tie his rope to the passenger side trunk arm (see picture below).





gs350 trunk arm

I had a feeling this was a bad idea but didn't voice my concern until it was too late..
The car was pulled out of the beach but in the process, as far as I can tell, the passenger side trunk arm is now bent OUT so when we try to close the trunk, the truck lid sticks out ~1 inch on the passenger side. Needless to say, the trunk latch is also misaligned due to the passenger side trunk arm being bent.

Having explained the situation now, any comments on how to fix this?
Anyone have a DIY for replacing the trunk arm?
It looks like it's only $80 (#14)
Any diagrams or DIYs or pictures to help replacing this trunk arm would be appreciated.

TIA

SC300Es

Wow, I'm surprised that part didn't rip out of the car. Putting the whole weight of the car on it and all.

Isn't the arm attached to the car by screws? Maybe you just need to remove and replace.

kkamakasi

So was I

Should have spoken up about not tying the rope there..

But what is done is done.

Now we need to know how to fix it.

Any specific repair manual diagrams or pictures to replace this trunk arm would be greatly appreciated.

lamikela1

Try a body shop and tell him not to drive in the sand any more.

kkamakasi

... a body shop/mechanic is what we are trying to avoid.
It's seem too simple of a process to take to a mechanic or body shop.
There is no body damage. It's purely mechanical and it's not even relating to the powertrain; it's a hinge.

But we just want to make sure of the process before getting into it, no matter how "simple" the process may look.

Any diagrams or pictures relating to the removal/installation of the trunk hinge/arm will be appreciated.

TIA

kkamakasi

Okay..

It looks like that hinge/arm is held onto the unibody by two bolts threaded in from under the rear deck.





Does that mean I need to remove the rear deck inside the car to access thes two bolts?

Anyone remember seeing these two bolts when you removed the rear deck?

lamikela1

I would think at the very least that the hinge would need to be replaced. That is assuming there is no damage to the structure that the hinge attaches to. I am very surprised that it wasn't damaged more severely as that is a lot of stress put on the hinge.

Good luck!!!

shurik74

iTrader: (5)

what da great ides to use trunk arm.... what he was thinking about?????

That sux my friend...

NickTee

Time to take it to a bodyshop, because who knows what was tweaked in the process.

kkamakasi

Let's get past the fact that it was a dumb thing to do and move on to helping out with a solution

Trying to avoid going to a bodyshop as I am pretty mechanically-inclined and as far as I can tell, it's just a bent trunk arm. Having come from an E46 M3 myself, I find that the lexus crowd sort of lacks in the DIY resources department.. So after searching online all night, I figured I'll just make an ID and come on here and ask everyone directly for assistance in finding a solution.

I did tell my friend to, in the meantime, take his car to the stealership to get them to see what the issue might be so that we can at least verify that the issue is a bent trunk arm and not something more extensive.

I'm just trying to be proactive by assuming that the problem is just a bent trunk arm and am proactively looking for a DIY or repair diagram or something along those lines to understand how to attack the repair if/once the stealership determines the issue to be a bent trunk arm.

jkeller

Wow, if he gets away with this only costing $80 to fix, he should go buy a Texas lottery ticket. Did he at least come home with a nice fish?

kkamakasi

DIDNT EVEN GET A NIBBLE... c'est la vie

bclexus

Let me get this right.

You and your genius friend went to the beach and got his Lexus GS 350 stuck in the sand. Then, you and your genius friend talked a fisherman with a rope into 'tying his rope' to the car's trunk arm to pull the 4,000 lb car out of the sand. That sounds like something a BMW owner would do!!! Anyway, do you really expect us to think that you and your genius friend are smart enough to fix this yourself...without the fisherman's help?

kkamakasi

Okay.. thanks.

jtrue28

Yeah, no doubt. Coming on here calling Lexus owners morons....well, we're not stuck in the sand.

Good luck. Prayers sent.