mainroman

Hey everyone.
I'm currently helping my father in law buy a car. I always liked the GX, so I advised him to get one and now I'm doing a little research and I would like a little help from actual owners.

We are looking for a 2004 (with actual 2004 built date) Gx470 with less than 20k miles on it. May be up to 25 if we can't find any lower. White or Silver, tan or gray interior. Preferably with KDSS and no Navi.
If anyone here btw, has one for sale, let me know.

My questions are:
1. In general what do I look out for? Any common problems with the car?
2. That "clunk" issue, how often it happens?
3. Rear air suspension, how is it in terms of reliability.

I've read all the recent threads here and I'm aware of a TSB on the clunk but I'm worried about reports that ride gets worse after the fix. I think that this is wrong, my guess is that whoever is doing the fix, does something wrong with that rear air suspension so it glitches. Has anyone tried to replace height sensors to cure the problem?
The thing is that car is going to be shipped out of USA so we won't have an easy access to a Lexus dealer. GX's are not officially sold here, we've got the Land Cruiser Prado instead, so I'm worried about getting a broken car and not being able to fix it quickly.

Anyway, I would really appreciate any input on buying used GX.
Thank you.

P.S. I'm reading posts here and people often say that shocks are not filled with air, isn't there one big air spring (or something like that) in the middle?
I also heard that dealer has to set and adjust the rear suspension after working on it.

RXGS

iTrader: (2)

where r u from? and the gx is awesome, im not sure about the suspension in the gx, but in the lx it has be a problem, so id check out about that

shodog

Good luck finding one with that low of mileage. when we were looking last december, most of the 2004's had upwards of 40-50K on them. We found a nice cream puff with 25K but like I said, that was almost a year ago.

mainroman

I'm from Russia and car is going to be shipped here. I lived in States about 4 years though. We have a ES300 here already for my mom in law and now father in law wants a Lexus.
I've been able to find several with miles ranging from 7k to 19k miles, and some more with up to 25k, which I guess will be just fine if we cant' get the one we like with less than 20.
My main worries is that Clunk and rear air suspension issues, so I guess what I'm trying to find out is how to get them right so they won't cause any problems for the time being.
We also want 04 cos it has less than 250 bhp and that's good for tax purposes here, if we get an 05 model year, we'll have to pay twice more per year (about 1000$), with 04 it's more like 500$ which is better, plus lot's of 05 are made in 04 so there is no difference for us, cos here we look at the actual built date.

Anyway let me know about those clunk and suspension problems and how do I fix them if it has it. I have a friend in JAX, FL, who will be taking care of the car, so if you can advise me a knowledgeable dealer in the area that would be great.
I lived in Denver and Lexus dealer there was nice, but I didn’t have anything fixed, just serviced. I had lot's of trouble with Toyota dealers though, with lying, braking stuff and refusing to fix, not being able to fix easy stuff.

The G Man

Make sure the GX you are buying have the cluck TSB done on it already. There is no fix for the rear suspension problem yet, nor would I call it a real problem.