potatomon

I made an impulse buy on a 2006 gs300 back in may. car has 350,000km on it, was smoking oil like crazy but was running surprisingly smooth with a few misfires here and there(valves had tonns of carbon build up), had codes for front and rear o2 sensors($$$$$$$$$$$), bad cats($$$$$$$$$$$$), and had a rustyyy rear quarter due to repair, but for $2500 canadian it seemed like a good deal. I'm anticipating driving this car already as it's been 6 months and I still haven't gotten it ready. Reason being..................With no experience working on engines, I tore into the engine to fix the oil consumption(not before checking compression, which seemed fine,. I knew it wasn't going to be an easy process. But at the same time I knew I could do it if I took one step at a time and made sure everything was done right...

I don't know whether I fixed or broke more stuff on this car, but it's been a fun journey of ebay and lexuspartsdirect orders. I wanna do a total of how much I spent on the car but later, when it's in good condition. So far I bought and replaced piston rings, engine gasket kit, 3 injectors, new front axles. +a bunch of money for spark plugs, lubricants, filters, dealership trips for broken/lost bolts. I did get the car running after that, and it ran like a champ but the timing was apparently off, so I had to fix that and now I believe it's done right.The only problem is I'm waiting for the last fuel injector because these bastards keep breaking on me, seriously, they're designed so that the connector snaps off. I expect to fire it up again shortly and hopefully no more timing chain codes or else I will be pissed.

stuff I broke besides injectors:
Right front axle(GORILLA FORCE HAMMER TIME)+cracked sub pan(thank god for tig welding)
Clock spring
Fuel pressure sensor.
Somehow my tire went flat, lol.
All in all, not too bad.



I broke my phone but I have some pics of the stuff I did and I'll keep posting stuff as I go.

potatomon

Kris9884

iTrader: (7)

Yikes, I would have ran a compression test and if that checked out, seafoamed the heck out of it. Some plugs, coils, filter and belts and you were probably good to go. Hope to see it turn out well though!

tghw

I admire your determination, but I suspect if you add up your expenditures it would have made much more sense to just purchase a used GS in good condition and saved yourself a lot of time and headaches.

potatomon

Yea I know. I was in the 2-3k price range looking for a project is300 sc and such but this turned up, I went to check it out and scooped it up without considering this.


Once I realized what a beast of a car I was dealing with I knew it was gonna take a while, I said you know what I'll give this car the care previous owners clearly never did.

potatomon

I figured it deserved a break and some tlc I just couldn't believe this car was in any kind of driveable condition turns out it probably was but the valve stem seals had to be replaced anyway to eliminate oil consumption so I just went a little deeper into the block.. also look at the valve deposits!! That **** had to go!

potatomon

Had to check if it starts and any codes, Started the engine today without any accessories using my corolla for alternator. It didn't wanna start at first but then I realized the injector ecu needs to be mounted on the engine for ground, after doing that it started fine. Tomorrow gonna install water pump and put in coolant let it run to make sure there are no codes indicating I messed up timing marks(im pretty sure I didn't buy I heard the chain can jump?)

right now only 1 code 0020 something about a camshaft actuator circuit open, I'm guessing it's a ground wire somewhere...

potatomon

Sosososkssososozkzozozozozo

potatomon

Big news in the past month got the car certified(safetied) and put on the road.

New Kyb struts.
New parking brake shoes and hardware
2 new tires
New muffler

Its in quarter decent condition right now, I am not yet able to run it hard cuz I'm breaking in the piston rings, but I can tell it's got power. Will report on the oil consumption soon! Fingers crossed. It stopped smoking afaik so thats a good sign.

The bad:
Shortly transmission solenoid code 2757 came back even though I changed half of the tranny fluid. I will change the rest and see if it can fix it.. If not I will need to replace a solenoid. No biggie. Just hope it's easy to get to =)
Even though I replaced one muffler there are still a number of exhaust leaks causing o2 sensor codes which in turn cause an ABS code C1201 and cause a yellow brake warning light to come on.
The rotors are warped and on an unrelated note, its having a tough time adjusting the idle speed., when I'm coming to a stop, the rpms are going all over the place and it causes the car to shake. One time I braked hard and didn't give it enough time to adjust the idle, and it just stalled. Once it finds the idle it idles perfect at around 650-700.

I had a different idea of what this car was. I expected it to be soft like a camry but I guess that level of handling would be unacceptable on a lexus even though the steering isn't all that. Turns out its just a bigger IS. That's cool. I didn't want a grandpa mobile.

VivaElRAY

potatomon

Drove it for a week so far what can I say the transmission seems to be going. I changed the fluid didn't bother with the filter cuz the whole thing needs to be rebuilt at this point

I am hoping to do this diy but i might also look for a transmission shop that knows their stuff and pay them. Even if it costs 3 grand yes its more than half the car but the tranny is good to go it should be a solid car for under 10 grand total. What do others drive that costs 10k? A kia? A Hyundai? GS is king when it comes to value

potatomon

I will be replacing the tq lock up solenoid I think that might fix my issues. Tranny doesn't wanna downshift when hot. I have to help it then it doesn't shudder

potatomon

Put about 2500kms on this thing and its all gravy except the tranny is sometimes sooooo slow to respond to throttle.

After driving on the highway for a while it'll go into limp mode and stay in high gear at low speed.

4-5k to rebuild the tranny or 1500 for a used one, idk idk.. car is totally usable as long as you watch out for those failing solenoids and help it downshift when it happens.but it would be nice to experience a Lexus as it was meant to be.

Even with this issue I feel like the car could easily do a trip around the country

I think I'll ride it out as it is and try to fix it myself.. this is a driveway build after all

potatomon

Car is pretty much fixed now. New oem tranny solenoid fixed my p2757 and driveability issues. New Denso afr sensors made the codes go away just have 2 codes for downstream sensor left. Fixed Ac. Drives nice

Lwerewolf

Nice!

Time to fix the quarter panel?