mbenz80

No, you don't have to have the wheels off the ground. Check out page 51 of this thread or search google image with your question and it will find answer for you.

ALAN553

dont have to have wheels off the ground, just makes it easier to spin wheels/shaft in order to attach your grease gun to the zerk fittings.

IanB2

You can also stick it in neutral so you can roll it back and forth while underneath (be careful if you have a sloped surface!) and access all the zerks.

ALAN553

ha, I think I may be getting too old to be under a 5000 lb truck playing chicken...

MyFirstGX

I am a new GX owner, (new to me). I bought a 2004 GX 470 with about 135k miles... well after driving it for 3-4 months I also noticed the "bump" while at a stop light and thought I needed a transmission! After finding and reading the 54 page thread I greased my driveshaft and the "bump" virtually went away! I'm looking forward to reading up through all the threads and seeing what I need to do to keep this awesome car going for another 100 miles!

chiph9

It's been about a month and a half since I got the driveshaft replaced, and I have to say it's the smoothest it's ever driven. Previously with the bad driveshaft, not only did I have the stoplight clunk, but I had poor quality shifts. Especially the 1st-to-2nd upshift which felt like the transmission had broken.

Now it's all better. So go ahead and grease the zerks, and if that doesn't improve things, a new driveshaft from the dealer is in the $500 range.

Chip H.

MFDsam

Just bought my first Lexus, a 2003 GX470 with 135,000 miles on it this past weekend. Didn't notice during the test drive, but got it home and the clunk appeared. This thread kept from scaring the bejeezus out of me. I took it back to the dealer and when I told them what was up, the service consultant said "I'm not going to pretend I don't know what you are talking about". Sure enough, new drive shaft on order. As it turns out, when I bought it, it came with a 1,000 mile or 30 day warranty with a $100 deductible, so hopefully I'm covered for this

spport

That's great that you were able to catch it in time. No clunk after three years with the new part on mine. I also had my steering rack replaced with a new part # due to a leak on the original one. My water pump had a little leak also that I've heard about and that was a great one because the labour is big and made the 90,000 belt replacement essentially free. Run it through the carwash and feel for sunroof leak too. I had that replaced under warranty in first 30 days. You might consider taking it to a trusted mechanic independent of where you bought it to do an inspection. Could be well worth it. I love my GX.

artinist

to summarize a couple of the points i had to read pages for:

TSB: DL002-07
new shaft part number: 37110-60A40 about $300

not that you should replace it with new but its just the info

bkingsle8

My 04' 4runner had this issue for a while also - I used Amsoil with moly and it cured it. :thumbsup:

cphang

I have the new driveshaft installed. Does this new driveshaft require greasing every x miles? What should be greased if so (ujoint etc.)

Tdoll

You should check all zerks at every oil change. you can do this by adding a small amount and see if any comes out.
Here are some examples of where

artinist

fyi, i took mine it and during an oil change they put in about 3-4 pumps and we thought it was done, well no change, then I read that guys are having to pump 30-35 times in the yolk fitting.

has anyone actually took a shaft apart to see what the yolk area look like on the inside?

Mars00

tried to do the zerk/grease thing today. no luck. just had grease oozing out of the fitting. guess the yolk has harden grease. anyone apply heat to it? or maybe i'm just not applying the grease gun to the zerk correctly. here's a video of what i'm talking about:

ALAN553