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Paired a new iPhone to my 2004 UL yesterday. This, in spite of the Lexus site dropping their chart of cell phones that have been tested and proven to work with our cars. However, the owner's nav manual gave me all the steps that were required to make the paring. A piece of cake.
I have a new S8 phone, and the other day the bluetooth acted up again. What it is, is that the car will not take one call after another. at one point, the car thought it was connected, per the nav screen, but the sound was at my phone. So the pairing never ended, yet the audio was not coming through the car. I can live with it, as long as I know the bluetooth has not failed altogether.
My car was at the airport for 3 days, of course it started right up (better have as I arrived 1:45 AM EST). Right away the doors felt solid and heavy, steering was actually a little heavier, but certainly after seeing lcd screens in the instrument cluster and a huge nav screen of the rental, the LS felt dated. A part of me says we are a stubborn sort, forgoing all that fancy current electronics for our dinosaurs lol It is "very" helpful that new cars can configure what info the user wants into the center instrument cluster. I will say this, 2018 rental car could not find at least 3 addresses that I input, so I used google maps. Which had to have saved me hours driving in the GTA....it even had me switching to the collectors and back to the express. I am sold on google for NAV....
Today I completed my DIY project. I decided to extend problem-free life of my LS for another 100k miles. I did this:
1) Replaced front and rear wheel bearing assemblies. Timkens up front, Koyos at the back.
2) Replaced front and rear brake calipers. Reason was the degradation of seals and alleged poor brake performance. A1 kARDONE calipers are very good and not expensive.
3) Replaced front and rear brake rotos and brake pads. Previously ordered OEM, but this time i removed them and put PowerStop Premium kit. Wow, what a difference.
4) Fully bleeded the brake system and flushed the brake fluid.
5) Flushed power steering fluid.
6) Greased brake system with 3M Silicone Paste and 3M Copper Anti Seize.
7) Greased bearing assemblies and metal to metal connections with 3M Copper Anti Seize.
8) Replaced engine VVti valves.
9) Replaced Engine Coolant Sensor.
10) Replaced Exhaust Valve (CAN'T recall the name of it) and installed new hose to throttle body. Old one cooked in my hands and was self-destroyed.
11) Flushed coolant.
12) Greased all engine electic connections with 3M Silicone Paste from outside to provide more insulation and heat protection.
13) Replaced engine protection cover.
14) Replaced front lower ball joints.
15) Replaced front upper control arms.
16) Replaced steering rack bushings.
17) Replaced LCA rear bushings.
18) Replaced two engine mounts. (old ones were cooked).
19) Replaced transmission mount.
20) Replaced engine filter.
21) Replaced seat filters.
22) Replaced cabin filter.
23) Installed new leather steering wheel cover.
24) Reset suspension bushings and torqued them according to factory defaults while weight is preserved.
25) Cleaned 3UZ-FE.
26) Replaced engine oil with 5w-30 Pennzoil Ultra Platinum new edition.
27) Replaced front grille.
28) Replaced battery.
Guys, let me tell you. I dont need a new car. Ever.
Just curious, your car doesn't have that many miles on it, so why did you perform items 1, 8, 9, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19? I am assuming you did all of this yourself or what was the name of the bank that you hit?
It's not my intention to rag on you, it just seems like you threw a lot of money at your car for likely very little gain...
Paired a new iPhone to my 2004 UL yesterday. This, in spite of the Lexus site dropping their chart of cell phones that have been tested and proven to work with our cars. However, the owner's nav manual gave me all the steps that were required to make the paring. A piece of cake.
Which phone did you use? I have fits with my Galaxy 3 because it causes all sorts of feedback and I cant pair more than one phone to the car at the same time. The one I can pair causes so much feedback I cannot use it.
I installed a new coolant temperature sensor, cleaned the maf (the correct way this time!), and scanned for pending codes. The maf was filthy and the car is much faster now.
Just curious, your car doesn't have that many miles on it, so why did you perform items 1, 8, 9, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19? I am assuming you did all of this yourself or what was the name of the bank that you hit?
It's not my intention to rag on you, it just seems like you threw a lot of money at your car for likely very little gain...
Well, your question is reasonable. Usually there is no need to replace or fix something that is not broken. Especially if it takes a hit on your budget.My diy project was solely done to return the quality of ride to factory defaults with some improvements, e.g. more effective brakes. Yes, it was expensive but the results as I said were achieved and I was satisfied with them. I got more responsive steering, smoother ride, shorter brake distance, dramatic fuel usage improvement, improved cooling, more ride stability especially in turns, and I guess more safety.I can also assure that knowing that after replacing a certain part, let’s say a rear wheel bearing, I immediately noticed smoother ride while the old part could function maybe another 50k.
I got more responsive steering, smoother ride, shorter brake distance, dramatic fuel usage improvement, improved cooling, more ride stability especially in turns, and I guess more safety.
Speaking of "more ride stability especially in turns", I find that installing a beefier rear anti-sway bar by Ultra Racing helped significantly in reducing the typical body-roll feel of the LS430. I also replaced the front anti-sway bar with a heavier one by Ultra Racing. The front did not yield as much improvement, but still very noticeable.
The only complaint I have with the stiffer anti-sway bars is that the right and left wheels can no longer move independently as freely as before, so if you approach a speed-bump on an angle, the rocking motion your car experiences will be more pronounced. Of course, the stiffer anti-sway bars will have no effect when you travel in a straight line.
I just ordered a set of Power-flow Splash Guards for my 2001. Amazon had a deal going on them today so I jumped in. I still have to install the winter tires on my '01 (I did my wife's '05 last week) so I'll install these when I do the tires at each corner...
I admired my new caliper bolts, all 8 of them lol before putting them away in the basement....nothing wrong with them but looking forward to having new discs and pads in the rear next spring or summer...
Speaking of "more ride stability especially in turns", I find that installing a beefier rear anti-sway bar by Ultra Racing helped significantly in reducing the typical body-roll feel of the LS430. I also replaced the front anti-sway bar with a heavier one by Ultra Racing. The front did not yield as much improvement, but still very noticeable.
The only complaint I have with the stiffer anti-sway bars is that the right and left wheels can no longer move independently as freely as before, so if you approach a speed-bump on an angle, the rocking motion your car experiences will be more pronounced. Of course, the stiffer anti-sway bars will have no effect when you travel in a straight line.
Great info. What may also help with body roll elimination is Tanabe springs paired with KYB shocks. And of course the most important part will be to reset and retorque some suspension elements, especially upper bushings and lca bracket bushing. I found this to help re-enable the movement of suspension freely from the original weight point. I also observed that new bearings receive less pressure thus allowing smoother turns.
In the process of replacing my busted air strut. I bought a used one and I hope that it works alright. If I start to have more issues I may get rid of the air. I got all of this back seat stuff removed in about an hour this time, its still alot to remove, and I didn't want to take out the back seat because of so many connections. Not looking forward to putting this stuff back in place.
Edit: Not sure why pictures are rotated wrong.
I installed an AUTO-VOX M8 rearview mirror with backup camera and front dashcam. I'm impressed with the wide viewing angle and installation was very easy. I compared it with their M1 product which is ok for starters, but for the features, I prefer the M8. Front dashcam quality is comparable to Viofo A119S.
The camera on the left is the M8. The right camera is M1. M8 viewing angle M1 viewing angle
I like that back-up cam, but wow, you got lots of stuff hanging from that mirror...
My dash cam is smaller than the one you're using, and the resolution isn't all that great, but it does make for some interesting videos... Is the back-up camera wireless, or is it hardwired to the front unit?
Back-up camera is hardwired to the front. You run one wire from the back to the rearview mirror. The second cable runs from the mirror to the 12v plug. I plan to hardwire it into the fuse box (like everything else). I tried to keep wires as discreet as possible (minus the picture above). I also plan to install a dashcam in the back window in case of a rear accident.
12-23-17, 03:06 AM
