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Recently I noticed inner camber wear on my front two tyres, to combat this I purchased some Hard race adjustable upper control arms to get the camber back in spec.
So glad to have access to a hoist for this kind of work, makes it 100% easier
All installed
camber is now back to factory spec average -0.27 degrees and my tyres should last longer
I also recently re-sealed the lower sump, which I did not get pictures of but I used an engine brace to lift the engine. Whilst doing that I noticed that one of the engine mounts had separated and also that my coolant reservoir was 'sweating' coolant from the joints.
Yesterday new engine mounts, transmission mount and coolant reservoir arrived so when I can find some time those will be replaced.
Anyway, a bit of action on the Lexus recently, but it is nice to keep up on the little things.
Lifter the engine as high as possible with an engine brace
Even though others seem to have been able to remove the mounts by lifting the engine only I could not see how it could be done so I resorted to dropping the sub frame on its bolts to achieve the clearance required.
I disconnected the lower strut bolts
removed the bolt from the steering shaft to allow it to slip down
this allowed enough of a drop to create the clearance required
LHS done
RHS done
as other have noticed, there was a fair difference in height between the old and new mounts (the one pictured was split)
While it was on the hoist I had a go at tightening the nut on the drive shaft near the centre bearing to deal with a occasional tinny rattle noise coming from the driveline
after finding an appropriate shifter for the 42mm nut, i was able to tighten it up a little and so far the noise is gone, another small issue resolved.
I recently installed a Grom BT3 unit to the stock pioneer premium sound system
What came in the box
Stock stereo removed
Unit tucked in down the bottom
Mic installed just on the gauge shroud, it was easy to run the cable here so I will see if i have any issues with phone call quality otherwise I will move it
Pressing DISK twice brings it up as CD1 and it works perfectly!
Now that I had my new oil syringe from doing the differential oil, I decided to tackle the power steering fluid by extracting and refilling the reservoir multiple times over a week.
In the end I did it 5 times getting 200ml out each time so used 1L of new fluid
I kept each extraction separate so I could monitor how it was going, in the bottles it looks like nothing has improved! always very dark
but dripping a sample onto some tissue paper shows the improvement (top is the first extraction bottom is pure new fluid)
I will leave it at that for now as I don't think it will improve much more, maybe schedule a regular drain and refill with every few oil changes
Yes sir, I did the first 5 or so fluid changes immediately after purchase as my power steering was initially a little whacky (it became harder to turn the wheel after highway drives where I was taking turns at 60+). The fluid was still close to what yours looked like now after those initial changes, but my steering symptoms were gone. I did more fluid changes sporadically whenever I was in the engine bay for other things (spark plugs, MAF, air filter, etc.) over the next few months. By the end, it was clean red. However, in the past year or so since, I've noticed it's gotten darker so it's probably time for another fluid change. My reservoir has gotten cleaner over time, so I'm guessing that the clean fluid is slowly cleaning up the residue. I considered replacing the reservoir or removing it for cleaning, but seems like overkill. I may replace it if I ever have to replace the steering rack.
I never have had any issues with my steering but it sounds like a periodical replacement will be of benefit to prevent it becoming an issue like your had.
my reservoir looks ok, I suppose it may even improve a little over time
Changed the engine air filter, this was only 50,000km old as i changed it myself when i purchased the car so I think it shows how dirty my daily drive to work is!
Cabin filter had never been changed so that was also worth it
also changed the accessories belt, it actually looked fine but had not been changed since I purchased the car so this was just for insurance