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Final task out of the parts haul I recently ordered was the steering rack bushes, I had a loose feeling and some steering wheel knocking over bumps so I thought I would start here
Main bolts off
Studs removed
I could wrangle the old bushes out by grabbing the steel part with a large pipe wrench
Old bushes vs new, the only difference I could see was the raised section of the rubber were more pronounced
I lubed the new bushes and pushed them in as far as I could go, then reinstalling them pressed them home all the way by tightening the nut
So far the steering feel has improved but time will tell
Today I changed out the springs on the BC racing coil overs, as I purchased them they were 12kg/mm front and 10kg/mm rear
I purchased 8kg/mm rear springs and then swapped the 10kg/mm springs into the front
The reason for doing so is that my daily commute is on a rougher road and I was finding the harder springs a bit uncomfortable, time will tell if this is an improvement
well as the thread title suggests this car is my daily driver to work, however that comes with risk and this week I hit a large kangaroo at 100km/hr which gave the front end a bit of a beating
The main damage is the bonnet, grill, both headlights and front bumper
The radiator support and radiator are also bent but that is as far back as the damage goes, insurance let me choose my repairer so I went and had it assessed the next day. It is insured for an agreed value so heres hoping it can be repaired for less than that!
For now i have purchased a cheap Yaris (the antithesis of this car!) to get around as I think the sourcing and shipping of parts will take a while in the current climate
Yes it would be a pity if it was written off by insurance as it is totally repairable, the issue will be getting parts, second hand parts are hard to come by in aus and I dont know what the cost of new parts is like but i assume not cheap
The roo didn't make it, someone stopped to see if i was OK and checked for a joey (sometimes joeys survive incidents like this and then there are people who will take care them) but this was a male
Well insurance deemed this a financial write off, so I am going to take the payout minus the buyback of the car. This should give me plenty of funds to try and fix it myself and drive the yaris in the meantime. The problem will be finding parts as mentioned earlier so this car will likely sit around for a while until a rear ended LS430 or something becomes available to salvage a front end from.
If there are any other Aussies reading this and know of an LS430 wrecking then let me know!
The project continues but along a different path now!
Well insurance is all paid out now so on to the rebuild process, I have not had time to touch the car until now. The repairer/painter I am going to be using was happy for me to disassemble the car to assess the damage and then sort out parts for myself then pass the car onto him disassembled so he can put it all back together. The unpicking of spot welded parts and aligning everything is beyond my skillset so that will be done by the panel shop and I will try and do as much of the rest myself.
This is as much as I needed to disassemble to see where the extent of the damage was. The radiator survived! which is good because I had replaced it somewhat recently, the AC condenser did not survive and I will need to order another. highlighted in yellow as the sections of the frame called 'radiator/headlight supports' which will need to be unpicked and new ones welded on and this is what I will leave up to the body shop to align everything properly.
So for now it is parked back in the shed like this until parts have arrived and it is ready to go to the body shop. I have a query in with the local Lexus dealer to see if all of the 'critical' parts are actually available (bonnet, headlight support panels etc ) from Japan, if everything I need is available I will order them and go from there
I've just stumbled across this and didn't realize how recent the posts are. So sad to see it that way, it is a nightmare situation for the car. I always get that feeling as I'm driving on the freeway, that a Roo might hop out in front and clatter the front end. I'm based in Victoria, are you still looking for parts? Because there are a few wreckers around in Melbourne that have these cars. Hope it all turns out well. I too need to go to a body shop. Had a minor scraping done on the door/fender by someone in the parking lot, thankfully they left a number to contact (for insurance hopefully). I'd also like to fix up a few issues with the fitment of the rear bumper, replace one of the rear mud-guards, replace the front chrome trim, and also install a new set of headlights.
yes I will be feeling the same after it has been fixed, on the lookout for roos! my suggestion is to double check your insurance because it sure surprised me how expensive a roo hit was in the end... I think the insurance estimate was around $18k
there is one more part i am looking for... I will send you a pm
if you are getting your door/fender fixed, for sure while it is there then get all the cosmetic issues fixed! i will have some work done to the rear as well while it is there for the front
Well after a few months of collecting parts I have the following bits in my possession all brand new
bonnet
headlights
headlight frames
radiator support
aircon condenser
front bumper
So today it went off the the panel beaters to have everything straightened out and installed
It wont get painted yet as I am waiting on the following custom parts from Japan that I will get installed when they arrive and all the painting done in one go
K-BREAK platinum grille
Stage 21 boot lip spoiler
Fire sports aero kit
very keen for these to come along but international shipping is slow for large parts so need to be patient!
03-24-22, 05:01 AM
