i tried it again. still having grease come out the side. and this time, it was slightly hard pulling the gun off the zerk.

edit to add: bought new zerk. this time it worked like it should the old zerk is clogged for sure. while pumping grease, i didn't see my yolk move after about 7-9 pumps. so, i just stopped. the thump went away instantly. makes me wonder if it's not a grease issue but a spacing issue. maybe the yolk isn't able to compress as much, preventing binding aka the thump.

 

I think you should be fine for a long time. I had mine 04 GX clunk fix done when it was around 15k back in 2005 . The rig now has about 233K on it and its still fine.
Cheers!

 

 

New member and owner of an 07 with only 75k miles. I would just like to chime in on my experience so far regarding this issue. I bought the truck from a private party and I actually flew out of town to meet this guy in CA just to pick it up. Unfortunately I didn't have time to take it into a dealership for a pre-purchase inspection as they would've caught this clunk for sure. Anyways, after reading through this thread and learning about this TSB and common issue for the older style driveshaft I gave Lexus a call and explained my situation. Being 5 years and 5k miles out of warranty I was doubtful in getting any kind of assistance (still am), but what the heck I wanted to try anyways and luckily I spoke with a really nice rep over the phone. He acknowledge that it was an issue. He recommended to go to my local dealership and get the multi-point inspection so that it can get documented on my VIN history that it does in fact have the driveshaft clunk issue. I thought, okay he probably just wants me to put money into a dealership just for them to confirm what I know, which was fine with me as it also gives me a better chance to know what else might need fixing on my truck. Long and behold, the dealership came out with a laundry list of things recommended I needed to get done. All in all, over $6k in repairs (parts & labor) needed to get it up to speed, including replacing the rear driveshaft as they confirmed it was the cause of the clunk. I listened to my service provider as he explained going down the list, also stating the cost of each repair. Then at the end he asks me which ones would I like to give approval for so they can take care of it immediately. I smiled, asked how much the inspection would cost, paid and thanked him for giving me a sweet 2018 rx350L as a loaner since they took the truck overnight. Now I have a better idea and plan on what parts to buy and which repairs to do myself! As for the driveshaft, I will contact Lexus again and let them know that I performed their recommendation and play nice guy to hopefully come out with an agreement so I don't have to fork out the entire cost of the driveshaft repair, which came out to a little over $500 (parts & labor). I will post an update if I have one. Sorry for the long story.

 

 

Yeah it was a couple pages back I believe on this thread that someone was able to work out a deal with Lexus to partially cover the amount to install an updated driveshaft at the dealership.
On another note, I just re-greased all of my fittings for the front and rear with Red Line synthetic grease this past weekend. Took about 15-18 pumps for the slip joints, so they must have been dry for a while before I bought the truck. The clunk/thud did go away for a few miles, then came back although a little less aggressive this time, but can definitely be felt. I was hopeful this would fix it like others have done, but now I am looking to change out the rear shaft for sure to entirely get rid of this issue.

 

Too bad they dont have this tsib in Canada. Actually i dont think they have any TSIBs for the GX 470 in Canada

 

Love my ‘04 GX470. But, I’ve had a rear end clunk for several years. Seemed worse in cold weather. About 2 months ago, my air bags finally went south. Had them replaced plus compressor. Hasn’t clunked since. Totally gone. Expensive, but now I have peace of mind.

 

I've been slowly working on greasing the slider yokes to eliminate the clunk. It's better but not eliminated. My method has been 3-4 hand pumps every 3-4 weeks. I suppose I'm around 15 hand pumps total. One post in my review of this thread suggested pumping grease in until the yoke shaft moves a little. I've not noted any movement to date. Will the driveshaft move with wheels on the ground? With a hand held grease gun is there a possibility of blowing seals with this method? Secondly, is this drive shaft clunk an annoyance issue or could the vehicle become disabled? I don't recall coming across the latter.

 

Yes, I did the same, 10 pump on both, one in the front, and the other on the back and no more thump. I did not expect the thump completely gone. I usually get the thump like something drop whenever I come to stop.

 

I purchased my 2008 GX (114K miles) in November and it was clunking intermittently after stop and start. It wasn’t very loud but was noticeable. Thanks to this forum I was able to fix it greasing the shafts. I was surprised how much I needed to pump in to get the yoke shafts to move. I stopped pumping about ten times after the shafts first moved even though it seemed like I could keep going. I used over 1/2 a standard size tube of synthetic grease. The noise never returned. ...Keeping my fingers crossed!

6May2021 update...Still no shaft noise. Cramming it full of grease was surely the fix.