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We didnt set out to buy a Lexus. Never owned a Lexus. Began looking for a car my son could learn how to drive in and use a a DD for school and such. Budget $4k. Most things we found were utter garbage. Looked at lots of cars mostly American few Japanese. GMC Envoy, Honda pilot, Toyota highlander etc 2002-2008. Stumbled on this today. It isnt perfect but we werent looking for perfect. Details
2004 GX 470 189k miles. Originally purchased Phoenix. Spent most of its life according to Carfax in AZ. About 1.5 years in Colodado then back to AZ. Appears to have been traded in to a dealer in Silver City, NM. I purchased it in El Paso at a small local dealer. Asking price $4495. We agreed on $4500 OTD all TTL paid. Tax is 6.25%, registration is ~$89 if I recall, inspection, etc. I didnt bother with the math but price would have been $4100ish +TTL.
Carfax lists 7 owners. First two years (likely lease) then CPO. Next sale listed at 2015. As I am military and given the area where it was I bet owned by a service member. Our cars did the same thing when we moved states. Carfax showed additional owner despite no sale/change. By the listed sales it is a 3 owner. Drive belt and tensioner/WP/coolant flush etc performed Greg's Japanese Auto Parts 4/8/2013 at 108k miles. 13 service records on carfax mostly at Toyota and Lexus dealers. Clean title. No prior reported accidents.
Walk around - has some scrapes. Driver side with some scratches. Rear bumper hit something and was never popped back out or repaired. Passenger rear has a scrape but otherwise pretty clean. No obvious clear coat peeling. Front looks good for 190k miles. Tires are spent goodyears. I didnt bother with DOT date code, they need replaced.
Inside - driver seat worn with a bolster teaer and armrest tear. Passenger some wear but no tears. Rear seats/3rd row dirty but solid and no tears. No cracks in the dash or other plastics. Headliner looks good. No floor mats but carpet looks good and clean. Cant detect smoke smell, smells like typical interior shine which was sprayed everywhere. All doors close solid without rattles. The ride height adjusts both rears correctly. Pump shuts off when it should. All lights, gadgets gizmos seem to work. Nav system included. Rear entertainment I didnt test.
Engine bay looks clean. No stickers for timing service. Battery new 8/2019 according to sticker. Oil is new. Everything else looks solid. Serpentine belt no cracks, some of the lettering is faded.
Drive Solid, quiet. No crazy rattles/squeaks. Bit bouncy from what I expected for a Lexus despite selector in comfort. Tracked straight, stops a bit pulsing but not terrible. I wasnt on the smoothest road for a test drive, got it about 55. No close highway to get it much faster. Daughter played with all the junk on the dash which worked fine. I did move the suspension selector from comfort but I didnt notice much difference.
Under - No visible rust. Appears frame still has some black coating on it. No chronic leaks. Small drop on the drain plug. Didnt see anything down the sides of the pan so I would guess/hope they re-used the plug or crush washer and now leaking. Exhaust and cats look good and solid. Doesnt look like it spent any/much time in the snow/salt.
Placed deposit on it and will pick it up Tuesday.
Current plan - Son gets his permit in December. Good cleaning. Fluids and such, brakes, recover or replace drivers seat, tires. See how handling is after tires. Needs timing belt/WP. Technically would be due next year or 10k more miles but we will likely replace it all early just to be safe. Will use a local indy for it. Rear bumper cover if I can find a decent used already painted would be nice.
Any recommendations? Ill post pics from my phone. I didnt do a ton of research, more an impulse buy as I wasnt expecting the area of town or this type of dealer to have a decent vehicle but I was pleasantly surprised and bought it.
If you don't care about the third row seats, the material on them can be used to repair the front seat damage.
A heat gun can be used to soften the bumper plastic and it can be pushed out from the inside. It'll still look bad, but it'll be in the right shape. Since you're in El Paso, just wait until August and you may not even need a heat gun if you park it in the sun. (I used to live in Austin, and saw 113F once...)
You're missing the beauty cover over the engine, but who cares, right?
Some more info on the new to us GX. Appears in 2016 it overheated. Was found without compression. Engine replaced by Lexus although dealer isnt listed. I found this in the Lexus serivce history after creating an account. Engine was listed as used and provided by warranty company but no other details.
DESCRIPTION:INFO ~ ~CUSTOMER STATES THE VEHICLE DIED WHILE DRIVING, STARTED SMOKING UNDER ENGINE BAY AND WAS OVERHEATING. PLEASE CHECK AND ADVISE. ~ ~ ~ ~137758 =ENGINE 2180 INSPECT FOUND CAR OVER HEATED BADLY CHECK COMPRESSION NO GOOD 145/35/25/30/10/0/0/15 NEEDS TEAR DOWN. REPLACED ENGINE ASSEMBLY WITH USED ASSEMBLY SUPPLIED BY WARRANTY COMPANY TRANSFER NEEDED COMPONENTS ADD NEW OIL AND COOLANT CLEAN ROASHOW LESS
It has 50k since the swap. This was the last entry in the Lexus service history info. 2016 it was in Colorado. No associated entry on the carfax for this service.
Found a nice seat locally. Went to Car-part.com and searched by year. By luck a local salvage had a 2004 GX same color combo as ours. Drove over before closing. Harvested the complete factory floor mats including cargo mat. Dirty but at $30 they will clean up. Seat was listed as "A" condition. It is dirty. Havent cleaned it up yet but Ill post some pics when I get it in the daylight. Same GX also has what looks to be a good rear bumper. They want $350 for the entire assembly including tow package. Ill wait until I get our GX home and get a better look at it.
Nice deal, the truck would have gone over 250k no problem WITHOUT a new engine. Great choice for a new driver as he will "win" a small fender bender accident and be more likely safe than starting out in a small car..
Updates. Got her home. Very bumpy on the highway. While headed home, son playing with stuff noticed two sun visors. Nice feature. Folds down the second and out pops an insurance card with expiration of 12/18. No contact info but I did some Facebook sleuthing and found only one match for Colorado. Shot a message.
Previous owner gets back to me. Engine came from a tundra. Had 77k miles on it. He has documentation somewhere but no idea where. Will send it if he comes by it. Lexus dealer near them did the swap. Recommended timing belt during swap. Owner declined due to price. Never did the belt. 40k since puts engine at approx 110k miles.
He mentions the passenger airbag blew causing the bumpy ride. He got a quote and decided to trade in on another vehicle rather than repair. No other known major mechanical concerns.
Car was pretty dirty when we got home. Started a quick cleaning. Didn't get too deep. Just deep enough to remove front seats and quickly use some carpet cleaner. Wipe down rest with just a wet rag. Needs from middle to back still.
Pics added. Junk yard seat on the left was $100 plus tax.
Sounds like a good deal. Definitely need to get that timing belt and water pump done. You can get a great Aisin kit from Amazon (uses parts made by OEM suppliers) for about $170. Hopefully you have a mechanic willing to do the labor with your parts.
I also bought an 04 for my oldest son. Been a great first car for him. Safe, quiet, reliable. Proved worth its weight in gold when he had to drive in snow/ice today for the first time.
While you are working on it put the BT45-TOY in. Seamless Bluetooth for your phone. Get in and it connects to your phone. Hands free phone, music through your phone. If you have XM in another car you can run the app on your phone and stream to the bt45 toy
really easy install and a great upgrade. I thought it was cool how the panels snap out and in once you know how to do it. Also good for deep cleaning. I just put the whole thing behind the panels and did not get charging power off the USB port, can get that from the lighter socket right there.
Under the passenger seat is your NAV DVD player. Can buy the latest maps on eBay and put it in.. check what you have first to see if prior owner did that.
For the seat - at the price I am happy with it. The switches stick a bit. Might swap them for the old seat switches which functioned a bit better. I think they make an electronics lubricant, might give that a try first. Going to head back to the same salvage lot this weekend. He has a 2003 and the 2004. See what other parts I might want. Rear bumper, engine covers, maybe passenger seat, owners manual etc.
During the swap battery cable was removed, no issues with SRS light. Good recommendation to keep the keys out of the ignition.
For keys. I only got one fob and the housing was broken. The blade was placed in some sort of aftermarket plastic housing. The button part of the factory fob was taped together. Found an oem housing on eBay. Ordered and will try and put it back together. How hard is it to buy and program additional fobs?
Speaking of battery. New battery duralast gold with a date of 8/19 is in it. Nice bonus.
KDSS - I have seen this mentioned. I know it is an option. I have a light on the dash that lights up when I start the car. Does that mean I have kdss or is that on all these cars?
Airbags - likely a mistake but I ordered a set from BuyAutoParts. Says oem quality but I know that often means less than oem. They were $160 for the set new and have a one year warranty. Swap doesn't look hard. $200 cheaper than an oem set. Anyone use these before? https://m.buyautoparts.com/buynow/20...it/76-80074_2N
For anyone wandering, yes timing belt is getting done. I'd rather be able to drive it than trailer it but the way it handles now is borderline dangerous on the highway. Plus I am waiting on registration, tags and title. Texas sends them to the dealer and it takes a few weeks. While sitting in the driveway I'll do the airbags so I can drive it for the timing job when I am ready.
Yep, Congratulations. Million mile engine, and great heaviness to an overall great build. Keys are easily paired, especially if you have one of the black/original (Non valet) keys.
It also looks like DIY is in your nature, which will save you a TON down the road. Replace Fluids(Engine/Tranny/Transfer Case/Diffs), if they haven't been done. I am assuming New Plugs were done at the time of the engine replacement, if not, it's a great time to replace them.
11-09-19, 01:45 PM
New to us 2004 GX470
