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I have put about 1400 miles it. About 2.5 hours of that was towing stuff. So far there have been no issues. I do like towing heavier loads with the high height setting with sport suspension selected. The suspension firms up and gives better feedback.
I had a heck of a time replacing my sway bar bushings and links. The lower left nut within the frame sheared off inside the frame. In order to mount the sway bar I drilled a hole completly through the frame. Then I used a long bolt with a locknut. The top right nut got some debris in it too. I ended up using a tap on it to clean its threads. While trying to complete this job I had the sway bar mounted / unmounted 4 or 5 times. 30 minute job turned into a 5 hour ordeal.
The new moog end links fit but the grease zerk fittings were rubbing. After gressing them I removed the lower fittings of each link then sealed them with a bit of rtv.
The car still has some front end noises. The left front has an occasional click when stopping or turning. Plus some creaking over speed bumps. I'm kinda at a loss on what might be causing them.
I'm also starting to look into the 600 stereo. Both our cars have Mark levinson. But our 460 has a significant amount more bass. I suspected a blown sub in the 600. As far as I can tell all the speakers are working, including the sub. My next thought was to swap amps.
Overall...
Even though the car is not as dialed in as I would like I still prefer it over our 460. Which is saying a lot. I love our 460.
The 600h cvt and electric torque from a stop make it more fun to drive around town. It never has any hesitation like our 460 gets. The 0 to 60 numbers may not show the 600 as quicker but in day to day driving it feels quicker.
On my phone at the moment... I'll try to upload some pics tomorrow.
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Glad that your work on the car is paying off. Reading about your work gave me the confidence to keep my LS460, knowing that most of the common repair and maintenance work can be done DIY. I replaced the my sway bar end links with Mevotech Supreme ones last year, along with Mevotech Supreme upper control arms. However, I used BECK/ARNLEY lower rear control arms as replacement. Movetech Supreme products appeared to be of less quality than BECK/ARNLEY control arms in terms of look and feel. Particularly, I was not impressed with Mevotech's end links, as the end crews and nuts were not as solid as OE's. Even though Mevotech end links and control arms came with lifetime warranty, if they go bad, I will most likely replace them with BECK/ARNLEY products or OE products.
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Thank you. I'm glad my posts have been helpful. If I do sway links again I'm going with oem. Even with no lower grease fittings these will probably last a lifetime in az. I really like saving a few dollars with aftermarket parts but I've lost track how many times the aftermarket parts have left me doing the job twice on these cars, frustrating.
Sorry for the blurry picture.
The nut busted off inside the frame! I had the sway bar mounted at the time. Luckily I was able to get the nut to unthread, it fell off inside the frame. In this pic I just slid the bolt into the empty hole.
This is a pic of the empty hole. I was thankful it was a lower nut that had issues. I had just enough clearance to drill clean through the frame to put a nut on the other side.
The threads were definitely buggered up on the original bolt. Sorry, no pictures of the big bolt in place.
The top bolt would thread all the way in by hand with no issues. Then the next time it would bind up. Rather than risk knocking another nut off I decided to clean the threads out with a tap. I don't know what was in the threads but I mounted the sway bar 3 or 4 times before the bolt went in. I tapped and sprayed cleaner on the nut each time I had the sway bar down. Sometimes things are a pain.
After all my struggles with the sway bar I notice this! I unscrewed the zerk fitting. Then I sealed the hole with rtv. Luckily I had shot them full of grease before starting this project.
Here are some fun pictures. The 4wd worked well at the boat ramp. I didn't spin one tire. Time will tell how the car holds up to my abuse.
Fail or win? In this case fail. Home depot loaded someone else's water heater onto my trailer. I didn't notice until I unloaded it, argh. I made this trip twice. Suspension looks like it is sagging but it's not. The tongue weight of this trailer is about 30 lbs. The driveway slant makes it look heavy.
This is about 2000 lbs. I pulled this pair to the lake.
This was my first tow with it. Also roughly 2k lbs.
This was about 750 lbs. Hardly noticeable when driving.
On my previous es300 sedan I drilled a hole to feed the wire harness under the car. I prefer this method. It's more convenient to pull it out of the trunk. The chance of it dragging on the ground is also reduced.
Battery level when towing 2k lbs didn't change any more than usual. I expected the bars to turn green (fully charged)when going down mountain hills while towing. When exiting the freeway I did get it to fully charge with green bars. But that has also occurred when I'm not towing... so far so good.
On side streets the electric motor still had enough torque to yank around the extra 2k lbs.
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Hi, Mike. Thank you for sharing the photos of your work on the sway bar and its end links. That was creative of you drilling a hole to secure the sway bar hanging frame with a new bolt and nut. You made your LS600 do a SUV's job with the towing cargo cart, and apparently your LS600 is quite capable of doing it. My Mevotech end links also have zerks but they are on the bottoms of the end links, not on the side of the end links like yours, and there is plenty of room for the Mevotech end link zerks on my LS460. I noticed that your LS600 dash doesn't have the engine coolant temperature gauge. In its place, there is your car's battery charging gauge. Interesting.
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AZGS4 I do get quite a few looks while towing. It's unusual to see a sedan towing around here. When I had my es300 I was stopped a few times by other es300 owners asking where to get a hitch.
yyymmm31 thank you for reminding me about the temperature gauge. I forgot to bring it up on the display. That would also be good to keep an eye on while yanking stuff around. I've noticed the power meter really has some wild swings while towing up and down a hill with a load. Someday I would like to install trailer brakes on the dual trailer to reduce the load on the inverter when slowing down. Luckily most of my towing is on flat terrain.
Here are some fun pictures. The 4wd worked well at the boat ramp. I didn't spin one tire. Time will tell how the car holds up to my abuse.
Fail or win? In this case fail. Home depot loaded someone else's water heater onto my trailer. I didn't notice until I unloaded it, argh. I made this trip twice. Suspension looks like it is sagging but it's not. The tongue weight of this trailer is about 30 lbs. The driveway slant makes it look heavy.
This is about 2000 lbs. I pulled this pair to the lake. This was my first tow with it. Also roughly 2k lbs. This was about 750 lbs. Hardly noticeable when driving. On my previous es300 sedan I drilled a hole to feed the wire harness under the car. I prefer this method. It's more convenient to pull it out of the trunk. The chance of it dragging on the ground is also reduced. Battery level when towing 2k lbs didn't change any more than usual. I expected the bars to turn green (fully charged)when going down mountain hills while towing. When exiting the freeway I did get it to fully charge with green bars. But that has also occurred when I'm not towing... so far so good. On side streets the electric motor still had enough torque to yank around the extra 2k lbs.
Lookin' good Mike, nice work! How's the wind noise and rattles since you did those repairs?
lwphat66 I'm very happy to report the drivers window repair completely eliminated the wind noise. On a long drive without a lot of stop and go it is a pleasant ride, nothing abnormal.
However...
There are still a few odd sounds I'm trying to sort out. I could definitely use some guidance on possible areas to look at. I need to get a video with sound to help isolate them.
1. The front suspension is still making some odd noises. One of the noises is a click / pop coming from the left front wheel area. It happens the most when coming to a stop. It will sometimes do it repeatedly. Other times it will only happen 1 out of 10 stops. I will sometimes hear it during a sharp turn. It's not a repeating click like a cv joint. It's a one pop and done until the next stop or sharp turn. Maybe a steering tie rod? On occasion the pop is so loud it sounds like something has hit the left side of the car.
2. When going over speed bumps I hear a creaking from both front struts . It happens every time. I would guess it is either the struts or the lower ball joint both of which I have replaced. I'm tempted to spray the air bag inside the strut with silicone spray, I can feel part of the rubber bag when reaching in the lower part of the strut. The creak almost sounds like the rubber in the strut rubbing as the strut moves (not sure if that is possible). I've injected more grease into the lower ball joints, no change.
3.My drivers door still sounds like a tin can if I close it too hard. I have a few clips missing on the interior door panel but I don't think that is the issue. The last 2 things I plan on trying are dynamat and replacing the clips.
lwphat66 I'm very happy to report the drivers window repair completely eliminated the wind noise. On a long drive without a lot of stop and go it is a pleasant ride, nothing abnormal.
However...
There are still a few odd sounds I'm trying to sort out. I could definitely use some guidance on possible areas to look at. I need to get a video with sound to help isolate them.
1. The front suspension is still making some odd noises. One of the noises is a click / pop coming from the left front wheel area. It happens the most when coming to a stop. It will sometimes do it repeatedly. Other times it will only happen 1 out of 10 stops. I will sometimes hear it during a sharp turn. It's not a repeating click like a cv joint. It's a one pop and done until the next stop or sharp turn. Maybe a steering tie rod? On occasion the pop is so loud it sounds like something has hit the left side of the car.
2. When going over speed bumps I hear a creaking from both front struts . It happens every time. I would guess it is either the struts or the lower ball joint both of which I have replaced. I'm tempted to spray the air bag inside the strut with silicone spray, I can feel part of the rubber bag when reaching in the lower part of the strut. The creak almost sounds like the rubber in the strut rubbing as the strut moves (not sure if that is possible). I've injected more grease into the lower ball joints, no change.
3.My drivers door still sounds like a tin can if I close it too hard. I have a few clips missing on the interior door panel but I don't think that is the issue. The last 2 things I plan on trying are dynamat and replacing the clips.
For #1, it's possible it could be an outer tie rod ball joint if they haven't ever been replaced. I had a metal on metal "tink" type of noise when making sharp lefts. It's gone now, but since I replaced all 8 control arms, all 4 tie rod ends, stabilizer links, and stabilizer bushings, I cannot tell you exactly which part was causing the noise. Maybe if you spray/soak with penetrant/lubricant every joint/bushing (one at time then test drive) you might be able to locate the root cause of the noise? When you hear the noise, can you also feel it thru the steering column/wheel or floor?
For the air struts, I had considered silicone, however, I was concerned that over time it would attract dust/dirt, so instead I used 303 protectant. All components of my air suspension are original OEM, so I consider myself lucky, especial since it's an '07.
lwphat66 I'm very happy to report the drivers window repair completely eliminated the wind noise. On a long drive without a lot of stop and go it is a pleasant ride, nothing abnormal.
However...
There are still a few odd sounds I'm trying to sort out. I could definitely use some guidance on possible areas to look at. I need to get a video with sound to help isolate them.
1. The front suspension is still making some odd noises. One of the noises is a click / pop coming from the left front wheel area. It happens the most when coming to a stop. It will sometimes do it repeatedly. Other times it will only happen 1 out of 10 stops. I will sometimes hear it during a sharp turn. It's not a repeating click like a cv joint. It's a one pop and done until the next stop or sharp turn. Maybe a steering tie rod? On occasion the pop is so loud it sounds like something has hit the left side of the car.
2. When going over speed bumps I hear a creaking from both front struts . It happens every time. I would guess it is either the struts or the lower ball joint both of which I have replaced. I'm tempted to spray the air bag inside the strut with silicone spray, I can feel part of the rubber bag when reaching in the lower part of the strut. The creak almost sounds like the rubber in the strut rubbing as the strut moves (not sure if that is possible). I've injected more grease into the lower ball joints, no change.
3.My drivers door still sounds like a tin can if I close it too hard. I have a few clips missing on the interior door panel but I don't think that is the issue. The last 2 things I plan on trying are dynamat and replacing the clips.
Mike I have those same creaking noises that you have and was wondering if something were going on with the new struts. Even though they are billed as OEM you never really know. Most of my creaking stopped when I removed the Superpro bushings but I still have a slight cream that's most likely due to me being to change the passenger stabilizer bar bushing. I have it sitting in the garage but have not got around to it.
I get the weird knocking pooping sounds pretty inconsistently. I can hear them when driving slow through tunnels and going over NYC potholes. I KNOW this car should not sound like that!
lwphat66 I sprayed some silicone on the left lower joints and both struts. No change. When I grab the steering tie rods I can rotate them, I assume that is normal. When it comes to in and out play they seem tight with no noises or movement.
sha4000 I think that is very interesting you have creaking too with your new struts. It pains me to say it but If I had to guess that is where my creaking is coming from too. Quite disappointing knowing how much they cost.
This video shows the internals of an air strut. It's obviously not identical to ours. I assume our bags and lower seals are setup in a similar fashion. It seems possible to spray some lubricant into the airbag via the air inlet. Once inside the bag my assumption is the lube would coat the lower orings that may or may not be causing the squeak. The question is what lubricant to spray into it. Silicone spray?
I changed my oil again today after 1400 mile. It's probably all in my head but I feel 1 short oil change interval on a used car helps to remove debris from neglected engines. I think the places that suck oil out of the engines for an oil change leave debris in the pan. This is my way of possibly getting it out.
I also swapped out the plastic filter housing for a metal one. The new oem housing came with a shorter filter guide. I swapped over the longer guide from the plastic housing.
Twice as expensive as my first oil change. Still cheap though
05-19-21, 11:47 PM
Maybe if you spray/soak with penetrant/lubricant every joint/bushing (one at time then test drive) you might be able to locate the root cause of the noise? When you hear the noise, can you also feel it thru the steering column/wheel or floor?
