bpddaddy

dan25man this is amazing. Very nice work. I’m in the process of selling my car right now. It wasn’t perfect when I bought it, and has a few flaws now, but someone is going to be very lucky to get a right that will get to 225k miles easily from the work I’ve done.

I’ll tell them to use this.

99rs

I completed the valley plate repair last fall as well as a few other items while the car was in the air. I took a few pictures here and there but I hop over from one area to another and back again as I’m waiting for things to dry or waiting for some gasket to come in, or my attention got pulled into another area (squirrel and dog idiom). This won’t really be a how-to as that’s already covered in the posts above.

I started with pulling off the front bumper but note this step isn’t necessary at all. I wanted to correct all the broken/missing clips that the previous owners didn’t have in there anymore.

99rs

Pull off the undertrays.



…and quite literally the first mechanical thing I touched broke on me. The overflow tube to the radiator nipple broke off. This is incredibly cheap plastic; very BMW style but I’m not aware of Japan having to abide by that recycled material law crap that the Germans have to. I wasn’t planning on pulling the radiator but now I had to.







Down below are the tranny cooler lines.


Then continue with the front bumper.

99rs

In the front right corner, you can see the air suspension air compressor.






As well as the air intake filter conveniently running through the bumper beam.




Radar cruise control.


With the bumper off you can get to the AC condenser/radiator bolts. The ones on the top are okay to get to but the bottom ones are tight.

Top bolts:


Bottom bolts are behind the lower bumper beam. It’s doable just annoying since you can only turn the wrench a few degrees at a time.

99rs

When I got the radiator out I was happy that-that nipple broke. The main water line top connection also had hairline cracks in it. I merely wiggled the area and it snapped off. Very poor quality…especially for Canada duty. I can understand Texas but not up here.





Then continue removing other stuff.


I hosed everything off while I had the chance. There was lots of debris and pebbles in there.

99rs

Aisin OEM water pump.





Now to the valley plate. First step is to remove the throttle body.




I removed the heater core coolant lines as I knew I was going to replace them (can see them disconnected at the firewall)


Valve covers weren’t leaking but I did them anyways as per the recommendations above.

99rs

This wiring harness design is horrible. WhyTF didn’t they just put a breakout connector somewhere. This is no better than the Germans….what happened Toyota??? Lol

I managed to break this clip while undoing the harness heading towards the alternator.


Undo the harness at the AC compressor side and lift it up as high as it will go.




This is the passenger high pressure fuel pump.


Thermostat housing and bypass.


All now removed.


Harness lifted up.

99rs

Inside the manifold was very oily. Can also see the bottoms of the intake manifold flaps in bronze colour.


Overall not hard just annoying.


Finally got my first glimpse of the carnage.


I knew I was doing the valve covers so I pulled the HP fuel pumps.


Passenger side.


Middle cross-over.


Driver side.

99rs

Unbolt the air/oil separator and now you can see the valley plate.




Clean it up a little bit for now. You’ll do a better clean once everything is going back in as there is always crap that falls down when you’re removing other things.


I broke 4 out of the 8 fuel injector connectors. Only the black coloured ones though; not the gray. Very strange.



Remove all bolts and studs from valley plate.


Here is the old sealant.


You can see it starting to crack in many places. It’s just simply dried up. My car is a 2010 model and I pulled this off in August 2023. So 13 year life.

99rs

Now you’re left with this. I ended up using a soap bottle pump to pump out the coolant.




Next up was this stupid little pipe. I only bought it because it was less than $10 at the time. I regretted it immensely. The instant I tried to pry it out it bent on me…meaning I now HAD to remove it the rest of the way. It’s just a friction fit but it truly sucks to do simply because there is nothing to pry on. There is aluminum everywhere. I finally had to work it back and forth until it finally freed up. Do not under any circumstance touch this little pipe. It only has fuel/oil vapours running through it on their way to the air/oil separator.





I truly thought I was going to crack the block while prying.

99rs

Finally got the stupid thing out.


I filed down the rough edges a touch but really not too much.


Then I proceeded to take off the passenger side valve cover. I had to unbolt the engine mounts and jack the engine up to get to some of the lower valve cover bolts and the oil dipstick. It’s in a poorly placed position on the AWD cars.


It was a lot more wear than I expected for 140k kms (not miles) car

99rs

Take a break and did some random stuff. My hood struts wouldn’t hold anymore in the winter. I got some cheap ones from Rockauto. Truthfully they’re a bit too powerful as it throws the hood up too quickly. But I’m used to them now so meh, they’re fine.





Make sure to clean your ***** and grease them up afterwards.





I also installed a block heater. How can people not have a block heater in Canada??? Unless they park in heated garages but still it’s strange.




With all the fuel lines out of the way on the driver side firewall this was super easy to do from above.

It goes into this hole:




The hole tapers at the bottom maybe to leave an air gap?? But why since that affects heat transfer moreso than metal-to-metal contact.



Unfortunately, all the new ones are 200W instead of the old 400W ones. It takes one dumbass to burn their car down (probably because it wasn’t installed correctly and not seated fully) and now the rest of us have to suffer.



Lube up your shaft.

99rs

You can see where the cord with the zip ties goes to. Just make sure to get it away from the exhaust. Doesn’t matter how it’s run really.




I ran it in front of the fuse box behind the windshield washer bottle neck.


I then got back to the main job at hand. Here is a quick look at the intake valves.


Honestly not too bad.


Lexus doesn’t sell the high pressure fuel rail pressure sensor crush washer separately from the rail. But it’s only a standard M12 crush washer. You can find it anywhere. It’s actually the same one as the transmission drain plug (not the overflow plug).



I pulled off the driver side valve cover. This whole job I just kept flopping the wiring harness from one side to the other. What a stupid design.

99rs

For later on that little ridge you see is where the RTV has to go.




I decided now was a good time to do spark plugs. I bought the Denso kit that has the new seals and coil boots.






This coil measure 14.4 Mohms. The 2 forward left ones are getting a bit weak but no misfire codes yet so I’ll leave them.

99rs

My originals had this hole at the bottom so I assume it’s a drainage hole near the coil plug


These springs were a pain to get into the new boot.




Spark plugs looked to be original.




Here is what a new one looks like


Keep going with the valve covers. There are a few little o-rings you have to change while you’re in there.