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I don't know why, but I cannot bring myself to cut up the Lexus floorboard. Maybe I will get over it. After all, I did have my way with the tool tray.....
I got over it.
The "board" is plastic cardboard. Cut fine with a utility knife ( new blade best ).
The jack fits very nicely if you open it up a bit. Naked for the photo, wrapped in a towel for storage.
I should be done with this project...
I finally got the tpm sensor replaced. OEM unit. In techstream I opened the tire pressure monitor system and selected "utility" and proceeded down the registration of sensors path. You start the process and have 5 minutes to complete it. Before you start, remove all the valve stem caps to save time. Now start. Let the air out of each tire, one at a time. Letting out 6psi is enough for the system to notice and register that wheel. I started at the DS front and worked around the car counter clockwise. After I let the air out of a tire I would wait for the techstream program to register the wheel before moving on to the next. I did not need to register any ID codes for the sensors. Good thing because ID codes are not displayed on the "data" screen. I think that is only part of the process on newer model years. When I was done with the process I aired up the tires and went back to the data page. The 3 old sensors registered the increased psi pretty quickly, the new one took awhile. The error code was cleared. The dash light went out.
A weird side note: I have the same version of techstream on an acer computer running vista and a toshiba running windows 7. On the acer/vista computer, when the tire pressure monitor screen came up, the "utility" button was not on the menu. It was on the toshiba/win7.
I had a vibration that was not cured with balancing. It was a bent wheel. I went to Twin City Wheel to have it straightened. I have used them before. They jacked up the car and told me all 4 were bent. They were indeed. About 3 hours later I have a smooth ride. While they were at it the new tpms was installed. They also found a steel plug in one tire and replaced it with a patch.
It's amazing to watch the guy work. He designed the machine he uses. Hydraulic rams, run out gauge, heat torch, large lead hammers. He knows how much to push, how much heat, how hard to hit and where to hit, to bring the wheel to straight when the metal relaxes. A modern day smithy, all he needs is the spreading chestnut tree...
I researched dash cams. The Garmin Dash Cam Mini 2 was highly rated and inexpensive.
It is small. Comes with 2 mounts if want to move it from car to car. The mount is adhesive, not suction cup. The USB power cable is 13' long.
I installed a remote outlet box in the rear armrest compartment. I took the plug apart so it could be threaded from the rear compartment to the forward compartment, reassembled and plugged it in. The outlet has 2 12v sockets and 2 USB sockets. I originally installed it to plug in a small compressor fridge that we carry in the back seat on trips. The dash cam power cord is routed along the top of the windshield, under the A pillar molding to the rocker molding to under the passenger's side rear seat and then threaded into the rear compartment along the trunk-opening-cable pathway. I can plug it into the outlet so it is on and off with the ignition, or plug it into a battery, that is plugged into the outlet to charge when driving, if I want it to monitor while parked. I tested it as a parking monitor and it ran 12 hours on the battery pack without depleting it at all.
Is it small and inexpensive because it does not have a screen. It is controlled and viewed on a smartphone.
To get the trunk to open with the key or the dash switch, slight downward pressure needed to be applied to the trunk lid. ( It opened fine with the cable pull. ) The lock clicks, but it does not unlock the trunk unless the lid is pushed down while pressing the button.
To adjust the vertical position of the trunk latch:
remove the plastic trim piece on the top edge of the trunk (pops off by hand)
remove the 4 plastic rivets along the top of the rear panel (pop out with interior trim tool)
bend the panel into the trunk so you can access the 19mm nut on the vertical positioning shaft above the mounting tab
loosen the 19mm nut, then adjust the height of the shaft by turning the nut that is under the mounting tab either up or down
tighten the 19mm nut
test
Same as the RX8 spare installed in the Silver one earlier in the thread. Brand new, never on the ground, OEM SC 430 spare from E-bay.
Tool tray abused and sitting on the garage floor with the jack in a towel.
Tool tray in the trunk with jack.
Spare in place.
Trunk carpet on top of spare.
I have not done the cut out of the trunk floorboard yet. When, and if, I do, it will look similar to the other one.
I have installed an UltraGauge and a dash camera. The dash camera is the same as in the silver car earlier in this thread.
The ultragauge was installed using an
The shocks are adjusted with a 3mm allen wrench that is about 4" long and fits into the center of the top mounting bolt. Easy to get to on the front shocks. Not so much the rear shocks. You have to take almost the whole trunk interior out to get to them.
Notice the orange head on the adjustment tool in the upper left of the photo. I drilled a small hole in the interior panel. The adjustment tool is fitted into the top of the shock. It is not long enough to reach the adjustment point through the panel, so I have ordered a 9" 3mm T handled allen wrench that I can use for making adjustments without having to remove any trunk panels.
Have someone help you test install it by pushing the tabs on the screen frame up under the rear headrests. Mark where the mounting pins hit the panel as in the photo below. Remove the seat belt trim and drill a 1/2" hole. Use a piece of wire or string to prevent the parts inside the panel from falling down inside the panel.
Back on post #24 on this thread I was quite happy with myself for bending pin #14 out of the way on an OBD2 extension cable so as to prevent VSC / VSC OFF error codes. I have used the OBD2 port for a simple code reader, techstream, and an ultragauge with no problems from not having pin #14 engaged.
My most recently aquired SC430 only came with one key. Today I had a second key cut and programed. The locksmith used an Autel device to program the key. It did not work without pin #14 engaged. With pin #14 it did work and it did not result in an error code.
Timing belt, water pump, idler pully, tensioner replacement
Timing belt, water pump, idler pulley, tensioner replacement done at Kolar Toyota in Duluth, MN on the silver car.
They suggested that the idler pulley and tensioner would not need to be replaced. I reasoned that this is the second belt at close to 180,000 miles and that the next belt would be at 270,000. Asking the high speed rotating parts to go 180k might be OK, but asking them to go 270k, there is bound to be some failures. They were fine with that and ordered the parts.
Labor $530
Water Pump $183.92
Timing Belt $82.37
Anti-freeze $27.09
Tensioner $128.43
Idler Pulley $166.06
Serpentine Belt $105.39
I paid all that money and drove it home. It wasn't quieter, it wasn't more powerful, it didn't get better mileage. Did they actually do anything ? I'll check the dash cam....
Many years ago I managed an auto parts store with a service bays. A customer came in with a Honda for a valve adjustment. The mechanic pulled it into his bay, but did no work on the car, just wiped the valve cover clean. After awhile he brought the paperwork up front and said it was done. The customer came and picked-up his car. A 4 cylinder Honda is pretty reliable and could skip a valve adjustment with no one being the wiser and no harm done. Another mechanic told me what happened. We called the customer back in and did the work. The lazy mechanic was fired.
Timing belt, water pump, idler pulley, tensioner replacement done at Kolar Toyota in Duluth, MN.
They suggested that the idler pulley and tensioner would not need to be replaced. I reasoned that this is the second belt at close to 180,000 miles and that the next belt would be at 270,000. Asking the high speed rotating parts to go 180k might be OK, but asking them to go 270k, there is bound to be some failures. They were fine with that and ordered the parts.
Labor $530
Water Pump $183.92
Timing Belt $82.37
Anti-freeze $27.09
Tensioner $128.43
Idler Pulley $166.06
Serpentine Belt $105.39
I paid all that money and drove it home. It wasn't quieter, it wasn't more powerful, it didn't get better mileage. Did they actually do anything ? I'll check the dash cam....
Many years ago I managed an auto parts store with a service bays. A customer came in with a Honda for a valve adjustment. The mechanic pulled it into his bay, but did no work on the car, just wiped the valve cover clean. After awhile he brought the paperwork up front and said it was done. The customer came and picked-up his car. A 4 cylinder Honda is pretty reliable and could skip a valve adjustment with no one being the wiser and no harm done. Another mechanic told me what happened. We called the customer back in and did the work. The lazy mechanic was fired.
Ha, what do you expect from TB replacement?
At least you get a peace of mind and good price. You could order the kits from Amazon and pay that labor cost, you'll save even more.
04-02-23, 05:42 PM
RX8 Spare Tire (3rd revision)
