vas25tl

No, I'm just going to be down there for training for a week, was going to say we should have some

BlacknWhite23

Jimmay,

Thanks for snapping that picture. I will take a look at mine and see if that is what is clunking around back there.

So I put my wheels on today. I will snap some pics to post here soon. Not as happy with the offset as I thought I would be, however I think it looks pretty good.

Mike

Jimmay

Ii do not know what your noise is. It could be a ball joint. it could be the bushing on the strut. No that is not the part. That is a sway bar link. Those could also be bad. Are your struts bad? The job wasnt that bad. My friend is a diesel mechanic, and he is the one that melted the bushings. Im always afraid of heating things up too much for some reason. If you do do it, drop the sway bar as this will allow much easier access to the bolts.

If the lower arm is bad, and your bolts havent welded themselves to the sleeve in the bushing, the whole job shouldnt take more than 2 hours. And to be clear, this was the noise i was hearing in my car. It doesnt mean that this is the noise in your car.

Jimmay

There wasnt really any play in mine while they were on the car but you can probably tell by inspecting if the bushing are worn.

onebadna1nsx

So here's an update on what's going on with my car. I'm pretty sure this is the tie rod making noises?

OLD_HATCH

Lol. Love the title. Have you checked upper and lower ball joints to make sure the dust boot hasn't broken and the ball joint has dried out? That's what it sounds like to me.



vas25tl let me know if you swing by orlando. Tampa is about an hour and a half for me though. You driving the RL down?

Jimmay

onebadna1nsx

My car does that as well....on the drivers side too. Im going to try and figure it out when i lower my car some more, but if you end up figuring it out first please post! I think it might be , as Oldhatch said, a ball joint, maybe the lower. Ive replaced both of my upper control arms and i still have this noise.

Side note, Im in love with your rims/car

vas25tl

Oh no, I'm flying down. My new company is down in Clearwater but I'm going to be working out of a home office up here. I'm just heading down there for a week for training but I'm assuming I'll be down there fairly often (a few times a year). I'll let you know if I venture out of my hotel any of the nights

onebadna1nsx

I got it checked out yesterday at my friends shop. He said the noise resonates everywhere, but it seems to come from the lower balljoint. Immediately told me to drive slow and safe... you guys have seen what happens to a car when the lower ball joint goes out... it's not safe at all. I ordered new balljoints and my friend is picking me up tomorrow to pick them up.
I drove the car to school today and on the way home it made even more noise. Instead of only happening when turning the wheel, going over bumps i heard the same noise.

I wouldn't lower my car more if I hear this happening man.... if it is indeed the lower balljoints you can severly injure yourself and others around you. Lower balljoints may be the ones causing the noise since they hold most the weight of the car. Correct me if i'm wrong, but the upper arm ball joints are just there to swivel around, while the lower ones carry the weight of the car, correct?

If your balljoint snaps at at freeway speeds, you'll be lucky if you just get a few minor scratches. When the balljoint goes out, your wheel snaps one way and your car snaps that direction. It's pretty scarry, and is notorious for happening on older Lexus GS'. Not to mention, it could also end up turning your car into a total loss.

Jimmay

I should have clarified, When im lowering it, I was going to have the ball joints replaced. As in that day because i need to have a groove machined into the strut, I was going to have the machine shop replace the ball joints at the same time.

Where did you order ball joints from?

onebadna1nsx

I was in a rush so I ordered them from the dealer for 80 bucks. Got my axles for 160.

Check this out! My axle boot was ripped off and pieces fell apart by itself!


There's still some noise, but it's a much lighter, almost insignificant noise. But I don't know what the hell it is. Happens when I turn still, but very minimal. Maybe the balljoint isn't pressed in enough or something. Going to get the car checked out more tomorrow through next week though.

Jimmay

Oh wow. Were those original? My boots tore apart and the grease was every where. And ill probably get the lower ball joints replaced next weekend. Just have to get them. Hopefully this will fix the rest of the noises with my car.

vas25tl

Good thing you took care of it right away.

onebadna1nsx

Yeah, those were original. Get some aftermarket lower balljoints.... they allow adjustability. I was in a rush so I didn't bother.

vas25tl look at this... this is right after a piece dropped out on the car..

I was asking if I could hold off on it for a week or so and my friend said it's too unpredictable... then plop. Fawk, there we go.....

Jimmay

Well, Im glad you got your car taken care of before something happened to it. I just ordered new lower ball joints and new wheel bearings. This is pretty much the last thing that needs replacing on my car.

Jimmay

Well just got back from picking up my 02 springs Thanks silver3.5! Im hoping next weekend will be warm enough that I can work in my driveway and get the springs swapped and the ball joints and wheel bearings replaced.

kid spartan

What kind of appearance modifications have you guys done to your cars? I've been trying to find something to do to personalize it but haven't had much luck. My car is unfortunately Naples gold exterior and tan interior, so that makes the car hard to work with. I did some research on getting coilovers, but it's really just not possible on a highschoolers budget. Same goes for any aftermarket body kits, not that I'd really want to do that. A friend suggested upgrading the foglights to an HID system using a kit like this. High quality but pretty expensive. This would mean no more ugly halogen foglights

That seems like a good first step, but is there anything cheap worth doing? I changed the license plate bulbs to an LED white, I really liked that one.

Jimmay

Tints, debaged, and i ordered a 5k hid kit. If you cant afford coil overs look into Koni red struts off a legend. Youll need the front fork off a legend to get the fronts to bolt on.

thaillest30

Hey man I can certainly sympathize with your pain. I have been changing mines slowly since 2009. Last big upgrade were the coilovers and the next and last will be a paint job. Kinda hard though when its your daily driver.

silver3.5

No problem!

vas25tl

Took the RL in for an oil change last night. I heard some annoying rattling noise in the back so figured it was my left sway bar link (I replaced the right one last fall) and it sure was. Nice thing is the ball joints are fine. I heard some squeaking a few weeks ago.

159K miles, in the last 32K miles I've replaced both sway bar links in the back, a control arm and a fog light bulb. This car is

silver3.5

I'm catching up to you in miles quickly. Last time I checked, you were at least 30K+ miles ahead. Right now I'm at 156K+ already!

Sway bar links are usually the first to go bad. I've replaced all 4 of mine within the last 2 years and it looks like one of my front is already making noise. Being lowered really accelerate its life. Next, I'm looking to replace both rear upper control arms with adjustable ones so I can adjust my camber.

OLD_HATCH

Alright..... A little game for all of you.

What is this?

thaillest30

Just guessing , from the looks of it, it reminds me of the inside of a old television knob. (Before we had remotes!!).

Shot in the dark

kid spartan

Definitely a motor of some sort. Is this the motor that turns the volume knob when you use the steering wheel control?

thaillest30

The volume knob motor from an rl Bose radio???

OLD_HATCH

Lol

You guys are too good. RL volume knob it is


Trying to figure out this whole sticky button thing.

pdbailey

OLD_HATCH, while you are in there, does it look like it would be easy to replace the lights in there with LEDs? I was thinking about doing my cluster but don't want the cluster to mismatch the rest of the car. I found all the bulbs for the rest, and it looks doable, except I didn't have time to crack the radio to check in there. I'm also not sure I'd really want to go through and fix the LEDs in all four doors window controls, but I'd probably do it eventually.

vas25tl

My wife drives it now and just uses it for work. I rack the miles up on the Lexus now. 12k in 9 months so far.

OLD_HATCH

It will not be easy, but everything is doable if you put your mind to it.

The radio bulbs are rather small and in a strange base. Youd have to remove this bas and see about fitting a 12v led and resistor. Its probably going to take a long time.

These are the lights on the nav screen, but the radio is exactly the same.

Jimmay

OLD_HATCH

When you had the front struts machines, how much lower did you go after the "sport" setting? I was looking through your write up but didnt find it....maybe im blind

OLD_HATCH

I went 1.5" front (half an inch lower than the sport setting) and 1" rear.

pdbailey

OLD_HATCH, thanks a million for posting that. I have a non-navi, but I get the idea. I've never seen those bulbs, and if they are blue behind the radio too, I'm not sure LEDs (including blue ones) would work there for the effect I want.

To those who did the LED conversion, does it look odd to have LEDs up in the cluster and not on the console?

OLD_HATCH

You got to remeber the little rubber condoms are blue, but with the amber light from the buld it turns into a green. Hence why your radio lights up green.

I did the led cluster thing and no it doesnt look abnormal at all. I mean originally the cluster is like an odd yellow color and the rest of the interior lights are green.

BlacknWhite23

Old_Hatch....You going to the meet up this summer???

pdbailey

Good point! Thanks again.

OLD_HATCH

Oh if I figure out a good setup for replacing those circuit board bulbs with some leds ill make sure to post up.

vas25tl

Taking the snow wheels off this weekend I can't wait to get rid of these hub caps and put the normal wheels back on.

Did the Lexus last night, getting the sway bar link replaced and switching tires tomorrow on the RL and I should be set.

OLD_HATCH

awesome. I hate snow. You gonna have the undercarriage cleaned?



Oh and a side note about the volume button sticking on the radios. I used a spray cleaner lubricant and sprayed it into the insides of the shaft section and it helped some. Its not perfect, but alot better than it was.

vas25tl

I'll run it through a car wash and make sure to get the underbody spray. That's pretty much it.
Had the sway bar link replaced this morning, car drives perfect