One year with my GX470: what I’ve spent, what I think, and what’s to come

there it is 230 000. today is september 26 2021 which means that this past monday was september 20th 2021 that is significant because that is one year since i got to lexus in that past year i have hit 230 000 miles as you saw for the introduction to this video when i got it it was right around 219 800 roughly something like that i'm not 100 sure but i have my service records with me right here i see i've done quite a bit of stuff so i figured that i'd go through and tell you all what i've done what i've worked on what's been changed and what's to come in the future so i'll go through that now and give my general impressions and everything at the end now starting with the service records for each item on the list you see i have lexus gx470 expenses at the top i have which item i'm using what the purchase date is what the installation date is what the mileage that the install is how much the piece itself cost me other notes like brand store the usual stuff you might want to know and then the total for the running total for how much each thing adds up to be in the long run so i'm gonna go through that now i'll give you a quick little video or picture as i go through each thing and then towards the end i'll give you the final cost of how much everything's cost me now the first thing that i have in my service records for the first repair that i did was the rear glass for the lexus i'll throw in a picture now but when i first got it the rear glass was busted out uh when i got it from my aunt and uncle they warned me of that they told me that it would need to be replaced so i knew that that was coming but yeah it had nothing in there when i got it all the glasses vacuumed out and everything so it was already cleaned up but it just needed that dyno store in the garage until it could be replaced anyways that was installed on september 22nd so it was pretty soon after i got it mileage was 219 928 so i driven into decent bid already i had that done at safe light and it cost me 308.48 so there's that the next item on the list was slightly cheaper the key that i had for the lexus needed a new battery two dollars and fourteen cents bought it from amazon nothing too exciting there now if you know much about the lexus gx470 you'll probably know that it comes with air suspension stock in the back and just regular coil springs and shocks up front the air springs in mine had failed when i got it so one of them was busted out so it was kind of sagging i'll throw in a picture right now but anyways i wanted to go with springs just to bypass it my uncle had noted some troubles of that in the past just air springs going out or the level sensor so i wanted to put in coil springs because i mean why not less maintenance in the long run and then if they go out i know how to replace it a lot quicker than i do air springs so i got some dorman springs i got it from stockwise auto they ran me 275.78 so i put those in myself that was before i started the channel would have been nice to have started this earlier so i could have put in the video of me doing that so looking at the underside of the lexus you can see a good bit of rust under here thank you maryland anyways there are the coil springs that i got once again they are dorman coil springs i ran me about 275 so pretty easy installation actually comes with all the components you need to do it but that's where the air springs would be initially you can see the little air lines that run here they're not in use anymore but pretty easy installation i was wondering if i could do it myself gave it a shot and it turned out to be pretty easy now since the rear windshield was busted out when i got this the rear windshield wiper needed replacement so that ran me ten dollars in one cents i just picked up a rain x wiper from walmart nothing too exciting there nothing too special usual maintenance stuff i expected to need to do that anyway so that didn't concern me too much now after getting all of that fixed i decided to run it past maryland state inspection because you need to do that in the state of maryland to get it tagged and get your title signed over and everything so i figured i'd do that so i took it over cost me 109 and it did not pass the first try i'll list below or throw in a picture or something of why it didn't pass if i remember correctly it was tires needed to be replaced they need an alignment um cv axles were bad and i think it needed a new front brake caliper either one or both sides and then pads as well so it really wasn't too bad especially for being 219 000 miles the guy that shops that is in pretty decent shape for how it was which i appreciated but i think that was it like i said i'll throw it in like i just mentioned one of the things that it failed for was the cv axles both the left and right and the front so they both needed to be replaced so i ordered two new ones i got them from rockauto.com as i do most of my auto parts uh they were heavy duty axles i think they were made by like cardone cardone something like that uh for the two of them it ran me 130 and 26 cents shipping included and everything so wasn't too terrible from autozone i purchased my brake pads and calipers for the front um i got duralast gold came with a lifetime warranty so seemed like a good deal to me for all of that including the core charge it ran me 334.93 which it's expensive but it's not terrible because calipers aren't cheap so that was another expense to pass maryland state inspection the next expense was a flat 80 my mechanic charged me 80 to put in the brake calipers pads and cv axles which i thought was a good deal and i didn't have the time for it so he helped me out a ton there i'm appreciative that he could help me there next up was a flat 90 dollars but it returned to me because i returned my two brake calipers got 45 back for each of them so it was 90 back in my pocket like i said in the maryland state inspection failure my front two tires failed i think they were like seven six seven years old something like that and they had some dry rot starting to go on the alignment was pretty bad so i figured i'd just go around and replace all four of them with something more heavy duty than what was on there before they had firestone destination le2s which are good tires but i wanted something beefier in case i ever take this off-road or anything so i'll show you what i got for 567.92 i got a set of hand cooked dynapro at2 tires so far i'm liking them they look pretty beefy good for on-road good for off-road unlike most all-terrain tires they really don't seem to make much noise which i really like they're pretty quiet my fuel efficiency didn't really drop too much like some people complain of with their all-terrain tires so i always like that i've thought about getting the wheels cleaned up i'm still not 100 sure if i'm doing that but that's besides the point i like these tires never got me stuck before good in all weather i've driven them a good bit in the snow and they held up really really well so highly recommend if you're looking for something cheap but good off-road so i try to do most of my car repairs myself i can't do tires i can't do alignment can't really do anything along those lines so once again i have my mechanic help me out cut me a good deal on everything charge me 90 to put on all four tires and give me a full alignment all around so once again good deal i appreciate the work he's able to do for me and yeah now i forgot to mention a minute ago but at this point like when i got the tires the lexus had rolled over 220 000 miles so pretty much all the repairs coming up from here on out or within the past 10 000 miles so after that i got a new engine air filter i got some new filters and fluids to go around so the engine air filter was one of them um that ran me 10 and 28 cents and i just threw that in myself so for anybody that knows the 2uz fe engine well which is the v8 the 4.7 liter v8 that's in the lexus gx470 toyota sequoia toyota tundra whatever you name it at the time it takes a timing belt instead of a timing chain which needs to be replaced every 90 000 miles along with the water pump so i got a timing belt and water pump kit my uncle knew that he had this done before but couldn't remember when it was last on and i didn't want to risk it in case they'd been longer than either of us had thought so i got it just to play it safe um that ran me 174.89 i got that oem from rock auto and it's a pretty decent kit came with everything that needed to be installed now when changing out your water pump you're obviously going to need more coolant to replace what was already in there so i got enough coolant to fill up the entire radiator and cooling system in the lexus i got four gallons of toyota pink coolant and that ram is 56.82 cents once again from rock autos where i buy most of my stuff now while doing all of this i figured i'd do an oil change as well because obviously that's important critical and easy to do so i picked up an engine oil filter i got a bosch filter it cost me three dollars and 66 cents because rock got his prices are unbeatable except for their shipping and yeah as well as that i picked up some engine oil engine oil rammy 51.35 cents if you look at my oil change video i was running mobile one rock auto full synthetic and i got seven quarts of it because it takes 6.5 quarts to fill the engine now with all of the other work that i was putting into this i figured it makes sense to replace the spark plugs as well so i got eight spark plugs for it one for each cylinder obviously that ran me 47.83 i got denso branded iridium spark plugs so not too bad engines running fine firing well so can't complain about that while changing out the fluids and filters i figured it also makes sense to throw in a new cabin air filter i bought that from rock auto once again cost me 9.62 cents also denso branded while i was getting to changing around all the fluids i figured i hit the transfer case and front rear differential so i picked up six bolts two for the front differential two for the rear differential and two for the transfer case i had to buy them from an oem supplier because i couldn't find them anywhere else and they were they were pretty expensive it was from yodashop.com which is a good supplier for toyota and lexus parts if you ever need them but for all six of those bolts it cost me 61.85 which is a hard pill to swallow because it's just bolts that big but yeah so i got those on helps held so can't complain now for the front and rear differential i just got pennzoil differential oil nothing too exciting there for the two differentials to be filled up it cost 69.96 worth of fluids so there's that for the oil in the transfer case i used lucas oil i tried to find lucas oil for the front but i couldn't find it i don't know if it's just out of stock at the time but whatever that cost me 31 and 78 cents to fill the transfer case now for the differential and transfer case bolts you need little crush gaskets to go inside as you're tightening it on it crushes the gasket hence the name crust gasket but as it goes on it squeezes it forms a seal and then it prevents any leaks so since i was taking off the old ones i didn't have any crushed gaskets so i bought some from amazon got a pretty good set it was like eight dollars 47 cents so covered all six of them and then provided some extras as well so i have extras for if i ever need to do that again since the lexus had been sitting for so long i took a look at the serpentine belt it looked fine didn't look like any dry rot had begun to set in but i wanted to replace it just in case so i got a certainty belt from rock auto it was gates branded cost me 24 16 cents once i had all the parts in that i needed to pass state inspection i took it back to the tag and title shop uh they charged me 334 dollars and 50 cents to get my tags to get the title transferred over and everything like that uh pretty pricey but i mean you can't drive without tags so i can't complain once again now my next expense cost me 12.99 those were little chip led lights that go on my side markers and my interior door panel lights and license plate lights i'll show this to you now as you can see here on the interior door panels that bright white light you can see over here the light on inside of there and then if i come back around my license plate you'll be able to see it as well i bought these lights from ala led oh i guess that one's out but i've never really had any problems with them that one probably came loose because it was kind of loose fitting there initially i think that might need to be replaced but i never have any issues with them and then if i do they're always warranted which is nice they come with a solid warranty they'll replace it no questions asked so i always buy my leds from them now my next purchase was another set of leds you can see my bright white reverse lights here they're actually made by eye bright star like i said i've only had a few problems with the leds in the past and one of them was that they did not fit inside of this little thing right here because there's a little plastic cap on the inside that kind of cuts off how big your bulb can be but these are plenty bright i haven't had any issues with them i like them because it provides better visibility at night for backing up like i said 15.99 from amazon now my next purchase was 9.95 you can see this little plastic thing behind my license plate i actually needed to put this on because the screws that were in here in the past that went through inside of the trunk they snapped off so it was unusable and i had to drill through them so i put this on 9.95 and then for the front this is 14.95 it came with two sleeves and a whole bunch of mounting hardware which some of it is in the back as well so that's what i use for that now when installing the water pump that i mentioned earlier use your coolant pipe that runs into your water pump there's a little o-ring that you need that apparently doesn't come in the kit so i had to order that separately cost me 6.93 it was oem branded and came from amazon once again i love my leds kind of hard to see in the daylight but i have allo leds up there they cost me 76.48 for both the low beams and the high beams and that goes for both sides they are plenty bright at night but not excessively bright to the point where they're blinding people trust me i've asked don't worry they're not that blinding so as you can see my back brake light demonstration there i have strobe brake lights on the top and solids on the bottom those ran me 32 dollars and 37 cents those were also leds inside i have once again would you believe it more leds i like my leds they're nice and bright for the inside leds they were 29.97 which isn't a bad deal pretty solid setup so not too long after i got this i noticed an oil leak coming from the front i couldn't for the life of me figure out where it was coming from i checked just about everywhere on the engine and it turns out that it wasn't coming from the engine which would make sense as to why i couldn't find it coming from the engine it was the axle shaft that was leaking so i have my mechanic put in a new seal i was three dollars and 41 cents for the seal so in the explorer that i drive i put in resistors in the rear for the rear taillights so that they're led brake and turn signals um i was going to do it in the lexus but then i realized it would be more effort than it was worth because there's not a lot of space to work with in there like there is the explorer so in the front when my bulbs went out i just got a pack of 10 bulbs because i know that apparently these are prone to going out so for the 10 bulbs is 6.70 phillips branded from rock auto now after i had purchased everything and i put in what i could do myself and left the rest for my mechanic i had him install the timing belt water pump spark plugs axle seal and serpentine belt um it cost me 450 for all of that for the labor so that was another 450 into the car around the same time that i had him do that work i had the good old christmas tree of lights come on my dashboard i was kind of worried about it but i plugged in my code reader and it said it's just an evap leak so i figured it could just be the gas cap i bought a new gas cap from rock auto that cost me five dollars flat so i threw that on cleared the code and i haven't had any issues since fingers crossed so we'll just hope that continues to be all right because it seemed like that was the problem now that purchase was the last purchase for a good while that was right around christmas time and that was the last repair of 2020 so no other cost came up until may of 2021 uh the coolant looked fine but i was going on some long drives and stuff just with summer coming up and everything so i figured i'd pick up an extra gallon extra gallon ran me 13.54 cents once again it is toyota pink coolant as it takes so i figured i'd have that on hand keep it in my trunk at this point now we'd hit 225 000 miles so it was due for another oil change i picked up another bosch engine oil filter from rock auto uh cost me 3.86 cents so the price had gone up by 20 cents since last time which is slightly outrageous but i'm just kidding still pretty cheap still got the job done from past oil changes the engine oil drain plug looked a little bit stripped for my liking so i picked up another one because there's only one dollar and 33 cents i got that dorman brand it also came from rockauto.com just like last time when i changed my oil i used high mileage truck and suv mobile one full synthetic oil for seven quarts of that it cost me 46.13 the front wipers both on the left and right side we're starting to leave some pretty nasty streaks so i figured i'd pick up some new wipers on rock auto while i was purchasing all my oil and everything so like i said new set left and right cost me 4.67 cents for both the bolts on my skid plate that cover up the oil filter that you need to remove in order to change out the filter we're starting to rust off some were corroded some were like rounded to the tip so they weren't screwing in anymore so i got a pack of i think like 15 or so of them they were on amazon it cost me 11.65 they have been nothing but good so far so i'm hoping they continue to be and last but not least is the most recent repair i didn't mention this earlier because i tried to record it but videos got lost parts shipped late i screwed some things up so i couldn't actually get a video produced on it but the exhaust rusted off the lexus so the little seam where the muffler and the end of the tailpipe where it connects to the actual end of the tailpipe me just sheared clean off so i was driving around without a muffler for a while i took it off before i replaced it i'll throw on a video right now it's on snapchat so it's vertical my apologies anyway here it is [Music] [Music] but anyways i had to pick up a new muffler and i had to pick up a new tailpipe everything was good up to where the muffler was so that's where i was able to cut and then work from the back so the actual tailpipe itself was 61.47 and the rear muffler was 123.99 so i both shipped through autozone because they offered much better shipping prices than rock auto so looking underneath of the lexus is pretty obvious that this exhaust is new because it is the only shiny thing under here runs all the way to the back it's got some scratches on it just because i was sliding around on the pavement a bit when i was trying to install it i was doing my best not to but it happens so there's the new muffler you can see how everything else is all rusted under there but it's all shiny so by the end of the winter season i'll bet you this will blend right in towards the end too sits the tailpipe also super shiny so there's that but yeah there's the end of the lexus expenses all in all in the past year it has cost me 3636. and one cent overall this seems pretty pricey but considering i didn't pay for the car and some of the work that i did either didn't need to be done or was just things that i wanted i'm not too bummed about it there are some things that aren't on the list too if you notice that i put in the bluetooth system and everything i didn't mark that because i only marked things that once you put it in here you can't really take out or use again in another car so if when i go to sell this or when i go to get rid of it for whatever reason i can take out the bluetooth thing and resell it so i didn't look at something that would be permanently in the car if that makes sense otherwise there are a couple other things that i want to show around or just kind of show in general and then give my general impressions of what i've thought the past year so hopping around front i heard a noise kind of coming from this the other day and it was kind of upsetting when i found what was wrong i took a look underneath just kind of wiggling my way under right now but you see my cv axle boot is already ripped open right back here now that wouldn't be so upsetting if i didn't have these put in less than a year ago the worst thing is if i go to the other side which i will right now you can see that this one is also torn so i will no longer be buying cv boots or cv axles from cardone cardone however you might pronounce it because neither of mine held up i don't really think that says too much good about them on top of other things that it needs it does need new rear brake pads so i bought those from autozone yesterday they're not on the expense sheet because i just included all the expenses from this past year and that's something that's yet to come up within the second year of ownership so i'm going to tack that on later but it's not making the video because of that in the meantime though that's all that i know that this needs it's all that i hope it needs so in terms of things that i've done to it i outfitted the front headlights with all the leds i threw on some all terrain tires to make it better for off-roading snow all weather driving you name it i took off the running boards just to give it the illusion that it sits higher and i honestly think it does i didn't know how i'd feel about it at first but i got used to it stepping up a little bit higher and i have enjoyed that a bit more uh car's a bit of a mess because i'm working and stuff out of here pretty much but there's my work stuff i put in the bluetooth setup as i showed you in another video if not go check that out it's not really focusing but there's everything i threw in the dash cams which is nice to have in the front the rear i really think that's it though the only other thing that i can think of that i figured i'd mention i tried to lower the spare tire through the hole in here the other day and when i was twisting the rod to actually get it to lower it sheared like it just it twisted which isn't good because you can see it's pretty rusted on underneath there i sprayed on some penetrating fluid i can't actually find the uh the rod that twist though so i can't lower it now that i can't find the rod but i'm gonna look for that and see if this seafoam deep creep penetrating oil and lubricant actually works because i've heard great things about it so i figured i'd give it a shot so only other thing that i can mention is rust kind of screwed me over there anyways that's pretty much a summary of my past year with the lysis it's so far been nothing but pretty much reliable what can you say about a 230 000 mile car but so far so good powertrain still feels strong four wheel drive feels like it's working well uh it's got me through rain snow slush sleet sunny weather cold weather you name it i've lost air conditioning along the way which kind of sucks but i mean i'm i'm used to it with no air conditioning in the explorer either so it could be worse but it keeps chugging along it keeps getting me from a to b and that's all that matters so i mean really if i had the opportunity would i buy it again i definitely buy it again um i like it strong feeling big high sits up high reliable it's pretty much everything that i'd want gas mileage sucks there's no way around that but i wouldn't expect it to be good uh v8 is powerful gets you through whatever you need it to so it's been a trooper i hope we can use the run strong i'll continue to provide updates provide content i just uploaded this this week even though i'm recording it just because it's most relevant because i've had it a year now but anything important that happens i'll upload as soon as possible anything else they can wait it'll wait so thanks for watching and if you're looking at one of these i highly recommend it

Channel: Michael Tomko

Views: 6,543

Keywords: lexus, lexus gx470, gx470, toyota, review, owenership

Id: 2SC3SrqJDaY

Length: 22min 17sec (1337 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 26 2021