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Getting The Spare Tire Off


pemarsh

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Three of us spent a good two hours getting the spare tire off the truck the other day, trying to get access to some other parts of the truck.

We followed the 04 lx 470 instruction book to the letter.

Finally, I called up the dealer (quite frustrated and upset...afterall, doing this in 20 degree weather for over two hours and getting nowhere was not all that fun!).

Guess why we could not get the tire to lower??

The instructions in the book are WRONG! It tells you to insert the "hook" end into the little cup, through the rear bumper access plate. Come to find out, that is the outdated instruction. You dont use the hook end at all...you use the silver metal end with the hex-like key to do it.

The dealer confirmed that the book in indeed wrong...

So, I hope this post helps someone else in the future.

p.s., once we used the right adapter end getting the tire lowered down, it took us less than 30 seconds to do it!

p.s.s. my dealer was very very helpful over the phone. Afterall, at first, they must have thought me some sort of babbling idiot....untill they realized the instruction book is wrong. They treated my very nicely through the whole process.......another reason I am glad I have a Lexus!! They even offered to have someone drive to my house to help!!!

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Three of us spent a good two hours getting the spare tire off the truck the other day, trying to get access to some other parts of the truck.

We followed the 04 lx 470 instruction book to the letter.

Finally, I called up the dealer (quite frustrated and upset...afterall, doing this in 20 degree weather for over two hours and getting nowhere was not all that fun!).

Guess why we could not get the tire to lower??

The instructions in the book are WRONG!  It tells you to insert the "hook" end into the little cup, through the rear bumper access plate.  Come to find out, that is the outdated instruction.  You dont use the hook end at all...you use the silver metal end with the hex-like key to do it.

The dealer confirmed that the book in indeed wrong...

So, I hope this post helps someone else in the future.

p.s., once we used the right adapter end getting the tire lowered down, it took us less than 30 seconds to do it!

p.s.s.  my dealer was very very helpful over the phone.  Afterall, at first, they must have thought me some sort of babbling idiot....untill they realized the instruction book is wrong.  They treated my very nicely through the whole process.......another reason I am glad I have a Lexus!!  They even offered to have someone drive to my house to help!!!

The only issue I had with mine was that it was frozen after being unused since new (1999). I was just lowering it to install a hitch, so I was at home with a full tool set. There's no way my wife could've broken it free...

Make sure you check it yearly...you'll be glad you did in case you need it.

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  • 11 years later...

Thank you thank you thank you !!!

I wasted an hour trying to follow the manual.....before I finally googled your post. It then took 30 seconds. 

Thanks again 👍

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  • 2 years later...

Same issue here, at 100 degrees in the desert playing with hook ... finally saw the hexagon socket and found the little tool in the spare tire ( probably the last owner dropped it there years ago) once got it it took 10min to be back on the road. 

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