hewitttech

That measurement is meaningless. You will always want to set your ride height first! Adjust your rear Camber and Toe if needed. Then on the front do the caster, camber and then the toe last. The reason for the sequence is the earlier steps will change the adjustments you do in later steps. The caster is usually just fixed because you are using a strut instead of an upper and lower control arm setup. I don't remember if the RX had adjustable lower control arms but if it does you can adjust the caster to an extent. In most cases like lifting you will want to increase your caster angle from factory specs, and if you want to get really fancy you will do your ride height settings first then a corner balance if you had something like adjustable coil overs before you do your alignment setup. Then you go back through it all again.

For static camber you just want to be at 0 deg. I have setup for very slight positive camber (top of wheels out) for running dirt/gravel forest roads at speed because of the way they are crowned for water runoff. It also helps a little bit with dynamic steering when you are under compression but that is less of an issue if your alignment is balanced well. I still think about getting another 300! miss ripping through the woods in that thing.

170 K on the trans or engine is not bad at all if properly maintained. I did crazy rejuvenation work to clean up internals and just a transmission drain and fill and had no problems. However, one thing you may really want to take a look at is if there are any transmission or oil leaks between the engine and transmission and the transmission and the front differential. If you see oil or transmission leaking at either of these points on the cases I would maybe avoid those vehicles. After a lot of hard wheeling, mud and water crossings my seals started to leak at both locations. First the differential/trans started leaking a bit of trans fluid and Blue Devil product fixed it quickly. Then the engine/trans started leaking a bit of engine oil and the Blue Devil Rear Main Seal treatment worked well again. It was not leaking when I sold it after a couple extra thousand miles. The engines do run a little hot and the front exhaust crossing where it does might also contribute to seal hardening in that area. The Blue Devil Rear Seal and Transmission seal products really worked well but pulling and splitting the engine, transmission and front diff apart to fix those seals was not something I was willing to do if it didn't last. I just happened to almost break it in half on a giant pine log and after fixing that, timing was perfect luck into my GX and I sold the RX for it. It still screamed and drove great though even at 230k miles and a rough use 20k miles it was lifted for off road fun. I still miss it, it was a lot more fun rally slinging it around but you can't do anything hardcore 4x4 in it.

Funny, my GX is down right now and waiting for a new upgraded 8.2" rear with ARB locker to get here. My mind was wandering yesterday and I started looking at RXs again. It was such fun compared to a big pig like my GX has become or your LX can be. I still think the RX is an awesome 4x4 but if you could get it to the level of say a stock tacoma off road. If I was to do one again I would see if increasing the spring rates considerably would be enough to run without the sway bars all together. Obviously in a more stock setup it would affect on road handling but considering how much lighter they are than a GX/LX it might be something to try out. It certainly simplifies the suspension. Just make sure you do proper bump stops/limit straps, that was one of the biggest issues I kept running into with stock struts/shocks. Then again I may have been a lot more rough with mine hitting stuff hard and getting air. Such fun! Enjoy and still awesome seeing more people getting into this side of the RX.

I was using stock style shocks... I blew them out because I was bottoming them on hard hits and didn't extend the bump stops to prevent this. You may also need to add a limiting strap to prevent over extension of the stock shocks or have the same result. Compress a front and rear until it bottoms and measure the distance from the stop then add bump stops or spacers to the stops to stop wheel travel before shock bottom. Then jack it up to get fool droop and measure the distance where the shock tops out and do the same to make a limit strap to do the same. I would get about a year out of stock spec shocks and they were cheap enough it wasn't that big of a deal but it did get old having to replace them when it was preventable from the start. You would have to do the same with coil overs but long travels like that can do the same thing and they cost more than my whole vehicle so I didn't bother. Then again, I was also getting all 4 wheels off the ground occasionally. I blew out stock, kyb and monroe...kyb lasted longer than the monroe and the stock had 200+k miles on them.

If I was doing it again I would go with the 40mm shock spacer instead of how I made my own spring lift. You will for sure need the camber bolts in the front if not two pair for even more adjustment. I think my single set of bolts was completely maxed. I went 245 but would also go down to the 235. Not sure how those fit as I was running a 2" spacer on stock wheels.. Can't wait to see it when you get it figured out! I thought I saw mine out in the wild the other day... couldn't confirm but it looks like all they did was swap out the wheels as it was still a little high... man that thing was tuned up and would scream.. I do miss it..lol

Love seeing the new additions to the crowd, keep em coming, they are looking great! I especially like seeing this on the 330's and 350's now. The strut spacers would for sure be the way to go to keep the cost down and make it simple, especially if they already adjust for the camber difference that is awesome. If you can get a link posted up for those spacers so everyone else can look into them if they wanted to. I don't want to turn this into a GX thread so I won't go into the build details but suffice to say... the GX has become a monster. It ate everything I had into my RX and was still hungry. I can't sling it around like it did the RX (which was most of the fun) but it will go places most people wouldn't even consider with a normal 4x4.

Just so there is no confusion, this is just simply a limited slip (LS) differential, it is not a Torsen, it is not a Posi-trac and there is no such thing as a torsen posi. You can generically call it a posi but Pos-Trac is/was GM's name for their limited slip units, its like calling a bandage a Band-aid regardless of the brand. The problem with almost every limited slip is the clutches only have a certain amount of service life. I would not expect a 200k mile limited slip to really be any good without replacing the clutches but maybe you get a good one. Torsen is a completely different type of unit that uses extra helical side gears to balance power and it is a much better option. You find the torsen as center differentials in the higher end Toyota/Lexus 4WD vehicles, and not typically as front or rear differentials unless you are talking higher end performance cars. To me, the center diff (called a transfer case on the RX) is the biggest limiting factor for off-roading the early AWD without VSC. It is a 75/25 front to rear wheel power split and without a way to lock it or stop a wheel from spinning you are still completely limited by the traction of the other wheels. If you loose traction in the front like getting stuck in a muddy ditch, your limited slip in the rear really doesn't matter much because you are not going to get power worth a flip to the rear wheels. I had a LS rear tracked down for mine for $300 and decided it was not worth doing especially considering I would still probably have to replace the clutches. The best solution without changing vehicles or doing a full power/drivetrain swap was to pull the VSC out of an 02-03 to put in my 00'. It would be much easier to get an AWD with VSC though and build that. I still love the idea of a 2.7L Tacoma 4x4 power/drivetrain swapped in with a turbo.... I was running 2" wheel spacers and those give you much more clearance at the spring perches. The major problem is the AWD already couldn't turn fro crap and the spacers made it even worse. But they do let you fit bigger tires, especially like the BFG K02 that have those big side lugz. Keep up the good work though I really love seeing what people are still doing to have fun with these! If you get your rear limited slip in I am curious to know how it does so keep us posted.

You will likely not be able to find a part number unless you are browsing in that region. If you can get on a russian version of something like toyotapartsdeal and look at the parts breakdowns that would be the easiest. The US has the 'right to repair' laws which is why I can have a professional subscription to Toyota TIS and other Toyota in other regions may not have things like those breakdowns available. You might also be able to reach out to a business like partsouq and see if they can help source it for you. I buy the occasional new Toyota/Lexus part from them that are hard to find or more expensive than they should be in the US. The partsouq on Ebay ships from the UAE which I think is in the same Toyota region you are looking for. It couldn't hurt to reach out to them for help. Another option may be a limited slip out of an early 99-03' or whatever the last year was it was an option before they added electronic traction control and no longer offered the limited slip. I had one tracked down but $300 was more than I was willing to spend on it.

I love seeing this thread continue. I still think about my lifted 00' RX every time I see one on the road because I had so much damn fun with it. One thing I would recommend for everyone using a spacer lift on a stock setup is to add bump stops to prevent bottoming the shock out. I damaged two sets of front shocks in a year on mine before I figured that one out. Or just be careful and don't hit stuff too hard but what fun is that...And also you definitely need the camber bolts. Mine was at the limit of adjustment with the lift I did. Here is my current build just to have a picture in my post, 05 Gx470. It is way way more capable but it is heavy and I miss being able to really "rally" it like I was doing in the RX.

The middle shaft was shortened about 1.5 in. When it twisted and it pulled the front shaft backwards. I was able to cut about a 3rd of an inch off the front of the front carrier mount so the axle flange hardware would clear. There was still enough spines in the output to still seal so I filled it back up. On Sunday it took me 3 hrs to go 50 miles back to civilization. I was able to track down a totaled 03 awd on craigslist. The driveshaft was pretty much all that was left abs she would only take $20 for it. A road trip with my dad and a few hours later I had it swapped out and was back on the road. The funny part is I did my usual search for local GXs for sale and traded my 00 RX for an 05 GX the next day. Lexter 2.0 and I havent had to do any mods yet!

So some blue devil in the oil and trans seams to have fixed it well enough for now. Yesterday i really could have used some frame sliders. We pulled the front shaft and ran out of front diff oil half way back to camp. She will not move with no oil in the front diff and none of the local salvage yards have an AWD. Guess i will be headed back to the river again for a "repair trip" soon.

My rear main oil seal and transmission/transfer case input seal went out on the way back from my last trip. The oil leak was really bad but some blue devil rear main oil sealer did the trick in about 50 miles. The tranny fluid is getting worse and need to try some blue devil there. It is killing me that this might be the job that replaces my RX300, two stupid seals that would probably take me a few days to do. I have another trip coming up in a month and have started looking at a lower price GX470 as a replacement. The extra tow capacity and a V8 will is a must upgrade if we get a bigger boat in the next year or two, besides it is a true 4x4. It is essentially a land cruiser on a 4runner foundation and you can get them used for much less than a 4 runner which is amazing. If I decide to fix my RX I will be back, if I sell it I will probably head over the GX side.

Very nice guys. I had another successful trip a couple weeks ago and glad I replaced both front struts before I left. I finally got the suspension driving perfect with no rattles, no hard spots in the steering, no wander and no instability up to 90MPH. Only got stuck once this trip, honestly though an F350 would have gotten stuck so I don't feel too bad.

I know the 1999 and 2000 vehicles you could get a limited slip rear as an option before electronic traction control. I had a limited slip rear tacked down for $300 at one point. Closest thing i could come up with. The lack of either on mine is why i try to keep it out of anything serious. Even 1-2" deep red clay mud on some of the "roads" we go down can be tricky. Not many options for better 4x4 other than maybe engine and drivetrain swap to something out of a 2.7L 4x4 taco. Major major build issues which is where considering an lx,gx might be recommended.

Those tires/wheels look good. What are you waiting for? I just replaced my front shocks again. The front right went out last fall's trip through the woods when i noticed it ot hard i think. Those were KYB made in the US and it lasted about a year. Replaced with Gabriel Ultras made in China we will see. I also finally installed camber bolts on all 4 corners. I put them all at max to counter the spring lift (-2.5deg i think). I could probably use a hair more negative but they are close enough. It made major major improvements to the on road handling and braking. We will see how it does offroad on my birthday trip thursday and friday.

still trying to get in touch with that Aus. suspension company. No reply on ebay so I messaged and called them today. Too bad they are on the other side of the Earth. I really don't feel like having to call them in the middle of the night or have them call me back and wake me up.. oh well. the price of progress. Gotta get Lexter ready for the next outing in a month or so.

Those running boards look pretty nice on there. I almost had a set of them but the guy didn't want to dig them out of storage for me. I could really use more of a rocker guard/sliders setup anyways.The exhaust comes below the body and body channel a good bit and I have smashed it a few times and it catches if you hit anything like a ditch. This last time out I curbed it right in the middle of the muffler and in the same trip when I hydro locked the engine the Y pipe came loose. 3rd time is a charm, I finally safety wired the nuts and bolts. Those strut mount spacers would be by far the easiest lift you could do! I couldn't find mount spacers anywhere when I was doing mine and doing it with the spring perch spacers helped stiffen the stock springs just a little bit. If I can get those heavy duty springs and still have a problem with my tires hitting the fenders when I hit something really really hard I might look for spacers again. For just a little more money than those I could probably have my machinist make some out of billet.

I contacted these guys https://www.ebay.com/itm/LEXUS-RX-330-350-MCU38R-MY05-4X4-F-R-30mm-RAISED-COIL-SPRINGS/160720012716?hash=item256ba8c5ac:g:gL4AAOSwOgdYnVnc that Brickwall linked to to see if they could make a 40-50mm lift for my 00' 300. I am not sure what the difference is between the two and don't have the time to really check and see of the 330-350 springs would work for me. I will keep you posted.

Welcome to the club. I like it! Yeah, please share a little more. I would like to see what you attached it to as well. Maybe a couple pics of the front on level ground so we can get an idea of your clearances. I would love a winch. I was thinking of incorporating a reciever hitch into whatever i come up with in the front for protection so i could use one of those small reciever winches front or rear. I need to find more garage and play time somewhere.

Yeah, I haven't replaced the factory steel tube bumper yet thinking I would have to grab what i wanted anyway. Nothing as serious as your bumper more of maybe something like on a light baja. Just heavy enough for real protection if i catch a ditch. Those springs are a nice find! I am probably going to order a set and have them swapped when i replace my busted front shock. Second one i have busted but they are way cheaper than coil over. The rx project is currently in a now in maintenance only slot. I will post if i get those taken care of. birthday trip with it in a couple months.

No. I don't think you will ever find anything bolt on for what we are doing. There was some stuff available when these were new but still nothing as strong as needed. I haven't had much time to play with my RX lately. She did finally get a new battery after my last hydrolock adventure though but that had been going bad for at least a year or two. I should have gone for the sealed battery but just couldn't justify the price of an Optima type. I have another trip coming up and still need to fix a busted shock and a bad rattle under the dash. I guess i finally knocked something loose and am really impressed how much abuse it has taken before something came loose. My latest thought for a skid plate is to go get one from a Tacoma or something like that and just fabricate the mounts. It might not be the prettiest that way but function over form. I don't think the lower of my AC condenser can take anymore physical damage. It is a miracle it doesn't have a hole the way it looks. It has been beaten so badly from running through all the brush and tall grass. I always thought brush guards were for looks. Now i really need one. Maybe Brickwall could fab us up a couple?

That is awesome, good work. I for sure need a bumper, I don't have the factory metal bumper or foam behind the plastic anymore. It got smashed and I had to repair the passenger side bumper mount after skidding through a turn into a tree. I was thinking one that would just bolt to the factory mounts through holes cut in the plastic. Nothing fancy just something I could attach a nice skid plate to. I have already gone through a couple sets of the plastic fender and engine guard pieces. I found these today: http://dgrcoilovers.com/product/lexus-rx300-4wd-0003-dgr-high-performance-coilovers/ Not sure if they are available and I have some questions for the guys but man they are expensive. Thinking the "Track Version" should be beefy enough if I can get some input from them on the spring rates and if there is any +height adjustment and if they come with the camber plates or not. I found a site "BodyKits" that has all kinds of stuff for the RX but apparently making them look more like a race SUV is much more popular than off roading with them, that is where I found the DGR from Australia made in HK. Found some other funky Gecko ones on ebay for cheaper.

It's looking awesome! I could use a lightweight bumper and skid plate for sure. Radiator keeps taking a beating when running through the tall grass/weeds. Is that a bumper for another application you are trying to adapt or was it custom for the RX? I now see there are full sets of strut spacer lifts on Ebay from Russia if anyone is looking for a really easy lift. Tallest I see is 40mm~1.5" which is what I have with my spring spacer lift. I would rather use something like that with stiffer springs but the spring lift does double duty. If only a set of custom coil overs with a camber plate didn't cost more than my RX. I have to drive about 2 hrs to the management area we play in and the way the camber is set for the trail can wear you out driving it on the road.

Ok i am going to preface this with if do not have an RX or have anything useful to contribute please respectfully keep your comments to yourself. We already know our RX vehicles were not intended to be hardcore rigs. Ok, So i managed to hydro lock my rx this weekend. Luckily an easy recovery and didn't damage the engine. Pulled the plugs, shook out my k&n and Lexter fired right back up. I did lose an exhaust gasket and had 3 inches of water in the floor but hey, i will take it as collateral damage or at least the cost of the adventure and story. So this is getting to the point of obsurd but i am looking for thoughts on something like a snorkel or at least a better way to protect the intake from aspirating water. I really don't want to cut a hole in the side or have anything permanent and rediculous looking as an RX with a snorkel. I don't need it to run underwater or anything like that just a way of getting a little better protection than the low intake behind the headlight. The water i was going through was 2 maybe 2 and a half feet deep, not even over my tires. It is a well established rock and gravel road that occasionally floods with fresh clean swamp water. We were not going fast at all but plowed up enough water in the front of the hood it made it to the air box installe and drowned. If anyone has put any thought into a solution for the RX i would like to hear what you came up with.