[kpmurphy]

LAND ARK

Nice overall job on the car. I'm doing something similar but not to the extent of yours. I did have a quick question though that I cant find any answer to on other forums; How to remove the speaker grills in the back? I cant tell if the entire grill should come out via clips or if the inner cloth covered portion should come out first. I've tried both, but the resistance is too much and I dont want to break them.

Thanks in advance
Kevin

 

[Land Ark]

LAND ARK

How to remove the speaker grills in the back? I cant tell if the entire grill should come out via clips or if the inner cloth covered portion should come out first. I've tried both, but the resistance is too much and I dont want to break them.

I didn't attempt to remove the grilles, I removed the entire panel. I'm not sure the grilles are supposed to come off.

The panels are... not fun to get off since they are so enormous. But, like everything else about the interior of these cars, you just need to remove some easily accessed screws and nuts and then start pulling.

 

[Land Ark]

So we meet again.

I've had it for a couple weeks because I was getting tired of hearing the brake grinding issue plus the stereo makes an intermittent high pitched, rev-based buzzing noise. I can make it stop, but it always comes back. I've had everything apart 10 times to try to fix it to no avail.

So I replaced the front pads (with OEM) - the right outside pad was worn much worse than the others and it was uneven. I bought a new rubber boot thing for the lower caliper pins and silicone grease to make sure everything was working like it was supposed to. It kept grinding so I bought new OEM rotors. It was still grinding. So I took it to a shop and we messed with the pad hardware and it seemed to fix it. But, turning the wheel at certain angles causes it to STILL grind. So, I've come to grip with the fact it grinds. Maybe it needs a new knuckle, but I'm not ready to drop the money on that when, for the most part, it drives fine. I will continue to keep an eye on it.

It is also wearing tires unevenly - badly. The inner shoulders of the front tires is worn flat while the outside tread looks new. I've had it aligned twice already, but I'll give it another shot. So I bought a new set of 4 Continentals and I'm dropping it off this morning to get them mounted, balanced, and an alignment.

While I was at it I decided to finally replace the rear shocks. The right rear was blown when I got the car, it would knock every once in a while, but it drove fine so I left it. But I figure it's time and I didn't think it would take long. Wow, was I wrong. I started at around 3pm and finished after 10. I stopped for dinner, of course, but it took way longer than I thought it would.

I got non-adjustable Konis. I've had good luck with Koni and the price was pretty close to the KYBs also available. The fronts are KYBs that came on it, but they are still good. Once they are worn out I'll replace them with matching Konis.

After a few hours of work:

My mom has been doing exactly what I got the car for - banging it around. Since it already had some dings and dents I figured she could knock it into things and get door dings and it'd be fine. She's now closed her garage door on the beautifully repaired bumper twice. I've done the best I could touching it up and buffing it since.

She's also closed her tennis ball stop system in the door twice, both times pulling a screw out of the ceiling of the garage and slamming it into the roof. There is one big dent from that and several large scratches.

She drove it into a drainage ditch and got stuck while picking up my nephew from school. People had to lift the car out of the ditch for her.

Otherwise it's been a great car. She claims to love it and balks at any suggestion to replace it. Though she's been driving my leased 2016 Buick Regal GS for a couple weeks, I'll see how keen she is to give that back now. Plus she saw an LC500 the other day and said she wants that as her next car. Hmmm, we'll see about that.

 

[Piggity]

Great thread Land Ark.

The uneven wear on the front tires is most likely going to be bad bushings in the No. 2 control arms. If you do a search in the forum, it's pretty common especially on high mileage cars. I would get those replaced as soon as you can before your next alignment and new tires.

You should also take the front calipers off and see if the lower caliper slider is seized, this will cause uneven brake pad wear. I had to take mine to Lexus and have them take out the bolt since it was way to hard to get out with my basic tool set.

 

[Land Ark]

I said I was going to get another IS300, but this isn't at all what I thought I meant.



The lease i was in was coming to the end and I started looking around at what was available. The current offer was too good to pass up so I took a 3 year lease on a nearly base model IS300 AWD.

More on topic:

Recently my mom decided to back out of her garage before the door was fully opened. So now the hatch has some deep scratches. Fortunately she didn't break the window. I'm sure that wouldn't be easy to find.

Also, since my last update someone in a lawn service truck with trailer tore the front bumper off in a parking lot and didn't stick around to talk about it. It actually turned out to be somewhat of a blessing. Now it has a new OEM front bumper with no paint issues, and the aftermarket driver's fender was replaced with OEM. I found *another* set of clear lens replacement fog lights. Everything is back together and looks better than before it was hit.

I drove it a few weeks ago and noticed you had to hold the wheel so it pointed to about 11:00 in order to go straight. Otherwise it broke hard to the right. I took it to get aligned and I was told I needed to get adjustable rear lower control arms because the mounting bracket was so far out of spec. I am guessing as a result of the previous accident that was never documented - or repaired very professionally apparently. I took it for a second opinion and decided to go with their idea of shifting the subframe over slightly and making it up on the other side which still had some adjustment left.

While they were at it, I had them pop in the FR-S differential so now it has limited slip.

All in all, not a cheap last couple weeks. And I still can't solve the stereo alternator whine.
It's up to 87k miles and still in great overall shape. My mom loves it and wouldn't let me get her something else. So that's why there are 2 IS300s in my life now.

 

[Land Ark]

Hey almost nobody! Hope everyone is doing well. Not much to do right now so I went and got the car from my mom and cleaned it up, changed the oil and power steering fluid, and did a couple really minor fixes.

I found a reasonable deal on new OEM floor mats and picked them up to replace the junkyard black ones which have been in there. I know that someone will promptly spill something horrible on them, but I at least got it looking right for a short period of time.
I also replaced the fuel door level. Someone had been in there at some point in the past because the carpet had been cut for access. I don't know why they cut it and I've been looking to replace the entire carpet for a while now. That little lever is tough, but not impossible to find with enough patience. At the junk yard that would have been a $5 part, but I ended up having to shell out $40 for it on ebay.

In other news, I fixed the stereo so it no longer has the high frequency whine like it had a bad ground. I ended up having to replace the unit but the real problem was that I had the gain set up all the way. I turned it down to about 1/4 and it was perfect. The original one started going out randomly so I got rid of it and the stereo works perfectly now.

The brake noise has also been eliminated. Adjusting the caliper clips seems to have solved it, at least I can no longer hear it when I am driving it. Well, ok, so I've been driving with the windows up so it would be impossible to hear anyway. It's fixed, dang it!

Every time I pick it up there are new mysterious scratches and scrapes on it. No one ever seems to know how they got there. I got most of them out on Friday but also realized that the roof has no clearcoat. I find that odd especially since I have buffed it before and didn't notice. Maybe it just didn't strike me before.

My 2019 IS300 is a great car. But every time I drive the Sportcross I fall in love all over again. It is the smoothest car I've ever driven. It handles great, looks great, and keeps on ticking. At 91k miles my mom has definitely been using it and I have no doubt it has a long way to go.
It could use a new steering rack because it is seeping, not leaking. But the steering is so wonderfully firm I would hate to take a chance on losing that. And the cam seals are starting to seep as well. Next time the timing belt is done, it'll get those.

And with that, I'll leave you with one comment. I hate the oil filter location.
Thanks!

 

[Land Ark]

It's back in my garage again. My mom went on vacation so I picked it up and I'll mess around with it and clean it up over the next few days.On tap was an oil change, last done just over a year and 2,000 miles ago and I decided to add some AT205 Reseal because when I did the timing belt I forgot to do have the cam seals done. It's got a pretty good leak coming from them now, obviously not so bad that you need to add oil, but it drips occasionally and no one wants that. And, let me again say that I FRIGGEN HATE changing this car's oil. Specifically the filter. I don't know how people bigger than me can do it. I can barely fit my skinny arms down there. And this time I spent more time trying to put the stupid trans dipstick bolt back in than anything else. Well, other than cleaning up the giant pool of oil left after removing the filter.
She's also been complaining of an intermittent ABS and TRAC light. I had planned to just clean the sensor again since it's done it before. But, it seems to happen when it gets wet so I knew something was probably wrong so I went ahead and ordered a new sensor. I bought a decent scan tool that reads ABS codes and it confirmed it was the right front. The scanner nor the sensor weren't cheap but didn't break the bank. I was excited to see how easy it was to replace it. 3 bolts and the connector and I was done... or so I thought. I pulled back the splash guard and noted something a bit strange. The wires behind the connector going up into the engine bay looked like they were damaged or something. So I kept looking and then thought it kinda looked spliced. So I started peeling electrical tape and found this:

As YouTube's Vehcor would say: Someone's been here before!

Turns out it was spliced twice, just like this also right where it enters the engine bay. Whoever did it just twisted the wires and taped them up. Combine that with the afternmarket fender liner not being the best and it' no wonder it was throwing codes when it got wet. There's some damage to the lower front apron so I'm guessing it got into an accident and the wires got cut. So I guess I likely didn't need the sensor, but if I hadn't bought it and replaced it, I'd have never thought to look at those wires. I ended up having to take the bumper off and pulling the airbox and headlight out so I could properly redo the wiring. Soldering and heat shrinking all the splices, I cut and exposed all new wires and made an effort to keep them from rubbing against any of the jagged metal.

I had planned to clean it up today but ran out of energy after all that, but one day this week I'll do it and take some current photos of it.

 

[Pnut00]

Good spotting!

Yeah the oil filter location is one of my pet peeves as well, I can never get a good purchase on it so use a screwdriver and hammer to knock the filter loose and wind off by hand. Often thought about an oil filter relocation kit but i keep threatening myself that im going to sell it .

 

[Land Ark]

As promised - I washed it yesterday, waxed it, and watched as it immediately got covered in pollen. IT WAS GREAT! And then it rained last night. But, I did manage to drive to a secluded area and take some photos. I messed around with the limited setting my computer came with. It looks great at a distance, that's for sure.

This is the dent in the roof from when my mom closed the tennis ball on a string thing she has in her garage. She pulled it out of her ceiling when she drove away and wondered what the loud noise was. The dent is about the size of my thumb nail. I've touched up the paint a few times but some day I need to con my PDR buddy into fixing it for me.

Some gorilla, no clue who, broke the prop rod clip in the hood so I had to order a replacement. Otherwise, not much to do for it. I'll probably do another full fluid replacement again next year. It's hard to believe it's been 5 years since I gave it to her. I really do love this car - except for the stupid oil filter.

 

[lafingguy]

From the front doors forward everything is the same as a sedan if that will help your search.
If you have anything sportcross specific that you need and can't find then there is a guy in the UK who parts these cars out.
PM me if you want his name and info.

That car's bumpers are scratched up in exactly the same places mine were. But hey, at least they used it!
Also that radiator looks pretty green, might want to keep an eye on it.
The gunk on the dash can be removed with Armor All wipes or various other cleaning products, see this thread for more info.

I'll second the "watch the radiator" comment. My top tank just cracked for no reason - it seems to be a common problem for age/mileage. Luckily the radiators are relatively cheap and the swap is easy

 

[Land Ark]

I'll second the "watch the radiator" comment. My top tank just cracked for no reason - it seems to be a common problem for age/mileage. Luckily the radiators are relatively cheap and the swap is easy

Yup, the radiator was cheap enough at the time that I justified replacing it when I did the timing belt service. You have to drain the coolant anyway and it winds up giving you more room to boot.