2001 GS300 - new purchase, discoveries & plans!

[kayble]

GRRRR - this is infuriating! Is anyone else using Photobucket having the same issue as I'm having with 'spacer.png' appearing, instead of the picture you've linked to?

now I can't edit the post I've been trying to fix - I've no idea why my images are broken on this forum as they aren't elsewhere 😖🙄

[rich1068]

If I click the broken image I do get to see it on PB. 

Photobucket should be nuked from orbit anyway. Try imgur

[kayble]

If I click the broken image I do get to see it on PB. 
Photobucket should be nuked from orbit anyway. Try imgur

See - the thing is PB works perfectly fine on other forums I post to. I'm convinced its something to do with the way this forum software is skimming images before the get presented... it made a bunch of images pixelated as all heck in the first page of this thread, never had that happen before either.

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[rich1068]

Unrelated to your issues I'm sure but I just wouldn't use them after they changed their T&Cs a year or two back. Millions of images across thousands of sites, gone. Used them for years but wouldn't trust them as far as I could throw them.

[AndrewSavage]

Great work.  🙂

[kayble]

Right, I'm going to be dropping PB, in favour of my own hosting solution. Let's see if this pic of my car, taken today, works:

 

[steve2006]

I haven’t used PB for years....I simply attach the photo directly to the post using the “Click to chose files” from my photo folder.

[rich1068]

19 hours ago, kayble said:

Right, I'm going to be dropping PB, in favour of my own hosting solution. Let's see if this pic of my car, taken today, works:

 

It does. And it looks splendid.

[AndrewSavage]

Looknig forward to more updates 🙂  

[kayble]

There aren't that many to be honest- car's been great and I'm waiting on some discount codes on eBay before purchasing more of the stereo equipment!

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[kayble]

hello all,

quick update from me - my GS300 has been largely trouble free over the past couple of months. Couple of points that were surprising however:

Found rust on my sunroof frame. Not as bad as some I've seen, but take a look at this:

 

Finding this isn't so easy - in that I actually destroyed this sunroof in getting this shot - without knowing it initially. I thought I was removing the weather seal, when in fact I was removing both the weather seal and the bonded seal on the glass - blast!

Sourced a replacement part from a '98 breaker car - in better condition than my own. Learning from last mistake, I left the seal on, but put a load of fluid film inside the weather seal, all around the frame:

Looks messy - but once you wipe the excess away, the remainder is up inside the weather seal against the frame - inhibitng any further corrosion. I love the smell of fluid film; it's not too common in the UK, but it's used for rust proofing around cars and boats: https://www.fluid-film.com/

Very easy to remove the sunroof from the mechanism in the car - 4x nuts to remove from inside the car - hidden behind some black plastic that's easily unclipped from the interior:

 

Would recommend folks take a look at their sunroofs at the next opportunity - just in case.

Next up is trying tracking down a pirate air issue - using long term and short term fuel trims. With a basic OBDII reader connected, I've spotted my long term bank 1 & 2 fuel trims are both around +11%. Couple with a low AFR reading of around 3g/s at warm idle - it made me think I had an air intake leak after the MAF; I was right:

The bottom of my resonator box has cracked open, and appears to be letting go down both long edges. I suspect this is down to heat cycling/age - and I could probably try to repair it with a plastic weld kit - but I'm going to see if I can find a good used part from a scrapper as a first option - then probably add some adhesive heat shied material and cut off the steel plate that was in their originally.

Just as a proof of concept, with that crack taped up, my fuel trims improved straight away:

 

Seeing STFT and LTFT essentially cancel eachother out is what we want to see; hoping I can find a resonator that isn't going the same way as mine!

Final pic of her - really need to get on with putting adjustable arms and spacers on...

[rich1068]

Good stuff and a thread I'm keeping an eye on. Picking up my own GS 300 in a week or two, I'm sure this will all be useful.

[kayble]

In preparation for a local car meet (Coffee and Cars - Liverpool) I spent quite a bit of time clay barring and waxing the car in the past week. No getting around the fact that she's had paint in various areas at some stage in her life, and is a leggy old thing, but it scrubs up very nicely indeed:

The black silver plates are just for show - i can pop white/yellow road legal plates in as necessary.

I'm dithering somewhat with my big project, which is to install some subwoofers in the boot - I do like a custom stereo system - so far I've only got so far as to put the double DIN system in and change out the door speakers. First step wil be to run wiring to the boot and prove concept with an old Infinity bass link 10" powered sub I have in the garage, then on to bigger and better things as necessary!

 

 

[aviator888]

You are my hero, John ☺️ Really appreciate that there are guys out there like you, keeping the old legacy on the road. 

GS430 can be picked up for very reasonable price. May not be up to par with 7 series in terms of refinement, but unlike 7 series can be used as daily driver without eating a hole in your wallet 😉

[rich1068]

Somehow I don't think my GS 300 is ever going to look quite as tidy as that!

[rich1068]

On 8/27/2018 at 6:59 PM, kayble said:

The VSC/ABS system was easily brought back to life with a trick for resetting zero point calibration using a paper clip that I found somewhere on a USA Lexus forum post – bingo, no more warnings on the dash.

I've got the VSC OFF and VSC lights on my new purchase. Care to shed some light on the paper clip thing? If your fault was the same this could save me a trip to the main dealer tomorrow.

[rich1068]

Found it maybe?

 

[kayble]

Found it maybe?
 

That's it. Did find though, that if there's an underlying fault in the SRS system (as in my case), the pin bridge trick wouldn't work.

I had part of the srs unplugged when I did the paperclip trick and VSC/ABS lights came back immediately.

I.e - it'll solve the issue with zero point calibration loss, but if you have another underlying fault, it likely won't.

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[kayble]

That's it. Did find though, that if there's an underlying fault in the SRS system (as in my case), the pin bridge trick wouldn't work.

I had part of the srs unplugged when I did the paperclip trick and VSC/ABS lights came back immediately.

I.e - it'll solve the issue with zero point calibration loss, but if you have another underlying fault, it likely won't.

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The reason it was unplugged was whilst seats were being swapped - so in my case I just reconnected SRS, cleared the codes with Techstream in both the SRS and VSC/ABS modules - and all is well.

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[rich1068]

16 minutes ago, kayble said:

That's it. Did find though, that if there's an underlying fault in the SRS system (as in my case), the pin bridge trick wouldn't work.

I had part of the srs unplugged when I did the paperclip trick and VSC/ABS lights came back immediately.

I.e - it'll solve the issue with zero point calibration loss, but if you have another underlying fault, it likely won't.

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Guess what? Didn't work 

Performed the procedure, ABS light flashed while it was bridged, VSC OFF + VSC light came on a few seconds after finishing. Boo!

[kayble]

Possible underlying fault. Techstream can read thr module specific codes that may be causing it.

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[rich1068]

Cheers John. The dealer is reading the code tomorrow. It would have been great if a paperclip had fixed it!

[TigerFish]

I'm dithering somewhat with my big project, which is to install some subwoofers in the boot - I do like a custom stereo system - so far I've only got so far as to put the double DIN system in and change out the door speakers. First step wil be to run wiring to the boot and prove concept with an old Infinity bass link 10" powered sub I have in the garage, then on to bigger and better things as necessary!
 
 

I removed the factory woofer and had a Vibe active sub in the boot, was a million times better than standard. I didn’t go the whole hog with a boot install as I needed the space occasionally, so had to be able to remove the sub when needed.



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[rich1068]

Just about the only thing that's annoying me about my recent purchase is the sound from the standard head unit and speakers. It's a nav unit too so I don't really want to lose that but the system sounds very bass heavy and woolly. I've resigned myself to adjusting bass and treble every time I switch sources (oddly cassettes seem to do best on this system) but it lacks clarity and I wondered if some replacement quality tweeters might help?

Any thoughts? And how do you access just the tweeters?

[kayble]

Just about the only thing that's annoying me about my recent purchase is the sound from the standard head unit and speakers. It's a nav unit too so I don't really want to lose that but the system sounds very bass heavy and woolly. I've resigned myself to adjusting bass and treble every time I switch sources (oddly cassettes seem to do best on this system) but it lacks clarity and I wondered if some replacement quality tweeters might help?
Any thoughts? And how do you access just the tweeters?

I'd strongly recommend ditching the factory navigation and going for a touchscreen double din. Mine is a Kenwood android auto unit, so I hook my phone up to a usb outlet in the centre armrest cubby, and the car then had spotify, google maps, handsfree etc.

If you look earlier in my thread, you'll see what I did - if you plan on upgrading the sound system, you'll be pulling the door panels to get to your factory speakers - at which point access to the tweeters should be self explanatory.

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