Roody’s 2018 Lexus GX460 Build, Adventure, and Hooniverse Podcast

Redid the cargo area organization setup, for probably the 10th time. My 2nd kid is due to arrive any day now so needed to consolidate and maximize space in the process (kids and their stuff take up a shitton of room). So... big plastic bin from Home Depot is dong the job of holding everything, at least for now. In it lives recovery gear, bottle jack, jumper and jumper cables (can never be too safe), misc tools, garbage bags, towels, gloves, and baby wipes. All the emergency things I hope to ever need.

 

Im leaning towards this too. I have a foldable open top “crate” in the back now that’s just a mess and can’t stack stuff on top easily.

Swapped LEDs in for lights too?

 

I have one of those foldable things too and just never loved it. My wife used it for a while and now it just sits in the garage.

Yeah did LEDs 10/25/23 as per my spreadsheet, P/N AUXITO-US24HT10W10-230914 which was $13.59 for the full interior. They do flicker a little but I don't doubt that's because my battery has a few extra things on each terminal... might not technically be true but that's my suspicion.

 

Happy birthday!

 

Thanks Jason!

 

While I debate back-and-forth and back-and-forth (and on and on) about whether I'm going to sell the GX, I did the "Uni-mod" to replace the secondary air pump's foam filter with an actual one.


Before:





During:





After (& yes I reinstalled the cover after taking this picture):

 

Teaser of things to come

 

Quick update on the GROM VLine VL2 since I know it has been a topic people are interested in...

I originally installed the unit (i.e., finished installation) 4/15/23, so it's been in the GX for just over 2 years. The first year it worked decently; wired CarPlay worked even though wireless CarPlay never did, and it streamed Bluetooth mostly problem-free. Over what's probably the last year or so it started to get a little spotty. First, CarPlay started to give me intermittent issues, and eventually ceased working altogether even after changing wires. Eventually the Grom's Bluetooth function stopped working and a few weeks ago I got the screen seen below, which felt like the old "Blue Screen of Death." At this point whatever was happening behind the scenes with the unit was somehow also interfering with the GX's native Bluetooth connection, which would play for about 2 seconds then drop. In essence, my phone's connectivity with the vehicle was nonexistent.

This is the screen that was showing when I would select "AUX" which is the input for the Grom unit:




I was ready to remove the Grom unit from the vehicle but decided to give it another shot. After emailing Grom and being told there should be a fix for this, and then not hearing back for 4 days (admittedly over a holiday weekend), I did some searching around and found that the fix should be a simple software update for the system. This means connecting it to WiFi, so to do so I ended up using my phone as a hotspot (since the truck was blocked in and too far from the house to connect to the WiFi via my actual internet), which I'll mention was a minor PITA since typing in a password on the screen is just not a cooperative process; sometimes it thinks you've pushed a key a few times, sometimes the wrong key, and sometimes it just jumps between the typing screen and screen on which you have to enter the password. Like I said, PITA. Once the unit was on WiFi, I toggled through the screens on the Grom unit until I found the software update page. There were two available and it took probably 20 minutes to download and install both. To my surprise, once they were done installing, everything was working and wireless CarPlay was working as well.

So far everything has been functional. I've only used it a few times and it takes the system about a minute to boot and connect once the vehicle is on, but so far it's worked without issue. A pleasant surprise amid a fairly frustrating stretch interacting with the Grom unit. In the future the first thing I'll do when there's an issue is check for a software update, and I'll report back if anything changes, but for now it's working.

 

Part 2 of the teaser puzzle from the wheel post from a few days ago

 

Thats gunna look damn good. Are you still at stock height? Is there any fancy lexus stuff in the suspension or is it fairly normal?

 

Nice, that's some meat there..

 

2.5" Ironman lift which has definitely settled to more like 1.75-2". It still has the factory KDSS which does limit travel a little off-road but is like magic on-road.

Less meaty than I originally intended, wanted to do 35" but just don't have the time/energy to do the work that would be required for totally issue-free fitment.

 

Cabin filter swap last week

I installed the old one (on the right, obviously) 6/21/22 at around 30k miles. Surprised it was that long ago (in time, not mileage... only at 39,600 now). The filter wasn't too dirty but the truck does live outside and as someone with fairly bad allergies, I should really get in a habit of swapping this once a year.




The swap takes <1 minute including emptying the glovebox. $10 well spent.

 

I do ours every year for the allergy reason, if nothing else the Rav4 (hers) is yearly