CT200h - Engine Cooling System & Brake System Overhaul.

I've been meaning to do the engine cooling system but didn't get around to it. Well time to get rid of more parts that I have been accumulating. Scheduled time with Matt at Import Motor Werks and added a brake system overhaul because last time Matt stated that my brake pads were getting low. Anywhoo on to the updates.

Parts List:
K&N Air Filter 33-2435
Water Inlet Assy w/ Thermostat - 16031-37010
Water pump - OEM - 161A0-29015
Radiator - OEM - 16400-37240
Lower radiator hose - OEM - 16572-37120

Upper Radiator Hose - OEM - 16571-37140 

Drive Motor Inverter Cooler Water Pump (AISIN WQT-001)

Amsoil Brake fluid (BFLVCN-EA) x 2 

Front hub - OEM (43550-47011) Production Date: 12/2010-06/2012

Rear hub - OEM (42450-76021) Production Date: 03/2011-12/2013

Front brake pads - Akebono ProACT (ACT1184A)

Rear brake pads - Akebono ProACT (ACT1354C)

Rotors - Front Right - StopTech 126.44172SR Sport Slotted Brake Rotor; Front Right

Rotors - Front Left - StopTech 126.44172SL Sport Slotted Brake Rotor

Rotors - Rear Right - StopTech 126.44173SR Sport Slotted Brake Rotor

Rotors - Rear Left - StopTech 126.44173SL Sport Slotted Brake Rotor

Brake Calipers I had rebuilt earlier but if you want part numbers for those:

    Front Disc Brake Caliper RH - OEM - 47730-47060

    Front Disc Brake Caliper LH - OEM - 47750-47060

    Rear Disc Brake Caliper RH - OEM - 47830-12240

    Rear Disc Brake Caliper LH - OEM - 47850-12240

Since the radiator had to be swapped out as well the easiest way was to discharge the freon, drain the coolant from the radiator and from the inverter, disconnect the condenser, remove the upper radiator support, upper and lower radiator hoses along with the inverter hoses and pull the whole cradle that contains the radiator, condenser and inverter cooler.   

With the cradle out of the way there was easy access to the inverter pump. Remove the air box and there was easy access to the thermostat and water pump. Replaced all the parts and assembly in the reverse order. Filled up the coolant reservoirs and bled the system.

All the old engine coolant parts:

Onto the hub and brakes. 

Undid the calipers, removed the rotors and wow the hubs were crusty!! Anyway got the hubs out smoothed out the surfaces and new hubs went on. Didn't get a chance to clean out the dust shields because of time constraints. 

New rotors, calipers and spacers went back on, torqued the spacers, put on the hub centric rings and that was done. Also did a full brake fluid flush.

All the old parts:

How everything looks with the wheels on and bedding in the brakes. The bedding in process took off all the black coating and this is how it looks.

So far so good, brakes work, happy that I didn't mess that up. Happy with how everything turned out.

-AJ Abraham

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CT200h - Brake Caliper Rebuild

Wanted to refresh the braking system but wasn't pressed for time so got a set of used caliper and set about refreshing it.

Parts used:
FRONT Brake Cylinder Rebuild Kit - 04478-47040
REAR Brake Cylinder Rebuild Kit - 04479-12230

Did a quick clean up by throwing it in the cuda that got rid of mostly all the grime etc. that had built up over the years and prepped them with a quick sanding and cleaning out all the crevices before it went for paint.

Picked a color that would tie in to the 'Hybrid' logo on the side of the car.

Masked up all the any mounting surfaces and the insides of the caliper. All OEM parts were used for this rebuild.

For the rear caliper if you press down on the bracket where the ebrake cable connects to it slowly pushes the piston out, you can do that till it pops out or out enough where you can pull it by hand.  

Pulled the brake pins out and cleaned out the pins and where it slides in the caliper. Used a brass brush and brake cleaner. The pins were regreased and new rubber boots for the pins were used. 

To push the piston out from the front caliper I used a Milwaukee inflator with the nipple attachment. I put some foam between the piston and caliper to cushion the piston when it came out, then pressed the nipple against where the brake line threads in, set the inflator to 7psi to push the piston out, pull out if it comes out too fast. Do this at your own risk, I assume no responsibility, I'm just stating what I did. 

I used a composite pick to mitigate the risk of any marring to the piston of cylinder. With all new piston rings, boots etc. I went ahead and ceramic coated it because umm.. why not.  

Everything looks good and I did a basic test by pushing the piston out slowly as described before and back in hopefully everything works. For now everything looks good, if I was in a hurry would I do this again, absolutely not. This whole process probably took a month or so just because everything was done when I was bored. Thanks to Jeremy at the body shop for painting these for me. 

-AJ Abraham

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CT200h - OZ Wheels & Suspension Maintenance.

Needed an alignment done so figured it was also the best time to tackle some while there items. 

I had changed the axles over a year ago and over time I feel like I've been hearing a weird whirring noise which in my head could be tires, wheels or the axles. The aftermarket axles I put on did not have a dampener like the OEM axles do. So added that to the list of to change parts. Along with the axles I had new tires and my refinished OZ Wheels. In order for better rear camber and toe adjustability I got some Megan and Godspeed arms as well. 

Parts List:
Axle Front RH - OEM (43410-47031)
Axle Front LH - OEM (43420-47031)

Axle seal RH - OEM (90311-40037)

Axle seal LH - OEM (90311-50064)

Rear Upper Camber Arms - Megan MRC-SC-0510 
Rear Toe links - Godspeed AK-092-C

O.Z.  ALLEGGERITA HLT - 17 x 8 +48 ($383x4)

Goodyear Eagle Exhilarate 235/45R17 

Install was fairly straight forward, the rear toe camber bolt was seized so that took some finagling to get loose. After everything was on an alignment was done.  

Camber for front and back is at -1.75 and toe is at -0.10

Although there isn't much play in the hubs I think I'm going to add that to the parts list for the next round of maintenance along with  some new rear camber bolts, axle nuts and some new rubber insulators for the rear coil spring. Will need brakes in the next couple of months so that'll be a good time to change out the other parts also. 229k miles and counting!  Big thanks to Matt from IMW for doing all this work for me!

-AJ Abraham

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LX470 - Front End & AHC Refresh

Well my stockpile of parts is less, got a lot of parts knocked off the list. Let's start with the list of parts:

Rear Arms:

Rear - Upper Right (Air box side) (48710-60070)

Rear - Upper Left (48710-60080)

Lower Control Arm:

Used OEM Lower Control Arm - to press in bushings

Lower Control arm bushings - Front Lower Rear- SuperPro (SPF3881K) (in chassis)

Lower Control arm bushings - Front Lower Front- SuperPro (SPF2143K)

Lower Control arm bushings - 555 ball joint (SB3812) x 2

Upper Control Arm:

Used OEM Upper Control Arm for new bushings.

Upper Control arm bushings - OEM (48632-60010) x 4

Upper Control arm bushings - 555 ball joint (SB3841) x 2

CV Axle:

CV axle joint grease (any grease with molly)

Axle Snap Ring, RH/LH 2.8mm - 9052031005

Axle Snap Ring, RH/LH 2.6mm - 9052031006

Axle Snap Ring, RH/LH 2.4mm - 9052031007

Axle Snap Ring, RH/LH 2.2mm - 9052031008

Axle Snap Ring, RH/LH 2.2mm - 9052031009

Axle Snap Ring, RH/LH 1.8mm - 9052031010

OEM Axle nut lock washer (90215-42025) x 2

OEM Axle shaft flange (43421-60060) x 2

OEM Axle shaft flange gasket (43422-60070) x 2

OEM Axle shaft flange cones (42323-60030) x 12

OEM - Passenger Differential axle seal - (90311-47027) x1

OEM - Driver Differential axle seal - (90311-47013) x 1

CV Axle (Front - Left, Right) (43430-60040) x 2

Steering Rack

Steering Rack OEM 44250-60050

Bolt, Washer Based (rack mounting, single-use part)  (90105-14121) x 2

Nut, Hexagon (TRE jam nuts) (90170-20003) x 2

Nut, Flange (rack mounting, single-use part) (90178-14003) x 2

Spacer (rack mounting, single-use part) (90560-15018) x 2

Steering Arm Bolt (rack mounting, single-use part) (90101-14021) x 2

Pressure Hose Gasket (single-use part) (44327-30030) x 1

Whiteline W13210 Front Steering Rack and Pinion Mount Bushing Kit

Toyota - Tie rod - Front Left Outer - (45047-69100) (555-SE3811L)

Toyota - Tie rod - Front Right Outer - (45046-69195) (555-SE3811R)

Tie rods - Front Inner - (45503-69015) (555-SR3810) x 2 came with new rack

Transmission pressure line assembly (44410-60510) 

Steering Intermediate shaft, NO.2 (45203-60090)

AHC:

OEM ACCUMULATOR GLOBE - REAR - 49151-60010 x 2

OEM ACCUMULATOR GLOBE - REAR - 49141-60010 x 2

OEM Bleeder plug (49189-60010) x 6

OEM Bleeder plug cap (49177-60010) x 6

Suspension Fluid - Lexus (08886-01805) X 2

Shock Absorber:

Front - OEM SUSPENSION SHOCK ABSORBER MOUNT BUSHING (90903-89016) x 2

Front - SUSPENSION SHOCK ABSORBER MOUNT BUSHING (90948-01075) x 2

Front - CUSHION, FRONT SHOCK ABSORBER, NO. 2 (90948-01076) x 2

Front Suspension Hydraulic line O'RING (90562-12003) x 2 (bottom O-ring)

Front Suspension Hydraulic line O'RING (90301-11022) x 2 (top O-ring)

Rear - Upper Shock Cushion (90948-01077) x 2

Rear - Lower Shock Cushion (90948-01078) x 2

Rear - Bottom Shock Bushing (90385-19010) x 2

Rear Suspension Hydraulic line O'RING (90562-12003) x 2 (bottom O-ring)

Rear Suspension Hydraulic line O'RING (90301-11022) x 2 (top O-ring)

All loaded up.

Got a set of used OEM upper control arms to save on time by pressing out the bushings and ball joints. Also gave me enough time to prep and paint it after new bushings and ball joints were installed.

This CUDA parts washer is amazing and am so grateful to be able to use it. The shop uses this on a daily basis to clean parts before reinstallation. Another reason I use Import Motor Werks in Cary, NC. Also the main reason being Matt, he is a very skilled master tech that I trust. Thanks Matt & Import Motor Werks who by the way did all the work while I tried to stay out of the way and try to work on small stuff around him while the truck was on the lift.

After a quick wash in the CUDA prepped and refinished the lower control arms as well.

Didn't get to take a lot of pictures during the actual work, game plan was to try to knock as much of this out in a day so the car is movable and not stuck on the lift.

Disassembled everything, during which I found out that the only thing keeping my power steering fluid in the rack were the boots. Removal of the inner tie rods required the removal of the steering rack boots which resulted in a healthy puking of power steering fluid out of both ends of the rack. I felt much better about replacing the rack and lines at this point, cause boy those parts weren't cheap.  

New rack, lines, inner and outer tie rods installed with all new hardware.

While I was working on replacing AHC globes and rear upper control arms Matt finished up the steering rack, diff seals, CV Axles, upper and lower shock bushings including the AHC line O-rings as well as the upper and lower control arms including the in-frame bushings. Look at how nice all these new parts look! I know I know, it's a truck but the process of bringing this truck back to OEM spec is something that really excites me. 

New AHC globes, bled and even replaced the bleed plugs and caps.

The rear shock bushings were a pain in the ass to say the least! The location is a pain to get to to undo the bolts, swapping out the O-rings once the line was off was not as bad though. If I was to do it again I would definitely use the location guide to cut out a hole in the floor board in the trunk to access the top of the shock. Matt got it done though, new bushings and O-rings complete!!

All this work ended up being over a course of two days. Day 1 was about 8 hours of continuous work not even stopping for lunch but got the whole front end and AHC globes replaced and bled. Day 2 was only about 3 hours which consisted of the rear end, bleeding the AHC again, verified the steering wheel and rack is centered, got an alignment and was on my merry way! The difference!! WOW!! Huge huge difference and this is before I baselined the pressures. That's for another day though. For now I'm just glad that all this work is done. A huge thanks to Matt and Import Motor Werks for taking this on!

-AJ Abraham

Follow me on Instagram:
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@aj_ls460
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