Hello - Newbie. First Prob Solved

[Forbesy]

Hi All,

I bought a 55 reg RX300 last week - Love the drive and all the toys, but the car is not without it's problems ! I found a few of these before I bought it and used as negotiation points so I'm not unhappy with it - Hey, everything can be fixed, right? ;)

The list so far:

Water in boot - I've found the threads on here about resealing various seams around rear end, so will tackle that at some point.

Power steering pipework - Hillbilly fix discovered with slightly leaky jubilee-clipped joint

Rusty chassis - Guess car was in a pretty corrosive environment before. Intend to treat & paint with POR15

Front discs & pads - change

140amp alternator fuse - as below

After having the car for only a couple of days, the wife took it out for the first time, only to call me up and tell me it wouldn't start.. Oh dear.. I went to take a look and found that power was coming on - all the dash lights etc. but nav didn't power up and driver's widow wouldn't work - Weird. When trying to start the engine, there was nothing at all, no clicks or clunks, nothing. Popped off the fuse cover and found this - Yes, a nice blob of solder where a fuse should be ! Turns out this is the 140A fuse marked 'alternator' on the map.

Easy enough to swap? Wrong! These fuses are bolted in from underneath rather than just pulling out, so - fusebox out:

3 bolts: two in front (into wing) and 1 behind (into bulkhead).. Battery out for access:

Unbolt everything, unclip bottom casing from fusebox and push fuse carriers out through the bottom - You can see how they're held in by a series of clips:

Once they're out, you have access to the bolts that hold in the fuse:

One either side (I marked 1 cable with a dot, just in case I got confused;))

Old one out, new one in - all back together and away we go..

Well, that's the first job done - I think the water ingress is the next most-pressing topic, so will let you know how that goes!

Cheers for now..

[Forbesy]

Sorry mods - Those pics are far too big aren't they? oops.

[The-Acre]

Well done on that one. What a scary thing to have a blob of solder where a fuse should be! The LS is a car that suffers from water in the boot, but easily remedied.

And welcome to the LOC.

[steve2006]

Good write up and well detailed, obviously someone previously decided a blob of solder was the easiest option :(

I've known these fuses blow when jump starting so that may have been the original cause,wiring looks good so no long term damage hopefully.

Lexus models have their fair share of boot leaks usually a rubber seal or the light clusters alowing water inside.