creek Posted February 8, 2005 Share Posted February 8, 2005 I just took my newly purchased 93 SC400 (65K miles) in to have it gone over to see if there was anything wrong with it. Good news is it has a new timing belt but the bad news...... Does anyone know of where I can get a replacement SC400 coolant reservoir mine has a crack and the local shop wants 380 dollars to replace. Also is it easy to replace myself. I take it I'll need to drain my whole coolant system. Is there a drain plug on the radiator to do this? Also the shop said I need the front bushings replaced and it would cost 950 dollars. Is that an easy job that anyone can do, I just thought 950 was a little steep. They also said I need the rear struts replaced (how do I tell if they are bad), 650 dollars Is that a simple job too and where and what should i buy to replace them? They had a list of other problems.... leaking valve cover gasket and valve adjustment, water in my headlight covers, wrong replacement plugs and it needs new plug wires,distributer cap and rotor not to mention change out all fluids! I just paid this shop 90 dollars to tell me I will need to spend more money to fix my new car than I spent on it. I guess it's time I learn to fix all this on my own!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shadow Posted February 9, 2005 Share Posted February 9, 2005 Shop repair manuals and some elbow grease will do wonder to your wallet. Skills you learn working on your car will serve you well into the future. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeremyp Posted February 9, 2005 Share Posted February 9, 2005 There are more cost effective methods to replacing the bushings. Sounds like the dealer is replacing the entire lower control arm. You can buy 95 Toyota Supra Lower Control Arms for $200 ea or you could buy some replacement bushings from vftbushes dot com and have them installed into your existing control arms. Struts go for $65 each and are really easy to do. You will need a friend to help and a spring compressor which you can rent/borrow from your local auto parts store. The coolant reservoir could be found in a salvage yard or check out car-part dot com or taprecycling dot com. It's pretty easy to do yourself. How handy are you? Do you have the tools to do the job? Got a service manual (get one if you don't). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnny3 Posted February 10, 2005 Share Posted February 10, 2005 No way do you need all that done with only 65k miles. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
creek Posted February 11, 2005 Author Share Posted February 11, 2005 Thanks for the suggestions, no I do not own a shop manual yet. Are they fairly self explanatory and are there different types? I do own allot of tools and I purchased this car as a project car so I am going to do as much of the work on it that I can. One big project I have been putting off is the front headlights have standing water in them and I read in this forum where you can remove them and place them in the oven to seperate the 2 halves. My problem is what should I work on first? A guy I work with told me I should just repair the Reservoir with epoxy on the outside. That might be a temporary fix but I would like to find a replacement for a decent price. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lexus082 Posted February 11, 2005 Share Posted February 11, 2005 Thanks for the suggestions, no I do not own a shop manual yet. Are they fairly self explanatory and are there different types? I do own allot of tools and I purchased this car as a project car so I am going to do as much of the work on it that I can. One big project I have been putting off is the front headlights have standing water in them and I read in this forum where you can remove them and place them in the oven to seperate the 2 halves. My problem is what should I work on first? A guy I work with told me I should just repair the Reservoir with epoxy on the outside. That might be a temporary fix but I would like to find a replacement for a decent price. ← I just had to replace my reserve tank assembly the other day. The previous owner tried to epoxy the small pin hole but it didn't work. You can get a new reserve tank for $140.00 shipped through www.lexuspros.com. To replace it you just need to disconnect the coolant level sensor, remove single bolt that holds it in place and take off all connected hoses. Then do the reverse to install. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
creek Posted February 12, 2005 Author Share Posted February 12, 2005 I looked on the www.lexuspros.com site but did not see the coolant reservoir. I also was looking at ebay and someone was selling the lower control arms for 385. Does anybody know where i can get these any cheaper? They said that nobody replaces just the bushings, they recomend replacing the whole control arm is there any truth to this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeremyp Posted February 12, 2005 Share Posted February 12, 2005 I looked on the www.lexuspros.com site but did not see the coolant reservoir.I also was looking at ebay and someone was selling the lower control arms for 385. Does anybody know where i can get these any cheaper? They said that nobody replaces just the bushings, they recomend replacing the whole control arm is there any truth to this? ← see my post above. It answers your questions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnny3 Posted February 12, 2005 Share Posted February 12, 2005 I wonder if you could get one of those plastic bags for baking stuff in the oven & poke it inside the leaking tank, kinda blow it up a little,put the lid on over the excess plastic, trim off the excess ? It's not a pressure vessel situation, only a drain container. Worth a try, cheapo depot???? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lexus082 Posted February 13, 2005 Share Posted February 13, 2005 I looked on the www.lexuspros.com site but did not see the coolant reservoir.I also was looking at ebay and someone was selling the lower control arms for 385. Does anybody know where i can get these any cheaper? They said that nobody replaces just the bushings, they recomend replacing the whole control arm is there any truth to this? ← They can get any Lexus oem part, just have to e-mail them. The part number for your '93 is 16482-50020 (Reservoir tank). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shadow Posted February 13, 2005 Share Posted February 13, 2005 I plastic welded my reservoir and it held up for over a year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lawreaga Posted February 14, 2005 Share Posted February 14, 2005 I plastic welded my reservoir and it held up for over a year. same here!!! but mines is 1month and going good so far. lol!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lexus082 Posted February 22, 2005 Share Posted February 22, 2005 I looked on the www.lexuspros.com site but did not see the coolant reservoir.I also was looking at ebay and someone was selling the lower control arms for 385. Does anybody know where i can get these any cheaper? They said that nobody replaces just the bushings, they recomend replacing the whole control arm is there any truth to this? ← It is listed now under sc dealer parts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
creek Posted February 22, 2005 Author Share Posted February 22, 2005 Thanks for all the suggestions! I changed out the reservoir this weekend $140 for the part and it wasn't difficult better than 380 at the shop . I did notice that I needed to add allot of coolant to the resevoir when it was cold and i would start the car up for a couple of seconds and shut it off and the coolant level would be low again. So i would add more does anyone know if there is an easier way to fill the system? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alfonso Posted February 24, 2005 Share Posted February 24, 2005 creek, I own a '92 SC400 with 174k miles. Last month, I had the left and right front lower control arm bushings replaced. The labor cost was $320 (4 hours @ $80 per hour) at an independent mechanic who frequently works on Lexus. Each front lower control arm has a front and rear bushing. The cost of the four bushings from the Lexus dealer was about $150. Although the front LCA bushings are not listed for 92-96 model years, the bushings for 97-00 will work just fine. The part numbers are: Front LCA front bushing - 48654-24040 Front LCA rear bushing - 48655-24050 The car now rides much, much better. No more suspension bonking on bumps. Front LCA bushings are also available from Daizen (TM Engineering). http://www.tmengineering.net/suspension/daizen/index.html LCA bushings also available from Vlamos. http://vftbushes.com A lot of SC owners like the Daizen bushings, which give a stiffer ride than stock. I wanted the cushy stock ride and so I didn't get them. The Vlamos are said to ride like stock, but they're a lot more expensive. My local Lexus stealer wanted $1,600 for parts and labor to replace the two front lower control arms. Simply replacing the bushings was not an option with the dealer. Here's a thread on ClubLexus where I learned about the SC400 '97-00 model year bushings also working for 92-96 models. http://www.clublexus.com/forums/showthread...ght=48654-24040 Here's a more recent thread in which someone else also did this replacement and liked the results. http://us.lexusownersclub.com/forums/index...topic=17211&hl= Good luck! Alfonso Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cruznroadking Posted February 24, 2005 Share Posted February 24, 2005 If you have to keep adding coolant, there are probably air pockets in the cooling system. You have to either keep adding coolant every time until the air pockets are out of the system or bleed it out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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