Sc300 Update / Some Diy Results

sea93 · March 9, 2008

Hello, 2nd post here.. I wanted to give an update on my car and results from DIY mods listed here and on some other useful forums. I plan on taking care of most of the issues I noted in my previous post # 117 in "Tells Us About Your Car And Its Mods Or Problems, Find out common problems + repair costs" - that is where the numbering below comes from..

5) Tilt steering wheel locked in all out all up position

- I did the "washer mod" as noted in the www.soarercentral.com site, i would post the link, but seems the site is down as i post. This fix of taking the steering column apart and adding washers behind the plastic gear so it bites on the part of the gear that isn't worn down worked great. I used this washer (see pic) it was a set of 3 for a ford truck oil plug gasket. (copper) worked great. SOOO much more comfy to drive now.. 2.40 at O'riley auto parts

7) Oil is leaking I think from the front of the engine (so maybe timing belt from what i have read) Engine bay looks like someone threw a balloon full of oil in there, not pretty.

- I haven't fixed this yet, but i think it is a Cam Seal.. So i guess replacing cam seal/timing belt/water pump is in my future

8) Headlights need to be polished, light is not passing through like it should be

- I did the toothpaste method.. on just the outside, and What a difference!!!

10) Front passenger fender needs to be replaced

- I bought a fender from an ebay seller, it was in good condition, but didnt exactly match. I see that i get the paint code from the driver door, i guess I'll get paint from the lexus shop then find a place around my house to do it for me..

12) I put Premium gas in it at the QT station by my house for the first time, and the car didn't crank when i went to leave. My heart sank. I tried it again and it worked, but for the rest of the trip home it seemed like it wanted to die every time i came to a complete stop. I did get me home though.

- I cleaned my throttle body from instructions in http://www.lextreme.com/ basically take the air intake out and clean the TB with carb/TB cleaner. It has a few rags worth of gunk in it.. The car has not died since. I think this also had to do with 1/2 dirty TB, 1/2 bad main ground.

17) Power side mirrors don't seem to be working

- They actually were working, i just wasn't working them correctly!

18) Ground cable in bad shape (battery wasn't fastened in any way, slide over towards belt and belt rubbed the cable almost in half.)

- Bought and installed a new neg ground cable. I still an getting some dimming when i brake at night, i think i am going to go back and make sure i sand a bit down to the bare metal for it to make a really good connection. I also installed a universal battery tray, and a southern engineered fitment device so it doesn't flop around in cornering.

19) While driving at night, occasionally headlights lights and dash will loose power with right set of blinkers running.

Ground cable fixed this.

Thanks guys, I'll keep ya'll updated! OH if anyone in Dallas area has a 1993 SC300 repair manual they would let me borrow or sell me that would be sweet. Thanks -J