BMAN1113

Yea... It's still sounding good. What a relief.

Yes they will, but you will need to watch the style. They changed a little over the years. I believe the SC300 & SC400 only differ in drivetrain. Looks like EBAY only has a few of the older ones for sale right now. TAP recycling should have some of these. 1-800-765-7100

The other morning, my SC400 refused to start in the grocery store parking lot. I popped off my terminal caps and they were completely covered with a thick green and white oxidation-like material. Back at the house, I cleaned the terminals and tried to charge the battery. The five year old battery was toast, wouldn't hold charge. The alternator checked-out good, so I went and bought a heavy duty Interstate and hooked it up. Little did I know, I was in for a pleasant surprise. The car seemed to have more spunk and my stereo sound quality seemed to be a whole lot better. If you had read my prior postings you know that for the last couple of months, I have been experiencing a bass that sounded like it was "spitting" instead of "thumping". The overall sound was very metallic and treblely. I couldn't understand what was going on. I was about to pull the amp and send it to Florida to be rebuilt. Could that battery going gradually bad have been starving the large Nakamichi amp? The richness is definately back. I hope this isn't just a temporary coincidence. Have you all ever heard of an old battery causing the stereo quality to degrade?

I'm not going to pretend to understand all the numbers being posted. I know but I don't know. I'm guessing Ca= calicum ... Zn= zinc... ppm= parts per million... 8% difference sounds significant to me. Too bad I don't know what CCS stands for..lol. I'll look it up. Mburn, are these numbers are from new oil... or what ?? You say I have to test my oil, but won't that just give feedback on the condition of my particular engine. Two Sc400's could have completely different analyisis results... I think.. hell I dont know. Sadistic, jump in and join the mix. Nuetrality will get you nowhere and maturity is far over-rated anyway. What makes Ow30 "severe service". Would you buy ASL over Ow30 and why? Do you think Mburn has accounted for everything?

I'm gaining start-up protection. I think it's a rather big deal. That's a major known cause of engine wear. This problem has been the main motivation for the development of hundreds of oil additives over the last fifty years. Most, however, ended up having negative long term effects on motors, due to break-down and build-up. With synthetic oil you don't have that problem. So when it came to my attention that by using the 0W30, due to its light properties, engine parts encountering friction at morning start-up will have a greater amount of oil adhered to them, I'm there. Do any of your numbers show to what degree the lubricant remains adhered to parts after like a 12hr period? I don't doubt that your oil works just as good when it's flowing. I can try to find the article where I read this info. It was an independant tester who evaluated like 12 top oils and put them to all sorts of tests. As far as I know, he had no connection to Amsoil. One of these involved heating the oils to operating temperature, coating parts then leaving them for like 15hrs. to simulate cold start. They determined that by using the 0W30 there was virtually no microscopic scaring present on the bearing. The others did have scaring present.

Not $12 for an oil change... $12 more than you per change.

What??..Are we going to the virtual parking lot... lol. Get a life.

You cant originally be from Alabama...lol

Rhetoric!!... Man I was being tame. If you found that offensive you need to butch-up..lol. Such tender people.

Your ASL is great stuff but where the 0w30 shines is in its protection at morning start-up. It's lightness allows a protective film to remain on the parts for a greater amount of time. As I'm sure you know, most wear comes in the first 3 seconds of the day. Until the oil reaches the parts it's basically metal on metal. As for the cost, I change the oil once a year (15K) regardless of condition. That's a whopping $12 more per oil change and I'm getting the best (IN MY OPINION!..lol). $.03 per day difference. I've also cross-referenced a larger filter and change it twice a year. Some people told me I would develop leaks by moving to the synthetics. So far, I have had to replace my valve cover gaskets, as they began to ooze a little. Whether that was caused by the Amzoil, I don't know. I'd do it all over again. When replacing the gaskets the mechanic said everything looked super clean. When it's time to change-out the transmission fluid, though, I think I'm going to go with the Toyota IV. When I put my foot into it, sometimes it seems to not grab like it should. I'll admit when something doesn't work out but, "Handfull of magic beans???" This isn't "Bart's Snake Oil"... "I'm going to do exactly what the Lexus Stealership tells me to". You have tunnel-vision. Don't take their word for everything... That's a Communist mind-set. Quit being such a "good little soldier"..lol.

Hello H-TownLS Which body shop is that? Where do you get your car worked on? Thx, Brian

Has anyone used FCSR out of Florida to re-work their amps? Thx

I have a 93' SC400 w/ the Nakamichi set-up. First, my CD player was cutting out. I ran a CD cleaner through it and it has been behaving a lot better. Now, just two weeks later I'm having sound quality issues. The sound has become very "trebble-ish" or "hissy". When you crank it up it gets really irritating. Sounds very cheap. That nice richness is gone. I've also recently had my sub-woofer go through periods of sounding blown or like it's "spitting" instead of the nice deep "thud". I checked the woofer but it was not torn-up. On the advice of two audio shops, I went ahead and had it re-coned, but the problem still exsists (but it comes and goes). I'm wondering if this is connected to the degraded sound I'm getting now. I'm thinking Amp, but doesnt this cause dramatic volume loss or very erratic sound distortion? I dont know. It seems like all these radio shops here can do is install. Their diagnostic skills bite. Has anyone else experienced this... the sound problems I mean...lol. Thx

My CD player ran almost flawlessly, all day (about 4hrs). I had one 2 second cut-out. The CD player is not nearly as sensitive to bumps anymore since using the cleaning cd. I sure hope people havent been scrapping their CD players when they were merely dirty. Though with my luck the player might have just decided to behave for a couple of days. Who knows. We'll see how the next few days go.

Well, I purchased a Maxell lens cleaning CD today ($19). At first it seemed to make the problem worse. Instead of the silent cut-outs, I began getting erratic audible skipping. I thought, "This sucks... it's cooked now!" Then a couple of hours later, I was back in my car and decided to run the Cleaner CD excessively... like 10 times in a row. I can't get it to skip now. I'm trying not to get too excited, though. I'll check back with you all tomorrow. That will give it several hours of run time. The car was actually purchased in '92. After almost 13 years, if never cleaned, you could see how that lens could really get filthy. We'll see. Fingers crossed, Brian P.S. DCFISH... Was that 6cd changer mounted in the glove box on the ES. I saw that one pic someone posted of their install of that 6-changer in their SC trunk. It looked awkward and in the way... instead of clean and tucked-away, like the 12disc is. Do you have any SC mounting pics that I can see? Thx

dcfish, What do those changers run? Are these new old stock or used? My '93 changer is cutting-out in the middle of songs. It had always skipped pretty bad when I hit bumps, but it just recently started doing this while sitting still. Can't make it through a song without several 5-to-10 second cut-outs. I'm going to go get a CD cleaner and see if this helps. If not I guess I'll need one of those other changers you spoke of. A 6cd changer sort of bites though. Thx

Thx

How many of you all have had to have your lifters shimmed. At what mileage? For those of you who paid to have this done, what did it run? Dealer or independent? Thx, Brian

Can you post pics?

Timing belt, water pump, cam seals, plugs (NGK), wires, caps, ABS system flush, Cooling system flush, throttle-body cleaning, Trans fluid/filter change (including draining of the torque converter) replacing w/ Toyota Type IV, oil change (perferably Amsoil 0w30 synthetic) / Amsoil high-capacity oil filter, two back-to-back doses of Chevron Techroline. May not be what the book says, but this is what I'd do to start fresh. About $1,800 at a good independant shop. More than twice that at the Lexus stealership. Doing it yourself???... $600? maybe..Not sure. Cant remember what the waterpump runs now... aftermarket could run as low as $85... dealer $250. I would also pickup a shop manual. Black market reproduction sets run about $120 on Ebay. That's what I have. Well worth it.

That does really *BLEEP* me off!! Why..Oh why...didnt they produce standard tranny SC400's!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It would have been so sweet!

You're showing to have a '93... You dont have this style? If you want to use it you will have to change the whole nose out with one from 92-94. They changed this style because these are easily torn-up. The last one I bought was over $400. I do prefer the looks of this style, though.

If you dont oil your filter, dirt is going to get through. Some people swear by the K&N style re-useable filter, but I've always been weary. Yes, it has higher air flow but at what long term cost. I just stick with oem when it comes to air filters.

Not quite sure what you mean by "brackets" but I wouldnt suggest scrapping the boxes that the speakers are mounted in. These were custom made for your particular car by the Nakamichi engineers. In creating these they take many factors into a account such as door thickness, density of panel composition, available air-space, etc. If your speakers are blown you can always have them re-coned or buy replacements. You have two 4" one-ways and a 10" (Could be an 8", cant remember right now) center subwoofer on the back panel. You have two more 4" one-ways in the door panels with component tweeters placed in the front door sills. Had mine re-coned and system sounds like new. $20 each. On my 1993 SC400, all four of mine were blown.

Yea, Im think I'll try replacing them. Did you do all of your at the same time. If so what did this run?