CARSETC

The seat looks EXACTLY like mine did when I found it, I had it repaired it looks good and was cheap, just an idea.

Have you driven the car? I wholesale vehicles and when visiting my family, I found my SC400 in a field behind a dealer’s lot; they had taken it in on trade from a Doctor who drove it a lot. It had a rip in the leather on the drivers side bolster, rock chips. It had sat there for two years (not a big demand in rural Montana for a Lexus SC). Long story short I had it hauled on a flatbed to a Toyota dealer, had them replace timing belt, water pump, used power steering pump, all fluids filter adjust the valves (it had a slight tapping noise now it purrs), I have since done shocks wheels, stereo, fixed the seat, tint etc. all the fun stuff to it. I later found out that the Doctor had replaced nearly the entire front suspension/steering rack, which explained why when it was done it drove so well and he had kept it fairly well maintained at the local Toyota dealer. If the car you are looking at runs strong and feels good, take it to a Lexus dealer or Toyota and have the do an inspection, talk to the tech-not just the service writer, if they think it is ok ( they will always find something) deduct what they find and offer the dealer a lowball. (I’m a dealer trust me they’re expecting it). The SC is in my opinion one of the best built cars I have ever dealt with and that’s all I deal with are mostly higher end cars I have a newer Mercedes S class with a fraction of the miles the SC has and it is not nearly the car nor as reliable as the old SC is. I use my SC every day and mile it out, I have three other personal cars but like the SC for driving the best, I am on my 3rd set of tires since getting the car my friends call the SC Christine after the movie, because she is red and just keeps running like new with only general maintenance from me. Have it checked out, would a lower mile SC be better, probably, but if you can get it for less than some people put in their new wheels alone, it’s a lot of fun!

Thanks, I found a new reservoir tank online for $114, sounds like pretty good deal, I will silicone it until the new part arrives. I did buy a new level sensor I have bee just using pliers to unscrew it, is that ok? I have taken it out several times as carefully as I could but don’t want to have to buy a new one. Is there a better way to remove this piece or is this ok. Thanks for your help.

The coolant reservoir on my 92 SC400 has a hair line crack in it coming off of the level sensor. It leaks coolant. not bad, but enough so I want to fix it. Does anyone know what I can use to fix the reservoir? I have tried some plastic welds but nothing seems to hold. How much pressure should be in the reservoir tank? Any help is greatly appreciated.

I would still take the amp out and have it checked when this happened to me the first amp had blown almost all of the sound cards (transistors), and during my second run the new amp blew out only 2 (because of a short that had developed in a speaker or in that mess of wires) so the system worked until (like on your car) the sub was plugged in, I had it rebuilt but that is when I decided to redo the entire system. My guess is at some point water did get to the amp and that is probably where your problem is located.

I had a similar problem after washing my SC400. There is a drain tube that runs from under the gas cap down the rear quarter panel and drains under the car, the tube is clear plastic and mine came unhooked from the area under the gas cap. When the car was washed the water that got under the fuel door drained into the quarter panel where the CD changer sits and soaked my Nakamichi amp. I had to wet-vac the water out. After taking out the inner trunk panel ( there was no sign of water in the trunk until I removed the interior panel) I also let it sit for several days, and it kept blowing fuses and the stereo would not work. I took out the amp to have it tested the Nakamichi amp was blown. You might want to have your amp tested to see if the same thing happened to you. It was very frustrating. I did replace the amp and the system worked but had developed a short somewhere in the wiring, I also replaced the deck. I ended up rewiring the entire system and having and alpine CD / XM radio – amp etc. custom fitted into the car and removing the volume button so the aftermarket stereo would look good. I did keep the two Nakamichi decks the 12 disk changer and the new amp, if you find out that one of those is blown and you want to keep your old system assuming you have the Nakamichi system. I am going to put the whole lot on e-bay (someday). That was a long drawn out story, but I hope it helps.

There are tons of posts about what to look for when buying a SC, breaks will wear out, and the power steering pumps are know for leaking after a while. I would be somewhat concerned about the head gasket, I don’t know of many that have gone bad, and 45k on a SC400 is not that many miles. Is the dealer going to warranty the car? Did they say if the head gaskets were a problem, or why it should be replaced?