dannycwu

hi there. i was washing my 95 sc300 the other day and noticed that the left rear wheelwell is lower than the others by about 1/2 to 1 inch or so when I was applying tire dressing. is this a damaged spring or shock or? I have 122K on my lexus and would like to balance out the car again in the cheapest manner possible.

thanks in advance for your help!

hi there I need new brakes for my 95 sc300 and was wondering if you could recommend the best value out there. don't need anything super special, but would like something that works well and doesn't cost too much.

any of the things on ebay any good? and how often do you replace rotors and is anything on ebay any good also? or any online stores offer better deals? I've got 114K on my sc...

also my friend at the fire station says changing brakes is pretty easy but he has a ford truck. is there anything trick with lexus with regards to changing brakes or rotors?

thanks again!

danny

I'm in the Pasadena area but will drive for peace of mind and savings anywhere in the LA/Orange County area!

I'm looking for a reasonable and reliable Los Angeles area mechanic. I know I could go to the dealer but their prices seem unreasonable at times. Thanks in advance...

It's been raining a lot in Southern California lately and I've discovered a worn out rubber seal/leak in the top of my passenger side rear small window trim. It looks like the rubber is twisted or something. Is this something that is easy/cheap to replace? Or should I just inject some black silicone in there for a quick fix? Please help me eliminate the small puddle on my rear seat!

Thanks again!

Thanks for the reference, but wasn't there another website that offered partial leather seats for a discounted price? I remember clicking on it and finding substantial savings on that site. Please someone help!

Thanks a lot of the picture. I'll try and figure it out. I also have problems with my door locking mechanism...maybe it's rubbing against something and I'll take a look at that also.

THANKS AGAIN! :D

Is there a good website that shows how to remove the door panels so I can check the connections? Or another good reference? Thanks a lot!

My power mirrors don't work at all, and my seat memory works very rarely. Sometimes my passenger side will slide back to its original position after I recline it forward to let someone in, sometimes not. Just wondering if this was all related to a faulty item somewhere, because I think the seat memory also does custom mirror settings?

I've written about this before but now it's really bugging me and I'd like to try and fix it!

Thank you for your time!

I remember reading awhile back about certain websites that offered do it yourself leather seat replacement for our SC's. I think there was one that had options for how many panels of leather you could choose, thereby reducing the price. I did a topic search on this website and couldn't find it--could someone please direct me to the proper website again? Thanks.

I have a 1995 SC300 and when the sunroof is closed and I travel at 60+ mph I can hear the wind noise. I was wonder if this is normal for a 9 year old car, and if so is there anything I can do to make the seal better again. Thanks!

I just received my 95 SC300 back from the body shop and it looks very nice. Brand new front and rear bumpers, and paid extra to have the whole thing professionally polished and waxed--smooth and shiny like a baby's butt! However when I went to give it a quick hit with some liquid quick detailer from Meguiar's the ends of the rear bumper caved in a little bit with pressure. Is it because it's a new bumper and it does feel a bit softer? They didn't forget to insert some kind of impact absorbing structure did they? Also just noticed that the trunk has a leeeeetle bit of play in it. Like when I close it and I push and pull on it it barely moves a little bit, but I know it wasn't there before. Is there some kind of rubber mount that they might have forgotten to put in?

I took my car in to get fixed also because after the accident it made a rattling noise when I drove the car when the RPM's were low. They determined that it was the exhaust piping being damaged in the accident and they replaced the whole right side. Now when I drive, it rattles only for like the first minute I back the car out or drive forward and then it disappears after what I'm assuming is the engine/exhaust warming up. Is this a big concern or? I tried to show them but by the time I drive there, it stops and I can't make it make the noise again because I think the car is warmed up!

I bought a spoiler off of Ebay and had painted/polished and installed on my SC. Can I just splice the original third brake light wires into the new spoiler wires? I noticed the male/female receptacles look different. Or is there a way to have both of them light up? Better safe than sorry right?

Last but not least since I have you reading this far, seat memory used to work intermittently, but does not work now. Power mirrors never worked when I bought the vehicle. Also, the passenger side seat sometimes automatically moves back to the original position/moves forward when seat back is leaned forward to assist with loading rear passengers, and sometimes doesn't. Is this something that is all related? Or do you know how much a Lexus mechanic will charge to fix? I can live with it, but would like my vehicle up to par if possible?

Thanks, and hey at least from the outside the car looks GREAT!!!

I bought a custom plastic insert from Ebay for our vehicle from www.sc400tuner.com. Took it to a local place and they installed it no problem after cutting out a hole for the new head unit.

good luck!

Good luck with that purchase. Just be careful because that area has a lot of small, independent dealers who can be pretty shady.

I bought my 95 SC300 w/91K for $8500 in SoCal and thought I got a great deal. Then I was thinking about trading it in for a truck for my job and hobbies and the car dealer showed me all the self fixes the previous owner had done. And the previous owner was some affluent guy who lived near the beach in the hills in a nice house who also owned a Ferrari and restored Benz so I didn't even think about him trying to cut corners with fixes. I was just mesmerized by the rechromed rims and new paint job he did. Shiny things do that to you!

Be careful and good luck!

hey thanks for all the responses! the noise happens quickly when I drive at a snail's pace at low rpms, and then disappears. or if I accelerate slowly on and off really slowly with my foot on the brake while in D, it sounds like something that's spinning and hitting something. maybe a fan or belt or? it sounds like it's coming from the passenger side front end of the car.

yeah I agree that I should report to insurance and dmv, but I figure I'd give the poor girl a break and keep her insurance down. plus as a safety I have 10 days to report the accident and I'll find out the complete estimate on the 11th, which is on the 7th day after the accident. I figure if they don't agree to fix the vehicle with the new estimate including mechanical repairs I can call it in to my insurance and DMV.

I guess you can call it stupidity or just being a nice guy and believing in karma?

thanks for your advice again! I'll definitely give the shop an idea of what "we" think it is!

hey all...

got rear ended by a 03 volkswagon jetta last week which pushed me into a jeep grand cherokee in the front with no damage to the jeep and grill/bumper/light damage to the jetta. so far it looks like cosmetic front and rear bumper damage for me with one cracked high beam light, although the auto body adjuster did say my aluminum reinforcement in the front of my car was cracked and they can't tell the extent of the damage until they remove both bumpers. the guilty party wants to avoid insurance (16 year old female driver who's fully cooperative but angry-at-daughter daddy already paid cash for the preliminary estimate repairs of $2600 plus rental car and any further repairs and would rather fix out of pocket to avoid high insurance on the girl, who crashed last month too. expensive girl to maintain!)

I'm bringing the vehicle into the shop on wednesday for repairs but lately have heard a kind of rubbing noise when I have the car in D only and accelerate from maybe 500-1500 rpms only. doesn't do it on R or N or P. does anyone out there have any advice on what I should be looking for so I can tell the auto body about the noise and they can address it? just want to make sure it gets fixed and that I can tell the auto body an idea of what's going on.

thanks again for all of your help and advice and be safe out there.

This tube you speak of, is it something I can fix myself or clean out? I'd like to save any form of labor=$$$ if possible, if you know what I mean! Is it connected to that little hole in the fuel intake right next to where you stick the nozzle in?

Thanks for your help...

PS--fixed the speaker problem. Apparently I didn't listen closely enough and one of the speakers was out, because the RCA cable was defective. They fixed it today and after messing around with the ridiculous amount of sound options on the Alpine head unit (there's like some MX sound thing, like 3 bass adjustments and "zones"...pretty crazy, head unit amp power on or off with or w/o amp etc.) the whole system sounds pretty nice. They set it up for heavy rap/hip hop music but I turned all the bass boosts off for my hard rock/metal music. I'm already thinking of getting 6.5's in the rear for more midrange and tight bass...

Good luck!

Got the SC back yesterday with the new stereo in it. Al and Ed's in Pasadena, CA did a fine job installing it, and didn't report any problems putting my components in. The cosmetic piece looks great, like it was meant to be there, and the sub sounds really good too for a free air sub. Only problem is that with Infinity 4" speakers all around I've gots lots of bass, good highs, and no midrange. I think I'll go and try and fine tune the stereo today, and/or hope the speakers "break in" with time. All in all, 4" speakers all around, 10" free air sub seemed to be nothing too hard to put in for the fellas there!

PS-- GO BUCS!!! what a Monday Night SHELLACKING!

I'm having my deck and full stereo installed today. It's a basic Alpine CD/MP3 deck, with some Infinity 4" Reference Series speakers, a Pioneer 10" free-air subwoofer, and an Alpine 5-channel amp to power everything. I'm paying 390 dollars (labor only plus some wires--I bought a 4 channel amp kit on Ebay cheap) to have it done by a place that looks like they know what they're doing (they've worked on the SC300/400 before and know all of the intricancies). I also bought the cosmetic smooth plastic piece from www.sc400tuner.com that fills in the void around the radio because of the double DIN space. I'm still awaiting the final product in about 4 hours or so so I'll let you know how it went!

As for self installation I was thinking about it, but then decided to opt for a professional place to do it because of my unfamiliarity with car stereo installations and the odd attributes of our vehicle. I checked out www.carstereohelp.com for pics showing the removal of our speakers and head unit and I was like...hmmm...I think I'll save up for a pro install!

Good luck with your project--or just work some overtime and save up for it like me! :magic:

What is this method you speak of that displaces the air bubbles in the fuel tube inlet? Is it something I can check or something I have to replace or? Just getting tired of taking like 10 minutes to fuel my Lexus with my hand constantly pumping the gas trigger because it keeps stopping. Thanks!

Does anyone else out there have problems fueling their SC300? When I try and fuel it at the gas pump, the nozzle repeatedly turns off because too much fuel is backing up into the inlet. So I have to fuel it at pretty much a snail's pace which isn't really a problem, just a hassle when in a hurry (which is often...LOL). I asked my mechanic and he said that it's because the Lexus suffers a similar problem as a Jaguar--that the fuel inlet is too parallel to the ground, thus resulting in backup of the fuel. Is this true or is their something I can do to alleviate this problem? From the outside physical look of the fuel inlet and gas tank the integrity seems perfect...

Thanks!

Thanks for the quick replies! Now, how does one rebuild the starter solenoid? Is it something that I should ask my mechanic to do (how much do you think it should cost?). Or do I have to buy a new one? Or is it something I can do myself?

Thanks again!

:D

Hey all, thanks for reading this. I have a 95 Lexus SC300 that's been running fine as of late. However sometimes when I don't drive it for two days or so and then try and start the car, I either get a "click" and then nothing or a "click" and then a second later it starts and turns over. So far it's started up everytime but I'm wondering if any of you know what the problem might be. I've heard checking the battery terminals but they're brand new and maybe the starter is going bad? Please help me at your earliest convenience and thanks again for reading this post!

Hi all. I'm looking for a recommendation for a good repair manual so I can nurse my 95 SC300 back to health again. Apparently the previous owner didn't take care of her too well and did a hack job on the stereo so I'm trying to remove the old RF modulator system myself and need info on how to remove the rear seat backs, deck lid, center console, etc. and was wondering what manual would you recommend for me. I've seen some on Ebay but no clue if they're good or not. I remember buying the first available repair manual for my Honda motorcycle and it pretty much sucked so does anyone out there know of a good one for a simple person like me?

Thanks.