SuperCoupe400

Did the '93 SC400s have heated mirrors as an option (or standard feature)? I've seen several mentions of heated mirrors in reference to the 1st gen SCs, but never knew whether or not the mirrors were actually heated. There's certainly no control or switch for it (inside my car). Which leads me to beleive that if it is a feature, it's always on. Secondly, for those of you in the northern region who like me actually have a use for the heated seats, does anybody else here experience long wait times for the heat to really kick-in? In my car it takes no less than 6 to 7 minutes before I feel anything at all from my seat. It CAN'T have been this way when the car was new - could it? I jump inside other cars only 2 and 3 years old and their seats get hot within 1 1/2 to 2 minutes. Could it just be an age thing with the SC seat heaters? Or (for those of you who bought your SC new and actually remember back that far) have the seats always been super-duper slow to heat up? I'm thinking about buying new seat heaters and installing myself because I'm really getting tired of being half-way to work before my seats kick-in.

Yeah, especially considering what BMW repairs cost in the first place.

Yeah, in fact this is probably the best time of year to get this type of rapair done - just because of the whole expansion/contraction thing happening with winter/summer temps. If it were patched up in the heat of summer, I'd surely expect it to tear loose come the first day below 32-degrees. My tear is at least 1/8 inch at its widest point right now in 3-degree Michigan temps. But in the summer when everything's expanded it all but closes right up.

Not bad. I think I'll do his "option 1" myself (taking the door panel off and binding the two panel sections together to reinforce them) then take it to a detailer to get the actual vinyl patched up. That way I'll know for sure that it won't split again in the future.

Yeah. I think I'll do that. Why don't you post some before/after pics of your pleather rip? I want to see how good a job this guy does on yours. It'd be interesting to see how close it can be brought back to new.

Well, people, after months of ignoring it and wishing it would simply go away I finally contracted the dreaded tear-in-the-vinyl-at-the-top-of-the-driver's-side-door syndrome that is so problematic of the SCs. Thing is, when I first got my car 2 1/2 years ago I was pleasantly surprised that it hadn't happened yet. I fully intended on taking the door panel apart to reinforce the spot underneath where the rip usually occurs to elliminate the freeplay of the two panels that join together right at that spot. But you know the story. We all do it. I end up just fartin' around and figured, "I'll do it later." :whistles: Which then turned into, "Oh-MANNN! I waited too late!" :cries: So here I am with the all-to-common rip in the pleather. Has anybody here bothered fixing theirs? What did you use? I don't really want to go with the cheap auto store vinyl repair kit. There's gotta be something better on the market. Any suggestions?

I'd say there's a possibility it's your power steering fluid, but with as much leaking as you've indicated, you'd definately be getting whining from the p.s. pump by now. Not to mention, if you've still got the plastic under-body dust shields in place, the leak wouldn't necessarily appear directly underneath its source.

It is for this reason exactly that I now wish I had not sold my previous car when I got my SC. The last thing I would want is to have to throw one of those (roof rack) on the Lex. Kind-of impossible carting any 8' or 12' lumber home from Home Depot without the ole' hatchback too.

Great pics NC! I had searched before and seen some similar photos, but not quite this detailed. If nothing else, I foud out from that thread that I had been turning the wrong way. I just figured it was suppossed to turn counterclockwise to come off like any other screw connection. I noticed you had your car up on ramps. That certainly gets the car a bit higher off the ground than your average height jack-stands. But did you find it pretty easy to work on things withough having the driver's side wheel off?

Okay, now I'm really confused. The part that I THOUGHT was the solenoid is attched to the steering rack on the driver's side (reachable only from underneath the car - it can't even be SEEN from above). But you're telling me that moving the coolant resevior (which is on the passenger side) will allow me access to the solenoid from above? Do you have any photos you could post? Because now I'm just plain puzzled.

SK, that sounds exactly like what I've been looking to do. Is this something that can be self-installed? Do you have this on your LS? Was it installed at a shop or did you do it yourself?

Thanks. Until now, I had totally given up on this. I'll try this out as soon as the temps up here (in Michigan) come out of the 20's.

That is one soweet ride Raine! I was THIS CLOSE to getting the exact same color '95 SC4 just before I settled with the one i've got. Welcome to the club. :D I must say that I like those wheels you had on there in the first shots. But the slammed low-pro look is on point! I've seen your KAY avatar before though. Did you used to post occasionally to the Integra forum (formerly honda-acura.net) back around the late 90's/early 00's? I used to frequent that one when I was still running my '91 Teg. Like you, I also felt it was time to upgrade from the immature 'ricer' persona and step into something luxury-sport.

Thanks, I'll keep this stuff in mind when I get around to the trunk, doors and other parts of the cabin. But first I want to see how much sound I can deaden coming through the wheel wells. That's the loudest part of the car at highway speeds.

I'm not really satisfied with the cabin noise level at highway speeds. Since the '93 SC400 didn't come with speed sensitive radio volume (not sure that ANY car did back then), it's just getting a bit annoying having to ratchet up the volume when making my way onto the freeway. It's not the wind noise that bothers me as much as the road noise. The wind noise can be considerably deadened by just pulling shut the moonroof cover. But it's the road noise that I can't do anything about - other than switching to some non all-season radial tire or just one with a softer rubber. So I'm thinking about getting a few cans of that spray-it-yourself automotive underbody sound deadening material to coat the wheel wells with. Has anybody tried this before? Even if you did it to another car, did it help any? Does this stuff dry to a washable finish? I just want to make sure I'm not coating my wheel wells up with some product that is going to act like silly-putty and get embedded with all kinds of dirt and never come clean. If you've done it before, what product did you use and to what areas did you apply it? Thanks.

No vibration is 'normal' in a lexus. I would definately take it to another dealer (if you don't have a trusted mechanic who is familiar with Lexus - or are not a grease monkey yourself). Regarding the replacement of plugs, wires, brake pads & rotors, and other common wear items, they may be left out because their wear is dependant upon how the car is driven. Hard driving will cause all the above mentioned items to wear out sooner than later. Thus replacement at set intervals may prove unnecessary. However, you would think they'd at least indicate that these itmes are to be "checked".

Wow. Sounds like somebody had a fun week grease monkeying around. That'll be me someday (hopefully soon - depending on the cash flow). Heaven knows my 145k-mi. ride needs it all. Must make you glad knowing you didn't have to pay somebody to do all that work. ;)

Huphm. Interesting. I guess my tastes are a bit more odd than I thought. I really figured the amber was the perfect 'compliment' to the spruce. True, an amber tint would 'go with' a gold or champange car color. Much like a spruce tint (if there were such a tint color) would 'go with' this car. But I've never cared for the monochromatic look. Thanks for the feedback though. So far it's looking like the limo tint's gonna get the green light.

Go to : http://www.lexus.com/ Click on the "Owners" link at the top of the page, then register your car (its free). After which it should make a bunch of stuff pertaining to your particular year/model available to you - such as the maintenance schedule. After you've registered, there will be a drop down menu (on the left hand side) called "MY LEXUS" with a link for "maintenance schedule" under it. On the right side you'll see a "Download SC400 Maintenance Scheduale" link. It's a 41-page PDF containing a check list of everything the dealer will check/tune/replace at any given service interval. With this, you should be good to go. ;)

I know this all boils down to personal preference and subjectivity, but I'd really like to get everone's opinion on the amber tint versus the limo tint - relative to my car color (Silver Spruce Metallic). I'm trying to decide which way to go on this. I like the element of privacy with the limo tint, but I also like how the amber tint compliments my paint color (plus the fact that it's a rarely seen tint in my area). Give me your feedback. Black or Amber?

You know, it sounds to me as if these worries about fuel lines freezing, sludge (gunk) collecting at the bottom of the tank, vapor lock, etc., etc., etc. are things that only people on the "Dark Side of the Force" - GM, CHEVY, FORD - (you know, old hooptie domestics) need be concerned about. We seem to have several people here, myself included, who have defied and continue to defy what those in hooptie-ville would consider the kiss of death to a cars fuel system, fuel lines or fuel pumps. :o In other words - these things just don't seem to apply to Lexus, because Lexus automobiles are engineered the RIGHT way. ;)

I LIVE below "the slash". Always have on every car I've owned. And all the way up to their demise('86 Renault Alliance; '91 Integra w/273k mi), never once did I have issue with fuel pumps needing replacement. Even living in Michigan I take no thought about letting my car sit outside my office all day long in 26-degree weather on E. I've never had the dreaded Urban Legend of "Your gas will freeze!" happen. I can't tell you how many people up here actually believe that myth. Besides, and i'm no scientist, but isn't the fuel tank and injection line a "closed" system - assuming that the gas cap has been properly tightened? If so, then upon the presence of sub-freezing teperatures when condensation would normally occur, where is this condesation coming from? Not from outside the closed system. It's coming from the gas that's in the tank already - right? :whistles: So what harm can come from this condensation then being mixed back in with the very gas from which it came? :( Not being sarcastic. Just trying to piece together why it is this thing that's suppossed to be so dangerous to the fuel pump has never once effected me in all my years driving like that. I started driving that way when I got my first car in college (scratching by from payday to payday) and it just formed a habbit that was never really proven to be a bad one. (Never once ran out of gas - knock-knock)

Yeah... For a minute there, I thought I was going to have to change my moniker from SuperCoupe400 to SuperSedan400.

I don't know. Sounds like you may have gotten some bad info. Assuming you're using the proper (synthetic grade) oil filter with it, longevity should be increased. If the synthetic is being run through a standard filter, then its purpose is defeated and, yes, it must be changed at the same intervals as organic. You might want to just take a little peek at this. https://www.amsoil.com/storefront/tso.aspx Makes Mobil 1 look like baby formula - especially since this product has been acheiving that 15k mark for at least the past 10 years. Mobil has just now hit that plateu. But scroll on down in this link and see how many miles you can get on a single oil chnage - it'll blow your mind. I haven't tried it yet but trust me, I will this summer. I put 22k-23k a year on my ride. Plus my brother, whose a cert. mechanic working on fleet vehicles owned by the City of Detroit says the city uses this stuff. And the intervals stated on that web link hold water!

Does anybody know what the rear passenger interior volume is of the 1st gen SCs? I know the entire interior volume is 85-cubic feet. I just happen to notice on a photo of Lincoln's new MKR concept it's being called a four-door COUPE. I've always though that coupes were strictly 2-door and sedans were strickly 4-door. So I went and pulled up the definition of 'coupe' on Wikipedia and whadda-ya-know... SAE standard J1100 defines a coupé as a fixed-roof automobile with less than 33 ft³ (0.93 m³, 934 L) of rear interior volume. Anything greater than that, and 2-door or not, it's actually a sedan! Huh And since the MKR's got less than 33-cubic feet rear passenger volume, it's technically a coupe.