SuperCoupe400

I don't know how many people other than me have been looking hi and low for a scale model of the SC300 & 400 series unsuccessfully, but I finally found the next best thing. Albeit, this is really only any good to those, like myself, who do 3d modeling and animation. I found a 3d model of the 1st generation SC at http://www.3dcar-gallery.com/shop/form.php?uin=24&cat=1 Costs $50, but I'm still getting it. I do architectural design and 3d illustration for a living and can't wait to have at least one SC sitting somewhere in every exterior building rendering I do. btw, you can check out some of my earlier work at www.renderhaus.net

Are those hard to get to and replace? Will I need one of those $150 Lexus Service Mechanics manuals to do the job? How much can I expect to pay for the bushings?

Mine's a '93 with 125k, and I'm getting an occasional 'drift' in my steering at speeds over 65mph. It doesn't happen when I hit bumps, just going straight and smooth. It's like there's some play in the steering somewhere. It forces me to correct my direction just like when you're trying to drive in high winds blowing every which way. I'll be holding the wheel completely still, and all of a sudden the direction shifts a fraction of a degree - sometimes self-correcting if I just keep the wheel straight without trying to correct it myself. I suspect that if I go through and just replace all my suspension and linkage bushings everything will tighten up. I doubt that it would be a rack&pinion issue. Anybody out there experienced this before? Advice? Thanks.

For the past several months I kept getting what smelled like an electrical fire coming from the passenger side hood up at the windshield (from outside the car with the hood closed). I'd crack open the hood and couldn't seem to locate the source. Then yesterday after my steering pump started making noise, I checked to find that my PS fluid was low. The second I took the cap off the PS reservoir I knew that was where that smell was coming from. So, of course, I topped the fluid off and the PS acted normal again. But I'm still getting that 'electrical fire' smell. The PS pump wasn't dry at all. The fluid level was right at the bottom of the dip stick. I've got no leaks on the floor of my garage. Could it be that the PS fluid just needs to be flushed? It did look kinda dirty (and burnt). Mine's a '93 SC4 with 125k I have found no dealer records of a PS pump replacement, and I know that these usually fry at around 75k to 100k. I've read in some old posts that the PS pump could eventually leak onto the starter, causing starter damage. Is that what the burning smell is? The smell is stongest coming straight from a hot PS reservoir - and there is no smoke at all. Has anybody had these symptoms before? Any advice? Thanks.

I picked up my '93SC4 a little over a year ago and noticed from the first time I tried using the heated seat(s) that they took what I considered to be an awfully long time to heat up (about 5 to 7 minutes). Then just last week, I got in a friends '05 Saab 9 5 and couldn't believe it when my butt started getting hot after only about 90 seconds! I chalked-up that disparity to the age difference between the two cars. I'm not saying that my heating coils have gotten "weak" over the course of 13 years, because the passenger seat takes just as long to get warm as the drivers. I think it probably has a lot more to do with the technological advancements available now versus then - plus, the Saab might have a higher power supply. Anyway, I said all of that to say this: I'm seriously considering swapping out the seat heating coils for newer ones. Maybe from an SC430. Or anything comparable to the specs (power usage, etc.) of the stock seat heating coils. I'm tired of having to wait til i'm half-way 'there' before getting heat in my seat. Any suggestions? Anyone ever bothered trying to do this before? Thanks.

On really cold mornings (below 25) I let it idle until the Tach goes below 1000rpm (about 2-3 mintues). Any temp above that (up to about 45), and I give it about 45 seconds to a minute to warm. Above 45 degrees, and I don't give it a second thought - soon as my wheel telescopes down, I'm off. It would be interesting to here some professional (from an automotive engineer) opinion on this though. I know that all hoopties (cars from the 70's, 80's and a few early 90's - for the un-initiated) require warm-up to acheive a normal engine life span. But I kind of figured that the newer cars had advanced lubrication systems that either cut down on or completely elliminated the need to "warm up" an engine - especially if you're using a high-grade full-synthetic motor oil like Amsoil. Any drivetrain engineers out there who can chime in on this?

I know I've seen a post somewhere (about 9 or 10 months ago) giving steps on how to convert the turn signal assist lights (on the 1st generation SCs) into full-time fog lights, but I'm having a hard time relocating it. Can anybody point me in the right direction? I'm sure somebody else has come accross this post before too - or even done the conversion themselves. Thanks.

I think this is what SK thought you may have been referring to when you said "hub caps", Yasmine. It's certainly the image most people probably conjure up when that term is used - see attachment. (btw, the guy in the picture is not me)

About the same here. My '93SC4 gets around 19mpg city if i'm flooring it often, and 20 if i drive like i've got some sense. On a trip down to Florida from Detroit i got around 24 to 25 highway.

I know this post has been probably beat to near death in past threads, so that's why i'm not writing to ask for info, just to find out how many of you all use the product. I've been looking into Amsoil for a number of months now off and on. I've been using Mobil 1 faithfully since getting my '93SC4 a little over a year ago. But the $60 oil changes every 5k are'nt my idea of fun - seeing as how I easily rack up 23k to 25k a year. Amsoil's on-line product look-up matched up several of their oils to the SC4, and one of them was the Series 2000 0w30. They say this oil can go 35,000mi (in a stock passenger car engine) without an oil change - just change the filter every 12,500mi. Sounds good to me. At $103.80 per case ($8.65/qt) that's still a good deal + the cost of the Amsoil filters. Considering you get no less than two years worth of driving out of one case. And if you change the oil yourself you save even more $$$. So is anybody out there using this stuff? If so, which grade are you using? I'm considering switching starting with my next oil change. btw: here's the link to the on-line product match-up https://www.amsoil.com/scripts/runisa.dll?amsoiloaf:index

← Beautiful car I really do like a LEXUS bone stock, It is really a nice car. ;) ← Yeah, you gotta love this car. Really clean looking ride, Nerpie. Love it in black (when it's clean and spotless). I really love it in that pearl white too. And my own color (silver spruce metallic) isn't bad either. Gotta love the form factor of the first generation SCs! :D

Yeah, I know all too well about the little plastic teeth on the antenna mast gear coil. I went through about an hour and a half of oh-so-frustrating bodily contortions just trying to lean into the trunk space of my wife's Eclipse to wind the teeth of her replacement mast into the perfect spiral. I'd place the spring-loaded cover back on the antenna motor while simultaneaously keeping all the screw holes lined up...and STILL botched it up! Every time i thought I had it right, I'd turn on the radio to test it, and if it didn't mess up while extending, something would slip out of position and grind the teeth on the way back down. UGGHH those things are a pain in the butt! :cries:

Your Lexus dealer is going to be the only one who can get you a replacement of the master with alarm fob. And it won't be cheap. About $55+ for the key and another $75+ for the remote portion, and yet another $150+/- for them to "program" it. I think that's about how it's all priced out. I remember because I wanted to get a full master key with remote for my wife to have after picking up my '93 SC4 last year, and that's the run-down I got from the dealer. The numbers are probably a bit off, but plan on spending at least $250 for the whole shot from the stealership. Un fortunately though, there's no other way around it - besides just getting an aftermarket system installed, that is.

← It is usually mechanical [ the antena ] or the radio band to antenna wiring may be disconnected. ← Thanks, I'll check out the wiring in the trunk and see if anything has gotten knocked loose.

Every now and then I take a look at peoples' membership numbers just to see how many people have joined the board. For instance, I'm number 14,952 and I joined back in Dec. 04. But I notice people who joined only 18 months prior to that are numbered in the 2,000 range. I don't know if anybody else out there has ever bothered to wonder, but it just makes me scratch my head kinda puzzled as to what caused the jump in membership of almost 20 thousand in the time span of just a year and a half. Especially when it seems that membership stayed below 2,000 from about the begining of 2002 up until mid 2003. As Arsenio Hall used to say, "Things that make you go hmmmmm." (Okay, now i'm showing my age)

Has anybody tried out (or even considered) this TomTom GO 700 portable navigation device? It sounds pretty nice. Just not sure about the bulkiness of it though. Check it out at http://tomtom.com/

Glad I could help a few people out there discover something "new" about the SC radio/antenna setup with the whole automatic incremental height adjustments it makes to compensate for radio signal strength, but my initial question still hasn't been answered. Has anybody else had theirs just stop working? If so, did you need to get work done the the receiver to fix the problem or did replacing the whole antenna assembly do the trick? The antenna still goes up when the radio is on, but it just won't adjust itself like it used to. thanks all.

Sweet. I'll look into those. thanks Neo.

Hey, good point. forgot all about that. I guess i would need a bit more stopping power given the larger overall wheel diameter. But some slotted rotors should do the trick should't they? I know slotted rotors don't "increase" breaking power, but given that they cool quicker they'd be more stable during extreme braking conditions that the stock ones.

Nope, no body kit yet. My ride's not lowered yet either. I've already come to the conclusion that it'd probably be best to just wait until i've got enough money to do everything all at once (lowering springs/struts/camber kit/blades/grips/body kit/paint) Just trying to get some idea what might look best - size-wise. I'm looking to go either deep-dish or concave spoke.

I'm thinking about outfitting my SC4 with some 20's, but I want to see some pics of some others peoples rides rollin' on 20" blades first. I'm thinking 20's may be pushing the limit (physically and aesthetically) for an SC and 19's may be a better fit, but 19" tires aren't nearly as easy to come by as 20's, and therfore probably more expensive. I've seen several 18" low-pro setups, but without a lowering kit these leave much to be desired - just way too much gap left in the wheel well - imho. And even with the car lowered, an 18" wheel setup just looks a bit undersized for the broadness of an SC's wheel wells. So anybody with 20's (or even 19's for that matter) pleae post pics. thanks.

My power antenna ('93 SC4 - Nakamichi stereo setup) used to raise and lower itself automatically to compensate for a stronger or weaker radio signal most everytime i changed stations. Especially when going between am and fm. But it stopped doing that a few weeks back. I've tried lubricating the antenna - no difference. The fella I bought the car from last year told me he had just had a new antenna installed (I assume it was the whole unit, and not just the mast). So it shouldn't be due to age. But come to think of it, he did say he spent $170 to replace it. The whole unit on my wife's Mitsubishi Eclipse costs over $400 from the dealer. No way a Mitsubishi antenna costs more than a Lexus. Maybe it was just the mast that got replaced after all. Either way, does anybody have any suggestions? Could it be the stereo unit itself? After all, it is responsible for sending the signal to the antenna to raise or lower for reception. Thanks

All i know that's different between these years is horsepower, torque and a 4-speed auto vs. a 5-speed. Is a straight swap possible on just the tranny - leaving the '93 engine intact? I know the first person to post will ask me why I'd want to do just the tranny and not the engine too - no particular reason - just humor me. This is all purely conjecture right now. thanks

I see your point on the terminology. In that case, let's call it an anti-theft or theft-deterent system (with no alarm). But to answer your question, yes, the trunk lid was up - but I handn't yet hit the key-fob to pop the locks. I was just about to close it when the horn started honking. I hadn't bumped the car or anything. It's really strange also because opening the trunk is supossed to temporarily suspend the anti-theft system, until the trunk lid is closed again. Or at least that's what I thought, sense the red led on the dash stops blinking while the trunk is open.

A couple of weeks ago, while putting something in my trunck, but before hitting the key fob to deactivate the security system and pop the locks on my '93SC4, the horn just started honking. It startled me, because there's not (suppossed to be) a car alarm as part of the security system - just the theft deterant ignition kill. The horn just kept beeping until i finally hit the key fob. I haven't been able to make it go off again since then to see what exactly triggered it. Has anybody else experienced this?