Bubbles

Blurrysc300: The turbo will suck the mpg if you mash on the throttle. If you keep the revs down so the first turbo doesn't spool up all the way, there shouldn't be much loss in mpg. The standard supra tt engine is 320 hp, jdm (japanese domestic market?) is 280. Since I'm a student and only raised $3000 from a part time job, I'm just going to buy suspension stuff and trying to lighten the car up (racing seats w/ seat covers, battery->trunk, wheels). I live near some mountains and some roads are very fun to drive on, plus due to California's budget cuts, there's less cops so rarely any cops on the mountain. In the Bay Area in California the smog stuff if going to be tough. My auto teacher said that they are going to put your car on a dyno to check the smog. It's a good thing you're in Texas.

Not sure if I can put it here, but whatever, I'm going.

OneHotLexus: Your best bet would be to build a BFI...If you want sporty and some pretty decent hp gains and added torque, try this it's not too hard. . . Buy an open filter (K&N, Reactive, etc.) and replace your stock airbox with it...but if you're wanting a cold air intake then all you need to do is buy some hose about 1 ft. 1/2 long (about 3 in. in diameter) and attache it to your filter then run it down in front of your grill

Yeah but he said he didn't want to build anything. Not only that but look professional. The Injen intake will give you sound and maybe and I read it gives more oomph on the sc300 than the sc400. It is probably true that you get the most bang for the buck with the BFI. The BFI took me about 3-4 hours of hard labor. If I build it again it should take me about 1-2 hours. It cost me $10 dollars but I bought a $20 dollar water heater blanket and used about 1/30th of it. But beware, the Injen intake isn't a cold air intake (unless on a cold winter night or if a tree snatched off your hood). A good analogy to that is turbo-ing at 0.01 psi without an intercooler.

I'm not sure about internet sales, but you can fix the fogged headlamps. http://www.planetsoarer.com/headlight/headlight.htm

hmm... let's see... the 1993 repair manual says... Remove throttle body (that's a pain), then take off plug wires, then take out plugs with 16mm socket. Torque them 13 ft-lbs. That's the general stuff. You don't need to drain coolant.

Make sure to rev the car when it is warmed up. You don't wanna hurt your new "used" car now do you?

I have a 92, and the grill is painted. I believe 95 has 3 thin black strips across. If I really wanted to do a good job, I would get a Lexus Body repair manual and take that bumper off. The problem is that is going to take a long, long time. My older brother had a 94 Nissan Pathfinder and he went to a hardware store and he bought some wire mesh honeycomb thingy (he called it chicken wire). He folded the wire to make a rectangular prism and it just fit right in.

Nice. Yeah I've been reading some posts on the run flats and how they suck. Later on you should switch to summer tires if you don't drive near snow. As for the spare tire thing, I don't think you need one if you drive in urban or suburban areas. You'll only need it if you drive on those long stretches with nothing out there. What I did was take out my spare tire (on and sc300), and I bought a tire repair kit and an air pump. Given that I've never seen any of my friends with blown out tires, I'm guessing most flats are from nails and puncture wounds. The tire repair kit should be able to fix that. I am biased towards the summer tires (or at least no run-flats) because run-flats are usually heavier than standard tires. The tires weight is part of the so-called "unsprung" weight and it plays a role in quickness in handling. Not only that but since a tire is moving and on the outermost circumference of the wheel, any added weight will (theoretically?) lower acceleration.

It looks ok, but the lights are too small in comparison to the back end. It makes the car look too fat in the back. I guess the driver wanted it to be unique.

Thanks for the info Tom.

Carfax helps a little. In my opinion, it gives me reassurance that I'm getting at least a legitamate car. The feature I love about carfax is its ability to tell you how many previouse owners there were. If the 92 sc400 has more than 4 owners, something is wrong. 1 or 2 owners is good. To find the VIN (vehicle idenification number) it is somewhere between the dashboard and the windshield on the driver's side. It is 17 characters long. Another in somewhere where the engine is. Pop open the hood and I think it is etched somewhere on the hood or some part of the frame. There's another one but I forgot where it is; it might be in the glove box or if you open the driver's door, look on the side and there will be this sticker. Good luck

Every car has a vin number. Just check to make sure it was properly maintained. Ask for the owner's manual and flip to page 151 and ask to find evidence that all of those maintenance operations were done. I think one important one is the valve clearance. If you listen to the engine while the hood is up, if you hear a constant ticking noise (~ 5 ticks /second), that means the valve is loose. I looked in the Factory repair manual (sc300 = different engine) and it doesn't look too hard but it looks like it will take a couple of hours. Since labor at Lexus is a lot, I'd say if the valve clearance is loose, it would cost maybe around $800 then you should be able to knock off another $500 off that 7000 and make the deal at around 6500. Basically look for any errors on the car and put it to your advantage. Even though Lexus is good car factors that make car look bad: if the oil is low or dirty, coolant brown, brake fluid and power steering fluid too low. Just use it to bring the price down, but not so low that the seller would question why you even want to buy the car.

I was wondering what the function for that black insulating mat covering the bottom of the hood/bonnet does. Is it to dampen sound, deflect heat (divert away from hood), or does it do both? If it deflects heat, what kind of issues would I get if I took it off anyways? (how long would it take for paint to oxidize?) Sure these might be the most random questions but I read that it saves a little weight (and it's in the front) and helps cooling (all that heat might end up radiating through the hood).

I'd have to say 95 is best. They made the corner lights turn into fog lights. The front center intake bumper is painted black. All the kinks are probably ironed out. Computer is still OBD 1. I don't understand why the Is300 with its 2jz-ge engine has 215 hp and 218 ft-lbs torque. Even with its VVT-I it's not as high as the sc's 220-225 hp range. Well it's probably true that the vvti engine has less emissions and maybe a broader torque range, but where's the hp?

c.f. interior: Ebay has some, they all come from "Ms. Emerald" -->runs site www.sc400tuner.com Cold Air Intake: no such thing ---> Brave man made one : http://www.planetsoarer.com/#BFI DVD: no clue :( Carbon Fiber hood: no such thing ---> unless you have lots and lots of money. There is, however, vented fiberglass hood : http://www.importfan.com/series.asp?Series...esID=567&2=1182 Love me... :D

Yes it is custom. Given that it's custom I'd say with enough money ($15000+) any tuner shop will do it. Too much for the typical teenager... hehe j/k.

it's www.intellexual.net It could either be the condensation or your bulbs are getting worn out. Have you ever seen those 2 AA maglites? The bulb is clear at first but after a few hours of use the bulb looks black but still works. For my condensation problem: One of my headlights had a ton of water inside when I washed my car for the first time . First I had to take the headlight out. There are 3 nuts. One you can see, two you can't... yet. The first one is on top of the headlamp. The other two are in a dark place between the headlamp and the tire. What you have to do is unscrew two or three more screws that hold the plastic cover in the wheel cavity. From there you can pull up on the plastic cover and if you get a flashlight and point it towards the headlamp area, you'll see two nuts and I think they are 13 mm, but I'm not sure. Just unscrew that and before you take the headlamp out put masking tape on the areas around the headlamp to prevent scratching of paint. Also disconnect all the headlight connections (you may have to take the battery out to access the connections on the driver side headlamp, but if you do you'll need to restart the car properly) For me the hardest part was taking the headlamp out. It was such a pain, it took me half and hour to pry that bleep out. Once I got it out and shook the headlamp and all the condensation started collecting and I got a nice puddle in the headlamp. There's a small hole on the back of the headlamp and I angled the headlight so most of the water would go out. For the rest of the water I just let it sit in the sun for about 2 hours and the water evaporated and went through the little opening. I then took some clear tub caulk (the stuff that lines your toilet to the ground) and sealed every spot that looked like a crack. I let it dry for a day then I put it back in. I then let it cure for 2 weeks and the next car wash I didn't have water inside... yay :magic: Hopefully I don't push my luck too far.

I got the same one as you spruce, but with a hefty 130000 miles. Doesn't it suck to know someone has the same car? That's what mods are for.

The sc300 1997+ headlights have that chrome ring around the headlights. It should fit, but not sure what tools you'll need (screwdriver?).

I used area code 11101. I think that's somewhere in Long Island. http://www.autotrader.com/findacar/results...pe=used&x=3&y=9

I've had this problem since test driving it at 127000 miles: At around 35 mph, I can hear this slow yet constant thumping noise as if something was wrong with the wheels. At higher speeds the thumping noise frequency is higher. I ended up rotating the wheels and the problem still persisted. I put my car up on jack stands and I wiggled the rear wheels and there isn't any wobbling so I dont' think it's the wheel bearings. Then I started the car up while on jack stands and I slowly got the car up to 35 -50 mph. I can definitely hear the noise from the back and it could be anywhere from the differential to the drive shaft to the brake system. Well I then turn off the car and I manually turn the wheel. I can feel a resistance on some parts when turning the wheel. If I turne the wheel fast enough I can hear some scrubbing noise. I changed the differential fluid with very thick 80w140 gear oil and I can still hear it and it's not any quieter. Any suggestions on where the sound is coming from?

Well I bought a cd for an sc300 on ebay. It's not very good. It doesn't have any step by step diagrams to service the car. It's good if all you need are the specifications for the car. It has all the wiring diagrams though. I ended up bidding on a genuine Lexus service repair manual on ebay for $126.01 . Yes it is expensive and one books was missing pages. But all I can say is that it is well worth the money for the big book.

that sucks... I guess if you go back to stock shifter and get the shortest shift knob you can find it will help. I was at a hardware store and they sold shift knobs there and one product said that it was heavy so you can shift easier. It's probably bs. I'm thinking before you get a short shifter you should learn how to shift well. When shifting from 1st to 2nd and 3rd to 4th you shift as if you are following through spiking a volleyball over the net. Shifting from 2nd to 3rd and 4th to 5th is tricky for me. I'm not so sure about that correct form on that. Btw, http://www.celicasupra.com/TransTech.htm says that Redline MT90 manual transmission oil helps the shift between 1st to 2nd. My sc300 has the same problem so I decided to use it. So I changed the transmission fluid as well as the differential fluid and my god it smells so bad. Anyways it's been about 500 miles and I don't notice any difference. I still feel that jam between 1st to 2nd. However if I shift nice and slow and at a certain angle the shifter goes into the gate very smoothly.

When I first got my car I noticed tip of my needles (tach, speedometer) would blink. I thought that was intentional b/c it looked as if my rpms were too low or something :whistles: ... that is until it would stay off for a minute or two. About a month later I realized how dim my headlights were and I guessed that if I turn down the brightness of my instrument panel it will make it easier to see the road b/c of less glare. So I end up cranking that left knob near the panel and I lower the brightness and a few days later I noticed the needles were lit up fully. I'm sorry if business on the needle repairs goes down. By the way I read on the needle repair website that the needles are composed of leds (light emitting diodes) and they burn out because they overheat. So I'm guessing if you turn down the voltage the leds won't overheat.