Lex3486

Actually even more to the point on the IS and TL issue; no doubt the TL was intended to compete with the IS in one common market bracket, but personally I feel that what actually ended up happening is that what resulted from this "competition" was the creation of 2 entirely new brackets; the TL is a sporty yet very luxurious car, but doesn't fit wholly into the sports car nor in the luxury car bracket, and as for the IS, it's a sporty and not very "luxurious" car at all, so it doesn't fit into the same category IMO as like, persay the 3 series b/c that is still a luxurious car, but at the same time, it's not a ground pounder and it's 4 door, so it can't really be called a sports car, so! There ya go-2 new brackets that I'm sure will develop their own competition eventually but not yet in my eyes. That is all.

Well which one I'd choose (IS or TL) would depend on alot of things (whether/not I had a family as was mentioned, whether I liked FWD or RWD handling better, etc.), but more to the point, chances are those two would never come head to head in my books b/c to me there's no comparison with the two; that to me is like comparing a Mazda Miata (the IS in this comparison) to a 2 door Civic (the TL); one's aimed at being a "sports car", hence the cheesier interior and RWD, and the other is more aimed to be a "luxury-sports car", hence the bigger size, "nicer" interior and FWD. And while I'm at it, I like the IS, but I'm a smaller guy and I like sportier cars; I think the interior is sweet a$$ personally, and that's probably b/c I don't try and compare it to, oh say the ES or the TL, b/c I know they have different intentions completely. B)

Well for what it's worth (I'm no stereo expert and what you and SK are discussing about the 4ohm total load range sounds good to me...) I'm staring at the backside of a factory front woofer as I type this and it reads 4ohm, so it's probably just like I was saying beforehand-that there are few speakers out there that are better than the stock ones. And to answer a question that I saw bdonkers throw out but never seemed to get a reply to, the front door speakers (6.5") are woofers; no treble output whatsoever-that's the job of the tweeters. Then again, with the aftermarket head unit and the stock amplifier being bypassed, I'm not sure what kind of input you're getting to yours, but if you're trying to feed those stock 6.5" woofers any treble whatsoever, you're just wasting output b/c the speakers can't reproduce anything but bass; they're one way woofers. Like I said before; I strongly believe you'd be hard pressed to find a set of speakers that are decently affordable (at least in my terms of affordability) that will outperform the stock Pioneers. That's why I just saved the money and hassle and simply installed a subwoofer and it's own amplifier; all I felt the system lacked in comparison to newer luxury cars' stereos was bass, but I fixed that right up and I'm one very satisfied customer ;)

Know what I'd rather have? A 1993 black ES300 BASE model-cloth interior, no sunroof, no heated seats, nothin! With a nice set of tires and a good stereo. Know what else I'd like to have? A 1992 Garnet pearl (red) SC300 with ALL the options-memory seats, upgraded factory stereo (12 disc, 10" sub, 170 watts), sunroof. Oh wait! I do have those (it's not neccesarily always having what you want guys...it's wanting what you have) B)

Good suggestions thus far; here's my 2c. I searched for a long time trying to find a set of speakers that I thought was comprable, much less an improvement on the stock speakers when I blew one of the front woofers. My conclusion-unless you're willin to dish out the big bucks for, oh say a Polk or Rockford Fosgate component set for the front, you'll be hard-pressed to find any speakers that have as much bass and sound as good as the stock front woofers. I actually installed and tried out rock-bottom Wal-Mart brand speakers, Sonys, Pioneers, Lightning Audio, etc. and surprisingly found that Jensens sounded closest to stock with little to no distortion (don't forget that I'm talkin about the woofers only, which with a stock head unit and wiring only get bass input, so I was looking for good clear bass and face it-the Sonys sucked and the Pioneers sucked worse) I actually ended up eventually getting another stock speaker after running the Jensen for a while b/c it still didn't sound as good as it used to. Now, on the 6x9's, I replaced mine with Pioneer 3-ways and I couldn't be happier! I'm still running the stock head unit but the upgraded rear speakers make a very noticeable difference for sure. They don't have any more bass persay, but they have lots more treble and clarity, and the best part is I got em at Wal-Mart for like $50 or so and they bolted directly in b/c the stock speakers are Pioneer as well. Oh, and while I'm on Pioneer, they have a plastic cone rather than paper and they're rated for 220 watts max. so I bet they'd sound awesome with your head unit. As for the front speakers, honestly, I'd just leave em be. ;)

Oh yes, by all means they're amazing machines; much improved over the earlier years overall, but in terms of their ability to convince the mind that they have awesome straightline acceleration and just overall fun to drive, they fell back in performance while they moved forward in outward appearance and sportiness. I love the lines of the 2000-2001 probably the most of any ES300 to date but they just don't "perform" for the driver like the older ones.

I haven't ever driven one so I can't say from experience far as the 02+ goes, but I know I didn't like my aunt's 00 at ALL. It felt like it had less horsepower than my 93-I guarantee off the line my car would smoke it. It's like...tuned so much into being smooth that it won't even accelerate well IMO. I'd take my 93 over her 00 just about anyday. ;)

People talk crap about my Jensens but hey-they work, they sound good, they were cheap, they've never overheated, they look cool....need I go on? B) Put it this way; no matter what they think of my equipment, they all ask me to install theirs for them so...water off a duck's a$$ if they've got crap to talk. I just won't install their system! HA! :P

That makes no sense to me If that plastic sheet (we are talking about the one that's underneath the interior door panel between it and the inside of the actual door, right?) were causing water to get into the car (which I don't see as possible to begin with-why would water be inside the door? And also how would it get to the floorboards from the inside of the door?), then seems to me that the door panel would also be ruined...am I just not understanding what you guys are saying? Sidenote; the passenger side window has had some problems with the regulator or motor going out once I noticed in the repair records, but I highly doubt the window is leaking because I'd think that I could see if it were that. I'm starting to suspect the seal around the lower part of the door, or possibly around the backside of the door... <_< It's worse on the passenger side than the driver side I think. It also gets wet from the opening of the door down the floorboard...it's sounding more and more like the lower door seal to me...

We just bought a 92 SC300 a/t with 125k miles, original owner, fully serviced at Lexus its' whole life, pristeen exterior, worn interior for 4800, just for some perspective. ;)

I think mine's on its way out the door as well...it's so picky about what CDs it'll play. I put a brand new one in the other day fresh outta the package and it still skipped. Any ideas?

I'm having the same problem, only I get water in the rear floorboards starting from the back and moving forward to almost under the seats. I've checked the floorpan underneath and no rust or holes or anything. Could it be the sunroof maybe? Seems to happen every time I wash the car, but not so certain it does in the rain...it's only rained on it once since we've had it and I didn't even check then.

That's awesome! Is that a Soarer 2.5 or a V8? I may look into doing something like that myself...beats buying something. In the meantime, I broke the driver inside door handle (the one that opens the door) so I have to fix that now. It just snapped in half! Didn't even pull it hard...anyone know where I can pick one of those up cheap?

Hey guys. We've had our SC for a few weeks now and me and my dad both agree that she feels like she feels a little congested. Nothing bad but it just feels like there's more power in there waiting to be unleashed. It's got 125k and we have all service records, but still we're wondering what could be done to tune her up some. Any suggestions? We were thinking plugs for starters, maybe an intake cleanup, K&N filter perhaps? 2 things; it has a tendency to have a sort of hesitation when the engine is cold, and sometimes even when it's warmed up, when you come to a stop light, the idle drops too low, but not always...I'm thinkin a throttle body cleanup should fix those up? Also, at interstate speeds the oil level light comes on intermittently and looking back through the service records this has been reported by the previous owner as well; sometimes it was right and the level was low, but sometimes, as has been the case with us, the level is perfectly fine when we stop to check it...we are using 10W40 oil and I noticed that the filler cap calls for 5W30-could the difference in weight cause not as much oil to circulate through the system at higher speeds causing it to think that there's too little oil? Either that or the sensor could be faulty...or I suppose the block could be a little stopped up and the oil's havin a problem gettin back down to the pan from the heads...anyone else had these problems? I would love to hear from you if you have! Oh, and while I'm at it, the CD changer is really picky about playing CDs, especially burned ones; it will play for maybe 5 seconds, pause, play for 1, pause, then play for another 5 or so then do it all over again..but sometimes it plays perfectly..then other times it just says "err" and won't play them at all. Dirty lens perhaps? Sorry for the long post but I haven't been on in forever and it's just all been piling up!

125 in my 93 ES alone on the highway. I felt like an idiot passing by so many people so I decided to stop. Didn't feel like she had much more in her anyway, maybe if I rolled the windows up and turned the A/C and system off...125's enough for me though. I've been 128 before but that was on shot tires...STUPID

Well we actually got the car today and I used the ole tried and true Mothers and some elbow grease; cleaned that sucker right up! Hey, while I'm on the topic of lights, I've got a couple questions; one, the parking lights; is it impossible to access them without removing the headlight assembly? They appear to be just a normal wedge-type bulb right? One of mine is all dim and yellow lookin and the other (new headlight side) is all bright and white. Also, inside now, the far right bulb for the A/C unit display is burnt out. I tried banging on it but that didn't fix it (it fixed it once in my ES). I know I've heard that the ES is just a simple light bulb if you can get down to it; just involves tearing apart the unit some. Is the SC the same? Oh, and one more thing, I checked the cabin air filter and, well, there wasn't one, but there was some crud in there-not much at all though. So should I put one in I guess?

I was thumbing through the gallery and saw some pictures of some headlights that had been cleaned up with "Novus". I am very interested; what is this? Where can I get it? The SC we've just bought has one new headlight (had the other one broken) and it makes the rest look terrible and I'm wondering what's the best product to clean them up. I've used Mother's chrome polish on them before and regular wax but these may need something more than that... <_<

It's actually daddy's car technically but he said we're sharin the ES and the SC, b/c he does alot of driving but he loves my car. So...I don't pay the insurance. And about parts; it's interchangeable with the Supra and there's a few of those around. Also, THERE'S ACTUALLY AN AFTERMARKET FOR THIS CAR! :o IT'S AMAZING! I'm so psyched, although I know pops won't be up for twin turbo...but maybe I'll get by with a K&N :P

Already got some questions. One thing I've noticed about our car and a few other SC's we looked at was a crack on the door panel about halfway back the window, and the black plastic around all the air vents is cracked and broken in places. First off, what's a good way to repair the vinyl that's ripped? And think anyone on here might know where I could find a set of all those air vents? I think we need the center one and the passenger side one; I'm pretty sure the driver's side one is fine (can't go look right now b/c we can't pick the car up till tomorrow). Also, the leather is in serious serious need of help. I guess just get that reupholstered? I doubt we could find an interior that was affordable. It's got gray interior BTW.

Hello all! I've just purchased a 92 SC300, but I'm no newbie to Lexuses or this site; I'm a regular at the ES300 forum b/c my family owns 2 currently and have had 3 overall. I'm really excited about this new car and hope you guys can help me along as I own it. I'm sure if it's anything like the ES forum, I'll be quite impressed. Look out for stupid questions, as this is my first SC and it's quite new to me ;)

Hey guys! I finally got an SC300! But don't worry, I'm still a loyal fan of the ES and we're keepin mine. It's the problem child of the lot, but I still love it to death Wish me luck outta the SC though! Man...if you've never driven an SC, you should; it's all the sportiness the ES wants to have.

This must be a highly regional question because I'm constantly lookin at the classifieds at Lexi and a 97 w/114k would run ~11, 12k...We thought we got a helluva deal on my moms' 96 w/67k miles last year for 10,800...it's basically flawless, except for the tarnished gold emblems...and my 93 w/126k (when we bought it, now I'm pushin 139k :D ) we got for 5,800.

Check y'alls "dogbone" motor mounts. Lexus has motor-mount deficiency; they can't make one that lasts. Also check your tranny fluid. Otherwise, could just be somethin ya gotta live with. Mine's a 93 and it does the same thing occasionally, but not always, and it shifts rough sometimes but not always and I've had my tranny completely rebuilt with a new differential so...it may just be something that we all have to live with.

So not to say that there's anything wrong with the way my car runs, but say I were to clean up my cap and rotor...think it'd run any better? Improve gas mileage maybe?

I know it's red, I was just givin him a hard time B) Hell if it were black, it wouldn't work now would it?!? I've seen some that are flat out red though; guess those did fade. I like that feature though-everyone I know that knows about that thinks my car is just the shiznit b/c of that. Oh, and the built in remote with the key. Ya know, it's gettin to where alot of cars have that now, but most of them, Lexus included, have a HUGE key. I like how ours are just this non-chalant little button on a normal sized, and laser cut I might add (gah I love these cars lol) key. I'd be willin to bet some people have not even known they have keyless entry it's so not-obvious!