JDOwen2

One of the gentlemen I work with has a daughter that is an engineer for Toyota. She works at the Toyota proving grounds near Wickenburg outside of Phoenix. She gave him a tour of the facility in a new SC430. He said it was his first ride in a Lexus and he was impressed. She then told him that the car had been torn down and put back together at least half a dozen times looking for problems. He said he never would have guessed that.

You get what you pay for. CD's are $29 on Ebay, manuals from Lexus are $150 a piece, there's three. You might find a used one and those aren't cheap either.

I just picked up a set of alloy 17"wheels taken off of a new IS300. They were on Ebay for $539.00 from Victoria Tire in California. I had 4 Mohawk Predator 245/45/17 tires mounted and balanced and then shipped. Ordered on Tuesaday and received on Friday. I would highly recommend them. Total with shipping was under $1000.00.

I used a Trasko oil filter in my 99 and removed it when I got T-boned and put it in my 2000. The bigger filter would give you more filter media and the ability to trap more crud.

Go to KBB.com to check prices. Passenger side air bag is standard. Good luck and happy hunting!

Just received 2 deliveries. Rebuilt transmission and 4 IS300 17" wheels with Mohawk 245/45/17 tires. Still waiting for Supra TT front rotors and S/S brake hoses. Should keep me busy for awhile.

I'd like a free one also. I'm in Arizona so if anyone has a free one it would be cheaper to send to me. Prefer Lexus edition, all three manuals please. No greasy fingerprints is desireable. :D

Your best bet would be finding a 5 speed car that's wrecked. You'll need to pull old trans out of both cars, swap pedals and brackets to your car, then bolt in clutch, pressure plate, flywheel if it's different, trans, probably driveshaft. Not a Saturday morning job for sure. Or trade your car for a 5 speed!

Install is a royal pain. Remove the trunk interior panel. Held on by clips, easy to pop out. Using 12mm open end remove bolt that goes into trunk lid bracket. There is a shiny metal cip holding the other end, use a small screw driver or pocket knife to pry open clip ends which should release strut from bracket. I used a cutoff wheel to cut the rounded end of strut which has the ball stud (?) captured inside. There is a circular metal clip holding the ball but I could not figure out how to remove it, thus the cutoff wheel. Install is fairly straight forward. The replacement struts I got have a clip which holds onto the ball stud. Reuse the shiny clips for the other end.

Found a set of Earl's Performance Plumbing Hyperfirm Stainless Steel brake hoses at Options auto for $90.00. In stock and shipped today. I'll keep you posted as to quality and ease of installation.

You need rear struts (mini shocks) for your trunk lid. See Ebay under Lexus SC300/400. I think they are $29.95 for the pair.

I acquired the front and rear calipers and rear rotors from a 95 Supra TT. I am awaiting 17" wheels and tires. I thought I could get a jump on the project by replacing the rears first. The old rotors are approximately 11" and the Supra TT rotors are 12 3/4". The existing caliper is a single piston and the TT is a dual piston. The hat size on the rotors are the same so the emergency brake should not be an issue. I decided against going ahead with the swap because I don't think the wheels will clear the rotors. Looks like it whould be to close to take the chance and not have the wheels fit so I'll wait. I tried to order Goodridge stainless steel braided hoses but I'm being told it takes two to three weeks for delivery. I emaild Earl's Performance Products yesterday and hopefully will have an answer tomorrow. The Earl's Hyperfirm hoses are around $91.00 compared to $115.00 for the Goodridge. I'll take pictures and post them when I get around to doing this. Anyone have a 17" spare they want to sell?

Any tire dealer will tell you that. Easy money for them. They're inexpensive anyway so go for it. A sidebar: I had chrome valve caps installed on my car. I left the car outside in the driveway so I could work on my wife's car in the garage. Came out next day and found one valve cap laying in driveway, other three missing. Do you believe someone stole my valve stem caps? That really got me steamed. I replaced the three missing caps with a cheap metal cap and shortly there after found the only good chrome one missing. I thought about walking around the neighbor hood checking out valve stems but then realized it would be a waste of time. There is a valve stem cap wrench that's available so you could really torque the caps down so they wouldn't "disappear"

Years ago a friend of mine had a 70 something 429 Ford. He put new tires on it and had one hell of a time getting one tire off. It was a 14" tire mounted on a 15" rim :o .

Soarer Try this link

Why not get the factory replacement bushings through Toyota? It's my understanding that the SC300/400 uses the same chassis as the Supra. This is what i've been told so I can't say for certain. Shouldn't be too hard to ascertain though. See if the part numbers are the same or if they are interchangeable. Keep us posted.

I found a set of Supra TT brake calipers on Ebay a few weeks ago. Send a money order straight off and after numerous emails and phone calls finally got them today. They were from a different individual but he didn't seem concerned that delivery took 2 weeks not the three days he said. I share your pain.

Sorry to hear of your accident. I was in my nearly new (at the time)99 RX300 and got t-boned by a police car in an intersection. His fault. I ended up upside down in the intersection with my seat belt on. Totaled the RX300 but I walked away with out a scratch but with one hell of a stiff neck. God bless Lexus. You going to set another?

Why did you change the serpintine belt? The alternator shouldn't have anything to do with the power steering. I had a similar problem with a Honda last year. The pulley on the harmonic balancer was shot. To be more specific, the rubber mounting deteriorated and the pulley was spinning on the balancer. PITA to change. Another possibility is the tensioner is shot. Let us know.

Have you tried a four wheeler/off road establishment?

Has anyone had success with anything other than Dexron II in their automatic transmissions? I just turned 90,000 miles and the trans is shifting hard at times and shuttering at times.

Follow the Lexus maintenance recommendations. If you are the original owner you know the history. If not, go to a Lexus dealership and have them pull up history records for your car. Take it from there as to what needs to be done. Good luck!

I have a 95 SC300. I've been reading about regular service issues and read that you have to remove throttle body to change plugs. I also see that you have to drain radiator before you do so because the throttle body has coolant hoses routed to it. I'm guessing this is to heat the air/fuel mixture for emissions. Anybody bypass the throttle body by connecting the coolant hoses? This is a common performance enhancement on TPI Chevys.

1995 SC300 automatic, 90,000 miles

My 95 is due for a tune-up and was wondering what the concensus is regarding spark plugs. Platinum, iridium, splitfire, rapidfire...?