LuckyApril7

why would you diagnose the trans throttle cable? Has this happened to anyone you know before?

I have all four identical 19 inch rims with a 1 inch lip lowered on Eibach prokit springs. I tried 20 inch but i couldn't make a U turn.

My car makes a loud whirring noise in park every morning when i start it to warm it up . Then it shifts really hard out of park. All my other gears work fine. This only happens when i leave my car parked for awhile then start it up and it only happens out of Park.

I have a 92 SC400 with 160K miles. Last tranny oil change was 2 months ago with Type 3 ATF.

I'm not exactly sure what company made my body kit because it was a copy that a bodyshop did when they ordered the real deal from japan. So of course mine is fiberglass and the real one is polyurethane. But the fit and look is still the same. It was some japanese name, i forgot.

i have a set of 3 1/2 inch chrome tips welded onto my original muffler and it fits my rear body kit lip perfectly.

reversing polarity on the batteries of ANY car will fry most all the computers in your car. You're lucky if it only fried your ECU. After replacing your ECU, most likely some other computer will be bad. This is a FACT, not assumptions.

Okay, so the wheels I'm getting are available in 4 colors: gold, silver, black, and gray. I didn't get to the gray, but I managed to do some Pshop work to compare:

I can't decide as all 3 colors shown above look good to me. What do you think? :D

The in thing right now is black rims with chrome lips. Looks aggressive.

I'm thinking about putting scissor doors on my '92 sc 400.

Has anybody ever seen it?

Are scissor doors reliable/dependable?

Your doors are too heavy to have lamborghini mods. If you do it, the hydraulic lifts will wear out quick and you'll find yourself replacing them all the time. It happened on a Ford MUstang and the lexus doors are way heavier than mustang doors.

Yeah, I knew they were heavy; I was afraid of something like that.

Problems, you think, even if the company selling the kit says it could handle it?

If i was the company selling the kit, i'd sell it to you regardless of any known problems and make money on all the hydraulic shocks i'd be replacing for you over the years. Only get it if they warranty the shocks for at least a year or two.

I decided to change my tranny fluid when i got my synthetic oil change at a Jiffy Lube in southern California. I drove off and a week later i got hard shifting. I would let my car sit awhile and when i shifted out of park, it shifted hard. When i would slow to a red light, the tranny would shift hard to a stop. I thought the worse and went doing some price checks to replace my whole transmission. A rebuilt SC tranny runs $1300 in my area.

I was already in the market of buying a new car so i decided to mask off the problem by changing all the lube in my engine and tranny one last time to hopefully make it smooth for any test drives. I went to a different Oil change place and noticed they poured in an additive that the other oil change place didn't do.

With my curiousity, I asked the mechanic and he told me that Lexus uses special tranny fluid than other cars do. He told me putting in the wrong fluid will cause hard shifting and stalling. To my surprise the problem went away. I drove back to the original oil change place and asked them what tranny fluid they used and to my horror, they told me they use regular ATF fluid and even showed me the bottle.

To make a long story short, Lexus uses Dexron/Mercon 3 for tranny and not all fluids are made the same even though they look it.

i had my LS done for about 2200 bucks including a rebuilt converter.

There are numerous transmission shops that will rebuild any SC or LS transmissions for under $1300 in the San Gabriel VAlley. I did some research when I thought my tranny went out.

I just installed my Alpine receiver into my car and it fits and looks pretty nice. The only thing that I have to figure out is how to fill in the giant gap. I just wanted to post to confirm that a single "din" receiver should fit into the factory brackets and it also sits right up underneath the climate control unit and then only gap is from the bottom of the receiver to the top of the ashtray assembly. Its a pretty big gap, but I missed not having my Alpine receiver while I was limited to only listening to the radio for the last two years. So today was a good day (as Ice Cube would say)

Does anyone know how to properly wire up the antenna wire for the power antenna. Wiring diagram states Antenna Wire "A" and Antenna Wire "B". Someone said that both of these wires should be connected to the output "Antenna" wire on the receivers wire harness? Does this sound correct?

Yes both wires need to be powered for the antenna to go up. Just twist them together and connect them to the blue wire of your aftermarket radio. I found the best way to fill up the huge gap is to not only install a head unit but to also install a EQ or processor underneath it to create a double din. You'll minimize the gap to the point where you'll just need a a small ABS plastic piece to cover the rest.

I would also recommend getting a high-end tint job done on your windows. From your pic I can see daylight through your car. Get the fronts maximum legal and limo-out the rear quarters and back. I decided to do this when I put new leather in my car and it is going to benefit the speakers as well. It only takes a couple of Houston summers to start breaking down the speaker material, running the risk of tearing when you crank it. Putting a good metallic blended tint (Llumar was the brand I went with.. Ran about $200 for my SC) on your windows is a lifesaver for your cars interior, not to mention you. Entering my car after it had been sitting in a parking lot for a few hours used to be a nightmare. The tint has cut the heat by about 50%.

www.llumar.com

A complete 3M, Johnsons, or Llumar tint on all 5 windows of your Lexus SC400 runs no more than $120 at California Tint. 4325 North Rosemead Blvd, Rosemead. CA. Any shade and any material. They're really famous for all the entire San Gabriel Valley, but the waiting list is ridiculous sometimes. I chose the office building mirror tint for my SC.

My HID headlight is flickering like a fluorescent bulb when I first turn on the headlights. It usually flickers for about 10 to 20 seconds and then fires up the way it should. But then sometimes I will be driving and it will start to flicker. Since these are illegal for street use I can't have just the one side to start flickering. Its only the left side. I guess its the ballast causing this problem. The wiring connections are all secure. Does this sound like the ballast is failing. Short life considering its an oem lexus part, but I guess when it comes to electronics you never now how long it will last.

***Also its not all the time, it usually fires up great but I would say 1 out of every 10 start ups it will flicker some...

Its not your bulbs because i've done thousands of HID kits. I worked for California Auto Accessories for 7 years while going to school and this is what i found out. The flickering is caused by not enough trigger power to load the ballast. The right way to do it is to chop off your oem headlight bulb plug completely and solder them to the wires leading into your ballast. This gives a more complete and full electrical current to power up your ballast. The wrong and short cut way of doing it that most shops do is to 3m T-tap it or splice them onto the oem wires. The contact is minimal and your ballast is trying hard to suck power out of your oem trigger wires that it flickers before it finally has enough load to stay on.

If this method doesn't work then you'd need to relay to grab power from your battery to load the ballast with power using the oem headlight bulb plug to trigger the relay.

I'm thinking about putting scissor doors on my '92 sc 400.

Has anybody ever seen it?

Are scissor doors reliable/dependable?

Your doors are too heavy to have lamborghini mods. If you do it, the hydraulic lifts will wear out quick and you'll find yourself replacing them all the time. It happened on a Ford MUstang and the lexus doors are way heavier than mustang doors.

Did a quick google search and found this:

http://www.autogeek.net/3mautapprod.html

which one exactly did you use? There's like 3 with the "perfect-it 2" name

I sandpapered my headlights with 1200 grit paper and polished it with plastic cleaner and the damn things looks spanking brand new. Sandpaper is a few cents, and plastic cleaner is 4 bucks.

Hey Guys,

Think these wheels will fit my '92 Sc 400?

I don't really want to change the way my car drives, but I think these wheels look cool.

(4) 17" Chrome 5 lug universal Akuza Road Concepts rims with (4) General Exclaim 215/50R/17 tires

Just ready for a different look

Thanks

Waaaaaaay too small for a SC. I used to have 18" and they look retarded on a huge sportscar like the SC, so i went and traded it in for 20's without lowering it and having a body kit. 19's are great if you lower one inch.

Ok, so my passenger door lock does not lock or unlock when you press the button. You have to manually lock and unlock it. First it was intermitternt, then you could only lock, then it only twitched, and now it doesnt move.

I took off the inner door and the plastic to see the actuator. But I don't know how to take the actuator out. Looks like the window guide is in the way of it. Any ideas on how to get it all out? Can't seem to get the bolts out from the window guides.

I have a 93 sc300 and aparently this is a common problem. Anyone done this repare before?

Thanks.

Try probing the actuator wires first to see if its actually the actuator that went out. One of the wires should light up 12 volt when you hit the lock switch and the other wire should light up when you hit the unlock switch. If you're getting juice from both wires then its the actuator that is bad.

My power antenna does not go up and down fully anymore as the gears are bad.

I got an aftermarket power antenna from ebay and it has 3 wires.

Red, Black and Green.

My stock Antenna has 5 wires, red, black, Green, blue and black/yellow.

How do I connect so that the poer antenna can go up and down?

Take a light tester and clip one end to any metal bracket in your trunk. Take the other end of the light tester and probe into the lexus antenna plug until the lighter tester lights up. You have just found your power wire ( The red wire of the aftermarket antenna goes to this lexus wire ).

Now take that same lexus power wire and strip a little piece of insulation off the wire so that the wire shows thru. Clip one end of the light tester to that uncovered piece of lexus power wire. Probe the other end of the light tester into all the wires of the lexus antenna plug until it lights up. You have just found your ground wire ( The black wire of the aftermarket antenna goes to this lexus ground wire ).

The final green wire is very easy after you've hooked up the other 2 wires. Go turn your radio on. Take the green wire of the aftermarket antenna and probe it into all the remaining slots of the lexus antenna plug until the antenna moves up. You have just found your antenna turn on wire !

Good luck.

I have installed the Kenwood aftermarket stereo (with HD radio and Sirius built-in). I am successful except that I am having trouble with the power antenna. According to the original radio wiring diagram, I believe from connector A pin 9 is the "ant" control output. The Kenwood has an antenna control output, but when spliced into the original head unit connector, the antenna will not work. I assume that the antenna requires 12 v, ground and the control. I further assume that the 12 v and ground must have been supplied from the original head unit which is no longer connected.

Does anyone have the wiring diagram for the antenna and which pins in the original head unit are associated with the antenna?

Thanks, Richard

PS: If anyone else is attempting this installation, I am willing to help if I can.

The antenna wiring on the stock lexus plug requires 2 wires to be powered by the kenwood's antenna wire ( blue ). Many people think it only requires 1 wire to make the lexus antenna go up but after some trial and error , I found out that putting 2 of the remaining wires ( wires that are left over after you've connected every other wire to the kenwood ) together caused the antenna to go up. I don't remember which 2 wires though except that one of them was black/red.

Hello, I bought a 92 lexus sc300,

I have several problems with the car

1. one mechanic who I think was trying to sell me tires told me that my rear struts are gone and I need them to be replaced. I used this guy before for a break repalacement on another car and they still squeek. so is there any way to check and see if they are gone? and if they are how hard is it to replace for a novice who wants to start working on his car?

2. My engine burns oil like crazy, is there an oil or oil additive that will slow this down? I had it checked out at the dealer and they told me the car is just old but didn't have any suggestions, doe anyone know what type or v i should put in it?

3. My window washer fluid (shooters) the one on the right stopped working and the one on the left just spits but doesn't hit the window, does this need to be replaced?

4. and finally I just wanted to say my a/c was retrofitted and smelled really bad, so I took this forums advise and sprayed the air intake(no the one in the engine like i read someone on another site said to do which would kill your engine) inside the car and it seems to have done the trick... however when I try to put my own a/c r14 in the car it doesn't last long, but I had it checked for leeks and they said there was none, any way to get a longer charge out of my a/c?

A good way to check your struts is to lean your whole body onto the car itself and push it up and down. Listen for squeeks and see how your car responds to the bounce you're giving it. Changing the strut on that car is not that hard if you're mechanically inclined. You just got to take out your carpet panels in the trunk and remove 3 bolts on top next to the gas tank. And there's a couple of bolts under the car that needs to be taken out. The rear struts are so much easier to do than the front. But you need a spring compressor to take out the springs to change the struts.

There is a product called Engine Restorer 8 cylinder that i often use. It works very very well. It slows down the consumption of oil. I'll let you read the labels on the can for the wonders it can do for an old engine. Look for it at any auto store.

If you open your hood, you'll see tubes attached to your water sprayers. Over the years, they get clogged or sometimes ripped and unplugged. Check them while someone sits in the car to spray the windshield. You should be able to see water flowing thru them. If u don't, something is clogged along the way. If you need to adjust them, go directly to the sprayer and there is a tiny tiny flat head screwdriver that can be fit in there and turned to adjust the power of the sprayer.

Check your ac hoses for leaks again from a second mechanic shop for a second opinion. Make sure you're using the right type freon and also have the mechanic check for pressure in your hoses. The bad smell is coming from your ac filter canister behind the glove compartment. It needs to be changed.

Thanks, I did check to see if there was a filter, they said the 92 is the only car without a filter but I could jerry rig a filter by unscrewing the kick plate on the passenger side, and under that I could do it, what do you think?

hmmm. I've never attempted that before but keep us updated if it works !

I accidently switched to power mode after cleaning consol and drove like that for a couple days.

What a difference in performance!!!

Is it ECU/chip settings???

It just makes your transmission shift earlier but you sacrifice gas. I only use it when i need to pass another car.

As we all know its a pain in the azz to find inside door handles for the sc series, but i was hunting on ebay for another car that might fit and ran across this auction.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/TOYOTA-CELI...1QQcmdZViewItem

Is it just me or does a 90-93 celica interior door handles design look ALOT, hell amost exactly, like the sc interior door handles? Im thinkin those might would work ,with a lil modding ;),

I figure this would be good for anyone out there who happens to have a broken passenger side handle such as me

wouldnt mind a cheap and easier to find alternative.

you're going to have to modify it because i know for sure it won't fit. The cable ball that fits into the notch behind the door handle is different also.

You have a dirty throttle body and your idle up bypass is allowing the engine to idle. Clean your throttle body.

awesome , i'll try that. Thanks.

my car had the worst tran fluid i had ever seen when i got it. so i change the tran every time i do oil. i cleaned the filter, not replaced. and i only use t-vi on synthetic for me please. have you ever cleaned the soleniods in your 400

If you check your facts with a reputable mechanic, he'll tell you that changing your tranny oil at every oil change won't do your car any good. It won't do your car bad either but its not better for your car if you do. There's a reason why tran service is set at 30,000, your tranny gears aren't in motion as much as your engine's pistons are. I change mine at every 5th oil change and thats still way too early to change. But if you have the money and it keeps your mind at rest than do it.

LuckyApril7,

I found these on eBay for $190. They have both the drilled and slotted rotors, zinc plated, as well as pads. Here's the address for the rotor/pad set up I was looking into, whatcha think?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Lexus-SC300...44120QQtcZphoto

I definitely plan on upgrading my plugs , as well as the wires. Where did you get the cables?

I'm also about to replace my entire sound system, so I'll look into the battery/starter/alternator wire upgrade.

I don't want the loud rice rocket action either, but I want them to be as free-flowing as possible...so I'm looking at the Blitz Nur Spec R w/ silencer, but I want them to look more stock, so Jibbby's Magnaflow set up is a definite option as well.

I got my ground cables from my stereo shop. I chose monster cables 4 gauge, very nice and does its job well. They sell them by the feet at any stereo shop so just go measure what you need and add half a foot more for slack and you're good to go.

I took out my stock sub and used that hole as a bass port for my JL audio enclosures 10" W3's. I use Alpine V12's to push them. I also replace every speaker in my car with MB quartz. If you replace your car's system, its recommended you replace your speakers as well. Because your stock speakers are of a different ohm and were meant to go side by side with your oem amplifier. Now you want to push little stock mids with an aftermarket big boy amplifier and guess what, you're going to have to keep retuning your system to make it sound right. Do it right the first time and get your gear together without half assing your system. Trust me, I half assed it the first time to save money.

Also if your lexus is pre 95, i believe you can do away with your cat without harming your eng comp. and get better free flow at the same time. Just remember when you want more free flow , your low end torque will be sacrificed. You still need some back pressure for power.