rekit

93 SC400. We had been driving 70-80 for over an hour. Took the exit ramp and all of a sudden there was a strong smell of gas in the cabin. I noticed the Fresh/Recirc air A/C intake switched itself to "Fresh". Pulled in to get gas, couldn't smell gas anywhere under hood or car. I did notice that when I removed the gas cap, there was a lot more pressure than normal. It took several seconds to bleed off, probably 2-3 times as long as usual. It was 90-95 degrees outside (hell it always is in Texas<G>) I'm thinking plugged canister (whatever it's called under the hood that the gas lines go to) but not sure how to check. Any ideas? Cars too pretty to go up in flames..........

My 93 went out, it was the $30 filter. 135,000 miles.

This may or may not have to do with the answer, but on another car I had I did a brake fluid flush by using the bleeders to remove the old while I put new fluid in the master cylinder. The rear were drum brakes, and a few days later they started leaking fluid. I think what happened was all the trash in the lines went to the rear brake slave cylinders (you start with the farthest away, right?), where the heavy crap settled while the fluid came out the top (bleeder). The crud then scored the rubber piston parts and they leaked. Point is when you use a c-clamp (and I always have), you are pushing the crap back in the line, but if you use the bleeder the heavy crap is still in the caliper. Either way, the crap is in there, so I don't know what's best. It would depend on the mileage and road conditions. At some point you need to clean out the calipers and flush the lines separately, and our cars are pretty old. My 93 is 17 years old, yours is 12. Damn.

93 sc400 135000 miles. New lower control arms (Supra). It just sounds like a cheap piece of crap when you hit a bump, otherwise quiet. I've seen others on the forum have replaced almost all the front end parts and not resolve the issue. What's the magic part to check/replace?

Yea, mine does too. I have had to change my trans filter twice this year, but no huge amount of crap or metal on the screen each time but enough to stop it from even moving the car (93 sc400, 135000 mi.). Same trans as my Tacoma I think, and it's smooth as butta. Probably nothin $ won't fix............Mine does shift smoothly (too smooth) other than the initial gear selection.

I had good results with Lextech. Been over a year and they still work. My mirrors needed the mirror computer. Got one on ebay for 50 or 100, i forget. I do remember it was a !Removed! to put in cuz it's up above the steering wheel and there was one bolt i couldn't get to, had to cut out the metal with tin snips. But they work now. Can't help with the grinding, mine is a sc400 auto. ('93). BUT, it sounds like the clutch is not disengaging enough, though a good mechanic would look for that.......or maybe someone put the wrong oil in it? 1400 for the work sounds fair. How are the front bushings? They go out. Buy Supra control arms instead of $Lexus. They are the same part for hundreds less. I have them on mine. Exactly the same. Good luck, you'll enjoy driving it.

When my Tacoma was doing this, I thought the transmision was going out. Looking on the forums, it was the mass airflow sensor was dirty. It was right downstream of the air filter, in the hose. 2 screws, pull it out and clean it with contact cleaner-not carb cleaner. Ran great. I started doing it every year or so. I have an SC400, but haven't looked to see if it's similar. Cheap fix!

What did you clean it with? On my Toyota, you use contact cleaner, not carb cleaner. Oily stuff will not work.

That is messed up! If it's not too much trouble, undo them and see if the key will work. Maybe it's something else and it is just a coincidence that it happened now........and try some lube.

Ahhhh, Lexus parts. WTF is right. I had my mechanic install these after reading everything I could find, looking for SOME difference. Didn't find any. I didn't tell him they were not Lexus parts till after, and guess what? They fit perfectly.

Do a search. I went thru this a while back, and its posted on here somewhere. You buy arms for a Supra. They're exactly the same and come with bushings AND ball joints for around 250 each. Fit perfect. These cars have a lot in common w/ Supras underneath. If you can't find it, I can dig up the receipts I have and get the part #.

I had good luck with them. Quick turnaround and they're still working a year later.

Take out the bolts under the armrest and any others you can get to, and pry the hell out of it just below the upper trim. It will come out enough so you can get in there and pull on the cables. There are 2-one for the lock and one for the opening mechanism. I was putting speakers in mine and had it on and off a bunch of times jacking with the fit and wiring and the last time I put it on, I forgot (drinking!) to hook the cables up to the door handles. Shut the door and -*BLEEP*-now what........ I thought at the least I would mess up the panel but what else could I do. But if your careful, you might not mess it up. Mine was ok. If the cables broke on the opener end-you may be screwed.........

Do a search on the steering wheel tilt-common, easily fixable problem. Involves putting a washer (shim) on the gear. It worked on my 93.

I just lost a coil on my 93 400. 5 am on a sunday AM, in a bad part of town, and it started with a slight miss and then lost 4 cyl. Could barely get to 45 mph but made it home-25 miles. No smoke at the firewall though, so I didn't check the fluid. I WAS worried about all that fuel going into the cats-I've heard of them glowing red hot. Anyway the next day I checked for codes and nothing. So I bought 2 coils (start with the cheapest part) and that was it. So there was no limp home mode in my case, just made it home because of the double ignition systems on the cars. There wired like 2 four bangers as far as spark goes. 2 distributors, 2 coils, 2 ignitors ($).

Your going to have to pull the inner door panel and see whats the matter. It's easy once you know where the screws are. On my '93 (but I bet they're all the same) they are: 2 under the armrest, one behind the black cover under the handle (it pops off, but it feels like it's gonna break), some on the upper front and rear bottom edge, and then some plastic things that you just stick a screwdriver under to pop out under the forward bottom edge. Before you do this undo the wires to the swiches and the light. When it comes off, push out the two cables from where they slide into the holder, and then undo them from the little holes. Could be the motor, or the cable or? These cars have window problems, do a search on this and other sites. Let us know what you find. Usually they drop when the cable goes, and of course your miles from home and it's raining............

Also they changed to a more powerful engine (variable valve timing) and at least as important, went to a 5 speed auto in 96 or 97 I think-look it up. I would kill to have that in my 93. Really deserves a manual, but it's almost impossible. $$$. Also there are many rubber bushings getting hard, and then there is the resale value. I paid 4900 for mine, but if I had a do-over, I would save up another 5 and get a newer one. Remember, you'd spend 19 or 20 on a new Civic or Corolla out the door.

There may be an easier way, but when I put new 6.5" speakers in my 93 I had to take half the damn car apart. The grills attach from under the rear deck so out came the back seat, the rear interior sides etc. I had to do a little hacking to get the 6.5's in, but they sound SO much better. I ended up putting some more up front. There was a guy selling enclosures for the doors on ebay that worked really well. Those 4" speakers suck.......

Very interesting observation. Our cars are so rare, (and I'm in Houston, TX). We don't have the respect and following of our sister car, the Supra. (Why didn't they put the V8 in the Supra? And why can't we have a manual?) With only 1 body style from 92 to 99?, it's hard to tell whether the drivers are the lawyers, their kids or the rest of us as we drive around. That's probably your answer. I DO feel that even if people don't know what they are next to, they know it is a special car. All I know is I feel proud when we go out in this great car (and hope the damn windows won't break at a bad time.)

New coils fixed it. Wahoo! After reading some horror stories on here involving throwing $$$$$$ on parts with no results, I was really expecting the worse! I will be keeping my good eye on those igniters though. There has been some heat on that wiring. I'll wrap some good electrical tape on them while I've got the wires all separated, and I'm leaving the plastic cover off for additional cooling for a while. I still need some of you to check your wires so we can figure this out. Thanks.

What I'm asking is for someone to check their wires from the pictured ignitor. Mine are kinda crispy, and the black plastic tube cover just crumbled when I squeezed it. But, I don't know if it has been like that, or it just happened when it started missing. It's obviously been hot, but not enough to melt the wire insulation. I'm going now to get the coils and will post the results.

93 SC400-139000 miles. Drove it to work, it ran great as usual. After work it cranked fine, but after about 10 minutes I noticed a slight miss. Several minutes later all I had was a 4-banger. Made it home-20 miles-it never got any better or worse. Looking at the manual, it's got 2 ignitors, 2 coils, 2 camshaft sensors. I checked for codes (none) and pulled the coils and have 2 coils coming in the morning. I did check the old ones with my Fluke meter and they both seem within specs, although one is a little different from the other. . I hope that will be it. I also noticed the wires from the Ignitors must have been very hot. The outer wrap (not the insulation, but the dress-up plastic hose) on the wires just crumbled when I jacked with it. The wires seem ok. Can someone check their wire tube and see if it's like mine? It's by the drivers side front top shock mount. They are stacked in the little cover.

It has happened to me twice. 93 sc400 w/135,000 miles. Both times it was a dirty transmission filter. $24 for the filter at any auto parts plus 5 qts of Type 4 ATF from Toyota. Works fine.

Thanks for the info. Yes, I dropped the pan and even took it to the local car wash to pressure wash the outside and inside. I took out the magnets and cleaned them real well. They did have quite a bit of black sludge around them.

I thought mine was going (went) out, but it was a dirty filter. 2000 miles later (6 months), it did the same thing. Another filter and all is well. I've read too many bad things about doing a flush on one with an unknown service history to try that. ( I bought mine w/ 134,000 on it.) 93 sc400. It really seems to take very little crap to plug these filters up. Filters are $24 and you'll need 5 quarts of Type 4 Toyota ATF. I hope I'm not doing this every 2000 miles though.......Anyone else going thru this?