sc_toy

Bah go aftermarket. I got SS tips for $15 each at CDN tire. Check out the lower right hand pic you can kinda see how they look.... page 2 - my cardomain page They are round, straight cut 3.5" diameter I believe. Rolled edge. They are smaller looking than the stock ones, and they stay shiny a lot easier! Best this is if they get trashed I can get a new one at and Canadian Tire for $15... Somebody at a supra meet heard my exhaust and saw the tips and asked me what aftermarket exhaust I had on. :whistles: Aaron

My MR2 supercharged used the rear calipers for the e-brake. There was a lever with a strong spring that the cable would pull and that would clamp the brakes. The MR2s were notorious for bad e-brake cables. Maybe those problems made Toyota think again. The supras have had mini-drums inside the rear rotors since as far back as '82 or earlier. Not sure the reason, but we're not gonna change it so who cares. Aaron

I didn't think lexus could get just the bushings. I thought you HAD to get the whole arm. Go to www.planetsoarer.com and look up Andrew Vladmos's bushings (dunno if I spelled that correctly). I know for the lower control arm and steering rack bushings, it's going to cost me about $500 CDN. Aaron

Actually you got it slightly backwards. It may or may not burn cleaner (depending on the definition of cleaner), but it DOES burn slower. That is exactly what octane is. Octane is a detonation retardant, meaning it takes more heat/pressure to explode, and the flame front will burn slower. Octane also displaces the hydrocarbons in the gas. Meaning octane is NOT fuel, and the more octane in the gas, the less raw fuel. Higher octane gas than recommended will not make more power, unless the engine is tuned to take advantage of the higher octane. Also, lower octane will reduce power in our engines. They were designed to run on 91-92 octane, so with 89 they may pre-ignite the mixture, and the knock sensors will !Removed! your timing automatically, hurting your performance. Best thing to do??? If you car calls for 87 use it, if your car calls for 91 use it. There is no benefit to going with higher octane, and you can severly damage some engines by using less octane. Hope this helps, Aaron

I Got 450,000 km out of my camry. 5w-50 synthetic every 20-25,000 km... lol I would use the Toyota air filter ONLY. It has proven to be on par with the other filters for power on the dyno, and filters arguably better than the others. Plugs.... factory Filter.... check planetsoarer.com, I think there's a factory filter that's excellent, and one that's garbage. That site has part numbers for both... HTH, Aaron

Staggered means larger rear tires than fronts. With directional tires this means that you'll have dedicated RF, LF, RR, and LR tires. So you won't rotate your tires anymore (unless you take them off the rim and swap to the other side but that's only with directional symetrical... lol) Anyway, for 3 seasons I'd get summer performance tires, they'll have much better wet and dry traction than all seasons. Then for the winter you should run dedicted winter tires from the first snowfall onward... Well for Canadian winters anyway... :D Aaron

A quick note: DOT 3 Ford heavy duty brake fluid has a higher boiling point than DOT 4 (550 deg).... it's available at almost any auto parts store. Aaron

jzz30, Thanks, I didn't even know there was a tutorial section before you posted that. lol.... One quick question. I reinstalled the pump in the car last night, and had no power at all in the steering (yes I purged all the air from the system, several times actually). I installed my pressure valve backwards I think. In order mine goes... (c-clip)-(plug)-(valve)-(spring)-(high pres. fitting) When I mated the valve to the fitting the shiny side of the valve (with the screen in it) was the same diameter as the fitting, and the spring slid well over them so that's how I installed it. From your pictures though it looks backwards, and considering I've got now PS then I'm 99% sure I screwed up. I think I'm just venting because this job is much harder on the LS400 and I'm getting frustrated. The sad thing is I've dropped engines, done valve jobs, honed and re-ringed, restored cars from buckets of parts, etc. and this is one of the hardest things I've ever done.... Aaron p.s. On the upside there were no leaks from the rad or the ps pump/hoses in all the time I was checking. This will be a lot easier to do on my SC...

I highly doubt 245s will rub. The car was designed for 225s, not little skinny buggers. I've got 235/45R17s and they don't come anywhere close to rubbing. 245 is only 5 mm on either side more than mine. I'll probably get 245/45R17 (front) and 265/40R17 (rear) next spring. Aaron

This isn't really nessesary... All you're doing is making the car relearn. It will be slower (I have the time slips to prove it), until it learns how to perform again. Best thing to do is just drive it at WOT in various temps to teach it how to make the best power. When I went to the strip, I got an O2 code on the way down, so when I got there I pulled the EFI fuse. First run was in the 16's, and every run dropped about .3 seconds after that (back to back runs) until it hit 15.420 in stock condition. The computer is always learning, so just drive the way you want to drive, and it'll learn how to adjust to you. My car was a turtle when I picked it up, after a couple hours she was a rocket ship. :D Aaron

Yeah I took a look in my moms LS400 manual last night, I was right on my hunch that it's the coolant. This only happened a couple times, and it's getting colder out so I just started using the heater. I think I may have had bubbles in the core that had to escape cause it hasn't done it since. Will check it anyway before I go home... thanks for the replys. Aaron

Yeah I've heard nothing but good things about AMSOil. Also the 0W-30 would be good for the cold Canadian winters. I've been using Castol Syntec 5W-50 year round in all my cars for a few years now, but if I can find some amsoil I might switch one of these days. FWIW, the Camry usually had it's oil changed every 20-25,000 km. A couple times years ago, when I used cheap motomaster or quakerstate filters, the filter must have clogged and the bypass opened up (you could hear the valve slap around if you shook the filter). But that engine still kept going... If I ever need a cheap car again I'll get a 92-96 5S-FE camry. Aaron

A couple things, first off the SC300 is an I6 not a V6 but anyway.... Second, plugs are a bit of a hype thing, they have one task and as long as the stock plugs handle that task I haven't seen any science to prove why another plug would preform better. I would replace them with factory denso plugs, or another denso equivalent. For turbo/supercharged engines it's a different story, copper plugs tend to perform better so NGK-Rs are the chosen ones for the 4A-GZE, 3S-GTE and possibly the 2JZ-GTE guys... HTH, Aaron

I had a '92 Camry last 440,000 km (275,000 miles)... then my buddy who bought it ran it without oil and it threw a rod through the side of the block. My SC has 370,000 km on it now, and it's running faster 1/4 mile times than it did when it left the factory. I fully expect it to last well past 500,000 km... I don't use any snake oils or anything, no real secrets to getting high mileage, I just use synthetic oil (castrol 5W-50 for what it's worth) every 10,000 km or so. Oh and I only have used ESSO gas in the camry, MR2SC, and now Lexus SC not that it makes much of a difference, if any. Always 92 (98 RON) octane in the MR2 and SC, 87 in the Camry. Oh yeah drive the *BLEEP* out of it, don't baby it. I'm not hard on my car but I hit WOT fairly often. Aaron

^^^ not sure what you meant to say there. Update: on saturday night when I couldn't get the pieces apart, I put the pump standing up so that the bearing was at the top, and the main shaft was pointing up. I filled the area on top of the bearing with penetrating fluid, hoping it would seep down in and loosen things up. It worked! Today when I got home from work I went over the pump and when I picked it up the pieces basically fell out! I used my hammer to tap out the main shaft, and used the open area of my vise to separate the main shaft from the bearing. (after removing the clip of course). I cleaned the pump casting with brake and parts cleaner and now I'm about to go and reassemble everything with the new gaskets/seals/clips. Probably going to use a touch of white grease on everything when I reassemble it. I know it's not ATF but I'm only going to use a touch and it should keep things from wearing when it first starts up without being full of fluid. I'll keep updating as the process continues... I'm starting to feel better about the whole thing. Also, I was an idiot and didn't undo the vac lines going to the intake pipe before the T/B, and one of the fittings broke off. I got an idea though, gonna get some use out of my new tap and die set. Will get a fitting with the proper size barb on one side to fit the vac line, and male threads on the other side, then I'll tap the intake where the plastic fitting broke off and install the brass fitting with a little teflon tape or thread lock (probably use red loctite). Should do the trick. That reminds me I should go to home depot..... Aaron

Well I had the pump doused with penetrating fluid for the last two days, and when it went to it today the vane plates and rotor housing almost slid out on it's own... Aaron

LOL yeah gotta stay off the carny rides. No digi cam, and no manual (see subject), I'll have to e-mail lexus about getting a new manual. It's an orange light, on the left side of the display a couple inches up from the trac light. It looks like a roof, with 5-6 pillars, and a floor. LOL It's a standard Toyota symbol, I saw it in my old Camry manual. It's only come on for about 5 seconds twice now, so I'm not too concerned, but if it's something that I can do a little preventative maintenance on.... I dunno why I think it's something to do with the coolant... EDIT: Just went out to the car, when turning the key to on it doesn't light up, but looking at it in the sun I can see it's directly to the left of the tail-light warning light. If anyone's got a lexus manual and can tell me what it says in there it'd be much appreciated. I'm going to get a manual mailed to me before Lexus stops giving them away and I gotta get gouged on eBay... Aaron

Hey all, I looked through the FAQ and the various other FAQs on the net. Couldn't find anything with a description of what the in dash warning lights mean. Lately I've been seeing a warning light that looks like a carousel/court house kinda thing!?! Pardon the bad description... Did I miss a FAQ somewhere that describes this? Pardon the WOB if I missed something, Aaron

I hate mechanics and do 99% of my own work, but for $80 I would have taken this into someone. Hell I think there's close to $80 worht of fluids I'm going to have to put back in! LOL Rad fluid, Toyota Type-IV ATF (from tranny cooler), PS fluid (DEX III)... I'm only half done and it's a pain in the !Removed! job. Aaron

Hey, first off let me say this is on a '91 LS400, not my SC400. But I have been going by the instructions on planetsoarer.com and I can assure you the pumps are the same (although the reserve tank is different and the pump is WAY harder to get off on the LS)... Anyway it's out of the car, the halves are separated, and I'm trying to pull the internals out. When I took the rear half off, a spring (diaphram kinda spring!?! looks like two wishbones put together), was the first thing to come out. The very next thing behind that spring is the rear vane plate. Part of part C in this picture... http://www.planetsoarer.com/Power%20steeri...ernals%2004.jpg It looks like the entire rotor housing and vane plates slide out the back but i've been trying and I don't want to damage the pump trying to get them out. Anyone tell me how they got theirs out??? I really don't want to use brute force if I don't have to... I think this pump is salvageable. Thanks in advance, Aaron

Oh yeah, forgot to mention, the pumps are the same, but the SC uses a remote reservoir. The main body is the same between the pumps though. Interesting thing is they use a different gasket kit. The LS gasket kit comes with a small brass fitting that slides into one of the ports on the pump. I haven't had my SC pump apart yet so I don't know if it uses this fitting and the kit doesn't come with it, or maybe it doesn't use it at all... Aaron

Well I did a couple things wrong... I tried to remove the pump with the pulley still attached, and it hit the ABS bracket while trying to slide the pump off the stud (pump is mounted with 3 bolts and 1 stud). Note: it only takes three bolts (10-12 mm IIRC) to remove the fluid reservoir, and then it's out of the way. Otherwise it hits the brake lines going to the ABS blocks. Also the high pressure union/fitting wouldn't come off for me, even with my air gun, so the high pressure line was hitting the fan shroud when trying to pull the pump forward. If you could remove the high pressure fitting, and if you're smarter than me and loosen the pulley nut while the belt is still tensioned on the pulley, you could probably get it out without removing the rad. I still need to talk to someone who's rebuilt their pumps before. I'm not a noob when it comes to rebuilding things but I can't figure out how to get this one piece out of the pump. If worse comes to worse I could use a puller to yank the shaft and main bearing out, and rebuild it all from that side, but I'd really like to get the whole thing apart so I can have a look in there. Cheers, Aaron

HELP!!! To anyone that's rebuilt their PS pumps... I've got mine out of the car ('92 LS400, not the SC400 in the pic). Anyway, I've got the two halves separated. Removed the c-clip from the main bearing side, but unfortunately the vane housing (the piece that sits over top of the rotor assy) wont come out. Is there a special trick to it??? I'm just going by the instructions on planetsoarer.com which are for my SC400, but I'm working on my moms LS400. Anyway same pump.... I see a small pin that looks like it aligns the vane housing with the rotor housing. I need to get this piece out so that the main shaft will be exposed and I can tap it out. Thanks in advance for any help!!! Aaron

I just finished removing mine from the car, taking a break from the rebuild. I had to remove a LOT of stuff. - airbox - MAF - intake up to the T/B - rad I'm still attempting to rebuild it, if anyone reads this and has done it before please contact me cause I'm stuck trying to get something out of the housing. I wouldn't recommend this job to someone that hasn't been working on cars for years. I consider myself a very experienced mechanic, and this is a hard job. Took the engine out of a camry in 3 hours with no air tools and no cutting last weekend, already spent about 6-7 hours on this pump and it's not even disassembled yet!!! For what it's worth, I'm working on my moms LS400, not my SC400... Aaron

ATF is not like engine oil, you need a certain amount of friction properties in the fluid. Now I know the toyota engineers know how much friction my tranny needs, do I know AMSOil knows??? I know they've got an excellent rep for oils, and if they had a proper Toyota Type T-II replacement ATF I might buy it, but I would NOT use their ATF which is likely a Dexron III equivalent. To each his own I guess... Aaron