I've had my SC300 for about 5 months. The previous owner said that the car had received regular maintenance but had not had the complete 100K servicing as recommended. I had the car inspected before purchase and they repaired minor nuisance leaks in the VC and diff gasket, and performed an oil change and transmission fluid change.

It is definitely in need of a new timing belt and struts, which I am having done this week. I'll have them do the water pump at the same time, as well as an engine flush and an oil change with Mobil 1 synth.

But what other specific things should I have the mechanic do or look for? Ignition coils? Airbag?

Ral

 

Ral,
You need to go over the whole car to make sure every thing is in working order.
(A)-Fluids:
Engine,gear oil,rear differential oil,antifreeze(very Important) and the power steering fluid
(B)-Engine:
Change all the belts including the Timing one.
Water Pump
PCV valve
(C)-Suspension:
Have the wheel bearings checked out as they can go bad over time too
Check the tread level of the tires and also see if they are wearing out equally for alignment purpose
(D)-Transmission:
Get the clutch checked out too to see if there's any slippage or not
(E)-Brakes:
Bleed the brakes with the new fluid and check the rotors and the pads.
Hope it helps and take care of this car as it is a rare one
Later, Yasir

 

I got all the work done and had them check _everything_. I explained the car was 10 years old and I was the 3rd owner and I didn't have a good idea of the maintenance history. They said, "Ok, we'll check everything."

They installed my new struts, and some new tires. Gave the car a major scheduled service (really long list of items) and checked out a popping noise I was hearing when turning into parking spaces (that turned out to be a loose link rod; it was too worn to be tightened so they replaced it).

They replaced the timing belt and water pump. Also told me that the timing belt tensioner was notchy and the drive belts were all cracked, so those were replaced too.

They discovered that I had "oil leaking all over the place", into the spark plug tubes and over the wiring. Ugh. They replaced everything and resealed the tubes.

Car's in good shape now. I had them fix everything they could find wrong with it. It drives great. That nice "supercharger whine" from the cams has come back stronger than ever, and throttle is very silky.

Ral