azmirock

Hello all,

I just recently purchased a 1995 sc400 with 249k miles. The car is in rough shape but I drove it home over 30 miles and left it parked till I had time to work on it. I go to start it the second day I have it just to make sure everything still works. I do that for 2 days and don't start it on the 3rd day. On the 4th day as I walk up to it, I notice there is a liquid spill near the passenger side front wheel and when I go to start it, it was completely dead. No lights or sound or horn working at all. I took the battery to Autozone and it was at 6 volts even though it was only a few months old. When I bought the car, the power steering reservoir seemed to be leaking but it was nothing crazy and it still worked fine. Besides that, there wasn't anything else leaking that I noticed anyway. So I'm surprised as to what it can be. My top guess right now is power steering reservoir, but the weird thing to me is that the car has been sitting for 4 days straight. I didn't move it or anything so what would cause it to leak? I attached a few videos.

Tallyhoe

I am searching for the same leak.. it first started towards the front on the driver side, then shifted to the passenger side, right behind the strut tower... I noticed that it wont leak if the AC is off, and thats something new I discovered... haven't worked on it since I moved and I haven't driven it, but hopefully we can help each other out... I think it may be a similar leak to the one on the LS400 leak, but I haven't dove down that rabbit hole yet.

joewitafro

Touch it and smell it, is it ATF? Based on your last video it definitely looks like your power steering is pushing the fluid out. I googled "Sc400 power steering overflow" and there is a LOT of clublexus posts relating to the identical LS400/SC400 1UZ power steering leak. This doesn't seem to exist on the 2jz.

http://www.lexls.com/tutorials/steer...mprebuild.html

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/sc-...e-subject.html

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/per...lternator.html

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/sus...ease-help.html

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/mai...reservoir.html

Tallyhoe, have you felt the fluid that is coming from where yours is and determined what it is? You saying it doesn't leak with the AC off makes me wonder if its condensation dripping down (aka water)

Tallyhoe

Yeah, Ive touched it and smelled it and I would agree its water... but my coolant is going somewhere, since i have to fill it every 2 weeks.

joewitafro

Thats a bad sign! If you add toyota red coolant, it dyes the area pink/red when it stains after leaking to help trace it.

Tallyhoe

Yeah, I agree, I am assuming is the radiator, there is pink dried up in the upper section or underneath the fan shroud, front of thr engine has splashes of white and red...

joewitafro

Yeah hole in your radiator sounds like.

Tallyhoe

Actually found it this morning... turned it on to go to work and started leaking innediately .. constant underneath the bumper. Once warm it sorta stops...

azmirock

I haven't touched the car in a while, but I got the battery back in the car and drove it around the parking lot for a little bit. The power steering is definitely gone, so I'm assuming that leak was power steering fluid afterall.

Tallyhoe

Damn, I haven't checked that in a while.. glad you found the leak... mine looked similar to yours, freaked me out, but it was excessive in comparison to my coolant missing