McDonough

My Pop owns a 92 SC 400, has owned it since new. It has 190K miles. It required a new starter at around 110K miles. Have any of you ever replaced a starter on one of these? What genius buried in the center of the block? Way too much labor for what could have been a simple job. Leaky valve covers, stuck heater valves, bad O2 sensors, etc. Had a timing belt break and caused major damage, it took out the oil pump etc. . If I had his "file" on the car, you guys would be amazed.

My Wife drives a 92 SC 300, manual shift. Has right at 150K miles and it has had NOTHING fail. Period. It will perform right with the v8 and gets better milage to boot. Still gets 23 MPG. NO doubt in my mind which is the better motor. The v8 is OVERLY complicated. Routine service is MUCH cheaper on the 6 than the v8. The Starter placement is total BS.

LexFather

Both are pretty bullet proof (My fathers SC 400 now has 210, 000 miles) but I'd go with the I-6.

ChronoJ1

iTrader: (2)

My sc4 hasn't had a single problem with its engine, but my interior pieces are falling apart too quick.
Even on the slightest bumps, my cabin sounds as if it's going to disintegrate. From both doors I can hear millions of rattles from which I do not the source of. My rear deck squeaks over the speed bumps. It's getting to a point where I want to throw a bucket of superglue into my car so it won't squeak or rattle.

928owner

Oh yeah,

New radiator, (tank seperation just two weeks ago), heater valve (wait to you see what THAT little thing costs) and secondary O2 sensor... I forgot those as well. For all those SC400's with high mileage, it will be just a matter of time before the periferial stuff starts to fail. We won't talk about the struts and lower A frame bushing failure as that dosen't involve the engine, just wears tires out like crazy, as you can not alighn the car when the vulcanized bushings "disintigrate".

For a 100,000 car, it has not been what I would call "trouble free". I was considering a new SC430, but this beast has not lived up to what my definition of "quality" is (per Dr. Demming).

Of course, I have heard nos so good things about the new MBZ, so I will continue to research a brand / model which provides the service I would expect at the price paid. This is not a Chevy after all...

928

SDSC300

have you tried having your tranny oil changed? a lot of guys recommend red line MT-90 .... I went ahead and tired this on my old tranny with a bad second gear. after I changed the oil the tranny did shift smoother even my friend said so when he drove my car. But my second gear still was bad ... it only was hard to shift when the tranny was warmed up about 15mins later. but redline is still a good choice.

I am not using redline anymore though I went to royal purple synco-max I think its better ... its made a little different than the redline because it uses a different base to start with. also I will be going to royal purple max gear for my differential.

www.thunderracing.com has pretty good prices on the royal purple gear oils as far as I found.

hopefully your tranny just needs better/new oil!

hwallen172

Thanks for the advice, Brian. We've got a really good shop in Atlanta, T3 Automotive, that specializes in Lexus and Infiniti. Once my front brake pads go, I'll take it in and have them change all the fluids. I'll bet they have the Redline or Royal Purple.

VSsc400

iTrader: (1)

engine and tranny is reliable on my V8 but....

fuel pump, power steering, idler pulley, belt tensioner, belt tensioner pulley bearing, A/C condenser, heater vavle, steering column adjust, right front caliper, rear break line, rear light relay, leaky sunroof, leaky passenger side window, window control master switch, window control motor, climate control bulbs, speedo bulbs/needles, ignition coil(somewhat premature @ 74k miles), alternator, door panel brackets, left front speaker, subwoofer, bulbs on the radio, mosture buildup under driver side rear seat, door hinge, triangular speaker on driverside (is this thing even connected?),

had to be replaced.

thats all that I can think of now.......
not to mention the not so usual services
valve adjusted,
stock battery sucked so got optima
R12 to R134 conversion
tranny pan seal (3 times in 75k miles)
trunk shocks
leaking muffler (never heard this one before)

but besides that this car is awesome.

All I can say is that my car is brand new. Since its got new wheels, paint, bodykit and all new parts exept for motor and tranny.

Well if not for all the complaints... At least the lexus was repairable. I had to throw away a ford taurus and an oldsmobile cutlas cierra before they hit 100k miles... Lets see if the lex survives another 25k miles.

928owner

YIPES!

You have had more stuff go wrong than me!! Lucky I have not had any leaking windows or roof problems.... did have the moonroof drain hose pull out of the drain box, my NAK amp did not like that.... keep an eye on that tube.

For all those high-mileage folks with claims of "nothing gone wrong", I sure wouldn't want to drive theirs across country..... sooner or later something will give out, as we all too well know.

They really rape you for that heater control valve... a real rip-off for a part that shoul be no more than $80.00 max..... oh well have to pay for the "free dealer doughnuts" some how....

928

lex400sc

To have as many problems go wrong with any car is unusual. As it stands though, for the last nine years, Lexus has been rated as the most reliable nameplate on the road by JD Powers, so I don't expect that it'd get any better than this. I'm sure there are exceptions to this, but I wouldn't rule out outside factors such as the level of care previous owners or current owners pay to their cars. Who knows, maybe some pre-owned cars have had unreported accidents, botched diy repairs, theft, fire, or flood damage, driver abuse, or maybe it's one of the rare lemons out there...

I have a highly qualified, highly experienced Lexus tech do all the major maintenance on my car, and I do alert him of possible malfunctions on the car. For instance, I just had my 75k service performed last week and asked my mechanic to inspect various parts such as the PSP. He came back and told me no signs of leakage and the seals were in good condition. I'm pretty confident I could hop in my car this instant and drive to New York, and the biggest concern in my mind would be a flat tire.

Could it be that some of these repairs are due to overzealous service advisors who are eager to replace everything on your car? I had a loose bracket on my right exhaust pipe that was causing a mysterious grinding sound against one of the heat shields. It sounded to me like a tranny issue so I took it to the dealership. Lexus of Pleasanton told me they needed to replace the whole right exhaust system, but I said screw it and took it home. After a few minutes of prodding the exhaust myself, all I had to do was tighten a few screws to eliminate the rattling noise. The same with a window motor that was ticking. Lexus of Pleasanton told me I had to replace the window motor because it was about to die. I took it to my Lexus mechanic and he told me the tick was a misaligned window track straining the window regulator. He replaced the regulator and fixed the track at a fraction of the price.

As far as your worn bushings go, you can either buy new control arms with new rubber bushings in them, or buy Daizen polyurethane bushings that do not disintegrate. They only need to be greased every four years or so. If you want improved handling and road feel, go with the Daizens, if you want to keep the cushiness of the ride, then you have to buy new control arms.

sc40094

Yeah I hear you guys, I have a 1994 lexus with 107K miles on it, and for the last 6 months my electrical stuffs started to fall apart (window regulator, attenna, two rear speakers, Nakamichi amp, fuel pump ECU, power steering pump, rear suspenstion). I think that's all, but the good thing is the engine is still very good. I feel like Toyota do this on purpose, they only design this car to last up to 10 year and 100K.

928owner

Lex,

JD Powers is sponsered by industry, that is why you only hear about their "ratings" from the folks who sponser their surveys. Better choice is Consumer Reports, which accepts no money from outside agencies (Companies). Try to get a JD Powers report from the library for all cars, you can't as they are only available to Industry.

The heater control valve fails on a lot of sc400's and it is about $400.00. Why so much??? It is a simple solenoid and valve. Seems like they price up the parts that seem to "fail" or get damaged often, like the spoiler dam under the front bumper.

I DO have the new bushings, ask Mr. Todd M., he helped "lube' 'em up for me after I installed them (squeky squeky, but the squeck was the poly satbilizer bushings). He has seen my car, and said it was kept in "very good shape". Fact is, they (frame bushings) should NOT fail at less than 100k miles. Power steering seals should not leak at 50k miles, and CERTAINLEY should not cause the altenator to fail. That was the "eye opener" for me.... the bill was $1300.00, as I did not have time to fix it myself. Learned FAST!

And, finally, and you must know this, I purchased this car as a "certified" car from Longo Lexus in El Monte. I paid top dollar. It had less than 40k miles on it with a full history print-out of all work done. It was NOT abused, as I went through it before it was "preped" by myself. I have a fairly good understanding of mechanics, and try to do all work myself, time permitting.

Now please don't get me wrong, it has been an "ok" car, but not as reliable as it should have been. There are more items I had to repair, such as the window lift (350.00 for the part), but I don't want to use too much band width. Of course, this has been my exprience, if yours is better, great! i still believe this is a 10 year/100k car. But that's just my experience, and it appears others as well.

928

LivnLavish

[QUOTE]Originally posted by 928owner
[B]YIPES!
For all those high-mileage folks with claims of "nothing gone wrong", I sure wouldn't want to drive theirs across country..... sooner or later something will give out, as we all too well know.(quote)

I have a 95 sc400 w/ 153,000+ miles on it. and though I have had to deal with the whole power steering pump/alternator issue I have had no other major problems with the car. I just drove it from the California Bay area to Mobile Alabama without concern. did the 2400 mile trip in 2days at an average speed of 100mph and it runs smooth as ever. I even spun out into a drainage ditch out there before I drove the 2400miles back without a problem.so as for me I am a believer.


originally posted by lex400sc
I have to agree with lex400sc on this. I havent had a single conversation with these guys (lex techs) without them suggesting some expensive repair ( perhaps coincidentaly also lexus of pleasanton) that I've found to be unecessary or even unrelated to my initial concern.

how much do these bushings run? do you have any experince with them?

SC400-V8

iTrader: (1)

I would put in a vote for the V8... and so far absolutely no problems with it... knock on wood.