TX RARE Royal Sapphire Pearl 1997 Lexus SC300 2JZ-GTE R154 Single Turbo
06-30-15, 11:57 AM
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07-15-15, 07:55 PM
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Not as advertised
I feel it's important to mention that I drove 2000 miles round trip from Phoenix Arizona to Austin Texas with truck, trailer and our negotiated price in cash with every intention to purchase this car.
Please understand that I am in no way intentionally trying to attack the seller, or discredit the vehicle. I am simply sharing the things I found to be different than what the ad and seller said and other observations I made about the car.
I'll attempt to share what my findings and impression of the vehicle was.
The paint which was stated to be
in my opinion is in poor condition. Yes there is a crack in the front bumper, but there is also zip tie "repair" work done where the bumper is cracked high up. The mounting point of the front bumper (to the fender) on the passenger side are broken causing the bumper to be hang.
The rear quarter panels appear to be rolled poorly, resulting in the body line being distorted and a noticeable wave to the fenders. Not a blaring blemish but something to be noted and considered. The rear bumper had spider cracked paint and is in need of being repainted. There are multiple down to metal scratches along the quarter panels, trunk and trunk wing. The car has a ton of surface scratches throughout.
Over the phone the seller told me he believed that the black interior was factory and not swapped. The wood trim on the dash fits poorly and is loose. The end pieces of the dash (where door meets the dash when closed) are poor fitting and have gaps all the way around on both sides. The rear seats which have been recovered feel like pleather, or low quality leather. I have no experience with any of the recovering kits so I'm not sure if that's the expected quality or not. Just pointing out that OEM leather is 100x better. The leather on the rear seat has separated from the foam on the top of the seat. You can see the separation when you look through the back window.
Upon cold start the car started fine, but cold start idle was very high (over 2k) and fluctuating. It would drop in RPMs then correct itself, spike high, and drop down low again. You could see it on the tach and hear it.
The speedometer is a auto tach and does not register RPM correctly while driving, and possibly at idle too. The RPM needle was wrapping around itself and hugely inaccurate when I drove it.
Upon engagement of the clutch, it sounds like the throw out bearing is on its way out. It feels like a factory pressure plate. The engagement is loose and sloppy, I would encourage the slave master cylinder to be inspected and potentially bled. Perhaps that's the issue there. The clutch didn't appear to be slipping but that's difficult to tell as the car wasn't producing the HP or boost you would expect a 6262 turbo to be, which leads me to the motor.
The timing cover and valve cover were not bolted down. The strut bar was touching the intake manifold and the valve cover. The turbo blanket wasn't secure, and was loosely sitting on the turbo. There was various zip ties loosely holding wiring in the engine bay.
The the oil feed and return line was held away from the manifold by bailing wire, and they were tied together (rubbing issues?). The turbo inlet coupler had two couplers that were the wrong size that were clamped together to connect the charge pipe to the inlet. (Boost leak? Popping couplers?) the bumper should be removed to inspect the rest of couplers to see how they are secured and what boost leaks could be found.
The front mount is only secured by the top mounts, and the two bottom brackets were not connected to anything (fitment issue). The manual boost controller is just mounted with no lines hooked up. The car has a econo battery and some auto store special oil filter, I found the filter to be a interesting choice of quality. But maybe that's just me.
When I drove the car it was difficult to tell where boost was or was not being made since the RPM gauge was busy flopping around and there was no connected boost, AFR, or wideband gauge. I immediately noticed the lack of boost and the lack of power for the size of turbo and build specs. Although you could hear the turbo spool the boost was either exiting via inlet coupler or maybe the tune is on super low boost (but why have a big turbo with no boost?). It just was not making power as you would expect a single 2jzgte to make. Sitting at a light you could smell burnt oil, which the seller said was due to the open to atmosphere dump... (Turbo seals? Inspect couplers, waste gate, intake mani for oil? Or a leak that's dripping down somewhere and burning off??)
Also the AC does not work, nor does the radio.
The seller apologized for my for disappointment of the the car, and that he did his best to represent the car correctly. He quickly issued me a refund of the deposit I put down via PayPal.
I would strongly encourage anyone who is considering this car to see it in person. If you don't have any past experience with these cars, motors, swaps or builds I would strongly encourage you to bring someone that does.
Please understand that I am in no way intentionally trying to attack the seller, or discredit the vehicle. I am simply sharing the things I found to be different than what the ad and seller said and other observations I made about the car.
I'll attempt to share what my findings and impression of the vehicle was.
The paint which was stated to be
Paint is pretty good
The rear quarter panels appear to be rolled poorly, resulting in the body line being distorted and a noticeable wave to the fenders. Not a blaring blemish but something to be noted and considered. The rear bumper had spider cracked paint and is in need of being repainted. There are multiple down to metal scratches along the quarter panels, trunk and trunk wing. The car has a ton of surface scratches throughout.
Over the phone the seller told me he believed that the black interior was factory and not swapped. The wood trim on the dash fits poorly and is loose. The end pieces of the dash (where door meets the dash when closed) are poor fitting and have gaps all the way around on both sides. The rear seats which have been recovered feel like pleather, or low quality leather. I have no experience with any of the recovering kits so I'm not sure if that's the expected quality or not. Just pointing out that OEM leather is 100x better. The leather on the rear seat has separated from the foam on the top of the seat. You can see the separation when you look through the back window.
Upon cold start the car started fine, but cold start idle was very high (over 2k) and fluctuating. It would drop in RPMs then correct itself, spike high, and drop down low again. You could see it on the tach and hear it.
The speedometer is a auto tach and does not register RPM correctly while driving, and possibly at idle too. The RPM needle was wrapping around itself and hugely inaccurate when I drove it.
Upon engagement of the clutch, it sounds like the throw out bearing is on its way out. It feels like a factory pressure plate. The engagement is loose and sloppy, I would encourage the slave master cylinder to be inspected and potentially bled. Perhaps that's the issue there. The clutch didn't appear to be slipping but that's difficult to tell as the car wasn't producing the HP or boost you would expect a 6262 turbo to be, which leads me to the motor.
The timing cover and valve cover were not bolted down. The strut bar was touching the intake manifold and the valve cover. The turbo blanket wasn't secure, and was loosely sitting on the turbo. There was various zip ties loosely holding wiring in the engine bay.
The the oil feed and return line was held away from the manifold by bailing wire, and they were tied together (rubbing issues?). The turbo inlet coupler had two couplers that were the wrong size that were clamped together to connect the charge pipe to the inlet. (Boost leak? Popping couplers?) the bumper should be removed to inspect the rest of couplers to see how they are secured and what boost leaks could be found.
The front mount is only secured by the top mounts, and the two bottom brackets were not connected to anything (fitment issue). The manual boost controller is just mounted with no lines hooked up. The car has a econo battery and some auto store special oil filter, I found the filter to be a interesting choice of quality. But maybe that's just me.
When I drove the car it was difficult to tell where boost was or was not being made since the RPM gauge was busy flopping around and there was no connected boost, AFR, or wideband gauge. I immediately noticed the lack of boost and the lack of power for the size of turbo and build specs. Although you could hear the turbo spool the boost was either exiting via inlet coupler or maybe the tune is on super low boost (but why have a big turbo with no boost?). It just was not making power as you would expect a single 2jzgte to make. Sitting at a light you could smell burnt oil, which the seller said was due to the open to atmosphere dump... (Turbo seals? Inspect couplers, waste gate, intake mani for oil? Or a leak that's dripping down somewhere and burning off??)
Also the AC does not work, nor does the radio.
when I got it I fixed the A/C and put new hood struts on. Car didn't need anything else.
Everything works.
I would strongly encourage anyone who is considering this car to see it in person. If you don't have any past experience with these cars, motors, swaps or builds I would strongly encourage you to bring someone that does.
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