Ghosty

My friend is looking at a mint sc400-v8-auto with less then 80k miles. Unfortunately the owner says it has bad (cracked) motor-mounts and a 'collapsed?' tranny-mount. I'm more familiar with the 2jz-Supra-manual, so can't give her good advice.

I've searched for 'mount', 'mounts', and 'motor mounts' in this 'Engine' section, but really didn't come up with anything, or maybe I'm not searching right. This seems like WAY TOO low mileage for that to happen though. Is it a sign of major abuse? Is it a common problem on v8-sc400's? The engine-bay pic looks mint as does the rest of the car, in and out. I know that doesn't mean much mechanically though. She thinks she can get it for about $1000 below blue-book, so she's very interested, then she'll pay her family's mechanic to fix all the mounts for like $600? It hasn't had it's 60k major service (timing-belt) either yet. How much is that major service on this v8? I know on a 2jz it would be $500+.

She's out of state, so I can't look at it or test-drive it for her. She says it drives awesome and quiet though, shifts fine, powerful, etc. I told her to pay a Toyota dealer $80 and have a full used-car checkout, including checking for leaks, seals, smoke, & compression-test.

A local sc300 guy mentioned draining/smelling a little bit of tranny fluid for anything out of the ordinary? (as a sign of abuse or bad maintenance).

Nomis

Yep:

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/sho...hreadid=121426

Ghosty

My bad, I had the IS-300 "Engine" forum highlighted by accident instead of the "sc300/400 Engine" forum, got bunch of hits this time, thanks.

Still wondering how common this is on sub-80k mileage cars. Or suspicious and something she should avoid. Looks like a ton of people have this issue (albeit on higher mileage cars). I'll post up if she has it checked out.

Nomis

No problem. It's not so much the miles as it is the age of the part. Mounts are largely comprised of rubber and as such they are prone to deteriation, cracking, dry-rotting. The fact that they are only inches from a very hot exhaust manifold - only exacerbates the problem.