sc300 troubles. suggestions?
 

ALRIGHTY! my parents bought me a 1992 SC300 with 185000 miles for Christmas. Well, since driving it off the lot, we've had to replace the waterpump and other various things. WELL, thursday morning, my harmonic balancer/crank pulley broke off, ruining not only the fan and serpentine belt but various other things as well. ALSO, the a/c compressor and clutch needs to be replaced as well, not to mention that my memory seats and mirrors dont work as well.

HERE'S my question: Do you guys think i should have my lexus repaired and keep driving it, OR should i just have the harmonic thing fixed and sell it?

What i originally wanted (note the username) was a 1999-2001 RX300. However my parents did not want to pay the additional $2k for the SUV when they bought my SC. What im looking for is responses from rx300 owners and sc owners. How are your cars running and with what mileage? How much is too many miles? and what would you pay? I've found a 2001RX with 121k for about $8500. Does that seem reasonable? I thought getting a car with 185k would be fine but apearently i was wrong.

SO, can anyone on this forum help this nieve teenage with his dilemma??? :sad:

That's used car dealerships for you, they don't do any work or maintenance on the cars, just clean it... I had to do $1850 maintenance on mine right after I bought mine from a used car dealer... not exactly what I was wanting right when I join the Lexus family. I've made a promise to myself not to ever buy another car at a used car dealership again. I should have bought mine off craigslist.

What's the price for the harmonic work and then the price for all the work?

change the pulley yourself and put on a new belt.
you could pm aliga, he usually has one.

sc300 > rx300

a local independent quoted me $1800+ for the AC and pulley. the pulley was going to be $700 because he had to get it from the dealership for some odd reason so i dont know. all i know is i paid $4.1k for the car, and im not about to spend almost half that just in repairs. i quite honestly dont know what to do. =/ but thanks for the suggestions.

Harmonic balancer/crank pulley shouldn't cost that much, maybe $200 max new from the dealer. I would think it should cost half of that $1800 to get it fixed from a independent shop. I would look for a different shop and fix what is wrong with the car.

that price included replacing the AC compressor, which is shot.

and i still need to get my power mirrors working along with my memory seats and a few other things that are wrong with the car. i just dont know. 186k isnt scary??

Even if they bought the rx300 it could need the same repairs. How about getting the good used harmonic balancer from algia [username] replace it yourself, and see how the rest does for a couple of weeks.

Your math boggles me - unless of course there was an RX for $6.1k :uh:

The RX is a little feminine for a teenage male - stick with the SC.

That quote is ridiculous.

Did you check the fuses for the seats/mirrors? Try that, then look at replacing the ECU for them. Get all your parts used from Gazi and you will save a bunch of money. :thumbup:

Jonny

I was wondering the same thing. Anyway. Good reason to do swap. Obviosly the car may have all original parts. You might want to check the timing belt while you are at it.

nope. the RX was 9k, but i was going to trade my jeep in, which should have been around 3k. i dont know why but ive always liked the RX.

anyways, i think im going to have to jus stick with my SC. i do like the car, but its been one headache after another with this thing! =(

Get to know the car as you look for problems and fix them. It can be done real cheap with all the guys here selling parts for dirt. The more you work on the car and get to know the ins & outs the more you will come to like it.

I wish my parents bought me a car.

Also search and read the forums, you’ll be surprised at what you’ll find.

Know your car. I’m still learning and I’ve been at it a while but I got a few mods.

my parents won't buy me anything :mad:

my parents bought me a car. but...it wasn't to my liking. >_< so...i took the first step and bought my own car...a lexus sc400. 1992. so far...i just changed the trans mount which helped my problem a lil...$120...and it's still runnin cherry. =)

Peace out

For $1800 I think you may be able to get a lower mileage 2jzge swapped in.
185k sounds like alot of miles, but should be fine if it was maintained well. Seems like it has not been cared for so be prepared to put in a good chunk of change to get it running well. Has the timing belt service been done?
In my opinion, I think it is better to sell this car and pay a little bit more for a lower mileage SC that has been maintained better or get RX you always wanted.

yes, when my waterpump went, they changed the timing belt, but that was it. for some reason, my uncle and dad (the ones who worked on the car) didnt replace anything else. i have this really bad feeling they're the ones who caused the ac and crank pulley to go, because they didnt put everything back together right.

I also forgot to mention that when the pulley went, it got stuck in my fan, which ruined the fan, so i also need another one of those. =(

however, i actually think this was maintained almost to perfection...just not recently. the manual is FULL of official Lexus dealer stamps for everything, including every oil change its ever had! done at Lexus of Ft. Lauderdale.
My plan was to take it to my local dealer and have them pull the service records up, but my parents never got around to doing it, and i didnt want to go without them, seeing as the car is in their name.

my main problem im having is i like my SC. I like driving it, i like being seen in it, i like that when i tell people what my car is they say "omg you have a lexus." Its all this internal conflict.

As much as i like the whole swap idea, the rents probably wont go for that.
but who knows.



OH, another thing i forgot to mention: when the crank pulley went, my battery light came on, and i lost power steering and i think power breaks... does the crank pulley control that? or is that ANOTHER issue i have to solve...