WICKED SC4

My SC400 was utterly destroyed by the Lexus of Las Vegas Dealer and left me hung up to dry. They were supposed to change the starter on a car that ran like a top. $1400 later the car came back not running. They said its your problem don't come back! Since then I have been to 10 different "specalist shops" to fix one problem and each shop adds two more problems to the one they fixed. I am frustrated and my car went from a rattle free, problem free smooth one owner SC400 to a cash hole rattle trap that is vibrating whining and buzzing all over the place!

Anyway, I need some help. There is a drivetrain vibration that comes on about 47mph and gets worse as the speeds go up. It's so annoying and bad the rear view mirror looks like a guitar string when you pluck it. The entire car shakes and humms. There is a loud humming sound coming from under the car. You really dont' know how much this drives me crazy.

It started when one of the 10 shops called A1 allied machine shop service were supposed to do an alignment and change out the torque converter. ASE "Certified" machine shop they call themselves. They break the bolt for the alighnment! Apparently no one make it anymore and they charge me $300(mostly labor) for some aftermarket bolt that isn't even the same. After the alignment I get in the car and the car TRANSMISSION doesn't shift anymore or since. No more kick down switch. IT GOES FROM FIRST GEAR TO FOURTH AT 5MPH and stays in fourth all the way unless I manually shift it. Now, it's not even shifting manually... There was a terrible vibration you can feel through the entire car(doors, seats, wheel) and pulled right back in the shop and had the manager take a ride. He said, "yep there is a vibration." so they took it back and looked at it and proceeded to tell me they did everything right and oh by the way you need a new driveshaft and we want $3000 to fix it. Oh by the way the car eat through and entire set of 50K mile new tires in 5K miles. Alignment is rubbish. I politely make a list of all the problems they did to the car and told them to fix my car because you made it a whoopty.

ARRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHHH! **** wouldn't do anything and said I am being VERY rude asking them to fix it! WHY DO ALL THE CAR SHOPS DO THIS?? FROM THE DEALER TO OTHERS. WHY IS EVERYONE THAT WORKS ON CARS INCOMPETENT?

People wonder why people go postal over this stuff? I am going to hurt the next joker that tells me, "Were not doing anything for the problem we made, it your problem now- if you want us to fix it pay$$$$" shot. dead. Not really I am just very angry and want to punch someone in the face.

If that's not enough, one shop made the stereo stop working, wonderful sounding Nakamichi, and couldn't be traced to any problem but the amp. So I send in the amp for $280 and they send it back and it does the same thing. Further troubleshooting, it STILL reveals the amp is bad and send it back- now they act like they don't know what I am talking about. They have my amp and are like what amp? It's been over a month now and no response.

Furthermore, I have the differential serviced, and due to lack of compentency the idiot strips the bolt and leaves it that way. He never changed the fluid. So my diff started going out. So I get a brand new Supra TT TRD auto diff and have Dans Driveline (reccomended shop) it put in with fresh seals and bearings. Problem solved right? NOT. LOUD whirring sound coming from the diff. Go back and tell them, they are like, "Your mounts are doing that!" I am like WTF are you smoking. You did bad work.. they say it needs more time to break in. So 4 mo later it is getting louder. I am so mad I go in there and demand the shop mechanic come out. I say get in the car now! I drive 30mph and say open the door. He does and a super loud metal on metal sound is coming out. I look at him and say does this sound like a mount? He looks at me like a dog when it knows it's wrong and I say what are you going to do about it?

So he gets it back for days and redoes the diff, turns out the bearings were bad so he says even though I TOLD them to teplace the bearing. They tried to charge me for the labor and parts!!!!!!!!!!!!! Can you believe this? I told them to go to hell. $800!!!!! WTF? They make me pay for the parts and comp the labor and act like they did me some huge favor!

Now the trans still vibrates and doesn't shift. The whirring noise is gone, but the diff isn't working right. it pulls to the right when the tires are spinning. That shouldn't happen on a brand new diff. But I don't know because the alighnment could be off!

On top of that the other 9 shops are trying to fix the engine none can. I replaced so many things just because no one could tell me anything- on top of the computer had no live data from the diagnostic port due to some weird electrical problem...
Replaced:
Plugs
Wires
Caps
ign Rotors
Igniters
Coils
sensors
Alternator
battery
ground chassis wires
trans mount
engine mount
torque converter
rear main seal
water pump
fuel pump
fuel filter
ICV
Timing belt
Tentioner
Hoses
Fuses
MAF
Diff mounts
TRD LSD Differential
shocks and springs
control arm bushings (top , bottom, front and rear)
steering rack bushings
rims and tires (again the old rims are corroded and bent, the tires are wearing in 4-5Kmiles.)

I have put almost $10,000 into this car and instead of running like a top it runs like crap and vibrates my last nerve out of my body! I am so mad I could catch the car on fire and not care. This car is my only car and I am broke trying to fix it, and one thing after another keeps happening.

Just recently I took it in for a oil change and they tell me the power steering rack and pump is leaking.

AC stopped working driving in 117 degree Pheonix in July this year. It was SO HOT OMG. So many things are wrong with it I don't even care the AC doesn't work.

The engine throws a code 33 which is the MAF which I replaced. So the engine is running on limp mode at 1/3 power ALL the time on top of all the other problems. Guess what? You probably did! THEY DONT MAKE THE MAF ANYMORE! What a suprise!

The trans makes a sh sh sh sound now at idle. It has an exhaust leak too.

Does anyone have some TNT? I can fix this car completely in 0.03 milliseconds. Take out all the car shops while I'm at it.

parnzen

omg. that sucks. i would hit people really hard and call them dirty words. i would just do the work myself if i were u.

bigmalik00

Recession.....everybody is trying to get over..I now count my change at McD's...I have been overcharged three times this week.

Enigma8246

man that sucks. I recently had an experience with a shop i thought was bad. I opened this thread ready to rant until i read your predicament. I try to do all of my work myself but living in an aparment w/ no garage and time constraints from work/school make it difficult

sr20mofo

iTrader: (10)

wow dude sorry to hear about your troubles...

finding a trust worthy shop is a pain in the rear.

dwebb99

iTrader: (17)

Sounds as if you have been screwed every which way with/by your car AND with the mechanics and shops that have worked on your car. Was the car this pathetic when you first bought it? What was the history of this car PRIOR to purchasing it? Did you run an AutoCheck on it? With what you have been through with this car and your cash outlay trying to fix it, you are WAAAY upside down financially with this car. SELL IT! and cut your looses NOW. Otherwise this car is/will be taking you down the road to the poor house like ***** thru a duck. Cut the anchor loose...NOW....This might be the time for a VERY simple auto to drive like a Civic, Corrolla, or... bicycle. BTW, with the money you spent on so called "repairs" you could have outfitted your garage with every automotive tool know to man. Good luck.

matrixgts

iTrader: (1)

wow i would have fu***d someone up and be in jail right now.i thougth i had a cool head.

Ali SC3

iTrader: (10)

if you think something is suspect, the general rule is do not retake repossession of the car until they fix it. shops will try to fix it, because the longer your car sits there the worse it is for them. if you take your car back before saying something, they are more likely to say that you caused whatever is happening.

oh yeah regarding your car problems. all of that money is not lost at all. it looks like you have replaced evreything, and if you figure the bugs out ,your sc will be in fantastic condition.

are you saying your trans doesnt shift still?

I would suggest checking the exhaust, make sure all the hangers are not broken. I had an auto SC with a broken hanger up by the trans, took me so long to track down the noise. only made it in drive too when the vibration was high. exhaust leak is not good, and not expensive to fix. It can throw off your a/fr if its up on the headers. there is a teast for your maf. you should get familiar with alldata.
every SC's power steering rack leaks eventually.
my last SC did it, and I bought my new one with a new rack. and sometimes they leak ever so little, but the shop people will make such a big deal out of it. top it off and fix the other stuff first.

ihiryu

iTrader: (7)

I wouldn't say all shops are bad. I work at a shop, and I feel that we are one of the best in the area. I will say this, we make mistakes too, but we fix it. I don't think you should rag out ALL shops because of a few. I will admit a lot of mechanics are pretty shi**t about things. But shopping around is always good. Look at what kind of cars they are working on, see how busy they are, how polite and how smart they are.

I seriously think that a lot of times (and I deal a lot with these types) are people who come in and act like a know-it-all. I know that it drives us (my co-workers) up the wall! I'm not saying you had any issue in it, and I know for a d@mn fact that if we broke something we'll compensate for it. You have to understand a lot of times customers come in and try to **** us over because we are nice.

When I read your post, I understand how you feel, and that the things you describe is the shops fault.

Another thing too, if your trans isn't shifting it sounds like the solenoids. Those are bound to go out, it's more of a coincidence thing. It's not the torque converter cause it's not free revving (like a slipping clutch).

Power steering is known to go bad on the SC's because they are prone to leaking on the hose. Again sounds like coincidence.

A/C seems to be either the compressor/the climate control ecu, these also go bad though.

All drive shafts have an issue with the carrier bearing going bad. This might have just went, or it could have been a few other things, the diff being one, and mounts being another.
I don't think that it's fair to point ALL of your issues at shops, but rather the ones that you paid to fix whatever problem. Like the diff, that's crock full of **** on their part. It's not fair to you, and they expect you to pay for it when they are at fault? Hell no!

This my two cents, i'm not trying to argue with you or defend the shops, I'm just saying it how I see it.

WICKED SC4

Mar car was pristine one owner car clean carfax clean title, clean everything. It gave me absolutely NO problems for over two years until the Dealer touched it. From their screwup, I have been trying to restore the car.

The $$ I put in this thing I could have bought a GS400.

WICKED SC4

They were "supposed" to replace the carrier bearing...

IS_250

iTrader: (2)

You also have to think that your car is well over 10 years old. Things are bound to break. I just had the starter replaced and nearly every electrical connector is broken. There is just no getting around it.

Alot of these parts could have been going bad but it was never noticed until something else needed to be fixed. I know there are a couple members in Vegas. Maybe one of them can point you in the right direction for a trustworthy shop or help you learn how to work on the car yourself.

WICKED SC4

I know my car is old. That has nothing to do with shoddy work! I am not complaining that my car is old and parts need replacing, I am concerned that there are no shops that stand behind what they do for work from dealers to otherwise...

I superglued all my connectors with a tiny spot of glue to keep them all connected until I get a new harness.

I was restoring the car anyway- I plan on keeping it another 200K miles.

I do work on my car, I installed 80% of those new parts I listed. Things I cannot do:
Computer Diagnostic
Differential service
Bushing replacement
Transmission service
AC service
Things like that...Otherwise I'd do it all myself...

UZ214

really sorry to hear about this, all i have to say that you have alot of patience i would have trade in the car - i remember when i went with an after market torque (lex-extreme)converter my car started vibrating in different speeds and more in idle. I bought another one SRT and it pretty much went away spend almost 2300$ for parts and labor just on the TC...as people said it might be your solenoid..but good luck

topdog849

iTrader: (1)

this is exactly why i do all the repairs on my car, it may be a pain but i save so much money in labor. check your states "lemon laws" if a shop fails to fix your car a certain amount of times i believe the dealer is required to give you a new one or reimburse you for yours. hope this helps and GL