phoenix300

Hi, names Jon. Im a Honda Mechanic @ a local dealer here in GA. I bought a 95 SC300 (Auto) recently from work and have since done quite a few things to it regarding repairs and tune ups, the car has 255k on it. This is my 5th Toyota (2 MKIII supras, 89 Celica and 94 Celica)

So far I have done:
-Oil Change
-Trans mount
-4 tires & alignment
-New kenwood head unit and all new speakers
-EGR cleaning
-Valve cover gaskets
-plugs and wires
-new rad cap
-12v Fuel pump ECU mod
-Repaired the steering wheel tilt gear

Heres my first concern, and maybe its absolutely nothing but the last car was a 94 Celica and it didnt have this characteristic. After yesterdays repairs (egr, valve cover gaskets, plugs, wires and rad cap) I was driving home and noticed above 70mph, if I let off my gas pedal entirely, the RPMs remained consistant where they were, the car was only slowing down due to drag. It seemed odd to me bc I wasnt noticing this before and my celica dropped to below 1k rpms everytime I let off, to save gas I assume. I rechecked all my vac lines and noticed today that my ACIS actuator vac line was left off, so I plugged it back in and drove home tonight... well its still doing it and Im beginning to feel concerned. IDK if there is anything else I may have moved, unplugged, etc, that may cause this, I dont see how though. I was wondering if anyone had any ideas. I know the car has miles on her, but alot of stuff had been done before I picked it up, and from what I can tell the trans had just been serviced (filter and fluid) Overdrive works, it shifts up and down fine, Im slightly confused on this whole thing really.

My next set is more along the lines of the usual things this car has happen to it...

-Tach, Speedo and Gas needles are all out, I know about Lextech but would PREFER NOT to send it to them for repair... Id like to tackle this myself using Lexucans method he used on his ES300 in this thread...
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/es3...t-needles.html

Anyone know how similar our needles are to ES300s that this may work the same?

-I have a pulley squeeling, Im going to attempt to tackle this this weekend, was wondering what was common if anything on these to start doing that.

-Does this car have a Trac Control switch somewhere? There is a light on the dash (TRAC OFF) for it but I can't find anything regarding turning it off.

-Lastly, for now haha, I was given a keyless remote for my car (was not originally to THIS vehicle) and found a thread in a few places to program it to the car... I checked the FCC ID, supposedly it matches SC300s 95 - 98, it is a HYQWDT-C. I can get the car to "ADD" mode but once I press anything on the remote, nothing happens :/ I changed the battery but unless the remote is bad, Im stumped. Ideas?

Overall the car is in excellent shape and the price I got it for, I just couldn't pass it up. I've always wanted an SC300 and I am thrilled to have one finally. Any and all help or advice I could receive here would be greatly appreciated, and I plan to give back to this community as much as I can.

Thanks.
Jon

Ali SC3

iTrader: (10)

OK, your first question is answered by gearing. there is nothing wrong with your car. when you are going that fast you are in 4th so there is no gear to kick up to lower your rpms. if you were going slower It will acts just like your celica, which probably did the same thing too but you didnt notice.

as for the needles, best to pick up a used set from your own year range SC.
alot of lexus models the polarity on the gauges are switched and different weight blah blah blah etc etc. you could try it out but IMO its not worth the time it takes to deal with the SC cluster unless you have a sweet electronic workbench setup *Cough * Cough* OLT *Cough * Cough*

not sure what you mean by pulley squealing. change the serpentine belt if you haven't already, its fairly easy. check the tensioner while ur at it (makes more of a rattle when it starts to go).

some clusters have the trac control on it regardless of wether your car is equipped with it or not, although if you don't have trac it obviously shouldn't be lit. if your car has it you will also have heated seats (came in a package) and all of these switches should be right next to your automatic shifter. in the rare case that someone replaced the plate, pop your hood and look at the throttle body which should say "trac" on it if you car came with that option and it will have a 2nd butterfly in it. also there is a plastic box on the drivers side which has 4 relays in it, 2 for abs and 2 for trac. Im not 100% positive on this one, but i think if you don't have trac control there should be 2 relays just missing. those are the ways I check.

for the remote they are tricky. you have to have the right battery in there, its like a specialty battery. also the key itself can break internally to where it doesn't transmit well. its a piece of solder that breaks, there is a thread on here how to fix it. in the meantime, the next time you do the add mode, when you press the boutton on your remote, touch the key part to a metal part of your car when you do it, like a bolt or the antenna. one of my remotes would only work when i touched it to metal on the car.. lol.

hope some of that helps you out.

phoenix300

Your reply did help me quite a bit. Thank you.

IDK how to describe the transmission thing in feeling, it just feels, almost heavy when I let off the gas at certain speeds. I understand the gearing part of the aspect, but it was like my celica and most other autos I drive, it shifts into neutral until I give it gas again. Its weird, like I said maybe Im just having stuff brought on by my own head bc I know the age of the car and I was paranoid with reconnecting all the vacuums back up, its been 5 years almost since I rebuilt my 7M and I remember the vac lines were horrible! haha.

As far as wiring the needles up, I have ALOT of equipment at work at my disposal between work provided tools and my buddies set ups in the shop, soldering and testing the entire unit would be quite simple. My main concern was how similar our setup of needles was to that of an ES300 like lexucans.

That rattle makes perfect sense. It started with what sounded like a penny behind the timing cover @ 2k rpms and up, Ill check the tensioner tomorrow.

Trac control makes sense, guess I dont have it lol. Ill double check to be sure.

The remote actually is just a remote by itself, no metal to touch to the car, separate from a key. I put a battery in it from a brand new toyota remote entry fob we had at work laying around. its a CR3016 if I remember correctly, 3v. I tested the battery out, its fine, Ill double check the solder.

Thank you very much for your reply, I really appreciate it.

JamaicanSC

check to see if your crank pulley still has the teeth on it, if not it will make a squealing sound and it will seem as if the tensioner is broken. When the real culpret is hiding down below.

phoenix300

Hrmm, Ill check that, never heard of that problem but its always worth to see! Thank you.

Ali SC3

iTrader: (10)

You are welcome. I have owned 2 automatic sc300's and 1 manual sc300 and a bunch of automatic toyotas. I get exactly what you are saying about the transmission, but in fact they don't actually go back to neutral when you let off the gas. It appears like they do due to the overdrive, but this does not occur when you are in the last gear, especially if you have the power button turned on which affects the shift points and will make the car hold gears longer.

for the needles if you have the equipment its not hard to check if the polarity is the same and you can see if the needle will physically fit onto the cluster. you have to be careful because if you mess with the needles while they are on the cluster too much you can damage the motor that turns them.

the remote you are talking doesnt belong to a 95 SC. I know cause I have had 2 95's SC300's one auto and one stick, and both have the remote integrated with the key (little button on the side of the key). the one you are talking about where its just a remote by itself is for an SC slightly newer than ours. It may be possible to get it to work, but I like the integrated one the best. makes for less things on the keychain

oh and there are little tick marks on the tensioner (right on top) that let you know if its in the proper range of tension (kind of like oil on your dipstick). Take a look there before touching anything else cause after 255k Its definately time for a new one if it hasn't been done. its most likely either your tensioner itself making noise (the spring insi

phoenix300

Thanks again, everything seems to be running a little better now. Had to chase down a coolant leak, turned out the upper rad hose was the culprit.

Ill try to look for one of those remotes, I wanna make sure I pinpoint and repair all my tiny problems first. She feels a little rough on the highway, So Ill be checking that out tomorrow. Its got brand new tires I put on last week, I checked the road force on all of them, wasnt bad... well see what else is going on.

The tensioner mark is all the way to the right where it stands right now, couple co workers (all techs in the shop) said its best to get it replaced soon. So Ill jump on that soon with a new belt. Yesterday when I stuck a new upper rad hose on it, some coolant got onto the belt, when I started it after that, the belt/tensioner stop squeeling for about 20 mins.

MarcusMIA

If you don't mind me asking, what led you to change the transmission mounts?

phoenix300

The original mount when I got it was collapsed completely. The metal tab on the bottom side was all that was holding it all up. From idle to any RPM it had a BAD vibration. Replaced that mount, took care of my problem

Checked out the motor mounts, they arent BRAND NEW but they are still in pretty decent shape.

terrylin

iTrader: (5)

i was thinking to buy the same remote off ebay. but someone here said it was for a 96+...however, all the ads on ebay seem to say they're compatible w/a 95. did you ever find your answer to this?