OK, well, after you do the job of replacing the manifold, ask yourself: Would I do this job again, for the price of a rebuilt starter? Methinks not...

 

Fair enough, but I'm not in the business of replacing parts just in case.

I went ahead and foamed the back side of the window trim pieces today. Worked great! They feel way more solid now with some actual support to spread the load. A bit of trimming with a razor blade and the foam shapes nicely to sit snug against the metal frame and window's rubber guide. I need to go back and tweak the driver's side tomorrow (too much foam still), but the passenger's side came out perfect.

As has been the case throughout this "restoration" project, I was greeted by another surprise today when taking off the passenger door panel for the first time. The window/lock controls were hot glued down from the bottom! Someone must have disliked that it didn't stay put (probably a broken clip at the front) and had the brilliant idea to use glue instead of two-sided tape or something. That was fun to remove, but I eventually got it free and swapped everything over to the nicer replacement panel.

And I determined that my non-working driver's door speaker is the wiring, not the speaker itself. That narrows things down a bit. That door also has issues with the lock not recognizing the key (unlocks but sets off the alarm) and the seat memory controls not working, so there may be a common wiring issue there to solve.

 

That door may have been removed or replaced and the wiring not reinstalled correctly?

 

Yeah, that's my guess. Something in the wiring isn't quite right, and if I can find that, it should solve several problems at once. I'm going to try checking continuity tomorrow, but I suck at figuring out electrical stuff.

I think I mentioned a few posts back, in removing the cruddy pin striping, I discovered that the driver door and front fender had likely been replaced at some point, as they didn't have the matching pin striping underneath that the rest of the panels had. (The cruddy stuff was presumably added at that point to make it match.) There's no VIN sticker on the door, also. And the Lexus dealer service records shows damage to the door being repaired at 25,000 miles, along with pin striping being added then.

But, those are dealer repairs in '96, so surely the door wiring hasn't been dysfunctional all this time! There's still a piece of the puzzle missing.

 

Just keep at it...

I go back a long, long way with foreign cars. I worked turning wrenches as strictly foreign 'way back in the 70s. I've driven them all - Jags, Lambos, Ferraris - you name it. The SC suits me better than any of them.

The SC is not fast. It's "pseudo fast." (ROFL!) It's a play racer, all the way. It probably won't kill you .) I've owned a few that would! I simply can't understand how I survived to be 64 years old... but that's another story

The reward most certainly is at the end of the trouble you're taking, with that car. The best thing about it is, perhaps, the beautiful music that comes out of the back of it!

I raced too many supercharged hemis down city streets. Now, I'm old. The SC turns heads, everywhere we go. I'm gonna enter it into a few local car shows, maybe meet some nice people...

 

I love it! You absolutely captured what's so great about the SC. I have a supercharged Miata for throwing around twisties and accelerating rapidly when the need arises, and I had a super reliable econobox that was recently crunched by an inattentive driver. The SC fits somewhere in the middle. Quick but not blazing fast (at least, not in stock form), more planted than nimble, somewhat spacious but hardly practical (low mpg and no pass-thru rear seats, for example) ... but all of that doesn't matter in the least when you drive it, because it's just so damn pleasant!

Funny that you mention Jags, because that's what the car reminds me of personality-wise. So much so that I've informally named mine Goodkat (movie reference).

If any Japanese car is destined to become a muscle car classic, it has to be the SC. It captures the essence of the timeless curves, and it might just be built well enough to last that long in original form... When I had it out on the street last week for four days while getting the fuel filter/line fixed, I couldn't believe how many people walking by did double and triple takes. It really does get a lot of looks.

p.s. The knock sensor issue never returned. Score one for good gas!

 

yeah - "Japanese Jags" great! But far, far better, in every way, than a real Jag (right there, in the dictionary, where it says "shop queen" ...)

 

That's why I love the mission statement of the Miata: A British roadster that starts on rainy days and doesn't leave an oil spill in your driveway.

 

Where did you wind up getting the key cut? I need a new remote key for my car.

 

Ugh, you just had to go there...

I ordered the blanks online, 2 for $15. I could have paid $20 ea along with cutting, but I don't have the title in hand yet, which made proof of ownership tricky. So, I bought just the blanks with the understanding that they would cost $15-20 to cut.

There are two main locksmiths in town, and to my surprise the first one I went to refused to cut them. They'll only cut their own blanks. I asked why and was told it's because they don't have another one on the wall to cut if they mess up the customer's blank, to which I pointed out that they do have more of them on the wall. They didn't buy that reasoning, so on to the second locksmith... (It would have been $45 per key for cutting and the blank.)

I called ahead and was told it would only be a couple bucks. Woohoo! Went over and got 'em cut one at a time to make sure the first one worked, then asked the guy how much. $90! Uh, what? No going back at that point... He dropped it to $80 due to the understanding, then $75 since I had two done. So basically, I paid $90 for two keys, same as if I had just bought them both locally. Sigh.

The machines used for "security keys" are quite expensive and don't get used as much, so they charge a premium to make up for low volume. If I were to do it again, I would buy from someone online who provides the cutting service and just wait till I had the proof of ownership covered. Of course, my lone key was in pretty bad shape and I didn't want to risk it falling apart and becoming unusable, or worse, getting lost.

 

I got the new spark plugs (NGK BKR6EGP Platinums) and wires (NGK TE132) installed today, and that seems to have really perked the car up.

I also had a compression test done while in there, so as to have a better sense of the condition of the car. All eight read between 235 and 245, which is: a) great consistency, and b) way higher than we were expecting! (We didn't bother going back to check the 235 one to see if we just didn't leave it on long enough. The other 7 were all 240+, so most likely that was just a "bad" reading.) The mechanic called up the Lexus dealership to make sure that's a reasonable range. They said min. acceptable is 142 and good is 178+; much higher than they 130-180 range you typically see.

The timing belt shows no wear, also. Not that that tells me when it was last done -- it's at 189,000 miles, so either 60k or 90k intervals would have had it done quite recently if they followed that guide -- but it at least means imminent replacement isn't necessary. It feels good to know some of the major mechanical items are in good shape as a starting point.

 

They say the timing belts last forever. 189 K might be pushing forever if it has never been changed! It must have been, at some point.

Mine hasn't, at 101k. I'm not going to worry about it. I use Greased Lightning teflon treatment. It will drastically reduce friction on the cams. That, in turn, will reduce the stress on the belt. I'll change it myself sometime this summer - maybe - and maybe, if I can find a good place that works on these (not a !@#$%^&*(!! DEALER!) I'll let them do the belt, the valve adjustment and the v/c gaskets.

 

Today, I embarked on paint / clear coat restoration on the trunk lid. The spoiler was the worst, so I started with that. I was hoping the whitish rough stuff was oxidized clear coat that I could smooth down to some factory green color and re-clear coat, but I think it might be base layer that'll require a re-paint.

However, in trying to wet sand my way through some lingering clear coat on the spoiler, I discovered that I could fairly easily peel it away with a 1" metal putty knife. That got me to thinking... The paint on the trunk lid is still in good shape, but the clear coat is awful. Some bald patches, plus lots of flaky white chipping and bubbling. I began working on that with the putty knife and was amazed how cleanly it was coming off.

I spent a few hours working on it in the pouring rain (yesterday was beautiful spring weather in Oregon), then took a break. When I returned to the project, it was dry out and I was making terrible progress all of a sudden. I tried wetting the area several times, but it just wasn't working. I started questioning if my technique had changed... So, I worked on some other stuff until the heavy rain inevitably returned, at which point the clear coat began flaking away again.

So, the key to the process is a heavy soaking of water to soften up the clear coat. As it turns out, it was lucky that I tackled the project on a wet day, otherwise I would have immediately given up and tried a more destructive process! Some areas were tougher to chip away, and they correspond to the areas of the least flaking and bubbling, so the clear coat was presumably in pretty bad shape to allow the water to soften it that much.

As for the technique, I was careful to not use the putty knife as a scraper, as that can easily lead to gouges. Instead, I used my off hand's index finger to keep one corner of the knife in a fairly fixed position and rotated around that pivot, keeping the knife very flat and in controlled sweeps. In the end (I just have one little section to finish up tomorrow), there's not a single scratch or gouge to be found, and the clear coat was coming off with virtually no hint of green. A super light 2000 grit wet sanding should eliminate any little glue-like streaks left behind and allow for a new clear coat to be applied.

I picked up some Dupli-Color "Perfect Match" for Toyota/Lexus, Classic Green Pearl (6P2). I knew that was pretty close to the Royal Jade Pearl paint code, which amazingly I remembered correctly as 6M2. The colors look very similar, though. Anyone know if they're truly one and the same, as indicated by Dupli-Color's chart? Regardless, it'll be plenty close for making the spoiler more presentable. I'm just trying to make it not ridiculously obvious that the car will need a full re-paint at some point.

 

Here's a handful of updates...

Still no luck with the telescoping steering wheel (for getting the gauge cluster out), but I did pick up a speedo needle from an GS300 in great shape, so that's a good fix for the time being.

I got the HVAC unit fixed up by Tanin. So much nicer now being able to see all the settings.

Major item checked off the list yesterday, got the driver's door lock sensor fixed so unlocking that side doesn't set off the alarm!

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/8559885-post16.html

The knock sensor issue (code 55) has returned a few times, seemingly after upsetting the fuel system (fuel filter and two fuel pump changes, going back to the original one the second time). However, I changed the vacuum hoses last week and haven't had a problem since. I was starting to get some rough idle and noticed I could feel it coming on right before the knock sensor tripped, so I think the issues may have been related.

All speakers are working now. New wiring had to be run to the driver's door, and the two rear speakers were blown out. The subwoofer worked but I never could figure out if its amp did, so I wired in an aftermarket one and will be dropping in an aftermarket sub soon to better balance things (resistance and wattage incompatibilities).

The paint/clear work went okay. Not great, but okay. It accomplished the purpose of making the car presentable and buying me some time on a full re-paint while I work on more functional things.

Looking back over my posts/responses in this thread, it appears some posts have been deleted...

 

I've been working my way through a variety of things to try and eliminate the lingering problems... The main thing I'm trying to solve now is a bucking hesitation at speed. It happens whether or not I'm on the throttle, i.e. it also happens when coasting or backing down the driveway, but it's most noticeable when pulling uphill.

I changed out all the 5/32" vacuum lines, which made a big difference in a number of areas, most notably less start-up hesitation (cranking), no lurching hesitation when accelerating from a stop, and far fewer knock sensor trips.

Today, I cleaned the IACV (intake air control valve) and checked the engine ECU. The IACV's tip and shaft were quite gunked up, but the magnet and body were nice and clean, and the bearings spun freely. I didn't notice any difference in how the car ran after that. There was no capacitor leakage evident on the ECU.

After putting all the trim pieces back together for the IACV, I read that the coolant temperature sensor (right under it) is worth checking/changing...

I also tried the Fp and +b (jumpered pins in the diagnostic box) fuel pump ECU temp bypass and the first startup was pretty much instantaneous, but I couldn't drive with it that way so I don't know whether it would have solved anything. It makes me think doing the permanent bypass could be worthwhile, though. But the bucking hesitation couldn't be due to the fuel pump ECU if it happens when not giving it gas, could it?

I haven't checked the TPS yet, but I've got my feeler gauge and computer power cable sitting here ready to tackle next.

Edit: I also cleaned the throttle body last week, but I did so with it still on the car because I couldn't figure out how to disconnect the coolant lines below it.

Is there anything else in the engine bay to check? I'm starting to think it could be transmission related. I checked the tranny fluid after the first test drive today and it was a bit low, having just drained and refilled it last week, so I added another half quart to top it off. Same bucking on test drive #2, though.

I think whatever it is could be related to the sporadic knock sensor issues. Since doing the vacuum lines, the knock sensor has only tripped once and that was with the AC running. It happened once before with the AC on, and I could feel it coming on from the rough patch that's reminiscent of the bucking. I sort of think it's been there all along, but this past week's changing of the front shocks and tie rod ends, plus the new rack & pinion a couple weeks ago, has made it much more obvious where the roughness is coming from.