lexuscfour

I joined this community in 2013 after a good friend and fellow SC owner put me onto these cars and I've been in love ever since! I've come to own 3 SC400 in the past couple years and through all the good and bad, I've enjoyed every minute of it. My first car, a 95 DWP was in an accident and unfortunately had to be sold before I could do anything cool to it. My second, a 93 Silver Spruce Metallic had mechanical issues from purchase that were never rectified before being sold. My 3rd is a Teal Mist Metallic that had lots of small problems like a crappy interior and little engine gnomes that add up to lots of money.

With money now being more available than it has been, I set out on a journey to figure out whether it was worth it to restore my old SC or get a new one. Between paint, body work, interior and getting the engine up to par, my 95 just didn't seem worth saving. I have the money but I know to get the entire car looking like 95 again would cost more time and money than I was willing to put in, so I decided to look for a new car.

I looked at a 1j, a couple SC400 and even a few SC300. I'm completely new to anything JZ and I was a bit reluctant to even travel down that road seeing as I've almost become an expert with this damn V8! After about a week of stalking Craigslist, Clublexus, SC groups on Facebook and anywhere else SC's are sold, I finally found one that met my criteria, or atleast it did in the pics.

So my wife and I decided to drive about 40 minutes away to check out this really nice SC we found on Carsforsale.com. I got the VIN and looked it up on MyLexus.com. It was a 93, 200k miles and LOOKED to be in good condition from the pics. But we all know how these things go. You show up at the dealership just to find the paint in horrible condition, the seats messed up and no radio (all of which never seem to make it into the adverts). Although gold has always been a last resort (albeit always the cleanest), what drew me to this car was the service records.

Key Dealership Replacements

After combing through 19 pages I couldn't believe a car with so much value was being given away. This car appeared to have been babied it's entire life. All of that stuff would cost THOUSANDS going to an indie mechanic let alone the Lexus dealer with genuine parts and certified techs.

With about an hour until the dealership actually opened, we pulled up to a small used car lot and peeked at the car from behind a fence about 25 feet and 3 cars away. All I could see was the paint gleaming from behind the other cars. I knew right then and there that I had to have it. I FLEW home, got the money and was on my way back.

I test drove the car and other than needing a few small things (100x smaller than what was required on my current SC) this car was PERFECT!

She has:

She has a couple things that need to be sorted.

Drivers side interior door panel is loose
Car clunks into gear and reverse (not a big deal, don't care)
Drivers side door "pops" open because it's too close to fender
RCA cable broke off inside amp so it was unplugged, plugged back in and it beats pretty nicely and sounds SUPER clear compared to what's in my TMM
Hood struts are shot
Car makes a clunking sound on uneven roads, feels like the drivers side (one tech says lca, another says strut)
Drivers seat belt buckle isn't working
Steering wheel tilt isn't working

I bought the car for $2005 and needless to say I'm the happiest camper this side of anywhere! She's smoother than my old car, she's cleaner. She smells like a Lexus (old people or old leather I'm not sure) and she's just an awesome car for the money. I couldn't be any happier unless I got it for free!

tfwnoturbo

DAMN! how do people get their engines looking THAT clean! did they clean out the entire engine bay while replacing all that other stuff? Nice find bro, she looks spectacular.

BiGEZ

iTrader: (24)

Now that is clean, show there are some really good SC's still out there. Have fun with it.

lexuscfour

Yeah the problem now is keeping it this clean.

Joey-E

iTrader: (1)

Well damn congrats its clean for sure.

ThomasGS4

iTrader: (19)

Congrats on the SC400. Sounds like you got one heck of a deal; I'd keep her stock and drive it until the wheels fell off.

CatManD3W

iTrader: (18)

Welcome to old man tan club!!!

Kris9884

iTrader: (7)

Great find man! A couple of the issues you stated are pretty well known around here, if you already know all of this ignore the rest of what I'm saying lol..

The clunk during bumps is most likely the lower control arm/ball joint, those bushings go out around that many miles. Most people just replace them with Supra control arms or rebuild the LCA with new bushings.

The tilt on the steering wheel is also a known issue, there's a DIY to fix the gear in the mechanism underneath that gets worn out over the years, practically free.

The loose door panel is likely the broken plastic tabs in the panel that you can fix with some epoxy and your choice of metal strap, plastic nail/weld or the like.. There's is a DIY for that too.

SC400slide

iTrader: (11)

As aforementioned, the problems stated are very simple to repair. The tilt steering is just a gear that came off. Find a washer that fits and throw it behind the gear and you're golden!