Hi everyone,

A relative of mine wants to get ride of her SC400 for personnal reasons.
She is ready to give me the car for free

However - if no bad points no need to ask !! a free roadworthy car is always a good thing - the car is outside in her backyard for more than 2 years...
The only info I have so far :
-1998 SC400
- Engine JZZ30
- unknown mileage...
- Battery is dead (unable to test anyting...)
- Tyres are half-flat
- Front brakes are all rusty
- Front headlights have become opaque
- Timing belt is crack everywhere
- Lots of "cosmetics" job to do inside (broken plastic, speakers are outside...)
- Body is quite good - front bumper damaged under, few marks on the drivers's door, no sunburn...

Other facts to take in account:
the car is at 90 km from where I live
and most important I need to convince my wife that it will not cost too much (towing + repairing + parts...)

So worth or not to take the car ? How much will it cost to fix the car to be roadworthy ? I'm quite a handyman, but at home mainly, on a car only servicing, small repairs...I know I can't change the timing belt myself,,,

Thanks for all your feedback !

I know you like photos, so here are some

 

Looks to be a 1992-94 model, not a 1998. There are a lot of expensive parts that will need repairing on that car, other ones are just hard to find. After reading your description it looked better than I expected, but it will be fairly pricey to put back on the road...

 

She tolds me 1998 but she can be wrong. Whatever, truly 1992 or 1998 is quite the same for me...
For expensive parts, which one are thinking of ?
I think :
- 4 tyres @ $200 each
- timing belt : $800
- brakes : $200
- oil pump, water pump, fuel pump : $300
- head lights: $200
- battery : $100

Prices are based only on what I've read on some threads and may not be accurate at all. Feel free to correct me !

 

I would take it, free cars only cost what it takes to repair them, which is generally under $4k so your still getting a deal. Not sure about the timing belt being $800, unless your having a shop do the repairs.

If you do the labor yourself, and clean the headlights vs. replacing them, you could have the car on the road (in theory) for well under $1k.

 

Seems like you covered most of it. Don't forget a good tuneup and oil change maybe even a coolant flush. You can also clean those headlights up for next to nothing so no need for that 200.

 

There's actually quite a different between 92's and 98's. I was almost shocked she'd be giving away a 98, until I saw the pics and saw that it clearly was not.
A free car is nice, but unless I was needing another car I'm not so sure putting this amount of work into a 92 is worth it. Having said that, under $1k to get it running I'd probably do it.

 

indeed I thought need to change oil and filter, but what about transmission fluid, brake fluids and coolant ?

As said, I won't be able to change timing belt myself, I've seen a thread to DIY and I know its beyond my abilities right now...

Also saw the one to dismantled headlights with the help of the oven, sand, clean, ... and then put back... Is it really so efficient ?

Don't really need a second car right now but maybe in Feb next year... wasn't looking for a car like this one but can be.
BTW, i con't find fuel consumption for this engine, only for the V8. Do you have any info ?

 

If it's a 400 then it has the 1uz not the jz. If it has the jz then it's the 300

 

That's what is written on the boot : SC400 so I believe it...
For the engine, in fact, it's the 2.5 Twin Turbo, and that's the other name I found on internet. But I can have made a mistake so forget jz, it's a 2.5 TT

 

Definitely take the car.

I got a set of LS 400 wheels on my SC, I got them with good tires for $100 on craigslist. They look just like SC rims, same size, just an extra half inch wider. So no need for $800 on tires if you just want to make this thing road worthy. So you can save money by buying rims with tires on it.

Brakes...you can get an entire set of brakes and calipers for a really good price on here....

Headlights...$20 for a restore kit from Walmart...if done right they are like new, I've done it twice with one Meguairs set, and I'm sure I could reuse it on two more cars.

Battery is cheap.

If you need all three pumps and the timing belt that should be the most expensive part of the car.

Either way man this car is worthy of being on the road. I recommend you save it, and restore it to the best of your ability.

 

Go get it tomorrow!

 

If you had the space to store the car yourself, just fumble with it on your own time, increase your mechanical aptitude and have a decent car if prices for these things spike in the future. Or if you de fixed later not to do any of that.....you've still got a great 'parts' car.

 

How does Craiglist works ? It's not something really used in France so I never use it. Does it work in Australia ?
$100 was for each tyre with rims ?

Do you have any prices ? So i can try to convince my wife...

That's what I think... can change a lot by myself, few I can't...

 

A free SC with no accident history from a relative? Take it. And I assume this is an SC300 and not a V8 SC400. Either model of that vintage could be more interesting to you depending on what you might want to do with it.

A 98-2000 SC400 this is not and is not only rare but a different and more powerful animal.

Still... I see no downsides to this other than that you need some maintenance done before it's roadworthy. These cars are reliable tanks like old Benzes if maintained.

 

Get a good battery in it either get the old gas out first and fill it up or depending on how much gas is in it and how long it has been sitting just add new gas to the existing. Either way it's a nice car I don't know how much they're going for where you're located but in the states it be well worth it to fix.