I have a friend that is in a bind and needs a running car. I have a daily driver (07 Jetta) and my clean 89 vert with barley 100k on the clock and a fresh rebuilt motor. He has a 02 Lexus IS300, that he thinks has a blown motor. He was driving it and lost all power and could never get it to start since. He said he would trade me straight up for my rx7.


What would you guys/gals do? The car is clean other then the motor problem and the A/C quit working on it a few months back.

 

trade, fix, sell, get fd

 

Thats exactly what I was thinking.... Just wondering what experience anybody has had with IS300s. I've found a motor for it for around 1000 to 1500 so that and some labor I could drive it for a bit and then sell it before I deploy back to Iraq and buy a FD. The kbb is at around 12,000 or so....

 

How clean is your 7? I would assume a FD clean is easy to get. A FC clean may be a bit harder. Unless you have more love for FDs than FCs.

 

Check all the basic things on ths IS300 before doing things like looking at engines...

 

Trade and 2jzgte that bitch.

john ny

 

dude IS300 are sexy

nice daily, rwd , alot of aftermarket = potential

Id do it, hopefully his IS just needs a headgasket. IS300 is worth more than your FC. You could always slang the IS300 for more than what you would get for your FC, like trade it for a FD etc.

 

Everything on his IS300 is clean. Its red with black leather interior. Manual trans, and red exterior. He said he was driving on the highway when he lost all power. Pulled over and it wouldn't crank. I'm doing some research on an IS300 club forum.

My Vert is very clean but it isn't perfect. I've owned more 7's then I can count, but never a third gen. This might be my chance to get my foot in the 3rd gen door.... I can afford the upkeep and know enough about 7's. So I think depending on what I find out about his car running I might do it...

 

He said that he was racing some mustangs on the highway. About 2 hours later while driving on the highway he lost all power. He said he checked the oil and it didn't even register on the oil dip stick. Now he said the car turns over but doesn't fire (after adding oil of course). He also mentioned that there was some oil that smelt like gas...

You guys think its a head gasket.

I've posted on a few is300 forums but none of them have the response time that rx7club has.

 

dude definitely trade, I would do that in a heartbeat, those IS300's go for a good amount of money even with a good amount of mileage on them. Shouldn't be to crazy to source the problem and even if you need to rebuild it you will make the money back plus more if you decide to sell.

 

its a manual transmission IS300, definitely take it before he changes his mind. Hopefully the repair cost for fixing the car yourself wont be too much.

Those things can look really good with the right parts invested in them.

 

def. trade

 

i agree with everyone else. TRADE!!! hell i would trade him if i lived closer and had the chance. then i would sell it and get an FD. Im workin my way up to an fd by buying broken cars off craigslist and selling them for 3 or 4 times what i bought them for and only invest minor amounts of money. Like i bought an 02 focus for $800 and sold it for $2500 and i only had about $1200 in it including the car. You can make big $$$$ this way.

 

trade it deff the IS300 is a sexy car.

 

I concur. Since you have a 2nd car, you don't need to worry about transportation while the IS300 is down. Even if you decide not to fix it, i'm pretty sure you could still get some decent coin for it, definitely more than you could get for the FC. I would do it in a heartbeat and, like most of the posters, I would use it to get an FD.

 

Trade, sell Lexus, buy another FC, have money left over to buy some pimp shizz

 

+1

big turbo, standalone, and another fc would be sexier then a fd in my books!

 

Hell yeah!

 

better trade quick before he comes to his senses

 

the IS should be cool tho, its like a 4 door sports car, esp it has some decent aftermarket support like suspension and go fast goodies.

 

jesus, that thing looks amazing

 

KBB on the car is about 13000. Not sure how much he could get for it with the motor not running.

I just don't want to be stuck with it for awhile. I know where to go to sell 7's but the forums I've found for is300's are lacking....

 

yeah that engine could be gone. no oil registering on the dip stick means no oil at all... that causes premature rod bearing wear if not failure, and lets not forget engine seizing is a possibility. On a second note no oil also causes the piston rings to not seal..they need oil just as bad as our apex seals but not to the same extent. so that could cause the smell of fuel in the oil if its not the head gasket. oil also cools the engine but not the extent the cooling system does so without oil there is excessive friction on parts which causes premature wear or failure with the heat wear factor added in as well. another thing to check is your valve guides, valve guide seals. those bastards and piston rings are the only way i can think of fuel getting to the oil. and do a compression check, and on straight 6's it should be around 150 each. so if bad compression you might need to rebuild the lower end and top and if good compression just rebuild the top end. there could be many things needed to be done to that engine but you wont know till your tear it down and diagnose. and yes toyota forums arent as helpful as our rotary forums which sucks because im so used to the quick responses on this forum when i visit others im like wow non rotary people suck. lol

but yeah if you can figure it out trade rebuild the damn toyota and sell it to get another rotary.

 

Trade and turbo that bitch.

 

I was hoping you would have the IS title by now.

Dont let that **** slip away.

john ny