LeX2K

Picked up a new to me 2000 ES300, millennium edition. It has only 36,000 miles (60,000 km). Colour is "champagne" aka bronze 2-tone paint, the millennium badges on the rocker panels, and 16" wheels. Other than that, not sure what else the ME version has that is anything special. The interior is a mocha shade, nice but I would have preferred the ivory tones interior. The paint and body are basically mint, I found only one minor ding after washing the car, maybe a couple of small chips but overall the exterior is remarkable. The windshield is original and zero chips or pits.

I wish the interior was as pristine as the exterior, the previous owner let it get filthy dirty, there is dust and dirt everywhere. Which is fine, I don't mind detailing the car, but the grime has embedded itself right into the leather. I cleaned the seats as much as I could, but there seems to be no way to get all the dirt out. Worse, the drivers seat has some cracks in the leather dye.

The frameless windows do tend to become noisy when there is a side breeze, it can be very annoying. When the glass is sealing correctly, the car is amazingly quiet. Actually the car had the original tires, still decent enough tread but I found some Michelin Primacy's on sale so I put 4 new tires on the car. It made the car even quieter, although it doesn't ride much different. The factory tires were Michelin Harmony's. The spare has never been used.

The suspension makes a clunking noise, not sure if I need the updated strut mounts, or the sway bar end links are bad, or something else. I'll address that after I finish detailing the interior and exterior. Anyway, I do have some questions:

1. Is there a leather dye or some other product to put the colour back into the cracks? What about cleaning the seats? I had some success with Armor All leather cleaner (liquid) and tried several other cleaners, the Armor All worked the best but not perfect.
   
2. The power steering pump makes quite a lot of noise, especially when cold. I'm surprised because of the low mileage. The fluid level is fine, any other causes?
   
3. The speedometer reads about 3% too slow, I verified this against my GPS. It's not only the speedo, but also the odometer. How can this be? It seems basically impossible for the speed sensor to be bad and cause this, any explanation? I wondered if the instrument cluster was changed for some reason and they put one in from a car with 15" wheels. But I did the math, and if they did that, the discrepancy would only be 0.5% so that doesn't explain the 3% error.
4. The original owner lives about 800 miles from me, so yes it was a long drive to get the car home. (I flew there to pick up the car). The coolant level in the reservoir dropped about an inch during the trip, should I be concerned? I don't smell any coolant and I don't see any leaks. Hopefully it's not a head gasket problem, am I being paranoid? I don't see how an engine with 36,000 miles could have any problems, even if it was not taken care of all that well.

One other thing, I did pull the bank 2 valve cover to check for sludge, the engine is clean, although it obviously has been run with dino oil for some time. The car was serviced by Lexus it's whole life, although the engine bay was pretty dusty, seemed odd to me that they would not bother to clean it at least once in a while.

Overall I am very happy with it, engine runs nice although I feel a slight bit of harshness and vibration at lower RPMs. No lack of power in this car, it can go from 40mph to 80 like nothing.
I'll post some pics after I finish cleaning up the car.

LeX2K

No comments or advise? The level in the coolant overflow keeps dropping, I have no signs of a leak. I had a leak test done by a rad shop, they didn't find anything. But they did a block test, and the liquid turned a shade of green (from blue) so I am probably looking at a bad head gasket or cracked head/block.

The test was not conclusive though, the liquid took a long time to change, the shop could not give me a definitive answer as to what could be wrong.

Ariyanna

I dont know dude? The way your describing the car seems like those miles are not accurate, did run a carfax on the car and see if those miles are true to that car????

RXGS

iTrader: (2)

My coolant drops right after driving but always goes back to the original level, i figured it was normal

LeX2K

I did a Carproof, which is more accurate for Canadians. Nothing out of the ordinary, one owner car. I also got the maintenance history from the Lexus dealer, which has the odometer readings. I'm 99% sure the odo is correct, judging from the condition of the body which is nearly flawless.
Mine does the opposite, it goes higher when I drive, then drops after the engine cools. But slowly the reservoir goes down to the point where I have to add.

I don't know what to think, but the block test did show combustion gases in the coolant (unless they botched the test somehow) which should never happen. It's possible the car was over-heated at one point and damaged something, I honestly don't know. My only other possible cause is a slowly leaking water pump. I have a timing belt kit coming, seeing the car is 10 years old and never had the belt done, I'll go ahead and do it. Even though the engine only has 36,000 miles, the belt can dry out. One thing of note, the car did sit for a period of time, I think about 8 months, could have been more. Not sure if that has any significance though.

Would kill me if the engine is damaged, the car is beautiful and drives like a dream. I'll post pics tomorrow after I wash the car (it's been raining here the last few days).

Thanks for the replies.

01LEXPL

iTrader: (10)

The suspension makes a clunking noise, not sure if I need the updated strut mounts, or the sway bar end links are bad, or something else. I'll address that after I finish detailing the interior and exterior. Anyway, I do have some questions:

1. Is there a leather dye or some other product to put the colour back into the cracks? What about cleaning the seats? I had some success with Armor All leather cleaner (liquid) and tried several other cleaners, the Armor All worked the best but not perfect.
2. The power steering pump makes quite a lot of noise, especially when cold. I'm surprised because of the low mileage. The fluid level is fine, any other causes?
3. The speedometer reads about 3% too slow, I verified this against my GPS. It's not only the speedo, but also the odometer. How can this be? It seems basically impossible for the speed sensor to be bad and cause this, any explanation? I wondered if the instrument cluster was changed for some reason and they put one in from a car with 15" wheels. But I did the math, and if they did that, the discrepancy would only be 0.5% so that doesn't explain the 3% error.
4. The original owner lives about 800 miles from me, so yes it was a long drive to get the car home. (I flew there to pick up the car). The coolant level in the reservoir dropped about an inch during the trip, should I be concerned? I don't smell any coolant and I don't see any leaks. Hopefully it's not a head gasket problem, am I being paranoid? I don't see how an engine with 36,000 miles could have any problems, even if it was not taken care of all that well.

----------------------

Suspension, sometimes it is as simple as getting new bushings, since 10 years, and much sitting [36k] would do that to bushings. I had this noise coming from the rear of the car, when there was no weight in the back it would make the creaking noises.

So don't necessarily change the sturt mounts yet.

1. Not sure what to tell you. For something as extensive and trying to fill in the cracks, i'd personally stray away from Armor All, and use maybe a nice Meguair's liquid leather cleaner/conditioner.

2. Low mileage & not a lot of use over those years = prematurely cracked
gaskets in the pump from sitting around?

3. That's weird. Stupid question -> do you have the correct tire size on those 16" wheels?

Mind you the cars out of the factory are always 'lower' reading than the actual speed, as to cover the *** of the manufacturer and accounting for variables like: maintenance, tire pressure, tire wear. So this difference is normal.

4. I never had a chance to look at this. Hmmm...

LeX2K

I ordered front sway bar end links, and sway bar bushings front and back. I'll swap that stuff out and see if it cures the problem. If not, then it's likely the strut mounts. I'm hoping not, I don't like pulling struts and compressing the springs etc. but I will if I have to. (plus I will need an alignment after if I pull the struts, another pain in the neck).
I normally do not like Armor All products, in fact I avoid them. But I have found the leather cleaner/conditioner to be really nice. It smells nice, and did remove most of the ground in dirt. Unfortunately there are some cracks that show because the dye is gone. I've seen online dye kits, but I have never used them. I only need to get some colour back into the cracks, otherwise the seats are decent. I'll never understand why owners neglect their cars like this, the original owner bought the car new and paid a pretty penny for it, protect your investment!
Possible. I'm hoping that's all it is, I'll know after I do the timing belt job. I've never done it on this engine, but it actually looks a bit easier than some 4 cylinder Toyota's I've done due to there being a bit more room to work with.
Yes. I was at the local Lexus dealer the other day and asked them about it, they told me they've had complaints on other Lexus models as well, there is no fix. But I never got a straight answer when I asked if some have the problem and some don't. It would seem that if one reads too slow or fast, every model would?
The Lexus rep told me the car is within tolerance. I'm not too concerned about it, except I got paranoid that the gauge cluster was swapped or something weird like that.

Anyway, with some luck my timing belt kit will be here and I can do the job over the coming weekend. (kit comes with belt, seals, bearings, tensioner, water pump, and accessory belts, all OEM except the accessory belts).

yeskay

can you post some pictures on this Millenium edition interior/exterior. In US i have seen only platinum edition in 2000 series.

LeX2K

Yep I will take pics tomorrow after I wash the car, it will be sunny so I can get some decent pics of the interior and exterior. I'm having trouble finding any info on the Millennium Edition, I would like to get a brochure or some literature on the model, but no luck. I might call Lexus and see what they can do for me.

My car does not have a wood steering wheel, I've been scouring ebay but so far have not found one that will match.

01LEXPL

iTrader: (10)

As you said, the car is in tolerance, but ALL cars on the road are like this. Some in fact ar actually worse than others. IE. cheaper cars will be significantly lower than acutal speeds, anyways, not gonna fill up your thread, but its an interesting read, as there have been many tests done when comparing GPS vs. speedo readings. So Google that if you are curious.

Its the same thing. The millenium edition was only a run in 2000, hence Millenium.

Otherwise, it came with the 16" alloys, the nicer badges on the fenders, and IIRC the black chrome lettering.

The Platinum for some reason generally comes with the wood-grain wheel, yet the milleniums almost always had HID's instead [unless ordered with the woodgrain wheel].

LeX2K

For people that don't want to wait for pics, here is one for sale that is identical to my car.

LeX2K

I did just that, found some interesting stuff. I just thought it odd that the odo was off, the speedo I can understand, it's a mechanical device. But the odo is based on a pulse/sensor and a digital readout, you'd think making that accurate would not be hard. I did try the GPS on two other cars I have, both of those cars are near 100% accurate.

LeX2K

Pics, thumbs are click-able.

dragoncoac

Odometers are never exact, the same with speedometers. Calibration and tires also are a factor. Tires when new are around 9/32". When worn down, they can be down to 4/32 or 3/32. When you think of it being only a little wear, multiply it by the number of rotations in a mile x # of miles driven. Also, most manufactures consider 3%-5% speedo error acceptable.

yeskay

probably this edition has sports suspension.