Seattle ES300

Newbie alert! I know I should use the SEARCH function but I wanted to get my first post on the board. My wife and I just took her father's ES300 (80k miles) off of his hands. I cleaned it up a bit (a work in progress). I seriously don't think he had washed in in the last 7 years. Took me 2 hours just to remove the road tar from the lower side panels. Just wondering what the first performance mod should be? Suggestions?

Sooner

if its as bad as you say u might want to do some maintenance to it.

Seattle ES300

That might be a good idea. I think he brought it in for service regularly. He just didn't care to wash it (inside or out.)

Seattle ES300

Do the drop in K&N's do anything on this car? I know that on my Acura it was a total waste of money. Now a CAI on the other hand...

Seattle ES300

Bumpity-bump-bump.

mcelligott

Intake's a good first mod -- might wanna upgrade your plugs&wires too.

blux

meh, intakes bother me...IMO..if your getting more air than stock, unless you upgrade your feul pump, injectors...whats the use of having more air? and ya ya..I know "oh the computer will make air fuel mixture adjustments"...but that means the car isnt running right. Why wouldnt lexus just slap on a performance intake? Also, if you upgrade the intake, then you still have a very restrictive exhaust system...headers, cat, muffler, stock piping...whats the use of slammin more air in when you cant get more out? I say dont mess with just doing one thing, unless your going to continue to add more later. This is mainly the reason why I havent modifyed my car yet... I know that upgrading just the intake is going to give you a TINY performance boost, somthing like 1 or 2 hp...but caman, unless your at the track trying to lower your time by a 10th of a second I dont see how it makes a difference...



just a random rant IMO...

Seattle ES300

You might be somewhat on the right track. This isn't a car intended for track racing. However, CAI make a huge difference on most cars w/o any additional changes in the exhaust system. I mean, there is no way the stock intake setup is running at optimal efficiency and would therefore overload the exhaust. When I slapped one on my Acura, I got a 6% increase in acceleration and a 4% gain in HP. That's about 2 tenths of a sec faster to 60 and 10 HP. That's a pretty large gain for $150. The MAIN reason Lexus doesn't just slap one on is that they're much louder than a stock airbox. Stock airboxes tend to have resonance chambers to calm the incoming air and reduce the noise. CAI's are basically a tuned hollow tube w/o any resistance (except for the filter itself). Some say another reason manufacturers stay away from the CAI's is the increased chance of hydrolock (engine ingesting water due to the fact that the CAI's usually pull cooler air from closer to the ground). Anyway, that's my rant to your rant...hehe.

Who makes a good CAI for this car???

mcelligott

Keep in mind, Lexus likes the ES to be super quiet -- not meant to be a sporty car.

bizarreRide

My 98 Es became a whole lot more fun to drive, and yes sounded quite a bit louder, when I added my Weapon-R dragon filter. That's all I really care about. It is a noticable change, and perhaps it feels like more boost than it is, but I have to think that just taking out the airbox that slows down the incoming air would help you quite a bit. As others said, that is in there for quiting the engine noise, at the tradeoff of less-than-optimal performance.

I highly recommend the Weapon-R dragon for the ES...there's not too many others who make CAIs for us. I also got the ram air and heat shield upgrade, and that also improved performance noticably, as well as mellowing out the sound a little...like from a roar to a growl, still very nice.

Just because our cars aren't made to be performance sports cars doesn't mean there's anything wrong with making them perform better. I am also planning on numerous future mods, but if I was going to change only one thing on my car, for the money, I think its hard to beat the difference a CAI makes in how the car feels when you drive it.

There's my .02.

bR

blux

haha..ranting is fun =)

your right about that CAI thing, adding a k&n to your stock intake isnt going to do much, but if you upgrade the intake, then your talking. did you upgrade the exhaust on your CL? I saw the pix at your site, it looks pretty sweet. mad props!


edit: I was under the impression that you guys were adding a cone filter to the stock intake manifold and calling it a performance upgrade. I guess some do. althought it doesnt do much but make a louder noise. You guys have a good point about that noise issue and lexus....

Seattle ES300

Thanks! The exhaust is stock. Exhaust upgrades add very little (~4 whp) to the CL as it is already pretty optimal. More freely flowing exhausts just lower torque in this car...and you know how Honda engines need all the torque they can get.

I'm having so much fun with fixin' up this ES! It really was in quite bad shape. I think I added 10hp just washing the thing when I got it. All that dirt just caused drag...

blux

haha, I had the same prob when I got mine, the guy had like never washed it... took me weeks to get it to look new again!

Es469

actually puttin a intake in a ES does make a diffrenece,and thatz wut i notice in my ES,when i add it on.but tha major diffrence is the noise

George Hsieh

I won't say that install an intake is so call THE " noise" , I would call the " sound "... I have an Injen intake in my car with cat-back exhaust ( N-1 ) It really sounds nice.