Sleeper6

Hi everyone,

I am glad to have found this forum! I just bought a 94 ES300 for $400. The lady I bought it from said it was her husbands, and after it broke down, he got sick and passed away soon after, so for the past four years, she never did anything with it. She was going to junk it, but I saw the tow truck driving up, and paid her more money than they would have given her.

So after a new alternator and a battery, it was up and running, and I had a Lexus. I washed it and have been working on it for the past few weeks. So far I have Serviced the brakes, welded a new flex pipe on the exhaust, attached the side panels with clamps and gorrilla glue, because I'm not going to pay over $200 for runners and the clips. Tomorrow I'm going to replace the wheel stud so that I can put the fifth lug nut on the front wheel.

So far, that should get it out of critical condition. It looks almost decent now, and the only noticeable defect while driving is the tires being out of balance at over 60 mph.

Is there any critical area or item that I need to inspect or should immediately replace?

So far this is my list in order of importance:

• Tires
• Shocks/Struts
• hood struts
• Steam clean Engine compartment/undercarriage
• gas access door(broken off)
• interior driver door handle doesn't work
• front window doesn't roll down

I'll just note here that the front drivers door handle mechanism is jammed by the piece of wood inside of the door that is holding up the actual window. the only way to open the front drivers door from the inside is to roll down the rear drivers side window, reach around and pull the exterior handle.

• Passenger door lock moves but does not lock with electronic lock
• ABS and Check engine Lights on
• Trunk release and gas access door buttons worked but have since fallen off into the drivers door
• dash is heat cracked
• tint looks like ***** and is bubbling up
• Paint is scratched, keyed, and chipped
• Rims are stock, rusty, and terrible.
• Dash Cluster Back lights are a dim yellow
• Dash cluster needles only flicker on every few days or so.

So other than that, it's a great car. If you guys see anything that could be a quick fix on that list, please let me know. I know that I'm going to attempt the Needle LED replacement that I found here.

Anyways I'm glad to be here, and I just finished downloading all of the service manuals for the 94 Lexus ES300/Camry so let me know if you need them, thanks!

rchavez

post some pics of it(:

donbryce

Wow, quite a list of DIY's!
- I had some luck with the needles buying replacements off EBay. I had to buy 3 times, and one seller sent me replacements for 2 that didn't work right, shipped free. I spent about $120.00 but now have had all of them working for nearly a year now. Lots of threads on this subject, and many novel approaches.
- The gas/trunk release buttons in the door can be fixed by carefully drilling a few small holes and inserting some tiny sheet metal screws to fix them into place (from behind the door panel). I think you'll find a broken piece of plastic in a weak spot on the door panel mount cutout. BTW, the door panel is easy to remove, which is one job you'll be doing right away I'd expect. I found a few pictures showing how I fixed mine. Basically, the thin plastic bar holding the switch breaks (last pic shows the still-intact one on the other side).
- Watch that steam cleaning, as you might end up with electrical issues with sensors and connectors.

HamBurglar

Congrats and welcome to CL!

I got a 94 ES too.

As far as the gauge clusters go, do a search and you'll see a few DIY and led swaps. I'd recommend using the lowest brightness setting to keep your gauge lights, especially the needles from going out completely. Also I'd check the O2 sensors and the replace the engine gasket seals ($20 from Auto Zone).