capnjim

Man...I hope I won't regret this.
But, I have spent the last few weeks shopping for cars, and every single car I looked at had rust. Plus, every single seller said the car had no rust!!
This one is crazy clean. Under the hood looks like new. Anyways, I pick it up Tuesday and can't wait.
One of the main reasons I got this one was how responsive the engine was. Just a touch on the gas pedal gave instant response. I looked at several 330's and none of them were nearly as smooth. They all needed that extra half second for the power to kick in.
Anyways, they only made 360 of these, and I really believe the quality of these cars is outstanding.
Here she is.
http://www.lespac.com/roxboro/vehicu...&requester=SCH

nsghtbrwry

Nice! I think that's a good price for such a nice example.

capnjim

I'm pretty happy. I think this is one of the best engines ever made. I did a lot of searches for this generation, and a lot of them have well over 200,000 miles.
What helped my decision, was, I looked at a 2004 ES-330 for 6000$. The guy also had a 1500$ '97 ES300 that was pretty rusty, but he swore it ran and drove way better than the 6000$ ES330.
I think from '95-2000 was truly the best era for Japanese cars.

nsghtbrwry

Yeah a few things make 3MZ cars a dealbreaker for me: interference engine, more cramped engine bay, and above all, that damn drive-by-wire. I'm resurrecting a '99 with 243k on it now, hopefully it starts on Tuesday when the rear motor mount and axles go in.

capnjim

Now, should I be worried about the dreaded sludge issue? The car was extremely well maintained.

ArmyofOne

So is the 1MZ a non-interference? AFAIK It is interference as well...

I have a 02 ES300, when I bought it it had 151k, all services done w/ records from Sewell Lexus of Ft Worth Texas, and I paid $4878 +TTL (to get me to $5,500 OTD), So I am not sure that the OP got a smokin deal in america, but for canada, it's probably pretty good. Also, that generation of ES is probably the best build one ever, period. It is also the easiest to work on with the fewest amount of computers and most robust transmission. The early 02's were the next best, even though they got the quirky drive by wire, if you could get one of the few that got the new body style with the leftover older transmission (A154), you got a gem, because those trannies are literally bulletproof.

mjeds

I just sold my 1995 4runner 4x4 with 264,000 miles for $5,500 - 22 years old.

now I did just completely rebuild the motor, replace the heads, water pump, alternator, front axels and bearings, upper ball joints, tires, brakes, headers, cat, and muffler. which cost me $6,250, so I actually lost money on the deal. But, C'est la vie

nsghtbrwry

You could take a peek under the valve covers (or just look under the oil cap, but that doesn't always give you the full picture).

1. If there's black grime down the front or back of the engine, probably valve covers (verify).
2. Some people say that to do the VC gaskets, you should replace the VC bolts because they have a crush washer/gasket on them. Even if you do that, Toyota designed these badly: the bolt bottoms out in the bore, so it will loosen in a few days.
3. The fix is to add two 5/16" washers to each VC bolt to space it out. This also means you get back a lot more than the 0.005" crush thickness, so no need for new bolts.
4. Back to the sludge. If the car's been driven a lot without properly warming up (1MZ's take a while to warm up, unlike 5S-FEs. All mine take about six minutes to stabilize the temp gauge), and/or hasn't seen a lot of highway miles, it will probably have some sludge.
5. Lots and lots of threads on this topic, but if it isn't bad (e.g., I have a '99 that was used as a San Francisco taxi, and it had some sludge on head bolts and clogging up three oil galleries), you can do a few short-OCI (1500-2000 miles) changes with a quality synthetic oil and put highway miles on it.
6. I use (5W-30) Wallyworld SuperTech, Mobil1, and Pennzoil. Wallyworld is cheap and effective, Mobil1 or Pennzoil when I stock up due to rebates.
7. If the car's been running on conventional oil for a long time, you may suddenly get oil leaks everywhere when abruptly switching to full synthetic. I never believed this until it happened to me on three cars...two were 1MZ-powered.

HTH

Yeah 3ES is great, handsome, unassuming cars with great interiors. Yeah A541E is the way to go...but every ES I've seen after '98 has the U140E (my '99 is on the original U140E at 243k. Mind-boggling. My nice '01 U140E has a blown fluid pump/torque converter. Not so mind-boggling.)

IIRC, officially, Toyota says the non-VVTi 1MZ-FE (ES300 up to '98) is non-interference and the VVT-i version (ES300 to '03) is interference. However, after many, many snapped timing belts, turns out the VVT-i version is non-interference as well (tons of stuff on Toyota Nation about this). I think on the 3MZ they switched to flat top pistons (no valve indentations).

Cool. I'm about to do a head gasket job on my dad's '88 Hilux (22R, 2WD, 4spd, salvage due to theft...twice. But single owner!). Then it gets sold...not going to get $5500 but if it runs like a champ it'll easily pull $2500 here in the Bay Area .

mjeds

put it on yotaforums, first gens are gold to the hard core off roaders, you'll probably get a good price for it.

capnjim

So I am picking it up tomorrow. I think I got a great deal considering the state of cars in Montreal. Our roads are brutal, and this one was used for driving to Ontario and the US. Plus, for an extra 600$ I got a set of new Bridgestone Blizzak winter tires on factory Toyota mags, a timing belt with water pump kit, and a couple of other parts.
I'm so happy not to have to put on the horrible black, rusty steel rims 99% of cars in Quebec have for winter.

dferlauto

I found a 17 yr old 2000 ES 300 with 85K miles on it and paid $5500. It needed an oil leak fixed and I rebuilt the front end. It has been flawless since and I'm happy with the car. .Don't second guess your purchase. With a little love it should do well for you

99rx

iTrader: (6)

Bought a 2001 ES300 Coach Edition with 37k miles for $4700.

capnjim

Plus..the summer tires are new, the winter tires are on Toyota mags and have only one winter. I also got a timing belt/water pump kit.
He also did all the brakes, pads and rotors last summer. Its one sweet ride! I just wish I could figure out the remote starter.

WILLYumD

Keep that tranny fluid serviced and you're set for a lot of miles!

Expect the timing belt install to be a huge PITA (read: expensive as all heck), though.

Regarding the remote starter, do you see any branded boxes under the steering wheel around the ignition lock region?

capnjim

I will change the tranny fluid ASAP. I looked around under the dash and couldn't find anything. The seller is pretty sure there is a kill switch as he thinks the starter can drain the battery. i just need to find the little kill switch!