JTS06Z06

Some of you may remember my thread about my interest in a 2000 ES300 Platinum, well I ended up buying that car mentioned in the previous thread. What really sold me was yesterday morning I met up with a private seller selling a 00 white platinum with only 75,000 miles. The car was a complete disaster. Some panels were not original, the car had been repainted and it was done horribly, check engine light on, VSC light on, front and rear bumpers were both destroyed, and all four tires were shot. On top of that he wanted almost $9,000 for it.
Well anyway, I now own that silver one from the previous thread and am very glad I went with that one. The only thing is the floormats were missing as well as all thr owners manuals. The dealer is going to contact the original owner today and try and track them down.

So I had a couple questions. First one, is the 2000 ES300 Platinum a premium or regular fuel burner? I just want to make sure I use whatever is recommended and best for it. Also, I just want to make sure im looking at the sticker right as its kind of confusing, but front cold tire pressure is only 26psi? and the rear is 32?
Any recommendations on doing spark plugs and which ones to use? I figure at 100,000 miles it could use them.

If I come up with anything else I will be sure to ask here. If there is anything else you guys think I should check right away let me know and I will get on it. I will post up some more pics later on.

Thanks,
James

zajac

iTrader: (1)

Congrats! I also have a 2000 Platinum. The owners manual was missing in mine as well. I went on lexus.com and ordered one from there...free! Spark plugs have to be iridium, I forgot what the exact model is but its stated in the owners manual.
You should bring it to McGrath Lexus this Saturday for the meet/bbq!

JTS06Z06

^^^ Alright cool I found the PDF files for free download on Lexus's site but where did you find a place to order the actual original booklets? Those PDF's will help me get started until I find the originals booklets or buy them used on ebay.

I noticed it says use 87 octane or 91 for better performance. Since the ES300 is by no means fast or a performance car should I just use 87 or does the engine run better and get better fuel economy using premium? What do most of you guys use?

I think I figured out the tire pressure thing. I guess it says for 4 passengers or less use 26Psi front and rear? Seems low, but if thats what it says thats where I will put them.

PlatES300

iTrader: (1)

for spark plugs, just use the OEM ones. I think they are iridium? as for 87 or 91 octane, I've been using 87 octane forever now and its been fine. I have switched to premium for about a year or so and did not notice any significant improvements on gas mileage, so I stuck with 87 octane. 26psi is way too low. I think the sticker on the driver door says 32psi all around and that's what I have it at. Congrats on the purchase. You'll love this car for many years to come.

exxonham

Glad to see another proud Lexus owner, first were you talking about tracking down the origanial floor mats? could just buy some new floor mats and ya at 100K should change spark plugs with the iridium ones like already mentioned they should last for 100K Ya just use 87 cause i some times switch between the two cause I deliver pizza in my lexus and drive it kinda hard and ya havent noticed any difference in fuel economy but maybe little power but really is hard to tell.

JTS06Z06

Thanks for the additional input. I will look into doing the plugs using OE replacement NGK Iridiums.

Here are a couple quick shots I took of the car parked in its new home.

lej1447

Nice car. Congrat.

DJStarr

Awesome color, haha. Congrats though, looks cleaner than mine. Luckily mine had the original manuals brochures and even window sticker. The price was $36,900. Yikes, seems high to me but glad someone ate 29k for me! Did you get them to do the timing belt and water pump? Just curious about my idea for you.

JTS06Z06

No I did not have them do the timing belt as they said they were gonna do it there (a Lincoln dealership) and I would have preferred Lexus do it. Plus they way over quoted me and infact way higher than even Lexus. So I just negotiated the best price and left with the car. I finally got them down to $7,300 and I was very happy with that. After I looked at a couple other ES's that were in horrendous condition for more money I was more than happy to pay this amount for mine. Also, in my area it seems many 00/01 ES's with similar mileage are listed for sometimes over $9,000

The road noise I spoke of in my previous thread turned out to be a bad tire. So it looks like I will have to get new tires or live with some road noise for now. Then figure out what caused the tire to do that. Either defective tire or bad alignment I guess.

JTS06Z06

Well I hate to say this but so far this car SUCKS to work on. I went and bought new NGK Iridium plugs this morning as well as a bunch of weird extensions and stuff but I cant for the life of me finish the two rear plugs. This is by far the hardest most rediculous car to work on I have ever owned. Sorry im just venting!! lol

I have done plugs on all sorts of cars and my previous 2000 Accord Coupe 3.0 V6 was soooooo easy to do. I knew it was going to be difficult from reading other posts. RIght now I have one rear plug done, I got another old plug out and the new one in but I cant access it anymore to be able to tighten it down. I havent started the middle rear yet. I think I might go buy addition u-joint pieces and maybe a flex extension might do it.

Any other tricks anyone can give me to get the two left rear plugs?

James

zajac

iTrader: (1)

I can help you with them, I'm not too far away. I did mine twice already so I know exactly which two you are talking about. Let me know, I can PM you my #.

JTS06Z06

Cool thanks a lot man PM me your number if you want that way I have it incase I need it. Im at work for the rest of the day and will try tackling them tomorrow morning before work again. I will go and buy a couple other extensions and another pivot joint. If those dont do it I will for sure take you up on your offer. I will let you guys know what happens.

As of now the passenger side rear plug is done, the drivers side rear is almost done the new plug is in and the threads started but I cant find anyway to tighten it. I have not started the middler rear yet.

Thanks,
James

01LEXPL

iTrader: (10)

<in for more pics of the vette>

Btw, nice ES300. VEry clean!

I hihgly recommend waxing it now, whilst its clean. I used mother's SynWax and the water beads off of it after 4 days of rain/mud/driving still!

LarryParker

WOW! That car looks showroom perfect! Except for the floor mats

My 2000 ES300 looks OK for a 10 year old car, but it looks nowhere near as great as your car. And nice camera, too.

You can probably run that thing until the odometer hits 255,000 miles, like I did in my former car, a 1992 ES300.

JTS06Z06

Thanks for the compliments. I agree about the floormats, unfortunately for some reason the originals were not with the car and those are what were there. I will find some OEM ones eventually.







Just an FYI I came home from work and messed with the plugs again and they are all done. I dont know if I was out of it or what this morning but tonight I get the rears done no problem at all. I was able to reach the two hard ones easily by reaching through the drivers side opening along the intake. They are all done the car runs perfect and to my surprise the idle smoothed out big time. At idle there is zero vibration infact you cant even tell the engine is running. Im very happy!

James