johnnydank

Hello all. I just recently picked up a 2002 GS 300.
i knew nothing about this car until i started looking up parts for it. I am not a mechanic. I work on my own vehicles to save money… after I found out with a 2jz-vvt was, I’ve wanting nothing more then to build this car… unfortunately I’m not financially ready for that yet…so getting it up and going is the 1st step…. I also have a 2000 ES 300 for parts…. but unfortunately, I don’t know if any parts are even compat ……Will the brake calibers work?… what about the radiator?…is there anyway to swap the ES body parts on the front with the GS body part? (Bumper head lights fenders exc)..what other problem should I expect?
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the ES is pretty nice all around but the engine isn’t the same and is also missing the heads.

dwoods801

How is the GS coming along? In the future you should just use the main area of the board for your questions like this. And you’ll get much quicker responses. The 2GS forum doesn’t get that much traction after 25 years. You have picked a good vehicle tif you want to handle the maintenance and repairs yourself. In my opinion this was the end of the best generation of automobiles. They are actually designed to drive and repair and stay on the road for as long as necessary. Many new cars with their 2.0L twin turbo 4 cylinder engines that seem great when brand new. The problem is they blow after 75,000 miles so you can’t replace them with a used motor. At the point the vehicle will not be worth enough to install a new motor. And they are all built with extreme precision and a lot of plastic parts that make them hard to work on even if you have a lot of experience. You will not have any of these concerns with your GS300. You have made a mistake with the ES300. There is nothing compatible with your GS300. You can find a lot of shared components in the other rear wheel drive models from the same era. So the IS300 shares the engine, transmission, and much of the suspension. Even the 1st gen coupe shares some parts like the SC300 will have the same engine. The SC430 shares the trans and a lot of the suspension. The LS400 and LS430 might have some things but not nearly as many as the IS300.
There is a lot of info in this forum that will help you out. Mainly knowing what the typical problems are and how to solve them. If you want to learn how to solve issues and keep your car running while spending the least money possible, you’re on the right path.