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My rule is if the body is rust free then probably worth fixing the mechanical issues. The hot start issue is often a bad connection between the battery terminals and posts, they can look perfectly fine but are not. Or it could simply need a new starter, or the neutral safety switch needs cleaning.
Hi new here. we bought a black es300 about 3 1/2 years ago, great car very little to ever have to fix , I do have a reoccurring fault for the charcoal canister that I haven't dealt with but other then that she has been fantastic. other then just recently. About a week ago we drove down the hill to the store no problems until we came back out to the car. Car started fine no issues until i tried to put her in gear,which i was unable to do then i realized we had no dash lights no ac no stereo no door looks no windows,everything in the cabin was off. I bypassed the tranny lock to drive to the parts house, once we were at the parts house i disconnected the neg bat terminal and then replaced the "main" 40 amp fuse reconnected the neg terminal on the battery. everything came back to life so I thought the issue was over. A week later while starting down the hill again the battery light came on, i put the car in neutral turned off the engine then back on , and again no interior power. went to the parts house replaced the fuse no change, disconnected the neg on the battery for about ten minutes and everything was fine again, drove home and parked her. Does anybody have any suggestions as to what might be gone on?
Neglected mechanically but cared for cosmetically... Bought the car in June and have replaced motor-mounts, timing belt, water pump, 1 O2 b2s2, and replaced OCV solenoid.
I am a new to me owner of a 2002 ES 300. My father in law has this funny frugal habit of only buying cars from his parents. They drive them very sensibly, have them well maintained (immaculate, really), and get rid of them at low mileage for a steal. So he's only ever bought cars from his parents. He ended up having his parents getting rid of cars faster than he can use them, since he drives them until they are utterly dead (he does most of his own auto work). This means he got this lexus and it sat in his garage on a battery maintainer for a couple years, then decided since they were giving their younger daughter a car, they should give my wife one (who's 30). So, we now have received a free, beautifully maintained ES300 with under 90,000 miles on it. I put more marks on it in the first week of drinking coffee as I drive, than it had accrued in the previous 17 years. My primary car is an 08 Acura TL, which I love dearly, but it is getting a bit tired as it's been forced to do high intensity commuting and back country driving (sorry catalytic converter, I do actually love you) which is nearing 200,000 miles.
So, the Lexus may become my primary car soon (my wife doesn't drive at the moment), but in either case I'm jumping on this forum to learn the particular in and out's of maintaining it and keeping it happy for years to come. Outside of the occasional temporary coffee mark, it's tan inside, black outside. Wonderfully smooth, very well driving, with no problems in any way I can tell. Given the age and mileage, a full 100,000 mile service and full fluids are about due.
Found a bit of a unicorn this weekend. It's 1993 ES300 in white, black leather interior, automatic, everything works, with 121K. Older woman was selling because she no longer could drive it, was purchased new from Westport Lexus in Connecticut and maintained there for half it's life, then maintained at a local shop who provided me with all it's maintenance records.
Looks like I'm going to need to replace the motor mounts soon, has a rip on the drivers seat and the typical gauge needles need to be replaced. I'm not looking to go crazy as I want to keep it as original as possible, but do have a few mods in mind:
HID/LED lighting
Windom Blacked headlight housing?
Possible suspension upgrade? Any ideas for comfort/performance?
New Radio?
Just exited to be part of the Lexus group again!. Cheers!
Glad to find this community. Bought a 1998 White ES 300 last week with a little over 178k miles. Other than a little bit of cosmetic faults, it is A-okay. First Lexus for us and we are loving it.
2001 es300 coach edition I paid $500 for wrecked to where it is today
I’ve re done almost everything besides the engine and transmission, I bought the car for a toy car to put my speakers in and I’m eventually going to lower the car and put a stance on it but this is the progress so far, sorry the pics aren’t in order. If you have any questions I’m more than happy to talk.
When I first got her
Best of luck. I had one just like that and loved it.
Thank you.
It is the first car of my son (senior in HS) who makes minimum wage and hopefully takes care of it and treats it the way it should be to gets many more years out of this classic.
Have ordered some touch up paint from paintscratch dot com so that he can put it on (Maaco was charging 1100 for the two tone job).
I’ve re done almost everything besides the engine and transmission, I bought the car for a toy car to put my speakers in and I’m eventually going to lower the car and put a stance on it but this is the progress so far, sorry the pics aren’t in order. If you have any questions I’m more than happy to talk.
HI, I'm new to the forum. Just joined today. I have a 2003 ES300 and I need to replace the radiator.
I'm not sure if this is the original that came with the car, but I've been driving it for the past 8 years.
It's really a nice car. No other problems. I need to get this fixed asap. Can you tell me how to do this
myself?
07-14-19, 12:42 PM
