Faq Lexus Es

[SKperformance]

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Ok here goes a summary of all that i do know on the Es 300 ( mainly the 92-96) as i own a 94 .

Over all there should be a tool kit with the lexus name all over the screwdrivers and wrench plus some other stuff, also call lexus to update your personal info with them for any recalls, while you are at it get the lexus roadside assistance it is pretty cheap and excellent for towing.gas,lock out service, free mapping of a roadtrip as well as other services.

1-800-26-lexus in Canada

1-800-25-lexus in USA

To get the owners manual go to the lexus web site ,register your car and they will send you a free one if asked for.You can find owners manuals on ebay cheap( from owners who decided to keep it and not rightly give to the new owner

the service manuals from lexus are superb and extremely detailed worth every dollar

i spent about over $300 for my set of 3 volumes and it is way better than any other one i have owned

first model generation

is the ES 250

all i do know about it is it is supposed to be a camry exactly with different lights

( from automotive review of the time)

second Gen.

92-96 mcv 10 chassis

If you are thinking of buying a second gen ES do not buy a 92-93 model as they all have overheating issues, save the money and buy a 94 or newer it isn't worth the few dollars you save.

performance upgrades

The suspension may be serviceable meaning you can just buy a regular shock not a whole strut with outer casing to replace it with much cheaper i think 92-94 where non serviceable and 95-96 are.

You can get a front strut bar pretty cheap and it will definitely sharpen the steering feel only 6 nuts to install and you are done

Springs ,lots of people make them i think Eibach are the smoothest for ride then H&R the drops are not that much as the rear is a very tight fit, kyb are the softest shock and tokico being the harder riding ones .There is a company called whiteline in Australia who makes front and rear sway bars as well as springs there is a camber kit from Eibach also but most don't need it if any.

I don't know anyone with them so i cannot say how good they are but the rear one on a camry is supposed to be very good

rims 18 X 7 with a 40 mm offset is the biggest you seem to be able to go with no rubbing front or back without modifying the sheet metal to flare out,which is pretty much impossible in the rear.I can hardly fit a few pieces o paper between my fender and the tires with a 1 inch Eibach drop lots of people have tried many other kinds but they do rub ,some less than others.

brakes are easy to change bembro make plain rotors but no slots or drilled

i had mine custom made from bembro blanks with slots big difference in braking

there are stainless steel brakelines for the car i just have not gotten them yet

if you are going to paint you calipers don't by a spray can it will chip off and look real bad. Folia-tec makes a paint to be brushed on and it looks wet like the caliper is clear coated real easy to do

the exhausts are no longer made by Greddy or trust, so a custom is the best way and only to go. Use stainless steel piping with a 2.5 inch diameter as it works very well .The stock exhaust starts at 2.5 to the resonator then goes to a smaller 2.25 to the muffler. I changed mine from the res. back to keep the noise down and it is nice and deep

The intake is possible for the 94-96 much easier as it has a round intake sensor rather than the previous flap square designed ,injen , weapon r,ractive companies make a short pipe ( wrongly termed as a ram air one,only car i know with ram air is the firebird and camaro with an induction system on the hood to force ( ram) air into the engine at speed. This pipe is a piece of !Removed! do not buy one don't even take it if it is free. They will rob your engine of efficiency and power only returning a nice noise,it is really a ricer part to say you did something. Spend the money on a drop in filter then and save some gas slightly. A true cold air is the only way to go, usually has to be custom built by an experienced performance shop who do allot of custom work not just sell lights

ECU Chips so far one person has said they got one and felt a difference but there are too many variables like age of car, no base run and a tune up plus a K&N drop in filter change at the same time to link all gains directly to the chip,jet makes one but they are listed as scammers , so buyer beware

exterior mods

The taillights and head lights can be cleared of their amber lens by heating them in an oven for 10 minutes at a time at about 300 and slowly prying the outer casings away and reheating again once done slowly it is easy to pop out the lenses and reseal it , ( p.s. take of the license plate lights from the assembly as they cannot take the heat and will melt, believe me i know)

Headlights are 9006 for the low and 9005 for the high beam i used a plug and play kit for my HID's and they work great with the stock projectors

i have silvania silverstars for my highs

tsunami makes a bodykit for the ES but it is a very ugly front end and kinda expensive but atleast it is urethane and made in the USA not Japan

The windows will leak air if they are used to close the door rather than the actual door as they go out of alignment they can be realigned as the seals usually do not go bad. Also i use meguires tire endurance dressing to help it seal along the seal of all the windows door edges ,trunk and sunroof, once done it will improve the less of air whistle

audio

the antenna if broken can be removed by holding the fm button on the radio down and turning the key to on, you will also have to remove the nut at the base of the ant by unscrewing it. It will pop the ant right out,just get a new one form lexus it is about $30 for just the mast, let the teeth on the plastic teeth face to the back of the car and insert once the key is turned off it will retract the new one in

The amp is under the passenger seat

the front door speakers are 5 1/4 but can fit 6/12 the door sailfins have a 1 inch tweet the ones on the corner of the dash called squakers which are useless no need to replace( only good was to fill up the stock systems inadequacies) rear are 6X9 to remove that panel you have to pop up the 3 clips holding down the lower rear seat ( do this on a warm day and after a few applications of you leather treatment or you will crack the leather for sure) remove 2 lower bolts holding the rear back of the seat in, now lift up and the 2 hooks will let you pull it out, remove the 2 rear side trim panels to be able to lift out the rear parcel shelf after now get a towel for you knees and start trying to dislodge that dam 3rd brake light it pulls out towards the front of the car, once it is removed the shelves just lifts out and you now have access

There is a mounting kit for a new radio by metra about $40 which holds any single din radio deck and has a pocket under .It is cheap and flimsy but suffices for the price of a custom bondo and fiberglass number costing about $350.

Take any part of the stock system out and you might as well replace it all, as it is tuned for itself very well , the stock speakers cannot be driven by any other amp as they will be over powered ,you can replace the whole system and keep the deck by getting line level converters ( crystal lines )they upgrade the signal and voltage to as close as an RCA as possible without one using the speaker outputs ( this is not a cheap $10 part made by pyramid they are much more and better than a basic variable resistor) as it is a powered unit

You can do a diagnostic on the hvac system by pressing the auto button and the recirc button at the same time then turning the key to on

it will display any trouble codes if present

( post if it does and i will tell you what it means

The alarm works on radio frequency 94.9 fm tune it and press the button on the key to see if it is working properly . The ant is located as part of the grille in the rear defogger rear glass

92-93 had a steel block engine and whole different design including the intake sensor which makes it somewhat harder to do a cold air intake. They had no passenger side airbag and no ambient ( outside temp ) button on the hvac control

also have a small spring between the rear suspension for rear brake proportioning under rear load . There seems to be no little knob also beside the mirror adjustment to turn the volume of the alarm chip up or down.

94

Added the passenger airbag button on the hvac for outside temp and changed the suspension ratings new 1mz-fe all aluminum engine also no more spark plug wires as they went to a coil on plug design ,intake also got an acoustic control for the intake ( similar to BMWs vanos) and a new style transmission linked to an ecu

got the volume control for the alarm did seem to lose the light around the key hole being activated when a handle is pulled , i think my cousins 93 also illuminated the interior lights at the same time.

95-96 refreshed headlight ( with smoked hosing and 3 lines across it)

fogs clear now and rectangle not round yellow projectors with a new lower grille to match . The taillights where restyled to only the lower portion lighting up under the turn signal rather than above and below, also the upper part is now all reflector and the middle is more amber attached to the reverse light.

camry parts interchangeable ,some are like the engine and other smaller part plus suspension ,the rear brakes are not though, I thought they were but when i got my rotors to put them on the rears are a smaller diameter than the lexus ones, but they do still bolt right in.

There is a position on the wipers for winter and summer mode look in the engine bay on the right side or the car on the firewall for the wiper motor it has 2 wiring harnesses one has just 2 wires, unclip it and do a 180 turn and plug it back in

it will either move the wipers to proper summer rest below the hood line or above for when snow gets stuck to keep the motor from being damaged .

Most cars have crappy alternators which never make the heated seats seem to work . There is also supposed to be a revised alternator pulley for after 97 to speed up the lo idle power to make it more sufficient. The only good thing is it seems to keep the dash needles from burning out by having a lower voltage i have noticed ,so if they flicker then turn the brightness down for a short term, resolution .Another option is to replace the wiring from the battery to a good 4 gauge wire from an audio shop atleast to the body ground located under the battery tray, and the one for the starter . i had found both these wires to have a small amount of corrosion on them both are very short maybe a foot and a half for length each. My car now starts faster and drives much better.

If you do replace the battery with an aftermarket non-Toyota battery then you will find the terminals are backwards, meaning the negative and positive are different on the battery than they are on the terminals .It is not very hard to adjust the wiring but if doing this then replace the starter and ground as well to save some headache of splicing .My stereo works much better and plays much louder if i wanted it to. This also helped my seat heater issue of hardly feeling it. once i replaced all the wiring for them and added a really they work amazing now.

there is no bulb in the needles

It is not owner serviceable ,the needles can be replaced by getting other good ones from ebay or a junk yard. The backlighting bulbs ( illuminate behind the cluster for km/m and others) can be replaced by removing the whole unit and opening it up then replacing the bulbs . Other wise buy a new dash from lexus

get a good one form ebay and live with a different mileage

or send it to some guy in the states who want $200- 550 usd to change the needles . Also available in different colors.

third Gen.

97-01 mcv 20

To reprogram new key fobs to your car here is the procedure

this may work for 92-96 also but i don't know for sure to reprogram the key fob

1) Driver door is open and unlocked, key is out the ignition.

2) Key is inserted into the ignition and removed without turning.

3) Using power lock, the door is locked and unlocked 5 times.

4) the door is closed and then opened.

5) Using power lock the door is closed and opened 5 times again.

6) key is inserted in ignition turned to on position and then off, key is then removed.

7) After the locks cycle,the lock and unlock button is held simultaneously for a second.

8) Immediately after the lock button is held for 2 seconds.

you can get front and rear sway bars also from whiteline also full coilover suspension from JIC or Tein or hotbits but rather expensive

97-99

switched to separate key fobs rather than a button on the side of the key for the alarm

Common problems with these cars is the idle control valve at the intake . It gets filled with carbon over time and makes it hard to restart your car when it is already hot. To remedy this clean the intake and iacv with throttle body cleaner. After the car will run amazing ,if not repeat until it is fixed.

It also has large deposits of carbon in the egr and bank 1 sensor 1 the rear o2 sensor on the engine.SO clean all of them as much as possible to remove the cel and hard starting hot.

Their is recalls out for the charcoal canister having problems so if you replaced yours go to lexus and see what they can do.

97-98 complete redesign of the head and intake system but the same engine code and block. They added vvt for improved response and mileage ,the camry does not have this option.

( like vtec for Honda)

99-01 came with vvt-i not jsut vvt

(the "i" is for inteligence) for improved response

00-01

redesigned taillights clear middle

and bumpers ,grille and headlights

also optional HID headlights

fourth Gen.

02-present mcv-30 chassis

02-03 3.0L v6

04-present come with the 3.3L v6 330 engine 3mz-fe instead

Has annoying habit of shifting when you don;t want it to and not thinking properly when it is supposed to shift under certain circumstances.

this is STEVIEJ and SW03ES area of expertise as i really have none with this car

if you have questions on anything mentioned

start a thread with this title or start one and i will respond there as to keep this just with information to make it concise and edit this one as needed

thanks i hope this helps a few of you