My New 1997 Es 300 - Couple Of Questions

[omee]

Hello guys,

This is my first lexus. Just baught it a week ago. Hoping if you can help me with some of the questions that I have. It is a 97 Es 300 with about 230,000 km (143,000 mi) canadian spec. It runs and drives perfectly until now (touch wood)

Here Goes:

1)The previous owner lost the keyless remote.I asked the dealer and he quoted me upwards of $300. I looked online and found used ones for around $70. Im wondering if I can program these used remotes to unlock/lock my car? Are the remotes that they are selling erased or something?

2)I want to figure out which audio system I have. The previous owner took out the OEM head unit and put in a Sony Xplod.I dont like it. It says 'lexus premium sound system'. I looked under the sub on the rear deck, It says pioneer? so im assuming I have a pioneer system not a nakamichi one? Can I install a nakamichi head unit if I have a pioneer system?

3)Im averaging about 12 L/ 100 km. with mixed highway and city driving and with the A/C on. That is a bit on the higher side considering my Nissan Murano with its 3.5L V6 gets about 10 L/100 km. What kind of gas mileage do you guys get

4)I feel that the gear ratios are a bit high. Engine RPM is almost always around 2000 RPM regardless of speed. Is this normal?

Thanks in advance. looking forward to your replies and I apologise if I asked any 'dumb' questions. Never baught such a high mileage vehicle before.

Cheers

[mkeeney]

Hello guys,

This is my first lexus. Just baught it a week ago. Hoping if you can help me with some of the questions that I have. It is a 97 Es 300 with about 230,000 km (143,000 mi) canadian spec. It runs and drives perfectly until now (touch wood)

Here Goes:

1)The previous owner lost the keyless remote.I asked the dealer and he quoted me upwards of $300. I looked online and found used ones for around $70. Im wondering if I can program these used remotes to unlock/lock my car? Are the remotes that they are selling erased or something?

2)I want to figure out which audio system I have. The previous owner took out the OEM head unit and put in a Sony Xplod.I dont like it. It says 'lexus premium sound system'. I looked under the sub on the rear deck, It says pioneer? so im assuming I have a pioneer system not a nakamichi one? Can I install a nakamichi head unit if I have a pioneer system?

3)Im averaging about 12 L/ 100 km. with mixed highway and city driving and with the A/C on. That is a bit on the higher side considering my Nissan Murano with its 3.5L V6 gets about 10 L/100 km. What kind of gas mileage do you guys get

4)I feel that the gear ratios are a bit high. Engine RPM is almost always around 2000 RPM regardless of speed. Is this normal?

Thanks in advance. looking forward to your replies and I apologise if I asked any 'dumb' questions. Never baught such a high mileage vehicle before.

Cheers

1) You can find remotes on Ebay too. The car is programmed to accept the remote. The remote only sends a signal and is never programmed. This means that on cars like yours and mine, multiple cars can be unlocked with the same remote. The programming instructions are on this forum. Do a search, and if you search my username they will come up somewhere.

2) The Nakamichi system wouldn't be able to control your cd changer. Do you have a changer in the glove box? We have the Pioneer system and I've always been happy with it. The subwoofer makes a big difference. Otherwise you should be able to install the Nackamichi system and hook it up to your speakers. The connectors may be different though. This may have been covered elsewhere on the forum, so I suggest another search.

3) Converting from the fruity metric units, you're getting 19 mpg, which is a little low. We typically get 25 mpg, which is around 9.5 l/100km.

4) We'd have to know more about the specific conditions. Under light conditions below freeway speeds, what you describe seems typical.

[omee]

Hello guys,

This is my first lexus. Just baught it a week ago. Hoping if you can help me with some of the questions that I have. It is a 97 Es 300 with about 230,000 km (143,000 mi) canadian spec. It runs and drives perfectly until now (touch wood)

Here Goes:

1)The previous owner lost the keyless remote.I asked the dealer and he quoted me upwards of $300. I looked online and found used ones for around $70. Im wondering if I can program these used remotes to unlock/lock my car? Are the remotes that they are selling erased or something?

2)I want to figure out which audio system I have. The previous owner took out the OEM head unit and put in a Sony Xplod.I dont like it. It says 'lexus premium sound system'. I looked under the sub on the rear deck, It says pioneer? so im assuming I have a pioneer system not a nakamichi one? Can I install a nakamichi head unit if I have a pioneer system?

3)Im averaging about 12 L/ 100 km. with mixed highway and city driving and with the A/C on. That is a bit on the higher side considering my Nissan Murano with its 3.5L V6 gets about 10 L/100 km. What kind of gas mileage do you guys get

4)I feel that the gear ratios are a bit high. Engine RPM is almost always around 2000 RPM regardless of speed. Is this normal?

Thanks in advance. looking forward to your replies and I apologise if I asked any 'dumb' questions. Never baught such a high mileage vehicle before.

Cheers

1) You can find remotes on Ebay too. The car is programmed to accept the remote. The remote only sends a signal and is never programmed. This means that on cars like yours and mine, multiple cars can be unlocked with the same remote. The programming instructions are on this forum. Do a search, and if you search my username they will come up somewhere.

2) The Nakamichi system wouldn't be able to control your cd changer. Do you have a changer in the glove box? We have the Pioneer system and I've always been happy with it. The subwoofer makes a big difference. Otherwise you should be able to install the Nackamichi system and hook it up to your speakers. The connectors may be different though. This may have been covered elsewhere on the forum, so I suggest another search.

3) Converting from the fruity metric units, you're getting 19 mpg, which is a little low. We typically get 25 mpg, which is around 9.5 l/100km.

4) We'd have to know more about the specific conditions. Under light conditions below freeway speeds, what you describe seems typical.

Thanks alot for your help. I still have a couple of questions to clarify:

1)hmmm, so that means that any ES can be opened by any ES remote? Correct me if im wrong

2)Yes I do have a CD changer. Does that mean that I have a pioneer system. I do like the sound system. I just miss not using the CD changer.

3)I do tend to drive over the speed limit but I doubt that it should have such a big impact. I just poured fuel injector cleaner. hope to clean out the gunk and improve gas mileage. I guess points 3 and 4 from my previous post are inter-related. What I meant in my previous post is that in any gear, the RPM is around 2000.

On gentle accel, 1st gear changes at 2300 RPM, 2nd gear at 2000 RPM, 3rd at 1900 RPM and so on. At around 70 MPH the RPM is 2300. Which I think is fine. Mind you that the accel is really slow. I was thinking that cleaning the throttle body might help. Also I will look into the downshift cable. Maybe its stretched over the passage of time.

Thanks again for all ure help

Cheers!

[mkeeney]

Thanks alot for your help. I still have a couple of questions to clarify:

1)hmmm, so that means that any ES can be opened by any ES remote? Correct me if im wrong

2)Yes I do have a CD changer. Does that mean that I have a pioneer system. I do like the sound system. I just miss not using the CD changer.

3)I do tend to drive over the speed limit but I doubt that it should have such a big impact. I just poured fuel injector cleaner. hope to clean out the gunk and improve gas mileage. I guess points 3 and 4 from my previous post are inter-related. What I meant in my previous post is that in any gear, the RPM is around 2000.

On gentle accel, 1st gear changes at 2300 RPM, 2nd gear at 2000 RPM, 3rd at 1900 RPM and so on. At around 70 MPH the RPM is 2300. Which I think is fine. Mind you that the accel is really slow. I was thinking that cleaning the throttle body might help. Also I will look into the downshift cable. Maybe its stretched over the passage of time.

Thanks again for all ure help

Cheers!

1) No, not at all. The car has to be programmed to accept the remote. It only means if you had two ES's you could program them both to accept the same remote. I only pointed that out because most people misunderstand the programming process. It's the car that is programmed, not the remote.

2) Since you already have the changer why not find an OEM Pioneer head unit to put back in? I've seen them on Ebay a lot. The best deal is one that has the common LCD missing segments problem. It's easy to fix for $100 and you can get an excellent deal on the unit because most people don't bother to Google the solution. I had to replace our LCD a couple years ago.

3) I don't know - what you describe sounds normal. Remember that these are luxury cars. The transmission is programmed to shift smoothly and the engine is designed to be quiet. When Lexus made decisions in the design, they did whatever made the car smooth, quiet, and comfortable. Performance was always secondary.

[BoaR]

wow... i wish i was getting 19mpg+

in granny mode i can barely squeek out 16.5mpg mixed driving.... :(

I think it's time for me to seriously look into my majorly low mileage... hmm.

and yes its normal for the rmp. im almost always around the 2k range.