1992 Es 300

Howard · March 15, 2004

I am new to this forum and know nothing about cars, so please be doubly patient. I have a 1992 Es 300 with 110,000 miles. Yesterday, I noticed a leak in the radiator. It is visable and completely accessible. It is about 2" in length located in the front top portion of the radiator. As you face the car, it is left of the cap, but again, in front, not the top. It almost looks like a seam that is opening. It is the original radiator. Can this be repaired and if so, since the crack is completely accessible, would the radiator need to be removed? Who does this type of work? If I need a new one, other than the dealer, what type shops install them? How much should this cost?

On another problem, for about 6 months, the ABS light has been coming on and off. It can do so when it is raining or not, simply by applying the breaks. The light will be off for say four days, I will start the car and it will come back on. I could turn the car off, turn it back on and light could stay off. That said, there must be a problem and it is not electrical. I always know when applying the breaks when the ABS light is about to come back on. I can both hear what sounds to be a "grind" and I will feel it in the break peddle. Any thoughts on this problem and where to go to get it fixed. Thanks.

Lex3486 · March 15, 2004

Welcome to the club! Your radiator problem is a common one on ES's. Same exact thing happened to mine. Your best option is probably to replace the radiator-you can repair it with such products as JBWeld, but this usually only provides a temporary fix to the problem. Being that you claim to know nothing about cars, it would stand to reason to believe that you don't do any work on them yourself, or else I would tell you how to replace the radiator, as it is actually quite simple. Since that isn't the case, I'd suggest taking the car to a local independently owned Toyota/Lexus shop (that is, one that specializes in Toyotas and/or Lexuses but is not a dealership). If you can't find one of those, then I'd take it to any other reputable radiator shop or just general automotive repair shop in your area. The radiator itself isn't very expensive-if I recall correctly, mine was little over, if even $200. What I would suggest though is to attempt to replace it with one which has a metal top, as they are less prone to cracking as yours has done. If not, a plastic topped one will work fine, just perhaps not as long, but we're talking in terms of years so you really shouldn't have any more worries as far as the radiator goes if you replace it with either plastic or metal. As for your ABS, from your description of how you can actually tell that it's about to malfunction, it sounds as if the ABS is coming on when it doesn't need to and is triggering the warning light b/c of this malfunction. Personally I've had no problems with my ABS ever, so I can't really help you with this problem, but I'm sure someone here has an idea of what to do. Hope I've been of some help, and sorry about the lengthy post but I figure it's best to be detailed rather than concise ;)

SKperformance · March 15, 2004

Look in the yellow pages for a rad repair shop.They can recore it and repair it or replace it very fast and xtremly cheap as it is so easy to do.

The abs problem is probably one of your wheel hubs being worn and the bearing is causing it to move out of tolerance.Beware the abs sensor even if good will need to be replaced as well when replacing the hub as it cannot be removed easily without destroying it.