I bought a 97 ES300 last week and overall I think it's in pretty good condition for it's age. I initially had an issue where the seat belts didn't fully retract... but a quick search on this forum and I found that I had to clean that little mount that goes on the pillar to get rid of all the gunk stuck in it. Once I cleaned that out, the seat belts retracted like they should. Awesome 5 minute fix at no cost.
However, I have another problem I'm trying to fix. My drivers side door doesn't always lock or unlock using the remote. It works most of the time, but every once and a while, it won't lock if I try to arm the alarm. Sitting in the car, I can see that the lock attempts to lock itself. It moves a little but doesn't move enough to actually lock.
All the other doors work just like they should.
Before I go and purchase an lock attenuator (or whatever they're called), I thought I'd check here and see what I could try checking first. Is there a way to clean the lock itself? Maybe due to it's age it just needs a good cleaning? Or maybe the connection isn't 100%? I know the old owner replaced the inside panel... so maybe he didn't properly connect everything and every once and a while the connection becomes loose causing my issue?