pauloil

my son, an attorney, was over the other day. Out of the blue he said to me, why don't you buy a new car and give me the Lexus. Well, I still love the car even it is an 05. It is great on the road and gets 28 or so MPG. I didn't reply to him.

yes. it was interesting as the mech. said that he thinks it is the bad reostats in the old alt. is what was making the "bearing noise"

bearing noise in the motor at 137K , and figured it was alternator, as the charging voltage was 12.1. got one at local parts store, and took it to mechanic today. 33 minutes later he was done! you don't have to take off the larger bracket held in with the 2 14mm bolts to remove the alt. There is youtube video showing this removal, so it easier than this video shows

you have to delete the code after putting i the new sensor also.

go to rockauto and get the sensor there, and find a mechanic to do it, or do it yourself.

you might try deleting all the codes to see if taking it out of "safe" mode will help. i'd change the 02 sensor also. can't see how changing thermo. would affect the coil or other electrical things as long as you plugged everything back in correctly.

yeah you would have to get the owner to push the LEARN or PROGRAM button on the receiver.

I own the same car, and avoid pushing hard on the pedal, do most accel. in 3rd. gear. this is a known problem and cleaning the fuel system is not needed. I accelerate using the cruise lever often, and know there is lots of power at 3200rpm.!

ATF fluid levels are checked after going through all the gears. I have lexus ES330, and have done 5 drain and fills in 135K miles on this car. Just did it on our Rav4 with the WS fluid and I drove some on a 90 degree day, and the fluid was above the upper limit, perfect. 3.5-3.6 qts. is what came out. good job on your flush!

rockauto parts has good cheep relays https://www.rockauto.com/en/catalog/lexus,1998,es300,3.0l+v6,1316093,electrical-switch+&+relay,a/c+system+relay,13364

just unplug the plugin part there, no need to clip wires

I bet your shocks are bad after 90K miles. take it to Toyota and get new struts.

you can get clips for the shroud at any auto parts store, a lot cheaper than at the stealership.

I'm at 132K on my 05 ES330, and it still runs great. I was wondering about control arm bushings and the motor mounts. When do they go bad?

did you replace the plenum gasket. look at hose connections carefully. I don't know how many miles yours has, but 02 sensors are considered maintenance items by some, over 100-130K miles. try resetting adaptives by touching the neg batt cable to the pos cable, with the dirty air filter, who knows? seafoam in the tank might help the reported catalyst code, as well as 02 sensors