lexuseng

Does anyone have instructions on how to do a fuel injector cleaning, the type of service the dealer wants an hours worth of labor for? I just changed the spark plugs and I cleaned the throttle body when I changed the timing belt but my 2001 GS300 (100K miles) seems sluggish. It did before I changed the timing belt too, I was hoping new plugs and throttle body cleaning might help but no difference. I'm reluctant to put in injector cleaning in my gas tank, I have had bad results on my older cars with additives. If you don't use them regularly, then I think it just breaks crud loose and makes things worse.

Does anyone have the Toyota part numbers for the timing belt, water pump, idler, tensionser, camshaft and crankshaft seals for a 2001 GS300?

I'm thinking you have a lock actuator starting to fail or has failed. It is probably sensing one of the doors is not fully locked and trying again. Try manually locking all doors and then hitting your remote to lock and see if it makes a difference.

2 winters ago in Seattle we had one of those sudden snow storms during rush hour where it turns your commute into a 4-8 hour nightmare and people end up abandoning their cars on the freeway. My wife made it home in our '01 GS300 passing many abandoned cars including a stuck state patrol on a freeway overpass. I don't know if it was the snow mode or the tires but my wife said it never slipped. This was the first time we had experienced the GS in the snow so I was really impressed. The tires that were on it were Yokohoma YK420 (sold by Discount Tire) and when I had to buy new tires I bought the YK520 (YK420 discontinued). I would guess the new YK520 are not as "grippy" as the old tires but tread life is supposed to be increased. I think for a rear wheel drive car, it is more than decent in the snow (with the right tires). I also drive a '01 IS300 that I would never take in the snow.

There's a good archived article about how to replace the motor only for the door actuator. There's step by step instruction on how to do it but some people have said it took them up to 4 hours. You do have to dismantle the actuator and replace the motor. I haven't got to it yet but that's my plan. I think the motors are only $5 from Ebay.

I'm not sure why I didn't think of this before. I manually locked the door with the bad actuator and the remote behaves normally. It does make sense now. If a bad actuator is not locking a door, the remote doesn't beep basically saying "hey dumb !Removed!, one of your doors is not locked".

2001 GS300, just noticed my right rear passenger door is not locking. Within the last week my remote stopped beeping when locking and also doesn't turn off my lights anymore. Just wondering if the disappearance of the beep is an indicator that an actuator is bad. Kind of like when your turn signal indicator will flash double time to let you know you have a bulb out. Just wondering if I have one related problem or 2 separate ones. There have been many posts regarding bad actuators, did you notice your remote going on the blink at the same time?

Our 2001 GS300 had Yokohoma's when we got it and I was impressed with the wet traction of these tires. Just never broke loose in any maneuver and gives you full confidence. My wife was even able to make it home during one of those freak snow storms during rush hour where people abandon their cars on the freeway. She passed many cars and even a State Patrol that couldn't make it up a freeway on ramp. I'm not sure if it was more the tires or the traction control but it convinced me to buy a new set of Yokohoma's (even though the exact model wasn't available any more) for the GS anyway. I will get the same tires for my 2001 IS soon. The tires on the IS are so bad on wet pavement (but great on dry) and in Seattle, that's not good. I have 100% confidence with the GS in the rain, that goes down to about 25% in the IS in the rain. It could be the extra weight of the GS but won't really know till I get them on. Does anyone have them on their IS? Do others feel this way with their IS in the rain?

Our 2001 GS300 which my wife drives 15 miles to work and fills up about every 10 days. We average about 21 mph, easy over 300miles every fill up. She's not a lead foot but she doesn't drive like an old lady either. On a trip from Seattle to Spokane (up and down a pass plus a lot of flat) we got 23.7.

I think the IS is too light with too much power. It reminds me of my '70 Camaro. It can get loose on wet pavement way too easy. I almost lost it on a curve the first time I pushed it to see what the traction control did. I didn't mean to drift (OK out of control) but that's what I did. Made me question if my traction control worked because I bought it used and had been in a small wreck so I wasn't sure if it was working. The roads were just barely wet so it wasn't the smartest thing to do (my bad!). The IS might not be a good choice as a first car. But SUV's aren't either. My teenager rolled one of those. I've wondered if it is my tires so when it's time to buy tires I will be looking for a good wet traction tire. Hope that helps!

I have a 2001 GS300 and it didn't bleed in the conventional way. I would assume the 2002 would be the same way. I have a pressure bleeder that I bleed my other cars but I couldn't use on the GS because there was too much crap around the master cylinder. But when I tried to do it the conventional way, I couldn't get any pressure to build by pumping the brakes. I had to turn the ignition on and there is an electric pump that pumped brake fluid through. I wasn't planning on bleeding the entire system (I had just changed the pads) but I think it easily could have done what my pressure bleeder does. Just keep the reservoir topped up. I don't know if this would be considered the right way to bleed these but I was surprised (good way) by my experience. I thought what an easy way to bleed the system (whenever I get to that).

Thanks Can anyone confirm if 2000 is same as 2002 and which direction to rotate gear to tighten? This adjustment is very similar to adjusting the park brake on a drum brake system (except you do it from the front side). On a drum brake system, you can only rotate to tighten because of a ratcheting adjustment. You can actually loosen the park brake on the Lex because I had to do that. I tightened the park brake too much and it made the car vibrate. I had to back off the adjustment and was pleased to find that I could do it without taking the entire wheel off. I only adjusted it about 1 full turn so be careful, it doesn't take much to over do it! I don't think the park brake on these cars are as strong as what you expect.

I have 1998 GS300 and I also find the illumination has decreased significantly. Time to replace to fluorescent bulb(s). Check the simplest things first. Fuse OK? Dimmer switch OK? I had a dimmer switch failure on another car. Since I never used it to dim the dash, I just shorted the wires instead of buying a new one. If those are OK, time to pull the dash unit out and check the bulbs. The plastic bezel just pulls out. I don't remember what it took to get the dash unit out but it wasn't hard.

A door ding, I wish!! How about a big !Removed! dent from some SUV bumper while parked at work. Left rear fender right at the crease (so had to be a Expedition size SUV) just aft of the gas filler door. No note. Will cost me $900 min to fix (got quotes that were double that). My dedcuctible is $1000 :( Some people got no scruples!

Does anyone have the Toyota part number for 2nd gen (2001) GS300 so I can buy these at the local Toyota dealer vs the Lexus dealer (I'm assuming it will cost more there)?

I bought 2 for $50 from a guy on Ebay too. I could have paid $100 a piece. I got the 5000K, not a hint of blue so maybe next time I would go with the next higher range. Only thing that bothered me was that the package came directly from China. Some no name brand. I know the products mostly come from China but when I buy it from a guy from New York I would think it would come from there. I guess it's the way of Ebay more and more. To replace the one on the left is a !Removed!! Need double jointed fingers!

That's what I would have done if I didn't look at the manual. So why the warning in the manual? Other Toyota owners manuals show how to replace them. They must think Lexus owner's don't work on their own cars. They say the same thing for the 2nd gen IS but we've been doing our own HID conversions without much trouble. I changed the bulbs in my IS300 a few times playing with different color temps. It wasn't that hard. Maybe they think we're rich and incompetent. :D :D Well if I read a little more carefully, the caution applied to the headlight but they still recommended taking the car to the dealer to replace any of the bulbs. I guess there are some who will take their car to the dealer to get the tail light replaced (but probably not on this forum). I searched the web and found replacement D2R for as little as $40 each (5000K) but when I went to check out, I noticed it wasn't a secure website so I backed out. Any recommendations?

That's what I would have done if I didn't look at the manual. So why the warning in the manual? Other Toyota owners manuals show how to replace them. They must think Lexus owner's don't work on their own cars.

I need to replace the low beam headlight on a 2001 IS. Looked in the manual, uses D2R but the manual has a caution warning to take it to the dealer for replacement. No way. But what is the issue with HID? Is it any different than replacing a standard halogen? Anyone have any instructions? Is it just disconnect battery and replace bulb?

I just replaced the rear brake pads on a 2001 GS. After replacing the pads I tried to bleed the brakes. I was kind of *BLEEP*ed because I have a pressure tank bleeder and I couldn't use it because of all the crap surrounding the master cylinder. I had to do it the manual way with my wife stepping on the brake pedal while I handle the bleeder. Surprised that nothing happened. Until you turn the ignition on and then an electric pump starts the flow of the brake fluid. Easy way to bleed the brakes but surprised. I have never worked on a Lex other high end car before, my next newest car still uses rear drums so I was also surprised that the rear disc system had a piston on each side. I was wondering how I was going to get my C-clamp on the piston to push it back in. Went in by hand. More surprise. I know, I'm from the stone age but happy with the Lex. Now if I can only save enough money for another one for my wife so I can have this one.

18 N-m, 13 lb-ft TQ The air intake duct and throttle body must be removed. (good time to clean the throttlebody while it's off) HTH mike I'll be doing this soon on a 2001 GS300, any gaskets involved to R&R the throttlebody? Is spraying throttlebody with Gumout good enough?

I had to put on my spare for the first time the other day on my 2001 GS300 and found the spare to be a different size. The previous owner upgraded to a wider lower profile tire (225/55). The spare is a 215/60. I replaced the flat rear tire and then started thinking if the different size would screw up the traction control. I could have switched it to the front but was too lazy. Anyone know what this would do? Should I keep the spare or keep one of my old tires as a spare when I buy a new set (very soon)?

Did you connect the jumper cables the right way? There should be a very small amount of sparks. Did you switch the cables? I actually did this once and thought I blew the computer but with some testing figured out it was the main fuse. I jumped to a conclusion and bought a computer which I didn’t need. Now I have a $250 credit to a junk yard - I guess its all a learning experience. Well your suppose to attach pos (+) first on the dead batt then the (+) on the good battery. After that attach the neg (-) cable on the good battery and you want to ground the other end (-) on part of the dead car's engine block. And when removing take of neg (-) off first then the pos (+) cable. This creates the least amount of sparks. In school we are taught not to jump start a car because with the new computers jump starting could actually send a voltage spike to the computer. If you could I would invest in one of the self contained battery packs which are made for jump starting. I have one and its been very useful. When dealing with the battery always (+) then (-) and to remove (-) then (+). If there were a good amount of sparks there is a good chance a fuse popped. If the car's main fuse did pop the car should do absolutely nothing even with a good battery. You could use a DVOM (voltmeter) to test and see if your getting voltage. Check to see if you getting voltage at the starter before you buy a new one. Hope you get this figured out if you have any other questions Ill try and answer them. Good Luck -John A recent newspaper article in a automobile Q & A column also states that jump starting a vehicle with the ignition switch on can kill the PCM. I've jumped many with my engine off figuring then it is no different than starting your own engine. On some very dead batteries and depending on the quality/length of the jumper cable this may not be adequate to get a successful jump. In this case, you can connect the jumper cables and run your car to briefly charge the dead battery but turn it off when the actual jump is being done (this last part was not in the article).

For 2 years I've had it, was that a serious question?

Have a 2001 GS 300 and the sound and light notification when I lock the door with the remote no longer works. It does work to unlock the door but not locking. Tried both keys so it is not the remote. The panic part works too. I disconnnected the battery to see maybe if it would reset itself. No luck. Any suggestions?