G and C Johnstone

The supplier of the less than good second hand alternator has bought me off cheaply with a $50 refund. It is not too difficult to accept his point of view that often the return of faulty parts it the result of inept mechanic ing or out right fraud. He has reassessed me as a competent technician and agreed that the usefulness of his alternator would set the price I will pay as if it were the regulator only that I had bought. So in summary: The "batt" light on the dash of my car is lit from the ignition and grounded in the alternator's regulator. The failure of the alternator was electrical ( this is usually the case if it can not be fixed with a large or larger hammer ). It may have been instant from an overload charging with aged diodes. I believe that similar results might be possible from incorrect battery polarity. It will not happen again until next time. G

I acquired a secondhand Japanese import alternator. Unfortunately it was broken but did have a good regulator which has allowed my battery indicator light to function. The damaged alternator had a bent pulley rendering unusable. Also the rectifier stack was open at one of the stater connection points which would have prevented correct balanced operation. Yes it would have charged the battery. However it would have made considerable A C ripple and probably upset the electronics in the car. I have seen a very unbalanced ( 4 positive and only one negative conducting diode ) bridge cause random idiot lights and in one instance a leaky diode fired up the remote door locking after start up as the battery demanded recovery charge. From a local recycle wrecker I managed to get a rectifier that I made to fit with just a touch of angle grinder to the body of my alternator. Unfortunately for me the supplier of the faulty alternator is refusing to acknowledge that his parts were less than good and intends to keep all of my payment on the basis that he will not accept responsibility for returns that have had any work done on them. I will face off with him and I am sure that we will at least will agree that his reputation is worth more than my demand for a 50% refund or permission to rifle his junk pile for alternator parts. A suitable modern rectifier is not coming at local price though. Of course my time is free. From his point of view too often a whole engine is in dispute where damaged parts came from the clients engine not the supplied one. I could appeal to the Credit Card Company with a charge back request which would likely be successful based on my technical expertise and a supplier's bad reputation if that is so. My point of view; $75 is not worth it and the supplier will get his just reward in heaven. The destruction of my alternator rectifier and 7/8 diodes could have been expected for the age of it or having been hit by lightening. Perhaps someone tried to pinch the car and hooked up the battery reversed That would do it in a flash. literally. Back driving a very nice almost 20 year old car. G

Further investigation: Diode stack has 1 short circuit + and - ve., from one stater terminal and rest open circuit. Parts from USA are very good prices but the freight is at gouge rates such that four alternators S&H are equal to the price of a return economy air fare NZ to USA. NZ parts are very expensive most likely for low volume and inventory on overdraft. A wreckers item maybe worth a look for $150 but a pick a part is only $65. I will try to get a similar size and swap the diode stack and regulator. The L wire is live with ignition on but the dash light is not illuminating. I hope for the fact possibly that there is protection from the short to earth in the diode stack.

My ES 300 had sat for 6 months. When it was restarted with a fresh charged battery it did not light its battery light with ignition on. The battery is not charging. I have changed the brushes in the alternator and measured the rotor at 4 ohms. Can anyone tell me if there is a fuse in the alternator ignition light circuit that may have blown. The alternator is:TOYOYA 27.60 0 - 2 0 0 7 0 second line :10 12 11 - 9 7 8 0 The out put feed wire is good and the control plug has three wires.

Hello from Graeme I hope you did not throw the remote away. I suffered the same problem with a remote that was reluctant in cold weather. If it was in my pocket there was never an issue but picked up from a cold room, no go. This difficulty was new to the key fob after about 16 years use so how could we blame Quality Control. The repair I made was to resolder the battery contact on the top surface of the circuit board. It was the trident shaped one that was dry joint on that side only. The underside was loaded with a blob making good contact with its track. The hole through and connection to the top of the board I assume was Not Good because after some soldering on the top :-) no more problem. I found this while playing with the broken remote holding the battery in place with my fingers when the intermittent fault was on. To make it good I had placed the remote on a fireplace to warm it up but it only worked for a very short time before it cooled to faulty. It was mainly luck that a slight twisting of the battery whilst I was testing with a volt meter indicated the possibility of a dry joint. Because the remote was crook I had done some wierd stuff with the circuit board in an effort to recover it including washing with contact cleaner, hot water, and lastly a turn in the dish washer. I am satisfied that it is repaired now. A good feeling made better knowing that it cost nothing other than a bit of time to fix. Edit: My car is ES300 1996 three buttons on top and panic button under side so reference to my particular battery contact arrangement may not be that helpful for your car. Sorry. Have a go. I wish you luck. G

We do get some value from the six monthly Warrent of Fittness checks. The motor engineer charge out rate is $75 an hour. For a vehicle that he knows and saw only six months ago he can easily beat that rate on WOF inspections and still do a super job. I am priviledged to to do the resultling general maintenance myself confident that there is first rate help if I stuff up. The parts warehouse was probably speaking of his own stock rather than a NZ wide situation. My ES 300 1996 rear brakes will be lazy compared with the work done by front pads of a Corrolla. I was warned that the hand brake shoes would be very much more cost. Those ones if I ever want them will come from a wreaker and most likely from a Camry. I have seen the super value of USA parts. Cf NZ the whole kit for water pump belts wheels and seals can be cheaper than just the water pump in NZ. Off topic. Suzuki Wagon R+ inner tierod ends cost me $400 for the pair and the engineer is saying that they are loose agian after only 10,000. When they fail for a WOF the knackered parts could be sent to USA for guaranteed correct replacement. There will be plenty of change from $400. NZ government is currently trying to figure a way of collecting G.S.T. on overseas purchases. It is a growing market that is for sure. Graeme

At my last WOF inspection I was advised by the mechanic to change out all the brake pads. Because it was easy to do I removed a front pad and scaned it and made prints of the scans so that I would have a better chance of getting the correct pad. The part warehouse was happy to see the picture but really did not need it because the New Zealand Vehicle Register holds VIN Vehile Identification Numbers locking the parts to truth from my number plate. I was therfore told with geat certainty that the rear pads were not available for the Lexus. However a similar part from a Corrola Gt front was a guaranteed substitute with the removeal of a tit on the backing that stops the Corrolla piston rotating. Has anyone else done this? The Corrolla part was considerably cheaper but probably only for its higher volume of sales. The new pads are Chineese and are good performers. Progressive with more bight than the stock issue. All of the wheel wobble has disappeared from a lube of the front caliper sliders. The stock pads lasted over 100,000. The new ones may wear a little quicker if the dusting is an indicator. Graeme

Yes. Secondhand import to New Zealand from Singapore, 1996 Es300 sold new in SG 1997 January. No problems other than to be expected battery replacements during my ownership. How else can I help. Graeme

I changed out the original timing belt on my 1996 ES300. My $65 part was wearing Toyota part numbers and could have cost as much as $170 at Repco but was bought off auction site; Trademe. Because the car has only done 130 thousand kilometers I have not changed anything other than the belt. The belt appeared to be in good nick. Highly glazed tooth surface and only very slight evidence of de-laminating on its outside edge in a few places. Not enough to leave debris. Nothing on the way in or out screamed, "Replace me". I used a piece of pipe to extend the socket handle to the floor and the starter motor to undo the harmonic balancer bolt and a two legged puller dragging on two of the bolts borrowed from the removal of the engine stabilizer mount to remove the pulley. I used a same size but a throw away bolt in the same place in the pulley to jam a pinch bar against the socket when torquing back up the retaining bolt at the end of the reassembly. A useful trick was to place a nylon tie around the rear camshaft gear and the new belt to hold them in mesh and alignment [belt to cam]. The rear camshaft seemed to want to move off the timing mark but with the tie on it was easy to thread the belt to the other points and recover the rear alignment last after working around; crank, water pump, cam, idler. I had enough thread on the tensioner retaining bolts to not bother compressing it before refitting. The whole job took me less than four hours without the need for special tools. I also knew that the local garage would be helpful and not antagonistic should I fail at some point and call on their services to recover from a disaster. This could have happened as early as the removal of the balancer or as late in the job as its replacement if I was not satisfied with its re-tightening. The local garage is very competent and has mobile service facilities for agricultural machinery so they would have delighted in such a call. Comparing the two belts it is possible that the old one could have retarded the rear cam shaft very slightly due to the greater internal diameter. I would like to be able to do the full house kit at the end of the next ten years. The car might have 250 thousand on it by then.

My ES300 1996 and was on the original ND double side electrode spark plugs. If I used my imagination I could detect a slight shaking of the engine immediately after starting. It would sometimes take a few extra compressions before firing up. So it must have been time for some new plugs. In New Zealand the correct grade of plug is $41 each. The incorrect single electrode NGK was about the same for six of them accompanied with the standard warning on the packet that they are not suitable of aviation use. It was a job to change them but it was done in less than two hours aided by a wandering light and a double jointed tee handled plug spanner. Some help from short pieces of half inch copper pipe for torque amplification and the donation of a bit of skin here and there. To start the thread of the new plugs I used a short piece of plastic pipe with the plug in the end and long meat skewer jammed down the pipe beside the plug. This allowed feel that the articulated socket would not give. You can growl at me if you like but I always oil the threads on plugs and at the back of the engine it was exceedingly easy to limit the tightening to only half a turn to squeeze the gaskets. I can remember when spark plugs were only good for a 10 thousand miles because of the lead purgatives in our petrol. Exhaust systems used to cut out in only two or three years as well. The expensive plug coming out of the car were good looking and the gaps were only very slightly grown. Without the tetra ethyl lead octane booster and purgative in petrol I may not even notice the lesser quality in the plugs for a long time. I do not care if these new plugs start to show aging at only another 60 thousand because by then I probably will be too old to drive on the road.

You could have a go at polishing the mark away with a small amount of toothpaste constantly kept wet on your finger. BE warned that if there is an anti glare low reflective coating on the window you are going to have to polish that all away completely. The mark the cleaner pipe made will cut away even if it is quite deep. The manufactures of tooth paste especially in the land of the free are not making anything overly harsh so this will take some effort.

There may be a way. With a North South engine it is possible to use the cranking power of the starting motor assisted by a few inches of wind up for the wrench handle against something that can take the whack. Remove head lamp bulbs. I broke three out of four on my Holden HZ Statesman with socket handle hitting the chassis.

There is a trick. You can put a plastic bag on the filter before it leaks as you unscrew it and let it fall into the bag when it is off. One of those greenie hated multi purpose veratile supermarket plastic bags. If you are doing your own changes you have got the time to let the sump oil drain so waiting for the filter to leak out also is a valid option. Remove the ignition keys or even better hang a note on the steering wheel, "No oil". A few sheets of old newspaper under the car to catch the spills.

I thought that you just kept on tightening and tightening until the bolt went BANG! Then you backed it off a quarter of a turn.

Make sure that he cirgarette lighter is pushed in properly or better still thrown away. I hope that is all it is. This was the problem in my car once and was easy to find with the help of a co pilot.

Hi Eric I have had a smeary windscreen that was caused by the glass surface being etched by a bromide fumigant. My car was an import from Singapore in a container. Right hand drive in Singapore as in NZ. After trying all common cleaners and old fashioned potions including vinegar, (mild acid) acetone, isopropyl, methelated, turps, kerosine and what ever, it was without a doubt not dirt. I had considered as you were, a pressure problem but had to be the glass surface itself. The imperfections were not visible when the glass was wet or dry but when the wiper made a pass over the window especially at night the glass was opaqued with a recurring pattern for a few seconds. The best advice I could get was. "Oh well mate that is what you have got a glass and windscreen extension on your insurance for. Smash the thing and get a new one." With this in mind I took a risk and polished the windscreen with tooth paste and plenty of water on a soft cloth. It worked fine. It takes a bit of elbow greese and a bit of time but it is a fix that I recomend if you need it. Windscreen clarity and freedom from stone chips infront of the driver is tested in New Zealand for a Warrent Of Fitness renewed every six months so the insurance was liable save for the fact that the car should not have got it W O F before I bought it.

How very distressing. An alternator could do itself to death if there was a bad connection between it and the battery. It might be a good idea to replace the cables including ground wires. It is difficult to immagine a bad cable that is not screaming hear I am with smoke and splatter but that is what it sounds like to me. When the cables are out of the car if they have been the problem you will find one all but broken off inside its insulation somewhere along its length. G

Nominally 1996 Predelivery check 17th Jan 1997 Graeme

ex Singapore ES300 remote frequency = 157.475 Mhz

I had cleaned the window with all the stuff available. Including acetone, alcohol isopropyl and meths, 5% ammonia, various patent soaps and kitchen chemicals including acetic and citrus acids so I was sure that it was clean. Even tried potatoe and lemon skin. When it was dry there was no problem. If it was raining the wipers cleared the water but there was a smear in the bone dry behind the wipe. At night this was more than an optical imperfection, it was a dangerous situation. On a wet night so much light that you usually get back from your lights to see with is lost to your eyes because it is reflected away into the distance by the wet surfaces. Similarly the lights in front of you are more intense reflecting in the wet surfaces. Add the smear to that and it was necessary to do something. I resorted to buffing the window with toothpaste. By hand. Always quite wet. At least 20 minutes of quite vigorous circular rubbing with a soft cloth. This worked. My hands looked nice and shiny for a couple of days too. I suspect that my car might have been loaded into a container with a damp windscreen for export shipping from Singapore. A bromide fumigation is often used. This may have etched the glass causing the smear that was seen after the wipers. There may be other things that could spoil the optical clarity but I can not think of any from my place.

On my old Es 300 I have been concerned by the discolouration of the trans fluid. It was dark. It still spread quickly on paper and the bouquet was still very much that of hydraulic oil. Having listened to the advice of the learned on these forums I have drained the sump and diff and replaced the filter and gasket. For piece of mind I used new crush washers for the drains. They were aluminium. Replaced the oil and allowed the trans to pump the torque converter oil to waste from the radiator cooler hose. I manage to add 6 litters before there was any sign of aeration in the waste container. At this point I stopped the engine and added another three litters with the engine stopped before running the engine again while adding more. The wasted oil was becoming clear when five litters had been pumped out. I stopped the engine and the adding of oil when my 10 litre waste bottle was full. I added enough oil to the trans after this so that surely there was plenty in there. The draining of the diff produced just under a litre of the same black oil that had come out of the sump of the trans. Error: On my car the differential is within the transmission and can not be refilled to overflow from its filler hole. The overflow is into the main trans housing. The engineering behind allowing the diff to retain an oil supply is probably to limit damage to the differential should there be a major failure. I have seen transmissions that have been carelessly towed too fast too far and the end begins when the bearings that are idling at the back of the gear box give up for lack of lubrication which is dependant on rotation of the front of the gear box. I dipped the oil and thought that there was some in there. It is quite difficult to establish the true oil level on my car because the dipper tub bends and the dip stick scrapes oil from the tube on the way in and out. A test run confirmed that no immediate damage had been done. The main driver of the car took it out for a drive and said that it seemed fine and was not making bucking gear changes like it had been. This he quickly qualified by adding that the engine and transmission were properly warmed up for his test and his complaints were of cool engine gear changes. The car was parked over night and appears to have dropped no oil. The stone cold oil level was spot on. So good that I took a picture of it. However I will not advise anyone to put about enough oil into a transmission as I did. It is reported by a worthy general mechanic that the original oil could have been Dexron II which has been known to discolour in quite normal use. The mechanic said I will not have done any harm by indulging in this excesesive maintenance. His firm has a transfer machine to speed up the type of work I did. He cautioned that the job can be rushed with the machine but that if it is done with care nothing will be blown to bits and new oil is the only result. I will still have some old oil because of the aeration that occured and some oil will have been laying in the cooler but I hope that the car will be better for having done the flush. Car is 1996 @ 57K kilometers ex Singapore.

I would like to try to help with this question. If you have access to the owners manual for your car it will suggest the optimum fuel octane. Believe it. Your Lexus car is very smart and it can detune itself to run well on low test fuel but it will loose performance and efficiency and as SK has suggested durability may go out the window as well. By way of an explanation, consider this; Your engine burns a mixture of petrol and air in its combustion chambers to do its work. Size it up a bit and consider the cylinder at the size of your lounge room. The Lexus is a performance engine so it is quite high compression so the far wall of the lounge moves to within a couple of feet of the end wall before the spark plug fires the mixture to blast the wall back down the cylinder to give masses of power. In a lower performance low compression engine the wall would not get nearly so close to the end of the lounge before it reached the end of travel and the spark plug fired the petrol to power the wall away. A low performance engine still makes plenty of power and has the advantage of using more energy dense fuel but it does not have that extra compression to kick off every power stroke with such an urge. This is the sparkle that is available at all throttle openings in a high compression engine. (A diesel engine is a different matter and could confuse my arguments) If low octane fuel is used in Lexus engines the spark plugs have to ignite the fuel much later in the engine cycle to prevent detonation. Detonation is when the burning fuel increases the pressure in the cylinders and a second flame front spontaneously occurs further increasing pressure until an explosion occurs. High octane fuel burns more slowly and resists compression ignition and knocking. Using fuel of a higher octane than spec will not result in any gain and should result in more petrol being used. As a young fool I used to play with small bike engines and to make them run on alcohol mixtures we used to attack the carburetor jets with drills to make them bigger to get enough fuel to run cleanly. Lower than optimum octane must lower efficiency and smoothness. Any miss fire at all is bad for the parts after the combustion process. These parts are not expecting unburned fuel in any great quantity. When I was little I used to believe that the fuel companies used super petrol to wash out the diesel and kerosene tanks before putting other products in them and then the rinse fuel was called regular. As an old cynical person I still believe that the higher cost is a protection against what could be less than best. Graeme

In New Zealand the common radar is Ka. Most patrol cars are equipped. Usually there are forward and rear facing antenna and either one of those can be active at one time. If the patrol is mobile they are obliged to emit a ground pulse to remain calibrated. The hugely expensive Bell & Valentine devices can pick this up but cheap detectors will give as good a warning if the patrol is squirting high power to nuke other traffic before you arrive. At night the detector can warn you to check your speed. Without a detector I have had a close call as a fast driver who had just passed me panic braked to try and reduce his fine or even save his license. Now with a detector I will be pre warned of such potential reaction from a speeder. It is standard practice for a parked police car to not have any radar emissions until they are satisfied that they have a kill and then their fingers are plenty quick enough to lock onto the speeding target and no detector made can excuse the fine. Most of the roads I travel on are truly Z class and I would have great difficulty finding a local road where I could travel at the speeds that some of you are talking about. Local speed limits here are probably more restrictive because of our poor roads. I doubt that my radar detector will ever save me from a speeding ticket but it has allowed me to know when I am being observed. I consider a radar detector a safety device and in U S A the added features of radar from emergency vehicles and trains etc must make them a force for good. Graeme

Good Oh. On my car the hockey stick bend of the wiring form was good enough to have lasted a million open close cycles. The wires were contained in a capped conduit down the boot hinge and joined a larger form in the rear guard with more than six inches to loosely taped feed to allow movement. The up down flex could not have caused the break but a severe sudden strain might have. Apprenticeship of "Back Yard Mechanic" is a lifetime long.

With both lamps in and out the previous answer suggesting a switch problem is most likely. However in my case with only one lamp failing: On my es300 1996 one of the reversing lamps was intermittent. The bulb was good. If a bulb is doubtful you can most times finish it off if you give it a flick with your finger to test the strenght and integrity of the filament. My faulty lamp came on and went out when I raised and lowered the boot lid. There were broken wires inside the the wiring loom where it needed to pivot with the boot lid. I had to repair four wires that had been boken but were still making a circuit because their insulation was still intact and keeping the wires in contact. Only the one lamp was not going and then only sometimes. The wiring form may have been damaged during manufacture by an extreme distortion strain and the failure saved itself for me. This kind of fault would annoy the life out of a general mechanic and a specialist auto electrician would start thinking about building extentions to his house if a few of these type problems lined up. First prove the bulbs by swaping them into another place that works. Then have a tease of the wiring loom at the boot hinge.