aaron.q.wang

It seems it is better to park outside than in the garage.

You are right it does have to be above freezing for corrosion to take place.

So every night when you park your car in a garage it starts again as most are insulated and the hot engine warms the air to well above freezing.

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Thanks you guys above.

I am going to do the rust protection for my 96 ES300. But from the guy who work in the garage of Walmart, I do not need to do it because the rust production was done.

The guy said: If the rust production had been done for continue 3 years, you do not need to do it any more. It is done.

I checked the website of KROWN and found they suggested to do the rust protection every year.

I am confused. Who is right? Winter is coming, do I need to do it before the winter??

I serched the economy spped on google and some article said driving with 60 mph could get the best fuel economy. But for my ES 300, I think the economy speed is 70-80 mph.

Anyone has experence on this, please give me some advice.

rule of thumb by most people that i know in the business is to change the oil at least every 6 months regardless of the miles.

It is not so much the break down of the oil if any at all, it is the prolonged exposure of the interals to any acids that may build up and sit in the oil.  Prime reason why anyone that stores a vehicle (car, boat, motorcycle, etc) will always put in fresh oil before the vehicle goes to bed.

as for the oil filter,  Toyota OEM, Mobil 1, K&N, Wix, Amsoil are all superb choices.

steviej

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Hi Steviej,

Thanks a lot! I will change the oil evry 6 months with Amsoild synthetic oil and filter ( if not, mobile 1 synthetic oil and filter).

Aaron

Thank you for your reply.

Before I use Castrol Synthetic oil 5w-50 but I am going to change to Amsoil synthetic oil 5w-30 on my next oil change. The problem for me is I did not find the Amsoil synthetic oil in Canadian Tire or Walmart in Montreal. ( Maybe I need spend more time to find it.) So maybe I will chose Mobile 1 next time.

By the way, do I must use Lexus oil filter? Can I use other brand instead it?

I use synthetic oil for my ES300 96. Now is the sixth month after last oil change, but I only drive 3000 miles. Do I need to change the oil whatever the mileage it is? or I can wait till the 5000 miles? I seach on the website somebody said the synthetic oil would not break down by time, is this true?

Thanks to give me some suggestion.

During my trip to Toronto last week, I suddenly found my keyless remote worked very well. It had stopped work for 2 weeks and I checked the FOB on the frequency FM 94.9, at that time it did not work. Now I check it again and it works very well.

I think something in my key is not stable. Sometimes work, sometimes no. Anyway it is a 96 lexus, I guess some parts is close to their life limit. Just like the high beam light on my board, some times work some times no. Except these two small problems, my car is pretty good.

You should notice an improvement with the changes you mentioned.  B)

 

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:P Yes. There is a big improvement.

I think the reason why on my way to Toronto is 25 mpg and on my way back to montreal is 29.5 mpg is that the ecu of my lexus had been made some change by the 650 km express way driving. In case of the short distance which I daily drive, what you said to stretch the leg is really a good idea. Thanks a lot.

In addition to the motorvac, are all your tire pressures at the correct psi?  They should be around 32 - 34 psi.  B)  And yes, very short trips are murder on a car, especially the short distance you travel.  :(  The odd time (every couple weeks) I would suggest to go for a decent highway drive to let the car 'stretch her legs'.  B)

 

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I did not do motorvac. The first thing I did is to change my snowtire to all season tire and make the tire pressure 32 psi. The other thing I did is I do not warm up my car more than 30 second. Then I get around 16 mpg. I think the reason is my driving distance is too short and the stop sign is too many in my area.

Summer is coming. I am going to drive out every weekend to stretch my Es300's leg. I am very satisfied whith the 29.5mpg which i got on my trip from Toronto to Montreal.

I just drove my 96 Lexus Es300 from Montreal to Toronto. On my trip to Toronto, I turned off the AC and cruise with the speed of 75 mile/h, I got the 25mpg. But the way back, I turned on the AC and cruise with the speed of 80 mile/h, I got 29.5 mpg.

It seems strange that with the AC on can save the gas. By the way, on the way to Toronto I use the regular gas 87 of shell and on my way back I use the regular gas 87of ESSO. Is this say the gas from ESSO is better than Shell?

I have a 1996 Lexus ES300 and the wireless remote sometimes works and sometimes doesn't. When it works it works for a week or so and then it just stops working. I have installed a new battery in the FOB and I'm wondering where the sensor is actually located in the car. I'm thinking that maybe the sensor is being obstructed by something. Does anyone know where the sensor is located?

Thanks.

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I have the same problem in my 1996 ES 300. I just got it this afternoon. I thought it was raised loe battery but after changed the battery it does not work. Any one can help me to solve this problem? Thanks in advance.

No Toyota / Lexus manual has ever said "you need to warm it up for 10 mintues."

Look at the manual again - perhaps you misread it.

Thank you guys above for your comments.

My 1996 ES 300 Manuel is French edition, on page 108 under the subtitle "DEMARRAGE ET CONDUITE", it says:

"......

2. Une fois que le moteur a tourne pendant environ dix minutes, le vehicule est pret a demarrer.

Par temps de gel, laisser chauffer le moteur pendant quelques minutes avant la conduite. Ne pas quitter le vehicule pendant que le moteur chauffe."

I searched on the website and found people always have different opinion on warm the engine up. Do you think it is necessary to warm car up before driving on the road? If necessary, how long do you warm it up? From the manual of my 96 Lexus es 300, it says you need to warm it up for 10 mintues. Is it true???

Since the very cold winter where i live with, I warm up my Lexus for 3 minutes and then drive it with the speed less than 40km/h for the other 5 minutes to let my lexus Es 300 fully warmed. I think my method is good for the car and the gas. Can anybody has experience on this give me some idea about your way to warm car?

Thank you for your comments.

I think that you could save yourself some worry and a mountain of money if you would fill the tank up yourself and take a trip of a couple of hundred kilometers then fill her up again yourself so that you can work out how much fuel is being used without the many cold starts. Even with your relatively modern engine running cold will use a half as much again as when warmed up. Trying to warm the engine up by idling could be more wasteful than setting it straight to work. If you are unable to get over 8 k per litre on the trip I guess you are needing to find out why.

If the car is able to go better than 8 k per litre it does not need fixing. Your poor ecconomy is all to do with your short runs.

I doubt that the battery will be damaged by your short trips. If the car is a willing starter it would only take a minute to recover from starting: 300 Amps for 5 seconds starting replaced in 60 seconds by 25 amps from the alternator leaving plenty spare for the CD player and electric chair. Your battery probaly finds it harder to sit doing nothing for a couple of weeks than getting to do something every day.

Thanks a lot for your answer.

If you run that little km then your engine never gets warmed up and you are always going to be in cold loop map for the ecu which is very rich and wastes fuel to keep the engine running.

Search for motorvac.

An engine needs to run atleast 20 minutes each time to warm up properly.

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If I warm up my car a little long time can help me save the gas? Normally I will warm up it for 3 to 5 minutes. How long do you guys warm up you lexus every morning in the cold winter?

Another question I want to ask is since I run such little Km so often, is it also harmful for the battery? I am afraid this will short the life of the battery so I seldom use CD and seat heater to save the eletricity. Can anybody tell me if it is silly to do it like this?

Are you a delivery driver?  Why all the short trips?  5.5 gal/60Mi. is terrible.

In addition to the above mentioned items....

Have you checked to make sure you don't have a leak in your tank or a ruptured fuel line?  Do you smell gas around your car?

Do you have a CEL on right now?  On occasion a bad O2 sensor, bad MAF sensor, problem w/ Cat Conv. can cause poor mileage.  You could be running too lean

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Thank you for your suggestion. I agree 300 km per tank is a terrible figure and this is why I come here for help.

I am not a delivery driver. But most of my trip is local and less than 2 km. I am not sure is this the reason I got the terrible mileage. I just got the ES 300 one month ago. The dealer told me everything had been checked and all are in good condition. I am sure there is not any leak in my tank, but for the sensors, I have no idea. Could you tell me how to check if there is a problem with such sensors?

Thanks a lot for your help. :D

Probably the bulb is burned out. Sometimes by giving the top of the dashboard a good shot with your fist it'll start working again. I know this is not very scientific, but it worked for me when a bulb on my dash stopped working. ;)

Thanks a lot. But when I turn on the high beam, the low beam indicator continues lighting on and the high beam indicator change nothing. So I guess maybe it is not because of the burned lamp. I think it is raised by the raining weather recently. Something wrong with the wire connection???

get a motorvac to improve you milage

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Thank you again for your help.

I am a newhand. Could you please tell me what is the motorvac?

By the way, if most of my driving distance is less than 2.5 km, is my gas usage still higher than normal?

I found a small problem of my 96 ES 300. When I turned hte high beam on, the high beam indicator light on the panel did not light, instead of it is the low beam indicator light. By the way, both the low beam and high beam work well. The only problem is the high beam indicator.

What is the reason for this and how to fix it? Thanks for anybody to help me on this.

400-500 km per tank

read the faq

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Thanks very much for your reply. I am thinking what I should do to let my lexuse to drink less gas. Somebody told me it is normal if you often drive short trip, plus cold weather and winter tires. Do you think it is the reason in case of my situation?

I bought a 96 Es 300 in January. It is a great car with only 40, 000 km. The first owner trade it in for a new Nissan Altima. This ES 300 has been properly maintained by the previous owner. Both the inside and outside appearance are good. Its performance is good too.

After driving this car for more than one month, I am quite satisfied with it except it seems it drinks the gas a lot, almost 22 litres/100 km. Maybe the reason is I drive too short ( less than 1.5 km a full stop). Anyone could give me a idea what is normal usage of gas for 100 km? Thank in advance.