01es300

Thanks for the replies. I know if I let it sit for a few days while it is damp outside that it will reub due to the light surface rust and this is different. It does it after it has been driven on occasion and not just first thing.

I have a 2001 ES300 with 29000 miles. Within the past month or so my wife has said that when she applies the brakes their is a slight grinding low pitched noise coming from the front end when applying the brakes at low speed and almost to a stop. It is intermittent and only happens occasionally. We took it into the shop (independent brake & suspension) yesterday (because it felt like when the front brakes first start to go out and you feel a grinding) and I felt it just needed new front brakes) and the mechanic said the brakes (front & rear) are better than 50% and the front end looked okay. My wife says that it still does it occasionally and intermittently. Does anyone have any ideas ? The mechanic said that it could be if the brakes are touched lightly that the calipers float around and shift a little bit. He even took the calipers off to see if a rock was lodged somewhere. About a month or so ago we had after market rims put on and they did have to go back and rebalance them because of a wobble in the front end at about 65-70mph. If anyone has any ideas, please share. I have felt it a couple of times and it feels like something is rubbing/grinding when you are almost to a stop (about 5 mph).

Consider this, take a look at the 17" wheels for the 05 ES 330. They are very similar to the 5 spoke from the RX but are designed for the ES so the rim offset should be correct without the use of spacers. Heh Stevie J, I wonder if any of the IS300 17" wheels would fit ? Any idea ?

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What size tires do you have MXL ? The IS300 wheels are probably only 7" wide. the one's that I have are 7 1/2" wide. I was surprised that they were that wide. The tires are 215 too. With the 5/16" spacers (I think), they are at most 1/4" from the strut and only 4 or so turns to tighten. For those reasons i was thinking it was just too sketchy. Plus this is my wife's car that she drives everyday. I am thinking that maybe I could find some IS rims that would work though. Thanks !

I think I am probably just going to sell these wheels/tires. I put the spacers on last night and could only get about 4 turns of the lug nuts on the studs and just did not feel comfortable with that. Plus, it only gave me about 1/4" (at most) of space between the tire and the strut. I think I will try to find some stock chrome lexus wheels with about a 7" width max. The current ones are 6" wide. If anyone wants some nice chrome GS wheels and new pirelli tires, let me know. Probably around $450 OBO.

Thanks Neo ! Where in Nor Cal are you ?

The new rims that I got are factory Lexus offf of the gs300 and they are stamped 16x 7.5. I am guessing the stock rims are 6.5 or 7. I will check to see if they have an offset stamp. The guy at the tire store said that with the spacer on, as long as i can tighten the lug nut about 6 revolutions or so, I should be okay. Thanks again !

Heh Neal & Kyle thanks for the replies. I am not sure what the offset is, is their a way to measure ? Yesterday i laid the new wheel/tire combo down with the back side up, placed a board across the tire and measured from the bottom of the board to the back of the wheel. It was about 6 1/2". I think the stock wheel was only about 6" or less. I guess this makes about a 1/2" difference in offset huh ? It is only the tire that I noticed was rubbing. I went to a tire shop today and got some offset plates. 8MM thickness I think. What is hubcentric or how do you tell if these are ? If they provide the necessary clearance, could this type of offset spacing cause any other problems ? Poor handling, excessive suspension wear, etc ?

Mine does the same thing occasionally when I first back out of the driveway but I think it goes away pretty quick so i have not been worrying about it. Mine is a 01 with about 26,000 miles.

Help ! I just purchased a set of stock chrome 16" wheels off of a GS300 with 215-60-16 tires to put on my 2001 ES300. It had the stock wheels with 205-60-16 tires. Unfortunately when I went to put on my back wheels, it would rub on my rear struts. It seems like the offset is set too far back or the newer wheels are much wider. I think the new width of the tires is about 3/8" wider or so and they rub a little. Is their some sort of spacer i could use ? Maybe some grade 8 washers behind the wheels ? How much would be safe to push them out ? I don't know if when I lower the vehicle back down off of the lift if it would change the angle that they do not rub or not. Is their any sort of trick that the tire shops do ? I could put the old tires back on the new rims but I still do not know if this will work. The darn wheels may be be justy too wide. And they are nearly new pirelli's, I was hoping they would work. Your thoughts/ideas are appreciated.

I need another master/remote key myself. My wife has the one with remote and mine only opens car and starts it, no trunk. If you order a new remote key from ebay,lexus parts, etc and are able to program it, how or what is the best way to get the key cut to fit your ignition, door, etc ? Any thoughts would be appreciated.

I am going to have to talk to my wife, maybe she is driving like a 16 year old. I filled our 2001 es up the other day and it was only like 18mpg. pretty much all city though. Another time recently, I think it was around 24 with a few highway trips. Is it okay to run regular unleaded in these ? With the current gas prices here $2.53 (regular)-2.75 (super) or more, I want to just run regular.

In 1992 the ES300 did not use a red coolant. I think they changed to red starting with the 1994 ES. What is the difference between red & green ? I heard someone else say only to use red on my 01. Is that the environmentally/animal friendly stuff ?