Aikibro

Sorry it's taken me this long to reply... I need to change my settings so that I know when there is a response to this thread. I'm not sure if the timing belt was original. I bought the car from my sister in July 2005 and ran it for three years almost to the day until the belt broke. Unfortunately I didn't pay attention to the odometer when I bought it... didn't transfer to my name until long after so the mileage on th title doesn't accurately reflect what it was when I started driving it. I was told in January of 2008 that I needed to change the timing belt and dickered with fixing it b/c I didn't have the money to. Boy did I ever wish I did. And I guess the 97 is an "interference" model... because from what the guys at Aamco told me, the broken belt is what caused me to wreck my engine. Once my belt broke I didn't know what had happened and I continued to try and drive the car. Now maybe that is what did the damage and not the actual breaking of the belt... or maybe once the belt broke everything inside the engine went kapooey... I dunno. --------------------------------------- Funny story... I totally forgot about that post I made so I'm scrolling thru and reading w/o seeing who the poster is. I get to mine and I'm like... "WOW... that's so 100% what happened to me too" LOL My one annual "duh" moment.

Why would you want him banned when you and Mark Knopfler over there were the ones who started messing with him? For all the claims of not being able to understand him or that your times (yours and mkeeney's) are too important to try to understand him, you somehow find time out of your important schedule to go back and forth with him. If what he's saying doesn't interest you then fine, don't read it and move on. Instead you try to clown him and only end up making yourself look silly in the process. Some of your responses weren't very adult... ironic given your own chastisement of him that he was acting young. I actually took the time to read the first post (yes it was difficult to get thru), and actually got a few chuckles out of his story. Reading what followed completely negated whatever mirth was had from the first post.

Sorry to say that my answer won't help you... I had a remote starter installed myself, but I must unlock the door before I try to remote start it or else the alarm goes off. My guess is that you'll eventually have to spring for the remotes.

Everything below is premised on the fair presumption that your '98 is pretty similarly put together as my '97... but I could be wrong on that. I also replaced my stock lights with HIDs and just followed the instructions from the manufacturer. However, to replace the bulbs here's what I did on my 97 ES300: 1. Remove plastic cover from inside of the hood, behind the grill. This exposes the screws you need to access to remove the headlamps. 2. Each headlamp is bolted to the frame by a screw somewhere towards the center, near the radiator. Unscrew that, then using a phillips you can unscrew the opposite side of the headlamp towards the fender. This disconnects the headlamp from the side marker. 3. The side marker must next be removed. It snaps into place and is held there by friction. To remove it, it must be slid towards the front/bumper. This may be tricky, but what I usually do is place a flathead screwdriver against the rubber trim of the marker, that's flus up against the body. Be careful not to scratch the paint, nor to damage the marker/rubber. Place the blade of the screwdriver at a slight cross-angle to the rubber trim (almost as though trying to form a 'T'. Again, taking great care not to create any damage, hit the base of the screwdriver with the heel of your palm. It should shove the marker forward and loose. Not to worry, it's connected by a harness so it won't go flying off into the ether. 4. With the marker removed, there are two nuts along the side of the headlamp holding the lamp in place. Remove these. 5. The lamp can be removed now, wiggle sideways towards radiator, and out. The lamp will be held in place by two harnesses connected one each to the low and high beams. 6. Shouldn't be too hard to figure out how to remove the bulbs from here, but for the low beam there's a black rubber dam at the back of the headlamp that you need to remove. This can be done by simply grabbing the lip of the dam and yanking it free. Don't worry you won't break anything. ---------------------------------- Fog lights: 1. No need to remove the fender... I too fell for that trap. 2. With the headlamps removed you should be able to see clear thru to the floor of the engine compartment 3. Just behind the bumper in each corner you should be able to see the foglight (gray in my case) 4. Disconnect the harness from the back of the foglight. My technique is to take a flathead scredriver, lift the notch of the harness and simultaneously push down to slide it off. 5. On the foglight, towards the fender there's a bolt held in place by a nut, this is all you need to remove. 6. With the nut removed, grab the front of the foglight with one hand while applying force to the back of the foglight with the other. The goal is to push the entire foglight assembly towards the front and out. The bolt goes thru a hole in the hard plastic behind the bumper, it will feel difficult to remove, but really this is ALL that's holding it in place. 7. Now that the fog light assembly is off, twist to remove the black disc covering the hole at the back of the assembly to access the light bulb. 8. There are two wires inside that cover, one of which runs to the bulb. Slide it out of the notch in the cover/disc by just pulling it loose. 9. Remove the metal clamp holding the bulb in place and presto... you've just removed your halogen foglight. 10. Finally, a reminder not to touch the replacement bulb with your bare hands, especially if the bulb is a halogen.

Never had to fiddle with the code on m 97ES before I switched out the head unit... prefer an After market radio myself...

I've got the 97 ES and love it... absolutely no problems to speak of and I'm around 235K. Last summer I did replace the engine though, only because I was late in changing the timing belt and it broke, wrecking my engine... quick way to turn an $800 job into a $4,000 job :( The "new" engine came with only 60K on it so needless to say I'll be riding this baby for a while. Loyal Lex... I'm curious though, the backlights on my climate control and gear shift have been out for some time and I'm hoping to fix it... any ideas? Also, I too encountered a problem with the left turn socket in the front just yesterday as a matter of fact... opened it up and extended the contacts so that they connect with the bottom and sides of the bulb. Quick hint... whenever your bulb is blinking double time that means the circuit is broken (either no contact as described above, or the bulb itself is out). Also, this morning I had to pay $50 to replace fuse b/c coins from the holder to the left of the steering fell down in the back and shorted something or the other. Most of the cost was diagnostics and labor because I couldn't figure it out myself... the fuse wasn't under the hood it was down somewhere by the hood release apparently. The short took out my hazard, turn and taillights.

pete... not really answering your question, but hopefully it will help get discussion started. I switched out my 97 tailights for 2000's and everything worked fine, I imagine that you shouldn't have any problems. Good luck.

Agreed... don't touch the bulbs (particularly the new replacement ones). But everything else is perfect... I actually took apart parts of the trim under the hood and took out the entire headlamp unit because I wasn't sure of what I was doing... got to the rubber dam part and got stuck. I even searched this forum but without luck. Did a random search on the net and it brought me right back to the forum, to this thread. I'll add, my car is a 97 ES300 and the procedure is the same... once you snap the rubber dam out of place and unhinge the clamp (I unscrewed the top retainer screw partially to get it out) everything else was a breeze. Great post.

Thanks for the effort... unfortunately the link to download was password protected. This worked... thanks a bunch.

This is great information, thanks.

When blinkers blink really fast that typically means that the bulb is blown... not sure if that is actually the case with yours.

Well I'm a little late, I'm Nigel and after 11 years working in Project M'gmt/Administration I'm back in school, first year law student. My only car is my 97 ES 300...2 yrs now, 180K total mi. Love Lexus in general, my ex bought the IS300 when they first came out in '00 at my urging...but find the styling a little too tame/vanilla. Great value, performance and service though.

Metra makes some pretty good kits so you can do a search online, I tried going to their site but it wasn't very intuitive and doesn't look as though they sell from their site. Many third-party sites offer them though, including Amazon.com and eBay, just put in the parameters that you're looking for and be sure to purchase only for your model year.

This might work http://www.installer.com/item/display_item.php?it=99-8155 or even better http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0009JFFA...TF8&seller=

$3500??? Are you sure it comes with wheels? Lol...

This might be a little bit extreme but it's another suggestion... I just had a remote starter installed in my car (97 ES) for about $160...an upgrade to the starter I bought sells for around $200 installed at Circuit City (Best Buy would probably be the same)...and comes with keyless remote. Depending on how much you get quoted for the remote, you might just want to consider the remote starter option.

Haha. No, student loans don't keep the tank full. LMAO. I have no student loans....But i do see the parallel :) Off topic... Good win yesterday for the Commodores

Update... So I ended up getting close to $300 worth of service done at the dealership... 170K mi check up Gasket...$1.00 Oil Filter...$9.99 5 Qts, 5W-30...$2.15 for a total of $21.74 in parts...and get this $133.21 in labor!! Ridiculous. Also paid $25 to have them replace my fog lights (2@ $28.49)...which was kinda dumb, I probably could hav done that myself with some help and more research...and probably would have gotten spiffier bulbs at that. Got a $400 estimate parts and labor to correct the Bank 1 Sensor ! Air/Fuel Sensor replaced...but I just might have that done elsewhere. Need a Master Lock switch at the driver's door...$500 bucks parts and labor...I'll deal with the inconvenience for now. Major service at 180K...estimate of $1100 with timing belt (replacement?)...we'll see if I get it done there or at some third party shop.

Yeah everything up to free-air sub was kind of a blur, even after a third read, lol. I'll probably get some Dynamat for the doors and trunk when I upgrade the speakers, for now I keep everything in the trunk(cleaning supplies etc.) in a single carboard box, so hopefully there won't be too much rattling going on. Here's the radio I got Pioneer DEH-P4900iB...50-watts, 4-Channels. I'll post some before and after pics and updates as I go along. Thanks for the help, don't be surprised if you get a PM or two with some Q's.

Thanks! Now i just gotta figure out how you pronounce that word, lol Pronounced like "toe" with a 'p' on the end. Here THIS LINK includes an audible guide to the pronunciation. As for the lights...I like it a lot, in fact one of the things I despise about that particular Model ES is that amber strip in the center...it's way to busy. The all clear gives it a look similar to the 2000 tailights. I had the tailights replaced on my 97 with the newer 2000 tailights...my nephews immediately noticed the difference after not seeing the car for a couple months. They ran around front to see if I did anything spiffy to the headlights too...only to be disappointed, lol Good look

Lol...it's very interesting to say the least But seriously...I like the idea, not sure I'll be trying it anytime soon, but very innovative.

This is really good stuff Blk on Blk...and much appreciated. In the past I've installed a couple radios in my cars, but otherwise I'm a rank novice. I'll probably opt to have the radio/speakers professionally installed this time, but I'll definitely utilize the specs you mention in making my purchase selection. The radio will definitely be an 'upgrade'...thus I'll take your advice on matching the speakers as well. Should I replace the Sub on the rear deck you think? I mean, with upgrades all around, will this subwoofer be sufficient if I crank up the volume on a system driven completely by the head unit or should I upgrade with a matching amp to guarantee the sound quality at higher volume?

Great stuff Sadistic...very informative!

So I just purchased my 97 ES about 18 months ago and haven't serviced it since (*pause for group beating*)....this after not knowing the full specs on what was cared for from what wasn't under the prior owner. Broke student that I am, I finally have a little money to care for my car and considering taking it to the dealership for a full (Certified Pre-Owned) run thru, but they're asking $230. Would I be better off just checking the service schedule and doing everythig recommended there or should I go pay the ransom at the dealership...like, would there be other issues likely to come up that won't be covered under the service schedule? Thanks.

I have the same rotor issue now...at least this is what I was told was causing the vibration.