Lex3486

For some reason, I seem to recall looking at the only ES250 I've ever looked at and I think it had a factory Lexus 3 disc changer in the front, at the bottom of the center stack, below the radio...not sure what year 250 it was. I wanna say it was a 91

The same thing happened to me. Plus, my outside passenger door handle doesn't work, AND my driver side window switch doesn't work right. Sorta embarrasing when your friends wanna ride in your nice Lexus and the door handle doesn't even work

Obviously they must not know...the very first time I took it in, they replaced the valvebody, clutch packs, and torque converter. Every time thereafter, they did the same thing (remember, I've probably had it back there about 8 times with various problems since the first time they ever laid hands on it). Then finally they found out that the tranny kept gettin *BLEEP* in it from the differential, so they replaced all that stuff again and the differential. After that, probably 2000 trouble-free miles...then a leak...fixed that easily though, and then about 11000 trouble-free miles...then, it started to hesitate to shift outta first when it was cold, and it skipped second gear from time to time, so I took it back for one last checkup before I hit the 12000 mile warranty limit about 3 weeks ago...well, the head mechanic, the only one who seemed to know what he was doin and the one that had worked on it all this time, the one that had it fixed for the longest period, quit. SO, now the owner of the shop is fixing it himself...not sure what to expect. This time, the valve body had a failure in it (probably a shift solenoid) but they replaced the whole thing rather than the solenoid so I don't know...

This whole thread seems littered with hateful comments...why can't we be friends?

ArmyofOne, I'm feelin ya man. My 93 ES has been a pain in the !Removed! for a long time now and I'm faced with keeping on pouring money into it or starting anew...as far as my car goes, the engine is perfect so far as I know. I won't say that it had been taken care of by the book Lexus style, but it was maintained just as most average cars would be. I've already replaced the head gaskets and radiator, spark plugs, valve cover gaskets and PCV valve. Then came the transmission...with my car though, it's not the car that's the bad part, it's the shop we ended up being binded to; they have NO CLUE what they're doing apparently, but we've already invested so much in it at THAT shop that we can't justify cutting our losses and taking it somewhere else and spending ANOTHER couple thou...what do we do?? I have no clue right now. My car has very much sentimental value to me, and I'm confident that if we could just get the transmission fixed right, it'd be right as rain. I just don't know. What do you guys think?

Shouldn't be an issue if you're talkin about 93 lights in a 94; they didn't change the lights until 95 anyway. I think the issue with the 2nd gen lights isn't size, but the number of bulbs; the 92-93 has 7 bulbs per taillight, whereas the 95-96 have 6. I think they're the same size though.

First off, your motor is probably fine. You'd probably be wasting your money if you replaced the whole motor. Most of the time, all you need to replace is the shaft and you can pick those up at Pep Boys for ~ $15. They don't take long to replace either. Rumor has it you can hold the volume button in for a certain period and it will actually spit the old antenna mast out but I'm not positive as to the details; I've never tried doing it that way. Maybe someone else can help out?

Pictures?

Given any thought into perhaps getting one 10" and putting it in place of the stock one, then maybe running it by it's own amp mounted in the trunk or behind that wall you're talking about? That's what I'd like to do eventually...but if your car didn't come with the upgraded stereo (10" sub and 12 disc changer) then you've got an 8" sub stock (or at least that's how I understand it so far as the stereo setups go...I could be wrong)

Hey guys! Long time no forum lol. That would be because my car has been in the shop for the past 3 weeks, and I bet you can guess why...hopefully I'll be gettin it back soon though, although there's a pretty good chance that it'll be outta here soon as we get it back...just can't handle all the problems anymore. What a shame too...I love that car, but the SC300 is extremely nice I must say. Anyway, there isn't any real point to this post; I just wanted to say hey to all you that I used to talk to so much. Good luck to you all!

No one answered his question about the key; the answer is that that button that does nothing actually is the remote for the door lock/unlock and with that, it turns the security system on and off as well. There is no seperate "remote" like most cars, it's built in for convenience. The battery can be bought at any store that sells watch batteries. The exact battery needed is covered in the manual if you just look. As for the bulb for the interior light, you can get those anywhere as well. Once again, check the manual for the bulb number and you should be able to fix it easily. Don't go to Toyota; they're a rip off. B)

Nah, they're in summer mode. I guess they just got lazy because they work fine now. Just that one time they didn't wanna work right...weird. <_<

I noticed this morning that my wipers refused to go back into their hole after I'd used them. Could it be that my motor is dying? With a little help from my hand they went down, but they couldn't do it on their own. This is the first time it's ever happened...they still operate normally other than that though...

I'm happy with my stock head unit and there's a few ways to go about making it work with aftermarket speakers and subs and such. If the speakers are the same size as stock, then you should be able to just simply pull out the stock ones and install the new ones. No rocket science there, unless you wanna rewire them. I didn't do this b/c of all the extra work that would require, plus I doubt that even with aftermarket speakers it'd make much of a difference anyway. As for connecting the amp, there's many ways to do that, from simply running a wire from the rear 6x9's into the high level input of your amp (some amps don't have this but mine did and the instructions said that if you don't have an RCA hookup, as you won't if you keep the stock deck, then to just use the high level input with normal speaker wire. Works great for me). If you were gonna do that, you could even go as far as I did and splice the input off of the wiring for the front door speakers (woofers that is) so that you're only getting bass input to your amp, if you're just lookin to power subs with it. Otherwise, if you're looking for a full sound range amplification, then you'd need to use the rear speakers b/c they get full range from the stock amp. Now, if you wanna spend a little more and get an RCA cable adapter thingy (not sure what they're "technically" called b/c I've never actually seen one, but they suppposedly exist...) and have RCA cables to feed your amp, you could do that...if you can find the adapter and I hear they're not cheap. And as for location of the subs; you're probably best off avoiding the luggage tray b/c that would involve alot of cutting of metal and such that wouldn't look stock...unless you got really crafty and retrofitted, oh say a SC or LS subwoofer cover/high mount brake light and put your sub under there...wow that's a great idea, that'd look awesome! Anyway, I'd suggest just puttin em in your trunk like everyone else, myself included, does. As for sound quality, I'm not really a hardcore stereo buff, but I think mine sounds pretty damn good if I do say so myself-more than enough bass (enough to *BLEEP* people off at stop lights if I please) and the rest of the system sounded fine to begin with if you ask me. So there ya go; there's my .02c B)

I'm thinkin that the suggestion of the sunroof tubes is a more liable culprit...now if someone could just determine how to get to them...I hate tearing stuff apart inside; something ALWAYS breaks <_<

Alright you called me on that one; I didn't search And I haven't bothered to update my signature yet but I recently purchased a 92 SC300 but I still have my ES. The SC is actually my dad's B) The ES didn't come with a 12 disc changer :whistles:

so....I guess no one else must have this problem? :whistles:

I've never had this problem with my SC or one of our ES's but our Land Cruiser does this all the time. On that car, it's due to a faulty door open switch (the one with the black rubber cover over it). It could also be due to a weak battery. Actually, come to think of it, I think my ES did this once when the battery was on its' way out the door. If I were you, I'd check out your door switches and your trunk switch too. If one of these is faulty and causes the car to think that a door has been opened, then boom-alarm is triggered.

Did you remember to reconnect the PCV valve to it's vacuum hose? I forgot to do this when I did head gaskets and I got the same result. If not that, I doubt it would be your timing if the car runs at all. I dunno though, guess it could be...

65 is a good price if you can't get them down-I'd still buy it. I bought my 93 in May '03 with 126k on it for 5700 and it has no factory options whatsoever. Flawless all around though, except some engine problems I've had. Cosmetically though? You'd swear it was brand new B) I'd highly reccomend the 94, especially the Anniversary Edition, as the 94 has the same first generation bodystyle as the 92-93 but the later 1MZ engine-a much more hassle-free powerplant then the 3VZ-FE tends to be. Go for it! ;)

Just a little bit of advice from a fellow shadetree mechanic; opt for the Lexus manuals. Albeit more expensive, they cover absolutely everything that you could ever want to fix on those cars and then some. In the long run, they'll MORE than pay for themselves. Take my case for example. Our first ES was a 92 and so we bought the 2 book manual set from Toyota. Then when I got my 93 ES (same car esentially) I had to replace the head gaskets a few months into ownership and I was able to do it entirely in my own garage at my own leisure thanks to the manuals. I shudder to even think what that might have cost to have replaced at a Lexus dealership or even an independent shop. The manual walks you through, step by step and has very detailed pictures for every step, and best of all-it's model year specific and doesn't cover 2 different engines, as I'm sure the Camry manual does. My only complaint about the Lexus manuals is that they don't have coupons for parts in them ;)

Does anyone happen to know if the Nak CD changer will work with the premium Pioneer system (10" sub, 12 disc changer, 170watts) in the 92 SC300?

I'm with you Bryan; the only thing that the wiring would impare, or at least that I can see that it would impare, is the amount of power that can be carried to the speakers. I see no reason why wiring would cause the speaker to distort; that just doesn't make sense. BTW, I'm sure you knew this, but ohms (impedence as everyone's calling it) is a measure of resistance; less resistance, more wattage flowing, takes more wattage to begin with, more load on amp...so on. Wow! Maybe I did learn something in physics!

Have you ever had your rear seat out? If so, you might have accidentally disconnected one of the ABS sensor wires that run up the fender wells, causing the ABS light to come on. I did this once but I disconnected it on purpose just to see if the brakes would lock up or not.

The 12 disc changer in my 92 is more tempermental and unpredictable than a hormonal teenage girl going through puberty...sometimes it'll play any CD flawlessly, but more often than not, it'll play a few seconds of a track, skip, play a little more, skip, pause, then crap out completely sometimes leaving me with a friendly little "err" on the screen...I'm about ready to rip it out! And before someone suggests scratched CD's, the story's the same with brand new CD's fresh outta the package but it seems to be even worse with burned CD's. Sound familiar to anyone?