Lexucan

If you want your car to look more like a BMW, why not buy a BMW? :chairshot:

Tim,

You might try removing the headlight from the car (not really that hard) and use a hair drier or heat gun to blow air into the bulb openings. There may be a small rubber tube on the back of the unit that is missing or plugged that is supposed to allow for the moisture to dissipate I believe.

I've done this on the same problem with a Nissan 300ZX and it did the trick for me. Good Luck!

Thanks for the info. The moisture goes away after about 8-10 hours. Doesn't happen all the time. I'll give this a try. Thanks.

Tim

gbhrps gives good advice. I used the same technique on one of my taillight assemblies. It doesn't take much moisture to produce what looks like a LOT of condensation on the inside of the lens.

THANK YOU to all who provided opinions.

We bought a black '07 ES350 with 59K miles and the full CPO yesterday for a couple grand under blue book. Rides great, beautiful, I'm thrilled.

Thanks again everyone.

EXCELLENT!

Congratulations! And of course, you'll want to show your appreciation for the help by posting lots of pics! That is, if we can ever get you out from behind the steering wheel of your sexy new ride! :P

Well this thread is obviously going nowhere fast. With any luck it will fade away into LOC's cavernous database of threads under the category of "USELESS" and never see the light of day again. :whistles:

Can I get an AMEN?

Styling and technology-wise, I'd go for the 350 without hesitation, but as Steve pointed out, the first model year for the 5th generation ES was plagued with quite a few potential issues. As far as the mileage is concerned, 65K is peanuts. Of course, my '93 ES is still purring along with 275K miles on the ODO, so little wonder I would think that.

LOL...you guys are mean ;)

;) they not mean it goes to show you how many real losers are in the world and they show up in many different forms :D

My point exactly (see below):

Isn't that the 'Superman Edition' of the 2nd gen ES in that pic? I've never actually seen one before. Very rare! IIRC, it comes with special badging and a plastic super-hero lunchbox instead of the luggage you would get with the Coach Edition. :P

Sounds like a cool name to me...so post some pics. :D

You should check rockauto.com before you purchase anything but I don't know what a 'tail light cover' is..

im talking about the plastic on the outside where the es300 badge should be

The taillight assembly is a factory sealed unit. You can't just take the outer cover part off and replace it. You'll need to replace the whole right side assembly. I have one (same year) that is in good physical condition. PM me if you are interested.

Holy ancient threads....this one's almost 7 years old!

Wow, no kidding! Musta taking some digging to dredge this one up lol

Anyways, Lexus must have gone to a cheaper production process for the '95 - '96 lenses which left those horizontal lines in them. I can't see them actually intentionally engineering the lines into the lenses. They certainly don't add any aesthetic enhancement, IMO.

I think this is a pretty common issue with the 2nd generation ES (with CD changer mounted in the trunk). I've read a number of similar posts regarding this, and I have experienced it myself.

I've also discovered that using it in colder weather can cause "ERR" to show up in the display more frequently. I tried cleaning the laser head with a CD cleaning disc and it seemed to make some difference, but I still get errors from time to time, especially when playing home recorded CDs.

But to be honest, I don't use the CD changer all that much these days since I more often than not listen to my MP3 player through the car's stereo system instead.

Alright, im trying to find a way to connect my ipod directly to the factory standard stereo in my 95 es300. I had been using a tape adaptor but the tape deck recently stopped working altogether so that option is out. I've tried FM transmitters as well and although they work, the sound quality is TERRIBLE and to my ears unacceptable. I had been getting by using the 6 disc cd changer in the trunk but that too recently decided to crap out and give me error messages when trying to load cd's. So im left with using an FM transmitter with my ipod but like i said the sound quality is terrible on these things and i would love to find a way around it.

I've been searching around for a way to hardwire my ipod to my stereo system with little success. There seems to be plenty of aux-in adaptors available for newer models of this car but nothing for the 95's or older. So i figured i'd try posting to see if anyone else has had success in finding a way to hardwire their ipod in a 95 es300. Im not looking for anything fancy (ie text display and/or control through stereo head), all i want is a direct connection from my ipod output into my stereo.

Any ideas?

Hi there, I found your thread about connecting Ipod to your stereo, I am trying to do the same, have you done it if so can you tell me how? ill appreciate greatly

What I did was buy a bluetooth enabled FM transmitter - Motorola makes an excellent one:

http://direct.motorola.com/hellomoto/t505/ (it can also be used as a hands-free cell phone speaker)

This allowed me to wirelessly connect my MP3 player to my stock stereo system. My MP3 player is a Samsung P2 which has bluetooth capability built in, but you can buy an inexpensive bluetooth adapter for most iPods these days. Anyways, this method sounds as good as being directly wired to the car stereo, but without the need to pull the headunit out to make modifications. And there are no unsightly wires at all. My MP3 player stays in my shirt or coat pocket, and the motorola T505 FM transmitter clips to the sun visor. It has an internal/rechargeable battery pack. One charge usually lasts a week, at least.

im gonna replace the thermostat too but i cant find it i was told its at the end of the bottom rad hose. but thats not where its at any other info would really help thank you very much.

You are probably looking at the wrong end of the bottom rad hose. The thermostat is at the other end of the bottom hose, where it connects to the water pump. You'll need to remove the front passenger side wheel to get access to it.

I may be wrong on this, but I think the thermostat location was moved to the top of the engine starting with the 94 aluminum block engine. On the iron block engines (93 and earlier), the thermostat was located at the lower left side of the engine. This location did require the wheel removal to get to it.

You could be right.

What sort of condition is the woodgrain bezel around the gearshift and what price would you want for it ? Could you take a pic or two and post them up?

Thanks

im gonna replace the thermostat too but i cant find it i was told its at the end of the bottom rad hose. but thats not where its at any other info would really help thank you very much.

You are probably looking at the wrong end of the bottom rad hose. The thermostat is at the other end of the bottom hose, where it connects to the water pump. You'll need to remove the front passenger side wheel to get access to it.

I have a 1992 ES300, and need to replace one of my fog light bulbs. I just replaced one of my headlights, and it was super easy. All you do is push in and twist the bulb counterclockwise, but the fog lights seem to be much more difficult. Does anyone know how to replace the fog lightbulbs? What tools will I need?

You'll need to remove the whole foglight housing by loosening the three little 8mm or 10mm bolts that mount it to the bracket under the front bumper. Not much elbow room to maneuver under there but it's doable by laying on your back with your head under the bumper. Once you have the housing separated from the bracket, you can unplug the wiring harness for it so you can remove it completely to clean it up before installing the new bulb and putting it back together. The type of bulb is an H3 - make sure you don't touch the bulb glass with your bare fingers. Doing so can and probably will shorten the lifespan considerably. For tools, all you should need is an 8mm or 10mm socket wrench and maybe a small extension.

second problem is the needles on my gauges are going out and would like to know how to replace them well let me know

Eazy-peazy!

Gauge needle DIY write-up :D

Never heard of Bluemagic before but I have heard about the toothpaste method and I do use Plast-x on my headlights from time to time. The Bluemagic stuff seems to do a fine job looking at your pics. Does it smell like peppermint by any chance? :P

Very nice looking ES...and no apology necessary for being a perfectionist. You'll probably find that most Lexus enthusiasts, myself included, are pretty anal about their car. In my opinion, it's the ONLY way to be! B)

I've never seen (thank goodness) a bug shield on an ES300. You seriously want to ruin the look of your wife's newly painted ES by attaching an ugly piece of plastic to the front end? To each their own, I guess but I would just wash the bugs off with a MF towel and some QD when they get squished on the hood. As long as you don't let them stick there for any length of time, it shouldn't cause damage to the paint.

Is is possible to install an after-market navigation system in a 1996 ES300? Can anybody direct me to a place where I may be able to learn about this?

I'd say do a search for "Pioneer AVIC" but that will probably get you nowhere since the search feature has been changed...

the search issue is now resolved.

Gosh, the new "Google Custom Search" seems crude ... wondering if I don't know how to use it.

How does one limit the search to one sub-forum and search for multiple words using + signs. How does one limit the search to a particular "from date" and vary the date order of the returned list of threads.

Could we have the old search feature back? Maybe you could have both it and the Google search.

Judging by the number of responses you got to your questions (NONE) I'd say nobody else here knows how to use the new search either. All I get now when trying to search a sub forum is a bunch of useless Google ads!

I think you are referring to the plastic trim piece around the door handle itself. It can be somewhat tricky to remove, as you've discovered. There is a hidden plastic "hook" molded onto the trim piece that goes in behind the door panel. This hook prevents the piece from moving out of position. You need to pry the trim piece out from the panel a little just above the pivot point of the handle by using a small flat head screwdriver (covered with tape to prevent damage to your door) between the top of the trim and the door panel and once the trim piece has popped out a bit, try to slide it sideways so that the "hook" is no longer hooked behind the door panel. Then you can slide the piece right off, over the handle.

Hi Lexucan,

Thanks so much I figured there had to be something hidden behind. I will give it a try tomorrow since we are getting Vancouver weather here today.

Then you should be outside tackling it now. We've been getting nothing but sun and temps in the 30's for the last week and a half....lol

I think you are referring to the plastic trim piece around the door handle itself. It can be somewhat tricky to remove, as you've discovered. There is a hidden plastic "hook" molded onto the trim piece that goes in behind the door panel. This hook prevents the piece from moving out of position. You need to pry the trim piece out from the panel a little just above the pivot point of the handle by using a small flat head screwdriver (covered with tape to prevent damage to your door) between the top of the trim and the door panel and once the trim piece has popped out a bit, try to slide it sideways so that the "hook" is no longer hooked behind the door panel. Then you can slide the piece right off, over the handle.

The bulbs lock in to the back of the headlight assembly housings so you need to turn the bulb base first before pulling it out. If the area behind the housing is too tight to get your hand in there, you might want to pull the whole headlight assembly forward to give you more room. To do this, remove the three mounting bolts located at the large plastic tabs left, right, and middle of the front of the assembly. Then just slide the assembly towards you so you can get in behind it. Once the bulb/harness is free from the housing, unplug the bulb from the harness connector by pressing the locking tab on the connector while you pull on the bulb. Remember not to touch the glass part of the new bulbs with your fingers when installing. The oils on your skin can drastically reduce the life of a halogen bulb. So, use latex gloves or a clean cloth if you think you might need it. But if you're careful, you can usually do the job by only holding the plastic base of the bulbs. If you accidentally touch the bulb glass, clean it with alcohol before installing it. It surprises me that there usually isn't a large "Warning - do not touch bulb with fingers" instruction written on the bulb packaging when you buy it. But then, I guess they are counting on ppl doing just that and having to buy another bulb in a month's time when the first one dies prematurely.... :(

THANKS. I was able to do it from the engine compartment even though it was a VERY tight fit. I used a flat screwdriver to depress the tab on the harness and pulled the harness free. Then I used (don't laugh) a vice grip plier to begin the counterclockwise rotation of the bulb assembly. Once begun I could finish the 1/2 inch rotation to align the tabs and remove the buld. Replacing the bulb was easy. I just lined uo the tabs on the bulb assembly and pushed the bulb into place; rotated the assemble about 1/2 inch clockwise and reattached the wiring harness. I'm proud of myself that I didn't have to go to a mechanic for so easy a job.

Ed

Glad you got it done. There should really be instructions in the owners manual for changing the headlight bulbs but the stealership would rather you spend $100 in labor to have them change the bulb for you.

If you ever have to replace one of your front turn signal bulbs, that's when you'll definitely have to pull the headlight assembly forward.

Is the thumping consistent in its timing per minute, or is it more sporadic? If it is sporadic, I would tend to think it might be a loose connection somewhere. If it is consistent, i.e. the same interval between thumps all the time, It sounds like perhaps you have a failed component inside your radio or amp.