Lexucan

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.... :(

You might consider Black Pearl OEM emblems. I think they would look great with your new color scheme. As far as gold is concerned, they always seem to look so weathered and bad after years of sunshine and repeated car washes. I recently saw a '90's Acura TL that had a gold plated grille...man, did it look awful! With all the times the grille must have been scrubbed over the years there were some spots that had no plating left at all, and other spots where it was still kinda shiny, but on the whole, it was like three different shades of ugly! Do ppl who buy a new car and want the "gold package" actually have to pay extra for that ish? :(

This thread might help.

Well, it's about time you posted pics of that beauty! Very nice. Love the color and the dark tints.

Doesn't look like a twelve year old car, and it probably doesn't drive like one either. Some nice stitching on that Wheelskins steering wheel cover too.

My favorite Lexus has to be MY lexus, a beautiful '93 ES300. But if I were to ever get another one, it would probably be a 3rd generation ES (1997-2001) I like the styling of them more than the later models, except for the 5th gen which is pretty sweet.

It's a warning light that your car is about to self-detonate! Run for your life! :o But seriously tho... gabep had the right answer. No need to panic. It's an indicator that you have a burnt out tail light.

Well, glad to hear it's working again. You'll probably never know exactly what caused it to malfunction but obviously the cassette adapter thing had something to do with it. I tried one of those once so I could listen to my Sony Walkman during an out-of-town trip. I wasn't impressed so I never used it again, and after reading about your problem, I'll definitely never use one again. I've now got a sweet bluetooth enabled Samsung P2 and a Motorola Motorokr T505 bluetooth speakerphone with a wireless digital FM transmitter. The P2 stays in my shirt pocket, and the T505 clips to the sun visor, so no more dangly wires or wacky cassette adapters, and the sound through the stock stereo and car speakers is really quite amazing. It's as clear and as clean as listening directly to a CD :)

Nothing shows up on the display as if the radio was off. When I press the volume knob to turn the radio on it doesn't do anything. The cigarette lighter plug has never worked as long as I have owned the car, could that be related? I doubt that the cigarette lighter plug has anything to do with your problem since the stereo WAS working until very recently. It sounds like your stereo isn't getting power for some reason. Are you sure you checked the correct fuse/s? There may be more than one that is associated with the stereo system.

If your stereo hadn't been working at all after replacing the battery, I would have said it was the anti-theft security system (which is triggered by disconnecting the power to the radio) that disabled your stereo. But you said you were listening to your iPod through your car stereo's speakers just before it died, so I guess that can't be it. Does ANYTHING show on the display when you start the car? If the anti-theft system is active then "SEC" should show up on the radio's LCD display.

Personally, I wouldn't buy any HIDs off ebay...too risky. Many of them - if not most of them - are as 1990LS400 said. JUNK. I bought my HID conversion kit more than a year ago from www.xenondepot.com in Ontario. You'll pay more than on flea-bay, but then, you get a QUALITY product with a reputable WARRANTY, and great customer service. And no, I'm not affiliated with them in any way. I just like their product, their level of service, and figure it is worth passing the name along. Steve, the owner of the business is also an official vendor at Club Lexus (dot com).

With the radio off, the backlight around the big Power/Volume knob should light up, plus the AM, FM, TAPE, and CDcdm buttons. Oh, and also along the opening for inserting a cassette tape.

Would you make the trip to the dealership if the bulbs were $12 each instead of $2 ? That's about what they cost me when I replaced the 3 bulbs in my climate control a few months ago. Got them at a Toyota dealership.

I'm afraid I would have to agree. I have several years experience in electronics and soldering. I replaced all 17 of the tiny backlighting bulbs behind the buttons in my factory radio. It was very tedious work and after completing the two day project I found that, because the new bulbs were just very slightly bigger (length-wise) than the old ones, they caused some of the buttons to not function properly. There is also a delicate multi-stranded ribbon cable inside the radio that connects the front display circuit board (the one with all the bulbs) to the main circuit board inside the radio chassis. So, you must be VERY careful not to damage that ribbon cable in any way while working inside the radio...or else you're hooped. :cries:

What kind of a question is that? Do posters now need a reason to ask a valid question in this forum?? :(

Hmmm....interesting. It's not NEARLY identical, it IS identical, except the seller has listed it as having a tan interior. It's actually black. That is my car, but not my listing. I should take it as a compliment I guess, since the REAL car he is selling is undoubtedly not worth posting a picture of, so he stole a pic of my BEAUTIFUL ES instead! The buyer is going to have a hard time finding my car up here in Canada-ville. :P

Looks good! I did the same with mine, except I did the doors too, and I don't think it makes the car look cheap. As Steve said, without the doors having the trim, it sort of leaves it looking incomplete, IMHO. I'll admit that the doors are harder to do so they look good b/c you have to try to get as straight a line as possible above the cladding, whereas on the bumpers, it isn't as difficult to achieve a nice looking line. I'm undecided about the chrome on the mirrors. Do you have any pics of them from different angles?

Sometimes fuses can look ok but are actually blown. I'd track down the exact fuse for the windows and replace it. Has to be something like that with all your windows suddenly not working.

Ok so this is going to be going a bit off topic in a sense, but not really. We're talking about getting MP3 music connected to your OEM car stereo, right? Well, I discovered the coolest little device that, with the help of bluetooth technology and a built-in wireless FM transmitter, can stream the music from any bluetooth-enabled MP3 player to your OEM car stereo system....and it sounds GREAT! Plus it can link with your bluetooth cell phone too so you can make and receive calls with the audio going through your car's speakers. Moto: I understand you already have an iPod which doesn't have bluetooth, but if all else fails, and you are determined to get some MP3 tunes going through your OEM system, you might consider switching to a Samsung P2 or Sony NWZ-S738F bluetooth MP3 player and use wireless technology to stream your music without the need for ANY wires. I know, I know...this is way more expense an idea than buying an adapter (if one exists) and tapping into your headunit's wiring. but like I said, if all else fails, it might be something to consider. I was blown away with the quality of the sound I'm getting from my OEM stereo with my new step-up. Here's a CNET review of the little device that does all the work: http://reviews.cnet.com/cell-phone-and-sma...7-32959425.html And a feature that I really like about it that I've never seen on other FM transmitters is that it scans the FM frequencies and picks the clearest one it can find and then announces it (in a sexy female voice :) ) so you can tune to it. Usually the frequency that most FM transmitters use is preset at the factory, so if it is a bad frequency for you, well, tough luck. And I've tried one of those tape adapter things too...wow....that was so lame. Anyways, just wanted to give you something else to think about and let you know there ARE other solutions out there that work, albeit, not the solution you were thinking about. GL.

Maybe try taking the replacement bulbs out again and scraping the contact points inside the sockets. It could be that a better electrical connection will wake the "bulb out" sensor up and tell it its work is done.

Very nice! I use UPGP myself....it's so easy and the results speak for themselves!

I'm not really feeling the rims, but dude, that is one of the cleanest 1gen LS's I've ever seen! The smoke and tint looks awesome! Nice ride!!

Sounds like maybe the clips that are supposed to hold it in place are broken on yours. Shouldn't pop loose that easily. Mine took quite a bit of pulling to get it off.

That would be a neat trick to see. :P

I doubt removing the bulb will hurt anything. I've heard of it being done before with the CEL bulb when someone is trying to sell their car and they want to hide the fact that it has problems. I've never had a problem with my "taillight out" light coming on intermittently....just lucky I guess. BTW, good luck with your new backlighting and needles!