Lexucan

A volleyball sized dent in your bumper?? Wow, not cool! Below is a photo of the rear bumper assembly for a 1993 ES300. It was the closest I have to the one you are looking for. Some things may have changed as far as bolt locations, etc. but perhaps the pic will give you at least something to go on - hopefully. I removed my rear bumper cover last year and aside from a few stubborn nuts under the car, it came off without any trouble. I think there were a total of a couple of dozen bolts and/or nuts to remove - some inside the trunk, a few inside the wheel well area, and some under the bumper. Good luck.

I am getting the feeling that this SGM is a popular color for this popular car model. And right so, it is a classy and clean looking color (forget the 'clean' part for now). OH-Guy, you are not alone with a dingy looking car this time of the year, even here in the Northwest. Where the rain would normally keep it reasonably clean, this year with all the snow on the ground and all the added sand and salt, my car looks just like yours. Drt-eeee! Cheer-up! That's odd, rajko...I didn't notice any dirt on the outside of your ES when you and I went for a drive last Friday. So, in addition to SGM being a very classy colour, it must hide dirt fairly well too. But then, you are probably just like me in that regard. If I see one spot on my car that looks even a little bit dirty, I have to clean it ASAP or it will bother me to no end! And don't even get me started about bird droppings! If I see that a bird has "done its thing" on my car, I'll literally run to get something to wipe it off! That phobia may very well stem from an incident a few years ago when I came out of the office to go home and found that a Canada Goose had pooped all over my car sometime during the day. And for anybody who may be unfamiliar with Canada Geese and the size of their poops, I'll tell ya, it's pretty gross! I don't think there was more than a single square foot of sheet metal or glass on my car that wasn't plastered with the nasty stuff after the goose had conducted its aerial bombardment! So I drove straight from the office to the local car wash and even the pressure wash had difficulty in getting it all off! As we all know, bird droppings can be very harmful to paint, so I was thankful that I was able to clean it off (with difficulty) before it had a chance to etch itself into the clear coat. But, to get back to your point, I agree that this season has been exceptional so far. Our usual rainy winter has been replaced with one of snow and ice and low temperatures, which make keeping a car looking clean a near impossibility! Oh and superchan7, that's a very beautiful ES you have there!!

Here is a thread describing how to remove the drivers door panel: http://us.lexusownersclub.com/forums/index...mp;#entry180850 Read post number 5. The master switch panel is attached to the door panel, so to replace it you need to remove the door panel first.

A loose battery connector combined with cold temperatures is a recipe for this type thing happening. We had a cold snap here about a month ago. Until then, car always started fine, but after the temperature dropped, first time I tried to start the car the dash lights came on as usual for a second as I turned the key but then everything went dead. I checked the battery terminals and tightened them. The car started up fine after that and has done so ever since. I didn't lose my clock time or radio station presets either, although I did have to re-enter my radio's anti-theft system security code before it would work, but all the station presets were still in memory.

I sprayed some fabreeze in there and it smells much better. Fabreze is not a disinfectant like Lysol. It will only mask the smell of the mold for a while. Lysol will have a better chance of actually killing the mold.

Awesome! Don't know how you managed that but.... Got a question for you: how hard was your center vent to remove? I've heard it can be a real PITA to get out without breaking. :(

I thought I was pushing the envelope with 270,000 clicks on the odo. Guess my baby still has some life left in 'er yet. I had a similar window problem last year. Ended up getting a new (used) switch for it. Problem gone. And I agree with you: not Great, the BEST!

Most likely the front. Those are the ones ppl usually have quesitions about. If this is the case, you need to pull the headlight assemblies forward so you can access the turn signal bulbs from behind. There are three plastic tabs on each headlight assembly (left, right, and center) with screws through them which secure the assemblies to the body of the car. Remove the three screws on each and pull the assemblies forward, away from the body. Then you can get to the bulbs to replace them.

Yes, the car will shift gears at higher RPMs when in POWER mode - for passing on an uphill grade etc.

New link to FSM (factory service manuals) for '91, '93, and '97 ES: Also includes Camry/ES300 manual in separate parts. http://www.turboninjas.com/camry/

First off, welcome to LOC! It sounds to me like the battery is getting old and unable to sustain a charge for long. I see you are in Illinois so right now you are probably experiencing some pretty cold temperatures. That can further weaken an already dieing battery. The ES's security system uses power while it is parked. This could be the source of the drain on the battery.

Green tipped needles would probably show up better against a white LED backlit cluster. Usually the white LEDs have a somewhat blueish look to them in certain lighting conditions which is why I would be concerned that blue tipped needles might not allow you to read your instrument gauges easily. But what you might consider doing is buying enough of both colors, since they are very inexpensive. Then you could do some experimenting to see which looks better....just an idea. OR...you could use blue LEDs for your cluster backlighting which would match your other blue interior lighting and then use red SMD LEDs for your needles. That would look pretty cool and the needles would contrast very nicely against the blue gauges. Here is a pic of a cluster with blue backlighting. I'm not sure about this, but after reading the post the owner wrote about his cluster mod, it seems he liked the look of my "red tipped needles" so much that he blacked out his still working original needles so only the tips show up. :) Anyways, here is the Digikey part number for some green surface mount LEDs: 160-1179-1-ND I'm glad you've found the DIY write-up to be useful. It appears to have more or less become the standard fix for our 2nd gen. ES clusters.

The Digikey part number for some blue LEDs is: 160-1579-1-ND Just keep in mind that if you're planning to replace your cluster backlighting bulbs with white LEDs, blue tipped needles might not be very visible against the face of the cluster.

Look HERE .... comes with pictures and everything. All you have to supply are the tools. :) For the sake of your health and the smell inside your car, I hope you need the lighter only for a power source. If not, this is a great time to consider a new years resolution. Happy New Year!

The manual for the '93 ES stipulates 5W-30 for the engine oil.

Yep, like the old saying goes, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". :)

LOL...yeah, and that was the same old shoe I lost a while ago...

I've found exactly the same thing with my CD changer. During the summer it plays without a problem, but when the cold weather sets in, it often has a problem reading CDs. What I do when it shows the "ERR" message is keep switching from one CD to the next until it finds one it can read. I let it play that one for 5 minutes or so to "warm up" the internal mechanisms of the changer. After that I can usually play any of the discs in the changer without a problem. And maybe I'm just being paranoid, but I don't even try to play a CD in very cold weather when the car is stone cold. I think trying to play a CD when the player is very cold could put extra wear and tear on the internal motor and mechanisms. I always wait until the car is completely warmed up inside before attempting to use the CD changer. I sometimes open the little pass-thru door behind the back seat armrest so warm air can get into the trunk and raise the temperature before I try to play a CD in cold weather conditions. Or, I just listen to the radio instead. And as dcfish said, if your changer is dirty, that doesn't help matters either. I use a CD cleaning disc to clean the laser head every once in a while, but I've found in cold weather that the changer can still have a problem. This may be why the changer was moved to the glove box in later models. One other note: I've also found that CD-Rs usually present more problems for the changer than do regular store-bought music CDs, so if all the discs in your changer are CD-Rs try putting a few regular CDs in it and see if that makes a difference.

Buy now and ask questions later! That's an insane deal!! :o

Looks like a nice headunit. To be honest, most of the aftermarket radios I see these days would look out of place in an ES (just my opinion) but this Pioneer system looks good and would not detract from the look of the OEM center stack. Some cool features too. Have you posted in the Audio/Video/Electronics forum too? Might be an idea. I'll be following this thread with interest. When you do the install, I hope you'll post some DIY tips. Good luck with the project.

Ha...I seem to remember reading something about that :P I agree: Gold, Mirror = Rice! Black = Nice! :D In the end, it's your decision but whatever you do, don't mix types. Go all black, or all gold, or all mirror, or all whatever... Your 2 cents are worth a million

The labor for removing and putting on new emblems shouldn't be more than an hour, I would think. And for cleaning your yellowed lenses, that would depend on how clouded they are. You don't have to be "handy" to do them yourself. Just get some Meguiar's Plast-X (comes in a white plastic bottle and can usually be purchased wherever they sell car cleaners, waxes, etc.) which is made for exactly that purpose. If you are handy enough to wax your car, then you're handy enough to polish your headlight lenses. Just dab it onto the lens and rub it in, in a circular motion, using a bit of pressure with a soft micro-fiber cloth. Then buff. Do a small area at a time. You'll be surprised at the results.

If the plastic chrome-like molding you are referring to is 1/8" wide, you can buy a roll of it at most automotive supply stores. I put some on my ES, just above the lower exterior cladding. I think a roll costs about $15.00 or so. This is what the package looks like: And here it is on the car:

And I bet that "Palm Beach Edition" decal on the trunk lid peeled off in no time!

A Florida dealer also sold an LS version of this ES300 "Palm Beach Edition". Yikes! That ugly plastic roof makes the car look so much smaller....and cheaper! I wonder what Lexus Corp. thought of the dealership selling such abortions. They couldn't possibly have given them their blessing....could they?