poneyboy

I've never had all the air exit the system this way - at least not to my liking. If you merely fill it at the radiator, you'll be missing a significant amount of coolant that should go into the system since you're at least 8 inces from the top level. Thus, you'll be driving around missing about a half-gallon of coolant. I'm not convinced you can make this up from your res. tank. I would always fill it from the top port for one thing. And I don't want to drive it around without its full compliment of coolant either. I've never recommended this to drivers as you can never get that main bubble out of the top hose. Over time it gets crispy and you will wear out your top cap gasket quickly. In short, by not doing it the way i described, you run the risk of leaving air in the system or at least running it without enough coolant.

I'm not convinced that your water pump seal is the reason you're overheating - especially if you aren't losing much fluid. You should be going down significantly if your pump seal's going out. And even if it's your pump seal, I can's see how it's affecting your ability to cool unless your're losing fluid significantly. This happened to me and I didn't have any trouble with overheating, I just lost too much fluid. I'd also want to know the year and whether you have one of the whimpy radiators. It's also possible that whoever replaced your coolant last time didn't do it correctly and there's a significant amount of air in your system. Another thing that can go bad is your fan - if you have one of the hydraulic ones like I do, the switch can go bad and you win't get enough fan action at traffic lights. The same thing can go wrong with the electric fans. I only know about my year, 93 with regard to cooling, but it's definately not designed with robust enough components from the factory. The new, thicker radiator is much better at cooling. In fact, the fan almost never needs to come on any more and it runs about 2 degrees cooler in the hottest part of summer. SPEEDRACER - i had mine replaced recently in Atlanta for $650 at Lexus. This included the timing belt of course. My local independent wanted the same amount, but my Lexus warranties their work for 1 year. For what it's worth, they yelled at me for using the green coolant.

Does anyone have a good idea of which parts are best purchased from Lexus or Toyota vs. Autozone etc.? Or is it just that any part from Lexus is going to cost 200% - 400% more than the equivalent 3rd party item? As an example, is there any reason to spend $70 on the brake pads for my '93 ES300? The most I can spend on brake pads at a parts store is $50, but the average is around $20. Or how about $650 for a replacement radiator vs. $230 for the 3rd party? What's going on here? I mean really...

Thanks, but I wasn't asking how to do it - by the way, this isn't the best way to do it. But I'll be more than happy to share that with you. I really need to know what those drain plugs look like and exactly where they are. I hear there's just one on my '93, but I don't know what it looks like and I'll be darned if I can find it.

Can you be a little more specific? What exactly do they look like? It is possible to drain and refill from the radiator several times and accomplish the task, but I'd rather get it all out at once.

I'm sorry, you just CANNOT justify paying what we're asked to pay even if you're getting a Ferrari serviced. First of all, the parts are ridiculous - I can usually find OEM parts elsewhere for 1/3 to 1/8 the price. OK, maybe you're somehow convinced that $70 brake pads are worth it. But for them to leave tools scattered about, that's just pitiful. I'm not sure about this engine steaming thing - can you guys describe this? I've not found that anything but hand wiping to be safe. If you get a bit of steam (moisture) in the wrong places, you'll have ignition problems until you take it to Lexus and spend $650 to get it cleared up. Here's my example of why I'm avoiding Lexus dealerships unless necessary: I had my water pump replaced. They said "You're water pump is now replaced. Do you want us to do the brakes? They're shot." I said, "How much?" They said, "$625" Naturally I was curious, so I asked what they did for that much, expecting them to bleed them and test the anti-lock system as well as turn the rotors and lube any bearings and replace pads. "We replace pads, turn rotors, and top off fluid. Possibly lube some bearings." Tell me why this should cost $625? Not only that, only the rear pads were worn down. The front pads still had a good 30,000 miles in them! I don't trust these guys worth a flip. The problem here is that we have high quality Japanese cars that embody the meaning of quality, but sheister american dealerships that are fundmentally no different than any other dealership!

Ford claims that some of it's seals on certain motors will go bad from the Red but not the green. Rather strange given what's in the green stuff...

Anyone know where the engine block drain plug is on a 93 ES? I've been doing the radiator flushes the harder way...

LEX3486 - I think he's trying to replace fluids, not top them off. Here's how to drain and refill your coolant: Drain this thing completely. If you know where the engine block plug is, drain from there as well as the radiator and fill with water once and drain again. I usually fill up the radiator first, then I fill from the top port until it won't take any more. Then run the engine until it's hot with the top cap off and keep adding coolant as needed. With the engine still running and top cap off, add coolant until it's full (judging by the top cap port, not the tank) and put a funnel in the port. You will see air bubbling up in the funnel for a while. Keep adding coolant to keep it full here. When the bubbles are gone, put the cap on and top off the resevior. Now you have an air-free system :D as it was meant to be. Run it a while to make sure the tank stays where you want it. I'm not sure if it hurts to have it filled beyond the "full" line. If you guys are out there doing this wrong, you're ending up with air in your system and that can also cause overheating! Also, with regard to the brakes - I don't recommend "just add as needed" If your brake fluid has gone down between bleeds. You should bleed your lines at this point as it takes quite some time for this to happen - unless you want to replace your calipers. The back ones will be especially nasty. Brakes will last a long time if you bleed a minimum of every 2 years. With transmission - I'd get it power flushed every 60,000 miles and drain and refill every 15,000 in between. I can't tell you how often or what to do with power steering fluid, but if it fails, your fan fails too. Lito - if you're doing a fluid "replacement" you need to do a true replacement.

Thanks, that's what I thought.

If you have red in it now - and you'll know if it's dirty red or brown - i'd stick with it. The green would never look like this. My dealership insists on this for my 93. Flush it good too. By the way - anyone know where the engine block drain plug is? I've heard it's up there somewhere, but I can't find it.

Anyone ever have to go in and replace the rear tailight lens on a 93 ES300? Is it just a matter of removing all those panel fastners?

Which one and how long have you had it in there? There is no harm to using the green other than using a silicate-based anti-freeze will wear out your water pump sooner. Lexus sells the non-silicate based coolant exclusively here in Atlanta under the Lexus name. (That is the red stuff.) My Ford Windstar however CANNOT take the red according to the users manual. I wouldn't know why...I thought the red superceded all the others. There is the claim that changing coolant from green to red can make matters worse as a result of mixing, but I think a good flush should be all you need to get enough of the green's inhibitors out. If you take your Lexus to a dealership here in Atlanta, the first thing they'll do is yell at you for using the green stuff. For the RECORD - both colours are ethelyne-glycol. It's the inhibitors that are different. The green stuff contains silicates while the red has some other stuff. It was designed to be longer life and cause less wear on pump seals. Which one is "right"? I'd say the red is "best", not "right". Best in this case means not having to replace your water pump at 95,000 miles. STEVIEJ - there is no reason for the radiator to be so inadequate at transfering heat in the summer other than a fault or poor design from what I can tell. I've spent some time playing with this thing, and I've concluded that this cooling system was designed with no margin for error. Small faults that wouldn't bother another cooling system will put this one over the top. If one can get away with the original thin radiator, by all means use it. Just be aware that there is an alternative that can cure its ills.

I seem to remember that Toyota/Lexus was selling the red coolant for some time before it went "consumer". I've seen many an older Lexus and Camry (early 90's) with the red stuff and I don't assume that many people were changing out their coolants. I could be wrong. For the record, I replaced my radiator only when I had to - the crack was big enough to let out coolant. But clearly the newer/thicker one is a much better design. If you factor in the cost of taking it to a radiator shop and getting all this checking done, you might have replaced your radiator and cured the problem - weigh your options before going to repair shops.

Hi MDC, A leak in the head gasket didn't cause overheating. The cracked radiator caused the overheating that caused the blown head gasket. Yes, the 93 ES300 is very notorius for this as Toyota didn't do a very good job of matching up the cooling system components. Look for another post "93 Es 300 Overheating" and my reply about the causes of this. Make sure you end up with the thicker radiator!

Hi Colloe3, I'm new to the group, but I have some points to answer your question and answer this cooling problem once for all. This car has a poorly matched set of components that spell overheating at some point in its life. There are three things that cause the 93 es300 to have overheating problems: 1) The original radiator is only about 12mm thick - way too thin to handle hellish heat like one would see in the Southeast in the summer. When everything else is perfect, you'll run fine. But if there is any clog, fan slowdown, or very high ambient temperature, you're going to overheat. This then sets off a whole series of nasty possibilities. The replacement radiator, (don't go to Lexus and pay the $600, get the SAME one from Advance for $229), is twice as thick at about 21-24 mm. This thing will drink the coolant and do a much much better job of sucking heat off your engine. 2) Hydraulic fan switch bad - not enough fan action. This has been blamed for overheating problems, and indeed, more fan action would help. But I really think (1) is the more significant problem. It's really a stroke of genius to make this hydraulic fan - in theory it should be more reliable. However, there is a switch that ports the fluid over to the fan from the power steering that can go bad. Your fan won't come on enough. Yes, this is better than an electric fan in that the fan itself really never wears out. As with the electric fans, switches are problematic at times. But electric fans just plain burn out. This thing will never break. 3) Cracked radiator - I don't know which comes first, but eventually your 93 ES300 will have a cracked radiator tank. On such a small and whimpy radiator as this, it doesn't take much. You will lose coolant over the course of minutes, hours, or days. As it boils off, you'll lose the ability to cool efficiently. Hopefully, you won't have a blown head gasket or any other heat related damage. The replacement radiator will not be as likely to do this as the whole system will work better. I replaced mine for $229 - no other parts are typically required. And be sure to use the Dexron red coolant - it's silicate free and will be kinder to your water pump. If you don't, in a matter of months, your water pump will fail and that's a guaranteed $700 repair. I'm guessing that this coolant is not as efficient as the green stuff, but you really don't have a choice here. And the caps - they do need to be fresh, but in themselves aren't enough to cause problems. If you're having overheating and replacing the radiator caps helps, you have other potential monsters lurking under that hood. Having the thicker radiator covers a multitude of sins. See ya...