Archi

BEFORE YOU DO THIS BE AWARE THAT SOME OF THESE PLASTIC PIECES MAY BE A BIT OLD AND BRITTLE, SO PRY ON THEM GENTLY WORKING EACH SIDE IF NECCESSARY. First remove the phillips screw under the felt of the inside door handle: Remove the two plastic clips at the rear of the door panel using a butter knife or some similar object. They are wedge type clips....the center piece comes out and unwedges the clip. BE SURE TO ONLY PRY ON THE WEDGE PART...NOT THE ENTIRE CLIP!!! Pop off the small plastic screw cover near the defroster vent duct with a butter knife and remove the phillips screw: Pull the inside door handle out a bit and pry the trim piece out with your fingers: Starting at the bottom of the panel and working up the front and back, wedge your fingers around the panel and pop it away from the door. Once you have it loose, hold the panel out at the bottom a few inches and pull up to free it from the door....You may find it easier to have the window down when you do this....ROLL IT BACK UP BEFORE DISCONNECTING THE WIRES. There were 3 connectors on mine....The courtesy light, window switches, and the trunk/fuel release switches. Next, carfully peel the plastic off the door while trying to keep as much of the sticky black stuff on the plastic...Keep the adhesive clean and it can be used to stick the plastic back on when you're done. You shouldn't have to pull it off completely. If the rod has come loose at the outside door handle, you can look through the hole to see if it's still connected...If it is, you'll have to take a few more pieces off to check where it connects to the actual latch. I'll assume you can take it from here. Good luck and let us know if you get it fixed. ~Archi

Sounds like the rod that links the door handle to the actual latch mechanism has come loose. You could pull off the door panel and see if everything is still attatched. ~Archi

Use a paperclip to connect the two terminals shown in the pic... I use the second connector(check connector) that is found under the hood on the passenger side near the firewall. I think yours should be the same. YOU MAY WANT TO CONFIRM THAT YOURS IS THE SAME FIRST. Follow the instructions in the pic....SST= paperclip :) ~Archi

When my battery went bad on my ES300, the door locks would attempt to lock the doors over and over until I unhooked the battery. No problems after I bought a new battery. Autozone and many other auto places will test your battery for free. Good luck. ~Archi

I had already replaced the rear o2 sensor (super splice/shrink tube job by me :) ), plugs/wires/distrib and valve cover gaskets...oh and the timing belt/water pump, though I didn't get a new tensioner or idlers, which I'll do now. Yes, the cooling system was neglected....I'll be getting a new radiator/hoses while I'm @ it. Resonator has been gone. :) Thanks again!!! ~Archi

Sounds like you have a pretty straight trans guy there, chippmom. Good luck and keep us posted. Thanks, Toys. I knew you'd steer me in the right direction. I'm kinda on a tight budget and I don't really wanna drag or anything...I just want it to go when I get on it. I suppose I'll spring for the blue plate since I want this thing to be as bullet-proof as possible and I don't really feel like tearing this thing apart more often than I need to. I searched for valve body mods, but couldn't find anything...Could you be more specific? I'm assuming you have to buy different springs....?....Which passages to drill? AFA the cooler...Do you mean in addition to the factory cooler or did you chuck the old one in favor of the new one? The y-pipe is a definate....I just forgot to mention it. There are plenty of really good exhaust shops around here. Thanks much again, Toys....I may give you a shout on AIM sometime. BTW, my car was $900 for a reason...The guy hit a deer and it was minus a hood and had a busted windshield... $250 for a hood and $125 for a bronze windshield and it actually looked like a car! A local upholstery shop quoted $1000 to completley redo the seats, carpet, and headliner. All door panels, dash and other stuff is in great shape which leads me to believe it was once a garage baby. My uncle and I are going to do the spray.... What color do you think would look good.(It was once emerald :) ) All in all, it's a straight car that's a dream to drive. I'll probably wind up spending more $$ fixing it than I would have just shopping for a good one, but I see it as saving a good car from the junk pile...Plus, I love doing stuff like this and it's better than a car payment.

Hi all! I've been reading these forums for a few weeks now and I really like the info found here. I have a 92 ES300 bought on eBay for $900...(DON'T LAUGH!!) 3VZ-FE/A540e approx 175k....damn odometer LED is out(and needles, of course...good thing I know where to fix these thanks to LOC.) Anywho... I've got my engine and trans out and the trans is currently disassembled. 1) Which rebuild kit to buy? IPT has a couple priced about twice as much as I can get one locally from Dacco. How much difference is there among kits? What should I ask or look for in a kit? 2) What else should I do while I'm in there? Oil pump or torque converter replacement? Upgrades?(valve body...etc) Should I crack open the differential too? I'm not looking for a muscle car, but I thought about maybe doing NOS later on. 3) ENGINE--- The engine runs fine, but a compression check showed about 220psi on each piston.(kinda high, no?) Since I have it out, I thought about getting the block/heads resurfaced...port&polished...etc....new rings and gaskets/seals. I know the o-ring in the oil filter adapter is shot and I think the rear main is probably leaking also. Any advice on if this is worth it at this time or not? Any other suggestions? I'm going to add an inline filter for the trans as well since it has been suggested many times here. Does the ES have a factory cooler? It seems as though the lines run to something near the radiator/condenser, but I haven't really looked at that yet. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. **Looks @ Toys** :) VIVA LA ES300!!! ~Archi P.S.-- Sorry to hijack your thread, chippmom.