homemechanic

Hi Guys! Please give me some price estimates as to the price of a used 2008 ES350. It's a dealership loaner car with Navigation and 21,000 miles. Thanks guys!

you don't need to change the screen. let's do some math here: the transmission holds about 11 quarts of ATF a drain & refill will only replace about 4 quarts. 1x drain & refill = 35% displacement of old ATF w/Amsoil 2x drain & refill = 50% dispalcement of old ATF prior to any changes w/Amsoil so u drain & refill, then drive around for a week or so and do that again = 50% displacement of old ATF the $90 service is probably not going to do you much good. you really need about 90% Amsoil ATF in there to be effective here is what i did 1. drain 2. unplug the transmission coolant hoses and turn on the engine to let more ATF pump out 3. refill w/Amsoil ATF, idle the engine for 5 min to let the ATF mix well and repeat step 1 and 2 4. refill w/enough Amsoil ATF 5. final result is 90% Amsoil ATF or greater 6. now your ATF is good for another 50K miles

About these CEL, the computer stores the code even after the CEL went off. Sometimes the scanner can pick up the error code after a CEL went off. I had a CEL P1xxx 2 months ago for overnight and went off the next day. I scanned it and still inside the computer. This happens because the car/computer was able to compensate the problem and the computer feels it's somewhat back to normal, so the CEL went off. If you don't deal w/the CEL before the next smog check, it will fail the smog check by a previous CEL. By the way, the ignition cool CEL will not go off once the coil is damaged. I suspect you have some other problems going on and computer might be compensating it.

It's probably not the main seals. If so, you will see a significant leak and more than a few drops a day. I had this problem w/my Mustang before. Smell it if you idle for a while and drive off. Can't figure out for more than a year. It turns out it was not an oil leak. It was a leaking heater core in front of the airbag computer. The coolant shorted out the airbag computer once, and I didn't see any coolant while replacing the computer. The computer was shorted out again 2 months later. At that point the leak was bad enough that I found a puddle of coolant there. I would pull out your cabin air filter and look/smell for coolant. It's often hard to smell very very minor oil burning from the inside of the car because fresh air goes in from the windshield guard.

it is not metal rings holding the gaskets in place. there are two small tabs holding each gasket in place. you have to sort of bend/ply the tabs out in order to remove/install gaskets. after installing the new gaskets, you need to bend the tabs back in. make sure you go gently on the tabs, or they might break on you.

easy to remove. . assuming the car is up on a lift or raised up somehow at the junkyard. i don't know if your state allows selling mufflers to the public, even @ junkyards. California does not allow that anymore.

I don't know if you can locate an engine for your car anymore. You need one that would work with your transmission. If you do find out, it would be like $600. Then you might still want to do the timing belt on this replacement engine and etc. .stuff. . u end up looking at over $1000 for just parts. still worth it?

If the sensors are starting to go bad, you might not see the codes yet. Your tranny has gotten used to the old fluid. The new fluid is sort of like detergent and can eat away the seals, gaskets and etc. By the way, I find it very odd that you need a rear main seal replacement at 74K miles. It tells me the oil changes were not done frequent enough or some odd things happened. If you do need a rebuilt, make sure they know which tranny you have. For that particular year, there happens to be two different tranny. I know because I had my tranny rebuilt at 118K miles.

Congratulation on your 1st Lexus. next time you want a Lexus, pay me the money and I drive a car to you for a lot cheaper! Now. . the front end noise. Did you actually notice the strut mount is the problem? There is really no "lube solution" to the strut mount. This is not a one of those German cars where you add fluid to the struts. I would look at this further before replacing the struts.

How about the alignment? did you have to re-align the front end?

Thanks guys! I have been using Unlead 91 and engine recently flushed w/Seafoam. Still no helps. The engine is very clean. 6 months ago I replaced the valve cover gaskets and no gelling. Some suggested go back to 87 and see if too much octane is the problem. Any other suggestions??? Thanks

Guys, I am hearing the clicking/ticking noise when the car climbs uphill at 5-15 mph. The noise goes away above 20 mph. I am guessing the valves are out of spec. I kept thinking all these years that valve adjustments are not needed for the VVTi engines. 180K miles, 99 ES300 VVTi engine. Please provide your recommendations. Thank you. Happy Holidays!!!

My friend had suggested me to clean the oil control valve filters to see if the clicking/ticking noise will go away during an engine load. I am having troubles locating the filters. The Chilton book said it's located at the rear of each cylinder head, but I can't find it. Any suggestions or a better picture. Thank you! Merry X'mas Everyone!

You need to remove the glove box in order to get a clear view of the motor. Takes 10 minutes to remove the glove box. 1. open glove box and remove the 3 screw at the top edge 2. remove the black plastic board direction under the glove box from the passenger foot area( place your head under the glove box and look up). You just need to pull it down. 3. another 2 or 3 screws at the bottom edge of the glove box. you will see those screws w/the box closed. 4. right directly under the glove box and to your right, there is a carpet/plastic cover at the wall. pull that out. 5. gently pull back the door area plastic trimming next to that carpet/plastic cover. no need to remove, just pull back to see the 10 or 12 mm bolt. remove that bolt. 6. gently ply the glove box at the top edge from the inside and lift the glove box out. 7. now you see the motor w/3 screws bolted to it.

there seems to be some confusions as to which ATF to use. Here is a general break down. Check the ATF dipstick, and it will specify which one to use. 1. Dex III/IV is for the non-electronic transmission, sort of the pre-99 ES300 2. Type T-IV is for the electronic transmission, 99 ES300 w/VVTi engines or later models 3. If you are confused or uncertain which ATF to use, use Amsoil ATF. It's a synthetic ATF and compatible w/numerous ATF systems. Good for 50K miles. I actually go even longer than 50K on Amsoil ATF because I drive 95% freeway. By the way, I find it very odd that coolant mixes w/ATF. Typically ATF passes thru the cooling hoses surrounding the radiator and returns into the transmission. Unless you have a crack radiator and crack ATF cooling hoses right at the same contacting point, I find it hard to see how ATF mixes w/coolant. For argument sake, the car might have a front accident impact at that point.

Here are some simple definitions for ATF: Dex III/IV can be used for any Dex required system. Type T-IV: for Lexus/Toyota w/the electronic transmission. Some shops mix a special ATF w/Dex III to get to the equivalent of T-IV. Your 96 ES300 does not have electronic tranny. Type F: for older Ford cars MaxLife by Valvoline: Good If you buy that, you might as well get the Amsoil ATF, which is compatible w/a lot of other ATF's. It even works for Mercedes. I have been using Amsoil ATF for a long time. It recommends changing at 50K miles, but the ATF is still very good. Amsoil ATF can go different extremes in temperature when compared to MaxLife.

I just use a piece of wood or a long metal pipe to hold up the hood. doesn't seem to be worth the $$ and time to replace these things when hood is not opened that often

good. . u got the right code to start with, but the only problem is that the color will not match after 12+ years, the paint has faded somewhat. . so whatever u buy as the original color will be darker than what's on the car let us know what you plan to do, can give u some advice here a good example is I had to replace my car's bumper covers after an accident. the bottom color is completely off comparing to the doors' cladding. they shop had to repaint, but u can still kind of tell the discrepancies.

4 quarts is about the right amount now why do u want to do drain and fill 3 times? i am not sure if there is a filter in this transmission. i would consider changing that too if u are going from other brands to amsoil fluid, you can unplug the transmission coolant hoses from the radiator and turn the car on. the pump will push another 2 quarts out. please don't drive your car w/the trans coolant hoses off. if this car hasn't changed the trans fluid in a long time, it's probably NOT a good idea to change now the new fluid acts as a detergent and can eat up the old/degraded seals

check the GS300 section. some of the 98-99 models have the EMS. ems is not very common in the ES300

Here's another suggestion. You can draw out a bit of engine oil and send it for analysis. If they detect some unusual metals or elements in the oil, they can then give you an idea what's wearing out or wrong inside the engine. I think Amsoil is still doing it. Can't be sure. . check their website. it's like $20

5 quarts of oil in 500 miles. I would definitely look into oil leaks. With 5 quarts of oil burning thru, you definitely would see constant blue/black smoke of out the exhaust, a film of exhaust built up on your rear bumper above the exhaust pipe and very noticeable loss of or lack of power. I have a 99" ES300 w/the VVTI engine, which is a similar engine as your car. These engines are notorious for sludge formation and oil leaks. After 10 years of service, I replaced the valve cover gaskets and spark plug seals. The seals cracked to a point that engine oil was leaking into the spark plug seats. I haven't replaced the cam and crank oil seals yet, which will be done at the next timing belt change. Here are the main areas of oil leaks: valve covers gaskets (front + back) spark plug seals cam seals crank seals front main oil seal rear main oil seal I would look into the valve covers and cam/crank seals first.

u can also look into shops that do engine flushes. make sure it's a machine flush, not just adding a bottle of solvent into the engine oil. they have a machine that attaches the hose inplace of the oil filter and pushes HOT solvent thru to dissolve the carbon stuff. the stuff comes out of oil drain will look dirt black initially.

check the rack and pinion

changing tranny at home is almost not recommended. need a lot of extension tools need a tranny jack/stand need an engine support bracket (w/o that the engine will fall out and not safe) plus u need 2 guys on this job for lifting heavy stuff. if you going to change the tranny, you might want to replace the rear main seal as well. also put in a few torque converter for the tranny. . old converters are nightmares