homemechanic

looks like you just pull it out go to the parts counter at the dealership or an auto parts store to look at the fuse, like pretend you are buying a new one. study the fuse and ask the guys how to remove it.

check the vacuum hoses for the entire car. . may be a leaking hose? or hydraulic loosing vacuum?

did you change your brake fluid and bleed the brake system completely out of air? sometimes the air trap inside the system can give you the pulse/vibration during braking. it's a good idea to change/flush brake system once every now and then to remove all the dirt in the fluid and give it fresh fluid. old fluid absorbs a lot of water overtime.

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the manufacturer built in this safety factor for those keep driving down to the last drop w/the fuel light warning. When the gauge hits empty, there is still 1-2 gallons left. This gives you a chance to get to the gas station. if you really want to fill up to the max. capacity, you have to really top off the filling. Most importantly, i would fill up when you are down to 1/4 tank. the fuel pump needs cooling. in order to displace the heat, it uses gasoline to carry the heat away from the pump to the walls of the tank. the less fuel there is in the tank, the less efficient the cooling will be and result in fuel pump failure in the long run. this is also the same for airplanes, but they have more than one fuel pumps as back-ups.

fuel filter should be changed you might need a flare-nut wrench for this job. it's a 5-sided wrench to give you a better grip.

hard to say: yes or no. . i had the same problem before. the tire tech used a wire brush and scrubbed off the corroded chrom area inside the rim and then put some tire bead seal on it. sometimes this trick works, and sometimes it doesn't. in my case, it didn't work. two options: 1. have the chrom rims re-chrom. this can run $200-300 per rim, which is probably not worth it on a 9 yr old car with a lot of miles. 2. i went ahead and bought some alloy rims from tirerack.com they were like $80 a piece shipped to your door and put them on at the next tire change. i don't really care too much about the look, so this off market rims are ok for me.

1st: it should take no more than a day of labor to uninstall and install a transmission. 2nd: i would NOT spend the money on this repair since the car is already 13 yrs old. after this repair, who knows what other major repairs you will have down the road. it could be the transmission i would just top off the oil if you can. if not, there is not a whole lot you can do besides repair. it's hard to say if those oil additives will help stop the leak. it all depends on how big the leak is. if you really want to do the job, get some quotes from transmission shops. they are more equipped with taking out a transmission than a regular mechanic.

my advice: STOP. . .STOP. . .STOP. . . . hope you got the message by now. 92 ES300 is probably NOT using the newer freon that you can buy from the auto part stores. If it is using the R12a (the old type), you cannot mix the new type and the old type. I believe the new freon started around 94-95 time frame, but definitely by 97. So check which type of freon your car is using. You can find the label somewhere. I believe the auto part stores might still sell the conversion kit. However, you have to have a professional to drain the old freon first. Releasing freon into the air is illegal, and if any freon gets into your eyes, you can go blind quickly.

you can replace the boots yourself for like $25-30 each. easy to do. . .i done it on my ford a few years back . take out the tire . get a knife and cut old the old one. . put the new one on and glue the halves together. . add the grease that comes w/the new one. . . put the ties and wheel back on. . done if u r replacing the inner boot, make sure you have proper jack stands

it's your transmission that's the problem. it's fine to go for 2nd opinion. however, these free diagnostics aren't really that accurate unless they encounter a severe problem while driving. the really get an accurate view of the problem requires taking the transmission apart. by then, might as well rebuild it. if u get an error code, they can scan it. sometimes they can fix it by pulling out the filter and valve body. otherwise, most likely a rebuild job.

i got a 99 ES300 here and had the tranny rebuilt before. here is what you need to know -- do: 1. 99 model has 2 types of tranny: electronic vs. manual. electronic uses Type IV ATF and manual uses Dexcon ATF 2. When you go to an outside shop, they will give you 2 quotes. A = complete rebuilt, B = partial rebuilt Depends on how bad the tranny is, they will know complete vs. partial rebuilt once they take apart the tranny. Complete rebuilt includes new gears and shafts and other wear/tear parts. Partial rebuilt includes gaskets, clutches and other wear/tear parts (basically no hard parts in the partial rebuilt). All rebuilt jobs should include a new torque converter. Otherwise, DO NOT do business with that shop. my tranny is the electronic type = complete rebuilt $2500 and partial rebuilt = $1900 the manual tranny is cheaper to rebuilt because of cheaper parts.

ford uses screw in piston too. my 95 mustang got rear screw in piston. . had to buy a $10 screw in tool for that one.

i think you really need to read that blinking code to solve the problem. be worry free, airbags don't go off when you get that light stay on. however, your airbags would NOT deploy in an accident. if u believe it's the sensors behind the bumper, then you have to locate the short or determine if the sensor is bad. if it's the fail safe sensor inside the airbag computer, the entire computer must be replaced. that blinking code will give tell you which sensor or malfunction issue of the airbag.

the flashing sequence is equivalent of giving you an error code. for example, Code 43 flash-flash-flash-flash (long pause) flash-flash-flash. a very short pause in between each flash and a long pause between each digit. you can probably find out what the error code is telling you online or here on this site. btw, why u think it's the sensor?

doesn't make sense to have a fuel filter inside the fuel tank. the 99-00 models have it below the brake fluid reservoir, right by the firewall.

there is not really a cable adjustment for this transmission because it's an electronic transmission. the older transmission using ATF Dex3 or Dex4 have a cable for adjustment. i believe the late 99 models started using the electronic transmission. it's going to be a tough guess on this one. make sure the ATF fluid level is correct.

Here is my 2 cents: Bad economy, so dealers are all trying not to give free services if they don't have to. If you notice, a lot of dealership repairs are slow these days because they are freaking expensive and have to feed expensive union guys. They might have to try to brush you off from the 1st repair since they knew this is going to be an expensive fix. There got to be a reason for leaking so much freon to begin with. I can see this is an 8-hour for one tech because he got to rid out the whole dashboard from left to right. If you took your car somewhere else, it might be a lot cheaper to repair. In your case of evaporator coil, it's hard to say why it failed some early so. I can see why the tech didn't spot the leak because the evaporator coil is inside the car's HVAC. One reason for premature failure could be the AC is not turned on during the weather. the AC system needs to be used like 15 min every other week.

i found it. need to pull the passenger carpet out just a little from the left foot area. with a flashlight, the tube is just about 1 inch from where u pulled the carpet.

Anyone has a detail description or a picture of where the AC drain pipe is? It's located near the evaporator and most likely passenger side, but I need a more precise description. Please let me know if you know how to access it. Want to make sure it's draining the water from the AC evaporator. consider buying the AC evaporator cleaning stuff to try out to get rid of the odor, but need to make sure it's draining properly. 99 ES300 Thanks!

Ok. . $600 to troubleshoot and replace a coil is definitely a rip off. I would file a complaint w/the Bureau of Automotive Repair or something similar in your state. Here is a scenario at a Lexus dealer with the most expensive labor in the US (the West Coast) Troubleshooting - Diagnostic (1.0 hour labor) = $170 Replace ONE coil (0.5 hour, but they round the time up to an hour) = $170 A new coil = $100 (at the very most) total= $440 and this is the worse case. Most of the time they wouldn't even charge you the labor for coil replacement. One hour is probably sufficient to troubleshoot w/a scanner and replace the coil.

took me 1.5 hours last time to do plugs and coils. . . i was a bit slow anyway coils from Autozone = $60/each + tax. . they are Denso stuff . .OEM the back probably took the majority of the time . buy a full set of extension before you start the job. you sort of need to figure out which extension to use as you go along.

if the mechanic is changing out all six spark plugs and ALL six ignition coils for $600 total, that's not bad at all. Coils = $60 each + tax Plugs = $7 each + tax looking at 1.0 to 1.5 hours of labor i had the same problem 2 months ago. an ignition coil went bad. i decided to change out all six, just like you would change the spark plugs.

it doesn't take hours to get a battery tested and you don't have to make a special trip for it. you can have the battery tested while you buy parts @ Autozone or Kragen. i am sure you visit part stores at least 2-3 times a year. Removing the battery is not necessary. takes 5 minutes to test anyway. you can change a battery every 3 years. but you can't avoid battery failures sometimes. i had 2 batteries failed on me within 2 years of warranty on 3 different cars. so go figures. . .

1 way to know if a battery is near its life is to check for amps, cranking power and voltage charging. visit Kragen or other parts stores. they have the right tools to measure this for you. simply replace a battery every three years is not very practical. a performance battery can go 5 - 7 years on 8+ years warranty, depending how many times you turn on the car each day.