homemechanic

Don't worry about the smoke. My 99 ES300 smoked up like a railroad engine. I put in about 1/3 can of Seafoam into the fuel tank, 1/3 into the oil and 1/3 into the intake. If you want to know more about Seafoam, do a search here. Afterward, the car smoked up for like 20 min before the smoke start to dissipate. I started driving my car and the car still smoked like the railroad engine. That was on a windy day, the smoke was blowing pretty hard. The smoke finally gone after about 20 minutes of driving. I can feel the car is much better. You can also clean the throttle and IACV. My car was running like new after cleaning the IACV. A lot of carbon was building up in there. Someone had posted a nice write up on IACV with pictures. There is a PCV valve for your car. A clean air filter helps too. If you really want your car to perform at the top of the notch, try Amsoil. Flush the engine with an Amsoil flush and then use Amsoil oil and filter. Oil and filter is good for 25K miles. For lazy people like me, this actually saves me the time of changing oil 5x a year. Car runs a bit smoother and feel a bit more horses under th hood. $1100 for 90K service is kind of expansive. Try not going to the dealer. The plugs are not that difficult to change, just a little tricky for the back ones. With the right tools, the plugs can be changed in 30 min.

If you don't know how to take the throttle and IAVC apart, good idea to go to a shop and have them cleaned. An hour of labor is FAIR. Consider I took three hours to dissemble, remove two stripped screws, clean and re-assemble. I also invested in a small short handle ratchet to get the nut off the bottom of the throttle. That hour of labor you paid is well worth the quiet and smooth idle and acceleration. The shops in the west here charge more than $100 for this service.

Anyway, I guess I don't need to work on the car anymore if running 1500 RPM at cold is normal. After I cleaned the IAVC and throttle, it's running more like 1700 RPM today because the temperature dropped to around 50F here. The throttle and IAVC hasn't been cleaned at all for 120K miles because I bought the car used. My gloves were like charcoal after cleaning that stuff out with brushes and cotton swap. I guess I don't need to worry now. By the way, I had a good lesson on taking out stripped screws. The IAVC screws are pain in the a$$ to take out. I stripped two screws in the process. I used a wheel cutter and tried to make a grove for the flat head screw driver, but no luck with turning the screws. I ended up using a pair of vice grip to turn the stripped screws.

Hi. I need a little help here. I was able to remove the throttle and cleaned the IAVC. However, I am still getting a high idle at cold start. It's idling around 1500 rpm when I turn the car on and drops to 600-700 rpm when the car runs hot. Any other suggestions? Thank you!

the other option is check with the dealer to see if they offer extended warranty up to 100K miles or 2 more years. if they give you a discount warranty or free warranty, i will consider. it just puts your mind at ease. may be the tune up and timing belt will eat some $$$, but i would consider it. i bought my 99 ES300 at 97K miles last year. Now it's at 121K miles. Runs great after a complete tune up, timing belt and engine flush.

the rule of thumb is ABS would not work when the light is on. this is to avoid any faulty airbag deployments.

Yup, the Amsoil ATF works great on my 99 ES300. I drained the old fluid out and flushed the tranny w/like 5 quarts of Amsoil ATF. Afterward, fill the tranny up w/Amsoil. It has been a week now and the shifting is better. I can noticeably feel the difference in the morning when the car is cold. It's giving me a much smoother shift from 1st to 2nd and 2nd to 3rd when the car is cold overnight. I want to put in a tranny cooler. It doesn't look like there is room in front of the radiator because the A/C line goes across it. Any suggestions? Thank you!

Yes, it's entirely possible to crack the transmission housing. For example, running over a metallic object and dragged it under the transmission. I have heard of it, but not common occurrence. Show us the crack and then will see if it's repairable. If it's not a long crack, no major chippings involved and the crack is not up to the engine/transmission joint, it can be repaired. The repair process involves removing the pan and spray chemicals inside the transmission to clean out the fluid before welding. The catch is where do you take your car to have it repair. You need to find a shop that does repairs and welding together, like a muffler/repair place.

may be the belt or just low on freon? what year is your car? push down on the belt and if it's really loose, belt problem.

check your fuses and look at the wires from the alternator to see if they are loose or rusted

I debated a little about tranny cooler and look under the hood. There doesn't seen to be room for a tranny cooler. It's not recommended to install it behind the fans. The other option is in front of the AC condenser/behind the front bumper. There is a high pressure AC line right between the condenser and bumper. It's kind of hard to place the cooler there with so little room. Any suggestions? Has anyone tried installing one on a 99 ES300 VVTI? I might just go with the Amsoil ATF for now and hope the tranny will run a little cooler. Thanks!

Yeah, I wasn't sure about the ES. The IS only holds just over 2. Fords carry 8-12 qts!! I figured the ES would carry more than the IS. So maybe just drain 1 quart at a time and replenish it. And just do that at scheduled maintanence intervals. I have the newer ES300 tranny for that year. It's the U140 model. The Chilton manual said it holds 8.7 quarts total. Drain and filter is about 3.7 quarts. Before I bought the car, the previous owner rebuilt the tranny. The tranny was dead and he thinks he can't sell it w/o rebuilding it. Now the tranny has about 20K miles on it. Should I still flush it? I was reading the Amsoil tech notes and talking to another mechanic. They said drain the fluid in the pan. Then loosen the tranny hose from the radiator and drain the remaining fluid out by idling the engine. It's not going to hurt the tranny as long as not put into gears. The remaining fluid will drain out in like 20 seconds. Afterward, refill about 3 quarts and drain again. Do that twice and that should pretty much remove the old tranny fluid. Looking at about 15 quarts total to flush and refill.

How many miles on it? 120K miles.. . bought the car when it was 95K miles. did all the tune up, timing belts, belts. . . had a tranny fluid changed at 95K miles, so about time for another round. i drive up and down the hills a lot and inclines on freeways.

well, i never tried these products. may be i go w/amsoil this time and see? i never flushed my tranny, just drain and filter changed.

Guys, I am a little confused. Some recommended Amsoil filter and motor oil which is good for 25,000 miles or 1 year. Some also recommended Red Line ATF. I don't know which one I should go for. Both Amsoil and Red Line sell motor oil and ATF. What do you recommend for engine and tranny? If I were to replace my existing ATF with either Amsoil or Red Line, do I just drain and fill? and do that like three times? Or is there a better way to remove the existing ATF more efficiency without going to a shop? Thanks guys!

jwa0 made one minor mistake in the instructions. The very last step should be UNLOCK instead of LOCK. This should unlock the doors. These instructions do work, and I have tried them before last year.

Had the same problem before, but didn't know until the next fill up. I went into the gas station and got a few slips of lottery forms. Jammed that into the right side of the gas door and pushed the release button . . . OPEN!!! Well. . it's not really a spring. It's just a piece of metal folded in halves. You can just get a small piece of metal, fold it in halves and glue it to the car. The spring is located at the LEFT edge of the gas opening on the car body. Just carry a few pieces of paper or index cards with you.. .. problem solved!

Is the car driving ok? anything you feel that's hindering the drive of the car? Could be the transmission is having a little problem? like transmission sensors?

I was trying to remove the throttle body and clean the IACV. I ran into a problem removing the nut/bolt at the bottom of the throttle body. It's located in a very tight space and can't get a ratchet and a socket in. Any special tools to recommend? Or how do you remove that nut/bolt? Going from the back with a very little room??? Got a 1999 ES300 with the new design (variable timing engine) Thanks guys!

try Mitchell repair manuals. It's quite expansive, but a lot more info that a guy working on cars at home can't understand. That's why I go w/Chilton. . .cheap and cover just the basic repairs.

I believe the 99 coach model still uses the chip built inside the key. The ones sold on ebay will not work because the chip can be removed. If you have a chip built-in key, you need to go to the dealer and have a new one made. Try Sewell Lexus. . . .search the coupon code on this forum or online for a discount and then place your order online. The remote can be purchased from eBay. Match sure you match the part # on the existing one to the one sold on eBay. Otherwise, the similar looking ones will not work. You should be able to find the programming instructions on this site for both the key and the remote. I found them here before, but forget where I put them at home. If you can't find it, I guess I can dig them up and send to you. Follow the easy instructions and you will be able to program the remote and key correctly. Takes no more than 10 minutes to program both.

I had my 99 ES300 transmission rebuilt. I asked the shop owner what type of ATF they used. He said they used ATF from Unocal that is equivalent to Toyota Type T-IV. On the invoice, he charged me $2.75 per quart. If you buy Type T-IV from the dealer, it's like $5 to $6 per quart. Anyone heard of Unocal's ATF = Toyota Type T-IV??? The reason I asked the shop because I felt the gear delayed shift from 2nd to 3rd about twice in 40 miles over the weekend. Every morning I put the car in drive, I can feel a strong jerk. I don't recall such jerking before the rebuilt, plus another old car I have doesn't jerk at all. Anyone have an idea???

may be transmission? scan it for codes

It would be easier to remove the bottom connection if you have the right size off-set wrench. The crowfeet set might work, but never tried it.

To be honest, the only thing you need to change is the entire car. It's hard to really trust old transmissions like these. If the used transmission is only a couple years old and not too many miles, I would take a chance. Otherwise, it's frankly not worth the money to install a used one from the early 90's. The costs of the old transmission and labor out pace the value of the car. If you only plan to keep the car for another year or two and/or you drive little, not even worth replacing the transmission.