Loyal_Lexinator

It is the original belt. Still going strong at about 245K Miles. My 92 broke the belt around 230K i think. It didnt hurt the engine, and in fact i was told by a Lexus mechanic that the 98 was interference free as well... If someone could comment on this, that knows for sure i would appreciate it! If it is possible for the valves to hit the pistons, i will change the belt much sooner than planned... I am targeting early summer to take it out of commission for a weekend to do it myself. Hope this helps, Ron

I was told by 2 different mechanics that both the 92, and the 98 that i own are not interference engines... I know the 92 isnt for sure. I changed it out at approx 220K... our 98 has over 240K miles on it with the original. There is a huge safety factor built into the life/ miles on these IMHO... I changed out the 92 myself... and now have the parts for the 98 when i get a round to it... Hope this helps, Ron

I am not needing the EGR Sensor... I need the EGR Vacuum Control valve. (it is a solonoid w/ 3 vacume ports on it) I dont think this is the correct part... Do you have anything on the one i need?... I called again and they say "dealer only"... Thanks, Ron

Hi Camlex, We just had an O'Reilly store open locally. I was on hold for about 10 minutes while he "looked in the book" since it didnt come up in the computer... Do you have a part number?... or do you remember what you asked for when you purchased yours?... what year was yours for? I am going to wait to order till i hear some feedback from you. I also called Autozone, and Advanced Auto. They also said it was a "dealer item"... I look forward to hearing from you. Thanks for jumping in and letting me know this! Ron

I completely agree with replacing the Vacuum control valve, and plan on doing so. Now that i know what the problem is, it can be swapped out with a new part in about 10 minutes total. I am over an hour drive away from any dealerships, so i will be ordering the part today. Its a shame that its not available at the auto parts stores... Thanks again! Ron

Hi Floor_it, While i hate to admit it, i just passed up a 98' just like one that i already own for 6K... It was in near pristine condition, original owner. He hit a deer, and it did have some front end damage that he had taken care of, but looking the car over extremely well, i couldnt find any trace of a problem. This car had 98,000 miles on it. I think that this was a very good price on the car. They guy lost his job and was looking to do whatever he could to get some cash. I think it could have easily went for 8K. As far as miles you can expect, I have over 242,000 on the odometer on our 98 ES300, and 239,000 on our 92 ES300! Brakes, tires, Sparkplugs, and wires has all that i have done to either of them until just this weekend i had a problem with the EGR Vacuum control valve... I took it apart cleaned it out, and put it back together for a total cost of ..... NOTHING! (other than my time of course) These cars have been absolute GEMS... i bought both of them used with 18K on the 92, and 30K on the 98. I have been very conciencious about keeping the oil changed and use synthetic oil. Also have changed the Tranny fluid at 100K intervals. The 92 is now our backup car, as the clearcoat started to flake on the roof, and just doesnt look nice... the 98' is my wifes daily driver and she commutes 130 miles each day to work (hence the high mileage on both cars). Some things to look for would be the LCD's on the heater control, and the Radio... (I will be replacing the radio LCD in our 98 this weekend), and the backlights that allow you to read the heater controls at night seem to burn out at this age (although i dont have either problem with my 92)... I would also ask for maintenece records, specifically to see if the timing belt/water pump has been changed yet. Techincally you shouldnt let them go over about 100k but i replace the 92 at 220K, and the 98 has not been changed yet. Another thing to look at is try to see if the rear valve cover gasket (against the firewall) is leaking. It is a common problem. My 92 needs replaced, but the 98 has no evidence of leaking whatsoever yet... As far as performance, they run really strong. And provided the struts are in good shape, and the swaybar bushings are in good shape, the cars handle pretty well on the curves too, IMHO... As far as traction in snow, of course they are front wheel drive, so that makes a huge difference. The tires will be the main factor in that. On our 92 i put a set of cheaper "douglas" tires on it from Walmart LOL.. (again, just a backup car) and they are actaully very good in the snow. Better than the Michelins on the 98'.. I think you will be happy with how it does in the snow. Again, wife drives 130 miles per day and we are in West central ohio and see our fair share in the winter. As for driving the car cross country, I wouldnt be afraid of it at all, so long as the car hasnt set for a long time (like 6mos-a year)... Lots of wierd things happen from cars sitting for long periods of time... Another good place to pick up Lexus vehicles for less seems to be Texas... I am really not sure why, but that is where i bought the 98'.. Drove it home to ohio with zero problems, and it was a nice drive at that. When you do purchase from florida and Texas, note that they dont normally have seat heaters, or mirror heaters on them. That was an oversight on our 98'... the wife really misses the heated seats in the winter. Our 92 has them and boy do they do the trick quickly on those cold jan-feb mornings! Hope this helps! Best regards, Ron

Hi George, Thank you for your response. I had 29 ohms on the solenoid that controls the vacuum to the EGR valve. I unhooked the vacuum lines, and checked as you suggested, and found that the solinoid was very sluggish. it would shift, then stick in that position for a while and shift back... I tried to find the part a local parts stores with no luck. So.... I bent the tabs back, and took it apart. as soon as i released the last tab, i heard the valve click back from the tiny spring pressure. Took it the rest of the way apart, and cleaned it up, blowing any debris out with a little air pressure. After reassembly, i tested it as you outlined above, and found it to click back and forth with instant response... I just put it back on the car and am going on the "10" minute test drive... I will let you know how it works when i get back.... Thanks again! Ron That was it!.... The car runs as smooth as silk!.... took 3 test drives with no symptoms whatsoever. Runs better than i can remember! This has without a doubt been the best car we have ever owned. I have yet to have to put any money into it other than 3 sets of brakes, 2 sets of tires, and just put the second set of spark plugs, and changed the plug wires this time. I replaced the original lexus battery last winter as well. Everything else is original... The next project is to replace the radio LCD. I also have a few of the backlight bulbs that are out in the heater controls, so i will replace all of them while i have it apart working on the LCD. I also have a 92 ES300, and i am certain that it will benefit from the IAC/Throttlebotty/EGR cleaning. It is our backup car, and has 239K on it... still a fine driving vehicle! Thank you again for your help George! I sincerely appreciate it! Ron

Hi George, Thank you for your response. I had 29 ohms on the solenoid that controls the vacuum to the EGR valve. I unhooked the vacuum lines, and checked as you suggested, and found that the solinoid was very sluggish. it would shift, then stick in that position for a while and shift back... I tried to find the part a local parts stores with no luck. So.... I bent the tabs back, and took it apart. as soon as i released the last tab, i heard the valve click back from the tiny spring pressure. Took it the rest of the way apart, and cleaned it up, blowing any debris out with a little air pressure. After reassembly, i tested it as you outlined above, and found it to click back and forth with instant response... I just put it back on the car and am going on the "10" minute test drive... I will let you know how it works when i get back.... Thanks again! Ron

I have a 98 ES300 with 242K miles It has been an incredible car for our family. It recently began surging at higway speeds, and severely at idle as well after warming up. It only does this after about 10 minutes of driving. It runs great when it is a cold engine. My first action was to catch up on a little overdue maintenece... I had a little ove 100K on the plugs, so i replaced them, along with putting new wires on as they were original. This made no difference... but the plugs did have a little wear on them, so no harm done. I then chose to do some reading here on the forum, and after a lot of searching and reading, i deciced that i should check the throttle body. It was definitely in need of a good cleaning. I went after it with using the seafoam "Deep Creep" spray. It did a very good job. I scrubbed inside as far as i could with a toothbrush, and it cleaned up nicely. I started the engine, and it ran smoother than ever, and took her for a test drive. Aceleration was very good, in fact i cant remember the car running this well. However, at about 100 yards from our driveway i could feel it starting to surge again. It was then i knew that it was taking about 10 min. for the symptoms to show up. I repeated this 3 times and it repeats the problem. I figured the next thing to check was probably the EGR valve. I pulled it out, cleaned it, checked it to hold vacuume, tested the ohms at 5.0, pulled the sensor out of the bottom of it and cleaned the carbon off of it. Re-installed, again it ran great cold... but after about a 10 minute drive... back to the surging... Out of curiosity i started checking electrical connections and vacuum lines, and interestingly enough when i pull the vacuume line off of the EGR valve the motor instantly smoothed out. Put it back on and the surging came back again. Pulled it off, and pefectly smoothe. So, i took it for a test drive this way, and without the vacuum line hooked up it never did the surging thing. Any advice on what the heck is going on would be greatly appreciated! Thanks, Ron

I just dealt with an oil leak from my 98... At first i was relatively sure that it was the front main, but the leak came on pretty suddenly, and was fairly severe. (dropped about a quart of oil in the driveway from letting the car warm up in the morning)... upon closer inspection... and i do mean close... i found that it was the oil pressure switch. The way i finally got to the bottom of it was to remove the right tire, remove the splash shield (2 bolts)... and then squirted brake clean on the drenched mess.... I gently hit it with an air hose to dry everything off, and had my wife start it up while i was ready with a mechanics mirror and a flashlight. It wasnt easy to see in that spot, but after running just about a minute, it started running down the switch, and down the block to all of the places that were soaked. If anyone needs help with the tools needed for that sensor let me know... it was a pain to figure out what the SST (Special Service Tool) really was since it is so buried in a hole.... Ron

If you filled it all the way up with the engine cold, it would have purged the excess out of the overflow tube after the engine heated up. When the engine cools, it sucks it back into the engine.

On my 98' The part numbers come up the same for the 2 before the cat. the one after the cat came up as a different part number. There seems to be some confusion on which is bank1 and bank 2 however.... When i had Autozone pull the codes for me it came up as bank1 sensor1, and they pulled up their diagram, and it showed it to be the one at the front of the car. I have also read in the forum here that it is the front one. However, I downlaoded the Field Service manuals, and was browsing through the service bulletins, and it shows Bank1 Sensor1 to be the one between the firewall and the engine.... The reason i went through all of the searching, was that after replacing the front O2 sensor, nothing changed. The codes came right back up. So after researching, I found this info, and tried changing out the one between the firewall and engine.... i have about 500 miles on in now, and no check engine lite... Hope this helps.... If someone can verify what i found that would be great... Ron

on the 92' it is under the passenger seat... Ron

Hi Alex, I have had a duralast gold in my 92 for 8 years now and it hasnt failed me yet. These are purchased from Autozone... Using them in several of my vehicles at this point, and having good luck with them. They have a 3 year no questions free replacement, then it goes to pro-rating. Hope this helps... Ron

Seems quite easy, I'll pick up the part and have a buddy of mine help me out who is mechanically inclined. Im guessing b1s1 is pre cat front? Ok, One of the guru's please jump in here. I am in the midst of an O2 sensor problem as well, and downloaded the FSM for the 97 ES300, (mine is a 98).... and in the technical service bulletin, it says that bank one is between the engine and firewall... could someone please verify for me which is correct? I found the info on PDF page 99 of 273.... Thanks for your help guys... While i havent posted much, i have read lots here and i appreciate all of the shared info. Ron