LumpyLou

My 93 ES300 gas gauge shows only 1/2 or so after a fill up. On two different instrument clusters. I changed the instrument cluster with a second hand one to cure dim needles and had hoped to cure the fuel gauge problem at the same time. Needles are now good, but the second cluster fuel gauge behaves just as the first one did, so presumably the problem is not the gauge itself. I acquired this car only a few weeks ago. I've recently changed the fuel rails and all the injectors, (again salvage yard parts) because I found rust evident in parts of the system. (Been working on an intermittent rough engine with white smoke that doesn't smell sweet.) Now I'm going into the fuel tank to see what I may discover there, and again I'm thinking about maybe curing my gauge problem while I'm there. Reading around here and other places this fuel gauge problem seems not uncommon on Toyotas. Somewhere during the last few weeks I came across an article or posting explaining how to 'recalibrate' the fuel sender to correct this problem. Seems to me it had something to do with adding resistors in the line or somehow modifying/adjusting it's signal output when there's nothing otherwise physically wrong with it. But for the life of me I can't find that article again, and I'm suspecting there's a good chance it may turn out to be relevant to my particular case once I've run the standard tests on this critter. So, can anyone either provide some information for me on how I might conquer this fuel gauge problem, or does anyone recognise this 'correcting the resistance' of the fuel sender information I'm talking about and could they provide a link for me? Lumpy

I just got through messing with the front door panels on my 93 ES300. Your 92 should be not much different I'd guess. Basically you need to look for a screw or two or three usually hiding under a plastic cap that you pop off. Once you've removed those then you need to pop the bottom of the panel free. It's held on with those plastic clips that you can sometimes re-use but sometimes they break. If they break you should be able to find suitable replacements at most auto part stores. Last year I had a passenger window problem on a Chrysler minivan. Took the passenger door apart and invested a lot of time and effort putzing around with the motor and the switch with no luck. In the end the problem was with the master switch in the driver's door. Seems the power is routed there first and because of a fault there the right door was not receiving any juice to work with. I replaced the driver side switch with a second hand one and presto the right side worked fine. I guess the main switch in the drivers door tends to get a lot more use and therefore is likely to wear out sooner. I don't know if Japanese cars are the same but I thought I'd pass it on to you just in case.

Is replacing a Hydraulic Fan Motor very difficult? Give me a difficulty rating on a scale from 1 to 10 where 1 = my 6 year old can do it and 10 = NASA engineers wouldn't want to touch it. -a -a Search for a post by Toysrme in Dec 2005 titled "Merry Christmas! Factory Service Manuals!" In that post he provides a link to download some manuals including the Full Service Manual for 93 ES300. The download is over 40MB, but I found it priceless. The forty meg file will extract to several pdf files of the various service manuals. Once decompressed click on the Engine.pdf file and go to page EG268. There you can read all you want to know about removing and re-installing the hydraulic fan. Of itself it doesn't seem all that complicated. But you might be better backing up a bunch pages and reading how the overall system works. For instance just with a quick browse of the section I read that there's a computer dedicated to running that fan and it decides what speed the fan should run at at any given time by controlling a valve that varies the flow of oil to the fan motor. What I'm suggesting is that if your fan seems not to be running fast enough it just might not be the hydraulic motors fault, it may be that it's the computer that's limiting it's speed or maybe the valve that's not responding correctly. Just a suggestion, hope it's useful. Lumpy One way or the other, I have found those manuals superb

dcfish 3 Lumpy 1 How about that, a beer for Lumpy on my first thread. :whistles: I already liked this group, but now it's really getting serious.

Again, I am indeed in liquid debt to you. By co-incidence I had pretty well settled on putting the screw at a mid point and hoping for the best. Now I shall do so with more confidence. What I'm thinking then is that once I get it running I'll set up to a fuel pressure contrivance and if the pressure fluctuates then I'll fiddle with that screw to see if I can get it to steady out. This morning I came upon a 1MZ engine in a self service salvage yard. It has the same damper as my 3VZ so I removed it and took the cap off to check the number on it. On this one the screw was completly absent. Seeing as how this is the second one I've seen where the screw backed itself out, I'm thinking I'll use a wee touch of mild thread lock. Perhaps some of you 3VZ and 1MZ owners might try popping that plastic cap off of yours, (no tools involved you can just pop it off with your hand), to see whether the screw is sitting loose in the cap. I suppose it must be no great catastrophe if that screw is loose but it probably wouldn't hurt to put it back. I'm guessing that a steady constant fuel pressure should provide more constant results data for the computer to munch on and therefore perhaps a touch better fuel efficiency/economy. Mind you I don't know this, it's just my own best guess as to the raison d'etre for a "Fuel Pulsation Damper" Thanks again, Lumpy

I am eternally grateful and would gladly finance a brew. With a name I was even able to finally find it in the Shop Manual. Now all I gotta figure out is what to do about the setting for the little screw under the plastic cap that I inadvertently messed up. Unfortunately the Shop Manual is not much help, all it says about it is, "The pulsation damper absorbs the slight fluctuations in fuel pressure caused by fuel injector from the injector, (whatever that actually means). Perhaps the position of the screw is not that critcal because on the gunked up one I removed, when I popped off the plastic cap the screw was sitting loose inside it, and although it was running rough, the car was running before I started taking it apart. I find it odd though that this component would have a pop off cover to access this little screw, presumably an adjustment screw, but no mention anywhere as to how or what to do with it (??). Thanks again, Lumpy

Okay, I gotta do more research on how to post pics on this forum. Lumpy

How's this? Lumpy

I would if I could but my camera is on the fritz. Actually, the battery is dead and the charger seems to be lost. This thing that I'm talking about connects directly onto the drivers side end of the fuel rail closest to the firewall. Lumpy

Hello, This is my first post. Been lurking and reading for a couple weeks, learned a lot of good stuff, but haven't come across the answer to this anywhere. What is the thingamajig on the end of the right hand fuel rail? I've also looked in Haynes and Chilton and FSM and no luck. It's shown in many pics and drawings but never identified, at least not that I could find. It seems like it might be some kind of pressure regulator, but why a second pressure regulator at this point. I've removed it and it has quite a bit of rust/gunk in it. I have a second one I had previously picked up from a salvage yard (just in case), but not being quite sure how it came off, (it was on really, really tight), I at one point popped off the plastic cap and stupidly attempted to remove the screw I discovered there. Concluded the screw was not the way to remove it, but by then I had no idea just how much I had turned this screw. Now, I'd like to replace my rusted gunked up one with this one but not having any idea what this is and consequently what it does I'm concerned about having disturbed the position of the screw. Would sure appreciate it if someone could shed some light on this matter for me. Lumpy