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salmoncheese, That intermittent statement you left out of your first post suggests another issue that was present in that generation ES. There is a relay in the engine compartment fuse box labelled "magnetic clutch" (I believe) that turns the AC compressor on and off. When it went bad, your interior fan still blew air, but the AC compressor wouldn't turn to move the refrigerant = no cooling. It usually made the dash AC button light flash repeatedly. If your relay (less than $20 to buy) is cutting in and out that could explain your problem. There is an updated part number for that relay meaning the newer one fixes the issue the old part had and shouldn't ever fail in the future. You still could have an issue with a temperature sensor or a faulty mixing door actuator, but I'd start with my first two suggestions ... and have an AC expert (not necessarily a Lexus one) check the system out. Gene

salmoncheese, A 23 year old car ...... most likely needs its refrigerant recharged. With that low mileage at that age, it most likely has one or more seals in the system that have dried out, shrunk or cracked and have allowed some of the refrigerant to leak out. Its time to have a good service tech check the entire system out and recharge it.

bb0408, Under the chrome end cap (portion of the handle that doesn't move when you grab the handle) there is a groove/indentation. Tape the end of a flat screw driver blade, put its blade into the groove and pop the chrome cap towards the outside of the car (put your hand over it or it may get damaged hitting the floor. Open the door and pop off the black round plug that is directly behind that chrome end cap on the door edge. You'll need a torx bit to remove the screw/bolt that is underneath that plug, as it holds the end cap to the door. When undone (the bolt most likely will not come all of the way out, designed that way to keep from losing it) and the cap can be removed from the door. Now grab the outside door handle, and slide it towards the rear of the car, and pull it out of the door. Done! The install is just the reverse, just be sure to get the thin gaskets back into the correct locations. The rest of the door handle mechanism (to the latch assembly) is behind the inner door panel and the [plastic weather shield, and can be removed while the glass is in its up position.

Carlos, Checking over their online ad indicates that they guarantee the unit with a money back statement as well. Their return policy seems reasonable as well. Having never purchased parts from these people myself, I see no reason not to. My one caution would be to be sure that a starter is what you need to solve your issue. Check the numerous YouTube videos on how to tell if your starter is bad and then verify yours is kaput before you buy one. Good Luck!

codylex350, Congratulations on the new ride! Your Texas sun takes its toll on plastic headlights, but ... there are lots of YouTube videos on how to make them clear again. Basically it involves polishing the plastic with various compounds to remove the haze. In fact Maquairs and several other car wax companies make kits specifically for this job, and none of them cost much money. Three things to keep in mind: mask all of the surrounding paint work with a layer or two of masking tape. This ensures that you won't polish the paint and burn through to bare metal doing damage. Secondly, keep any buffing/polishing pads moving around, as heat will build up and literally burn the plastic lens if its kept in one place for too long. Lastly avoid the YouTube idiots who tell you to use brake fluid on the lens. Brake fluid will remove paint down to the metal and it will destroy many plastics. Good Luck!

Bryn, If they pulled the dash to replace it ... all of the HVAC controls and the various wiring and sensors are under that dash ON THE SAME SIDE OF THE FIREWALL >>> INSIDE THE CABIN! Telling you that the work they did was on the other side of the firewall in the engine compartment isn't possible. The dash is inside the cabin!!! AS are all of the controls for the AC vents, etc., and the related computers for the HVAC and their actuator motors (I suspect one of the actuator motors to put the cool air to your side is bad, or the HVAC computer needs a reset/reflash). I'm amazed the rep would even make such a statement. Sort of like saying you need your rear blinker fluid replaced! Anyway ... keep us posted.

difuria, Please realize that lots of things can cause idle problems, but one of the most common is a bad idle air control valve. I've included this YouTube video to help explain the issue to you. It's titled " How an Idle Air Control Motor Works and Fails on a Lexus and Toyota Two things to consider: you might be able to clean the IAC with a can of spray carburetor cleaner. The stuff is amazing at what it can remove and clean! It just might remove the gunk that's preventing the IAC from rotating. It sure makes sense to try it before buying a new IAC. That said ... don't throw parts at a car trying to fix an issue ... if you don't know for certain that the part will fix the issue. You will just be wasting money if the fix doesn't work. Too manmy people have this approach and its foolish. My advice is to get a GOOD independent mechanic to diagnose the idle issue first. It may be the IAC, but it could be a bad coil, a bad injector, a dirty MAF sensor, and so on. It could even be a split vacuum hose. A GOOD mechanic can trace down the issue and save you money in the long run. Finally, if you must try it yourself ... remove the IAC from the throttle body and try cleaning it to get that rotory valve to free up, and then reinstall it and give it a try. You just might get lucky. If that doesn't fix the problem .. see the mechanic before you spend any money fixing something that doesn't need fixing ... and still have the idle problem Good Luck and keep us posted on how you make out! Gene https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5M6ESEuVkk

Bryn, Its possible that it went south at the same time .... BUT .. it most likely is something that the dealership tech didn't put back together correctly or shorted out. I'd politely but firmly suggest that they need to correct the situation, as they were most likely responsible. Fingers crossed, and hoping that your dealership aren't hard as** and want your repeat business. Good Luck!

TFL, I've replaced a pile of these on all makes of cars over the years, but never on a Toyota. Question: are you missing a ground wire? By that I mean, did you fully install the fan motor back in its housing, or is it just sitting on the floorboards all hooked up? If its on the floor, then its possible that it finds its ground wire when fully installed. If fully installed and still no go, either the fan resister or the switch itself is at fault ... I suspect. Test the switch terminals from ground through each setting or on its rheostat circle if that's the type you have. Trace the switch wiring to the fan resister and see if it has continuity on all settings (if there is one, since the switch rheostat may be the resister itself) and see if you have continuity with an ohm gauge. It is possible that the switch circuit board has a bad/broken solder joint. Check the board carefully to see if it can be resoldered. Good Luck!

difuria, Factory maintenance suggests new (iridium I believe) spark plugs at 100 000 miles. New plugs can make a whale of a difference. Have you cleaned the IAC valve (idle control valve), tested it. If its carboned up you'll have the symptoms you describe. Maybe someone else will jump in with some other points to consider. Good Luck!

2fast2lexury, First off, always give us your mileage as it narrows down what your issue might be. We also need the year and model, but your signature gives us that info. Don't buy anything ... until you know for sure what you actually need to fix the problem. Too many people throw parts and money at a car to fix a problem only to find out later that they didn't need to replace that part, because something else was the culprit. Your question says that you know very little about cars and repairs, and that's alright. So you need to get your car to a good independent mechanic who can put your car on a hoist and find your exhaust leak and tell you exactly what needs fixing. It may be as simple as a broken exhaust flange that needs rewelding, or you may need a new muffler, or the exhaust manifold may need a new gasket. The same for your car shake. Go with the mechanic on a test drive and have him diagnose what the problem is. It could be a flat spotted tire, a leaking strut or as simple as as a lost wheel weight. If you don't know ... then you need to find that trustworthy independent mechanic. Don't go to a Lexus dealer .. unless your car is under warranty (your obviously at 21 years old isn't). Your car is just a gussied up Toyota Camry, and any good service tech can fix it for a lot less than Lexus will charge you. Ask your friends or relatives to see who they recommend for car repairs. The independent mechanics will always be cheaper than a dealership, because they don't have those huge parking lots and fancy buildings to pay for and keep up. Good Luck! Gene

saraabadie71 , Find a good car audio shop that installs upgrade systems. They will have all of the install data for installing a new system, from how to remove the various trim/dash pieces , wiring harness upgrades , as well as the speaker sizes for all interior locations. They will have (or should have) a catalogue with all of the data for each vehicle sold in North America. A little lookup time on their behalf can give you the answer, or you can just pop off one of the interior door panels to see for yourself.

Abood9013, Try online searches for wheels on Tire Rack.com, or do a Google search for "aftermarket wheels". There will be all kinds of suppliers with pages of wheels for you to look at and compare. You should get lucky on one or more of them. Good Luck!

Trango, The only way to know for sure if a 235 will fit and clear the shock tower lower spring mount, is to try fitting one on the car and turning the steering lock to lock. I'd be more inclined to think the 225 would clear, but a 235 ... ? As far as the best place and tire to use, go online to Tire Rack.com, input your car model and year and see what they come up with. Every tire is rated as to wear, noise, grip in rain, etc. They have dozens of makes and models to choose from, and almost every tire has many customer reviews to help you make a choice. They'll ship the tires to a tire shop near you, or you can use the info and find your own tire shop to purchase and mount them. They are as good as any place you'll find.

TddFord, Sounds like a bad wheel bearing. To know for sure, get onto a road free of traffic and at various constant speeds, swerve the car back and forth. If the sound (roar) varies in volume or type of sound when swaying, the bearing is going south. To know for sure, have a good independent mechanic drive the car or put it on a hoist while idling and in gear. He'll be able to hear it with a stethoscope. It is possible that you could also have a bad half axle shaft with a worn CV joint.

coppens, Four bolts hold the seat to the floor pan. Takes 8 minutes to remove them, then tilt the seat towards the trunk, look under the front and disconnect the wiring harnesses. There will be four. Lift the seat out of the car, and now you can get at the motors, harnesses and switches to check things out. If you hear a click when the switch is pushed, then the switch most likely works and the motor for that function (there is a different motor for each function) has stopped working. One motor does forward and backwards, one for up and down, and one for the back rest tilt and so on. Check to see if the forward/backward travel channels have a coin or something jammed in them, or if some ball bearings are rolling free. If the track is free and looks good, the motor may be the culprit. Find the correct motor and its wires, there should be just two wires, perhaps three. Basically a motor turns one direction when hooked up to a power source of 12 volts. Reverse the two wires and the motor turns the other way. Use a battery and some wiring to power the correct motor to see if you can get it to move. If not, find a Camry or another Lexus from the same generation in a wrecking yard and swap out the motor. Do Google search for "1998 ES300 seat motor pictures" and you'll see what I mean. Once you get under the seat when its out of the car, you should be able to fix what needs fixing. If not, because you aren't a DIYer, then swap out the seat frame, motors and all, from another wrecked Camry or ES300. Good Luck!

BeauR, Congrats! There aren't many wrenchers on this forum like some other sites, so you may have to look else where at times when you don't get a response here. That said, know that the Camry is the sister platform for the ES of every year, except 2018, when the ES jumped ship to share the Avalon platform. That means most parts for engine, tranny, brakes, switches, etc., are the same for the same generation ES and Camry. That makes parts much easier to find in wrecking yards. Trim parts, dash, door panel, fender are different for sure. So check carefully when searching out parts, and be aware that the Lexus part is often the cheaper Camry part with a Lexus part number label put on top of the Toyota label. Been there, done that. Good Luck on your restoration project!

JDent, From what you describe, I'm stumped. I'm a backyard mechanic who's been in the backyard a lot of years, and I've only come across a somewhat similar situation a time or two, and even I turned the issue over to a good independent mechanic. That said, there are some things I would check out before I had it towed to the mechanic. Check your battery cable connections to the starter solenoid and the body ground for corrosion, and make sure they are tight. Pull the fuse box cover under the hood and check that the fuse for the starter and the ignition (there may be 2 or 3) are actually good. Pull them out, check them, and then reinsert them. Sometimes that cleans up their blades and allows a good contact. Then find the starter relay in the same fuse box and swap it for another relay in the fuse box of the same colour and number written on it.( There will be several electrical systems that all use the same numbered/coloured relay.) Check the wiring harnesses in the engine compartment for burned insulation (indicating a short). There may be a fuseable link that's gone bad (I won't go into describing that here, as it'll take a while.) You may just have a bad charging system (alternator) that isn't charging the system (weird things happen with lights when they don't get the proper voltage), or as I eluded to earlier ... you may have a mouse that's gotten into your wiring, thought that it tasted yummy, and has chewed through several wires, shorted some out and is causing mayhem. I have been there to the tune of $860 when a mouse got under the fuse box of one of my vehicles, chewed 14 wires, and was responsible for almost 5 hours of diagnostics to find what was causing all of the electrical systems to not talk to each other. Good Luck!

BeetleJuiceDNL, I applaud you for wanting to learn, and for tackling your own automotive issues. Too many women, ... and a lot of men, just turn the key, and if the car doesn't start ... they throw up their hands, go to the dealership .. and get taken for a ride on simple issues they could solve themselves, if they'd taken the time to do some research. I've been wrenching on my own cars for 55 years or so, and do all of my own mechanics ... when possible. But I recognize that there are some things that even I won't try tackling, because I don't have the expertise. In your case, I think you have an issue that only a a decent mechanic can diagnose and correct, because there are too many variables. First off, any good independent mechanic should be able to get to the bottom of the problem. If he has worked on a Toyota Camry, he can fix your Lexus. You don't need a Lexus dealership and their high labour costs to do it. It is possible that your transmission needs a software reflash, or that in that tranny rebuild some of the shift solenoids were deemed good, and weren't replaced, but are now sticking or have gone south. I suggest that you have your codes read from the OBD2 port, to see if any tranny codes show up, even though your check engine dash light hasn't come on to indicate one. You might also check to see if your tranny fluid level is low. Remember to check it at idle after the motor has warmed up to get an accurate reading. One other thing you might try is to disconnect the battery for a half hour to kill the engine computer memory, then reattach it. The computer will then relearn your driving style over the next hundred miles or so, and if the car is driven aggressively, may remap your tranny shift points, etc., and correct some of your problems. There is no guarantee, but its worth a try. Good Luck and keep us posted.

Danpeterson, I've spent an hour digging this info up. Its for a 2002 Camry XLE, which is the same car as your 2002 ES300, same engine and tranny, just different interior and exterior panels but mostly the exact same car. I'm hoping that it'll answer your questions. Be prepared to search through the entire document to find the sections showing pictures and the step by step instructions for the interlock cable to the ignition switch, and the shift lever cable end, and then later on the tranny end of the shift cable. Its all there, and its from the Factory Service Manual for 2002. Good Luck! 40_Automatic_Transmission_Transaxle.pdf

parkerd, Its been a few years since we traded our 2004 ES330, but I've had those rear calipers and caliper mounts off the that car 5 or 6 times for cleaning and relubing, without any issues. Yeah, its a strange setup, that top slide pin that stays with the caliper mount, and doesn't usually ever get removed like the bottom slide pin, and most other car setups. I would suggest that you remove the brake fluid line from the caliper, remove the caliper mount, and place it in a vice where you can see what you're doing much better, and get some leverage at removing the caliper and that slide pin. Its too long ago for me to remember, but I seem to recall that the end of that upper slide pin had a smaller octagon head under the plastic cap? You put a wrench on it? Or maybe it takes a larger allen key inserted into its end? Too long ago for me to remember. If so, it should give you something to get a wrench on to undo it from the caliper mount. If its rusted in place, you might try hitting its threaded section in the caliper mount with an ordinary propane torch setup, but using a yellow tank of MAP gas (burns much hotter) rather than propane. It should expand the metals enough to break the rust free. I've had good success with this method in the past. If not, twist it off, drill out the pin threaded section and retap the caliper mount, and buy a new slide pin from Lexus (cause I'm pretty sure you can't get one from any other source). Good Luck!

Adesh, With good reviews from previous purchasers of the sensors, you should be fine. ABS sensors have no moving parts, and just read a magnetic field as the wheel spins, to trigger the ABS module and other computer functions for traction control, etc. Just compare the part with your original for bracket location and fit, and you should be set to go. I wouldn't be too concerned about using them myself, unless they don't compare well to what you remove from the car.

e_engineer, If your car has a pass through from behind the rear seat arm rest, fashion a long hook from a coat hanger and try to pull the flourescent white handle emergency release (for use when you are locked inside the trunk) back by the tail lights.

LauraR, Lexus holds its service manuals close to its chest, so that one will be forced to go to the dealership to get the answers. Unless you can find someone who has actually removed one from this generation ES, its a search and find out situation. That said, if your forward and backward switch still works, the best way to remove it without breaking it is to remove the entire seat from the car, lay it on its side and look for the fasteners. There are only 4 bolts that hold the seat to the car. Slide the seat all the way back and remove the two at the front at each side. Then slide it all the way forward and remove the two at the rear , one on each side. Then disconnect the battery and lean the entire seat back, and reach under its front and disconnect the wiring harnesses that come up from the carpeting to the seat. There may be several of them, one for the seat belt near the center console, a large one or separate ones for each seat switch and the lumbar air pump, and a YELLOW one for the side air bag built into the seat. That Yellow one will have a small red piece that must be removed first, before disconnecting the yellow connectors. The battery must be disconnected before you tackle that yellow connector, or you stand a chance of having the seat airbag blow up in your face. Now the entire seat can come out of the car. Lay it on its side and see how the side panel disconnects. Usually its slid over the front frame, and lock tabs snap over the rear of the frame. So prying those rear lock tabs out and then sliding the entire panel forward may release it enough for you to disconnect the wiring harnesses from the three side switches. Sometimes the side panels have three or more screws that hold them to the seat frame. Your switch may have had its connector come loose, and it may just need to be reseated. Or the switch may just be dirty. Once you have it in your hand, use some electrical contact cleaner spray (any auto supply store has it) to spray the fluid into any crevice of the switch and then cycle the switch in every direction, and repeat the process. Wait 5 minutes for the fluid to evaporate, and then hook it up to the harness (reattach the battery for the test) and try it. EBay or a wrecking yard may provide a cheaper switch than the dealership, by a long shot, if you can't get your old one to work. Good Luck!

ou1, Never used this service myself, but give "PartRequest.com" a try. They have an 800 phone number as well as an online request list that searches all of North America's wrecking yards for you. Its out there somewhere. Good Luck!