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Its welded. Generally you'll need to unbolt and remove the front bumper cover, grill, headlights, and partially unbolt the front and tops of the front fender, remove the rad and AC condenser, and a handful of wiring harnesses and sensors that plug into the rad support. Its pretty simple to drill out the welds and chisel the support out after that.

I suspect that your problem is relatively easy to fix, either a vacuum leak, fuel pressure problem, egr valve or an idle valve has gone bad and needs cleaning or replacement. Have a service tech run the engine codes and procedures. Good Luck!

Typically to remove the glass you will have to lower it in the door, until the bolts/plastic plugs that secure the glass to its bottom rail (usually one at the front and one at the rear), line up with openings cut in the door itself. Most of the time those openings are just about at the bottom of the glasses travel. Then you can get a socket on an extension in to the nuts/bolts/plug. Once they're out you can tilt the glass down at the back, up at the front, and slide it out of its front and rear tracks, and once free slide it up and out of the door towards the outside of the car. Assembly is just the reverse. It really isn't difficult at all, just rather intimidating the first time you do it. Personally I've done 100 or so such jobs over the years, from 1930's antiques to new models. The only other setup I've seen was on a Volkswagen Rabbit years ago where the glass was glued into a U-shaped channel along its bottom edge. (German engineering.)Good Luck!

You'll have to pull the inside door panel to find out the fix required. It sounds like the cable has snapped or is stripped on its gear at the motor. I'd check it out first, and if parts are needed, try tracking down a replacement cable assembly from a wrecking yard for the same generation ES or Camry, as the parts are most likely the same. For someone with a little wrenching ability it should be an easy, if time consuming fix. Good Luck!

The drains for the sunroof run down the A Pillars and C Pillars. The front ones exit out the bottom of the front fenders. If the drain tube has come disconnected from its tube at the front corner of the sunroof (either pulled off, split and fell off, or is plugged), its possible for the water to find its way down the A Pillar and empty onto the floor. Pulling off the A Pillar garnish (pulls straight out on spring clips) and removing the weatherstrip at the top of the driver's door, as well as the overhead assist strap and sunvisor, should give you enough room to check it out and correct the problem. Keep your hands clean as the headliner marks easily and cleaning attempts will be easily seen. Good Luck!

Absolutely! If its clogged the exhaust gases can't get out of the engine causing overheating, hard starting, poor performance, excessive noise, etc.etc. Your best bet might be to install a universal converter. Much cheaper than the original.

Its been years since I owned my 97 ES (had a service manual for the car but sold it with the car),so I can't be 100% on the inner door panel removal. Your best bet is to get to a Toyota dealership and beg the service manager for the proper sequence for removing the inner door panel. Generally the bottom and both sides simply pull out from the door and the entire panel slides up to remove. Before that, however, you have to pop out the flat plate garnish in behind the door handle, remove a screw, and remove the garnish around the door handle. Then you need to remove the screws/bolts ( POSSIBLY 2) that hold the armrest to the door. Sometimes the screws are visible in the armrest or behind plugs that pull out. And sometimes the screw is behind the switch plate once its removed. Without seeing the car I can't give you more to go on than that. You might try doing just a search online for "97 toyota door panel removal" or similar. Good Luck!

After looking at your picture, and the fact that you didn't find a plug dead centre of the headliner at the rear, I suspect that you have found the manual close. I'll bet that if you were to remove the 2 small black screws about dead centre and top and bottom of the map light, you could drop the whole unit down to hang by its wires. That might give you a good look at the sunroof motor and drive gear. I think that flat head screw you found is what you're looking for. By all means, carefully try to move/budge it one way and then the other, to free the system up. Then try the switch to open the sunroof in slide mode. If that doesn't get things going, you'll have to drop the headliner and possibly remove the entire sunroof assembly from the car. Be aware, the headliner was put into the car from the rear or front windshield ... before the glass was installed. To get it out now you will be forced to bend/kink it to get it out one of the front doors. When its reinstalled you will not be able to entirely get the creases out of it. This may determine whether or not you wish to proceed.

I've read your post several times over the last few days, and I'm confused as to what it is that you're car is not doing correctly. What exactly do you mean by double engaging?

I've repaired several sunroofs over the years and replaced entire assemblies as well, all on different makes, but they all share pretty much the same workings. Unfortunately, almost all of the diagnosis and repairs that can be made are done so with the headliner out of the car. And even then, sometimes the entire sunroof assembly has to be removed from the car to affect a repair. Read into all of this, you are going to have to spend some dollars .... unless you are a handy DIYer. To do the repairs is fairly easy, if you can easily see the step by step of what comes apart to allow you to get to the next section. That said, I would try to see if you don't have a binding somewhere that isn't permitting the sunroof motor to pull its 2 geared whips that slide the glass in its tracks. I suspect your car came with an allen wrench that can be inserted into the drive gear of the motor, for manually opening and closing the sunroof when the electrical mechanism fails. Check your owner's manual to see if it so. Either at the overhead console/maplight or dead centre of the headliner and two thirds of the way to the back of the car, will be a ceiling plug. Under it will be where the allen key/wrench inserts. Cranking it one way opens the sunroof and the other way closes it. Try moving it back and forth to see if that frees up the mechanism, and if it will then work from the switch. If that doesn't do it, I suspect you'll have a broken geared whip or the clips that fasten the glass to the whips, and that means the headliner must come out, and maybe the sunroof assembly as well. To get the headliner out is not hard, just time consuming. If you should decide to tackle the job, depending on what is to be replaced, you might find that buying a complete used system from a wrecker might be cheaper than new parts. I did this recently on a Ford Crew Cab Dually and it worked like a charm. Good Luck!

What I mean is to clean both sides of the loop. You lift up the seat belt at the loop anchor (attached to the B Pillar where you can push the button and slide the seat belt loop up or down to accommodate tall or short drivers) and use a knife blade or flat bladed screw driver to scrap the crud off of the loop. Then lift up the belt on the other side of the same loop, the belt section that is between the loop and the B Pillar where the seat belt disappears down inside the B Pillar, and scrap off that side as well. Put another way, the seat belt goes up to the loop and back down again. Lift up the belt on both sides of the loop to get at the loop itself and scrap it clean on both sides. What you might also try is to go to a Lexus dealership. They had a TSB (technical service bulletin) several years ago for certain models concerning this same problem. The factory has some small clear plastic self adhesive covers that wrap up the loop and decrease the friction that hangs up your seat belt when you take it off. They certainly can't cost more than a few dollars at most.

Unfortunately, just because the dealer worked on the car the day before the electrical problem started, doesn't mean they are responsible for the problem and should fix it. Stuff happens, and it may well be coincidence that your gremlins just had to happen the next day. They may well have happened whether you took the car to the dealership or not. Besides, having a timing belt, water pump and accessory belt service has nothing to do with the electrical systems of the car, particularly the ones you're having problems with. Somewhere in the circuits that you have lost, one of those items has gone bad and is drawing too much current, or you have a dead short in one of their related wires. Good Luck!

The fact that the battery isn't old doesn't mean it hasn't gone bad on you. I've had brand new batteries that I purchased turn out to be completely useless and shorted out when installed in the car. And they tested bad when returned to the store. I've also had batteries last 6.5 years, and I've had one or two not last 6 months. Its a crap shoot. Check your battery first. As far as something being shorted out, the battery is up front, the ignition switch is way above the floor, the starter is in the engine compartment, and your water is in the rear floor of the car.

Normally the belts don't lose retention throughout their lifetime. Are you certain that you cleaned all of the gunk off of the belt loop up by the headrest? Did you do both sides of the loop, the side closest to the outside of the car? This is the most common ailment of seat belts that don't retract back. Next you could try to use an upholstery cleaner on both sides of your belts to see if you can get them any cleaner. Good Luck!

Either get the battery fully recharged, if that's possible (maybe its gone bad), or bite the bullet and get the battery replaced. Once that's accomplished maybe you can get the car somewhere to correct the cracked glass roof.

Before they came out with the ES300 there was a Toyota Cressida that filled the same market niche. My wife had 2 of them, both wonderful cars. The second one had pretty much the same kind of experience that you describe. She pulled out to pass a car on the highway and when she pushed the accelerator the car quit moving forward. She coasted to the shoulder of the road and called for a tow. There was no fluid leak in her case, but a dead torque converter was the culprit. In your case with the loss of fluid I'd bet that your tranny is toast. Unless the service tech can verify that replacing a seal is all that's required, I'd be putting a good used transmission in it. Good Luck!

My wife used to have a 97 ES300, but that was too many years ago for me to remember the inner door panel configuration. I believe that the window switch is mounted on a basically oval plastic plate that sits slightly above the armrest. If I'm correct, that plastic plate can be pried up at its rear end, using a flat bladed screwdriver (tape its blade to prevent scratches). Once up at the rear, you can slide the entire plate out of the armrest, as far as the wiring harness to the switch will allow. Turn it over and you can remove the screws that hold the switch and disconnect its wiring harness. On some cars that plate is screwed to the armrest and can't be removed unless you remove the inner door panel from the car door. Like I said, too many years. Try the first method above, but don't force the plate up too far if it appears it might break off. If that doesn't work, you'll have to attempt the second method. Then again, someone else might jump in with the proper sequence needed. Good Luck!

One would think that the 3 switches (both rears and the front passenger) would be the same, but I can't verify that in any way. That said, from what you describe the switch is just dirty. Been there with several different cars myself. What you need is a spray can of electrical contact cleaner. It comes with a thin plastic tube so that you can shoot the fluid where its needed. Sometimes you can just shoot the fluid in around the switch and cycle the switch a dozen times or so. Repeat several times and allow the fluid time to evaporate, before turning on the ignition and testing it. If the fluid overspray gets on the interior, just wipe it up with paper towels. It won't mark anything as long as you get it wiped up fairly quickly. If that doesn't solve the problem, you'll have to pull the switch from the inner door panel, find the seams and openings where it was put together and do the same procedure I previously described. If this still doesn't correct the situation, and you are brave, you can pry the switch apart while your hands and the switch are inside a large clear freezer bag. (Some switches have a spring under tension that flies the copper internals all over the garage.) Then you'll see the contacts that need cleaning and be able to figure out how to replace all of the pieces before you snap the case back together. Should you not be brave, you can always purchase another switch from a wrecker. You'll find many switches are generic with Toyotas. They use the same ones in the Lexus that you'll find in Corollas, Camry's, Rav4's, etc. Good Luck!

Before you start throwing good money after bad, you need to have someone who knows what they're doing diagnose what has failed. The smoke from under the hood that smelled like burning rubber should have been your first clue. Its what suggested your compressor is seized, whether it is or not. If seized, the belt that drives the AC compressor will burn as the accessory belt tries to turn it. Check your fuses to see if any for the HACV went south.

Your best bet is to check your owner's manual for the correct make and spark plug number, and then get the plugs and the wires from a Toyota dealer. A lot of after market wires are too long, too short, or have the incorrect plug covers that just won't fit.

I'd be curious to know if the noise goes away when you are braking on rough pavement. If it does, then you have loose brake parts, caliper or pads. I bring this up because I've been there in the past. Good Luck!

Not sure if this is the case on a 96 ES, but my wife's 04 has a procedure for unlocking the doors, lowering all of the glass, and opening the sunroof all at one time from her keyless entry. Sounds like you may have somehow got into a sequence that has locked your keyless entry into limbo, or perhaps your keyless entry system's receiver has crashed? Check your fuses for sure. The one the keyless entry is on may be the culprit. This is all just an educated guess. Good Luck!

I presently have 3 vehicles with trip computers and their accuracy varies. I've learned to use them as a guide only. As far as using premium fuel versus regular 87 .... my wife's last 97 ES300 (269 000 kms), her present 04 ES330 (102 000 kms), and my 90 Nissan 300ZX (77 000 kms) all advise using premium fuel. We have always used regular in all of these vehicles with no adverse effects in any way. That said, we do not drive our cars hard. The on board computers compensate for the lower octane and adjust engine parameters accordingly. But if you are the type of driver who is always driving hard, putting the pedal to the metal demanding as much acceleration as possible, you would be wise to use premium fuel to prevent preignition. Severe preignition burns holes in the tops of pistons. How can you tell if you have preignition? Under hard acceleration you'll hear what sounds like someone inside the engine wrapping on the inside with a wrench. I have never heard this on any of our cars from using regular fuel.

Sounds like it could be timimg belt tensioner or pulley related. Get the car to a tech and let them hear the noise to ensure its not going to do major damage. Good Luck!

Tim, You might try removing the headlight from the car (not really that hard) and use a hair drier or heat gun to blow air into the bulb openings. There may be a small rubber tube on the back of the unit that is missing or plugged that is supposed to allow for the moisture to dissipate I believe. I've done this on the same problem with a Nissan 300ZX and it did the trick for me. Good Luck!