gbhrps

airball2006, Over the years that I've worked on cars with keyless entry systems, the most common problem with the remotes not working correctly was a weak transmitter battery or a dirty battery connection in the key fob. I would definitely eliminate that possibility first before you look anywhere else. Good Luck!

Two things can make the noise. Frequently, debris such as maple keys, etc. get past the air intake vents and get lodged in the squirrel cage of the fan. The noise will sound much like the cardboard you put on your bicycle spokes as a kid. If you have a high pitched squeal, then its usually the motor bearings or bushings. Sometimes they can be relubed, but its generally wiser to replace the motor to save having to tear everything apart again in the future. You might consider a used one. Test it on a 12 volt source before you put it into the car to make sure it doesn't make any noise on spin up. Its awkward to get to up under the glove box, but it can be done with patience. Good Luck!

I've done several repairs on sunroofs over the years and provided there has not been any damage done to your system (such as stripped drive gears or a stripped drive cable or attachment on one or both sides), the sunroof alignment can be fine tuned by one of two methods. This, of course, depends on how Toyota levels their sunroofs. Open the sunshade to the sunroof and check between the headliner and the sunroof on the door side, to see if there is a finisher trim that can be pulled off. They usually pull off towards the interior of the car. Underneath there should be two small bolts on the side of the mechanism (one near the sunroof's front, and one near the rear). With the sunroof properly closed, loosening the bolts allows you to push the sunroof up or down to align it with the metal roof skin, and then retighten the bolts. Other manufacturers add or remove shims to do the same thing, if the slide mechanism attaches to the glass from the bottom rather than the side. Good Luck!

Our first Lexus was a 1997 ES 300 and it was an amazing car. It worked flawlessly from the day we bought it until we traded it on our present 04 ES. Other than routine maintenance, tire and wiper blade replacements, the car ran like a top. We traded it at 269 000 km (167 000 miles), and I would certainly buy another one from that generation if I needed a cheaper car to purchase. By all means, find a car with up to date service records, and pull out the dipstick and check the oil condition in the crankcase. As well, take off the oil filler cap and check inside the cap and the filler opening for sludge and grime. They will help to tell the tale as to the maintenance the car has received. Good Luck!

I would wonder if a reset of the Nav system wouldn't solve the problem and set every parameter back to its default state. It may well be that the software has got itself in a lockup situation on the screen parameters. You'll need to talk to a Lexus technician or check your manual to see if it provides the reset info procedures. If that doesn't solve the problem you could have a bad screen which would need to be replaced, and it won't be cheap for sure. Good Luck!

There are three possibilities for where the water is coming from, and it may have been there for some time and you've just now discovered it. The first place to check would be the rear drain tubes for the sunroof, assuming that your car is so equipped. Over time the plastic drain tubes can crack or come off of the end of the channel that the sunroof runs in. Since the rear tubes run down the C pillar (between the rear door and the rear windshield) before exiting the side of the car between the rear bumper cover and the quarter panel. Leaking water will end up on the rear floors. To check the drain tubes will require that the headliner be dropped down enough to check their fastening and condition. The second place to check would be the rear windshield sealing. Water seepage there can end up on the rear floors, or in the trunk. Thirdly is the sealing of the rear tail lights or the trunk lid. To check the tail lights will require pulling the trunk side and rear panels, lifting the carpet, and looking for evidence of water trails that flow forward when braking the car. Good Luck!

Matej, You definitely have some dirty oil in your engine, and have had for some time. Its very hard to tell how the previous owner treated the oil change schedule, but I'd bet it didn't see regular service before you bought the car. That aside, you need to double up on the oil and filter changes for the next several changes in order to get a lot of the gunk out. By that, I mean do your oil change every 3 - 4 thousand kms instead of the stated interval in your owner's manual for the next 4 changes. You may find some posters here who will suggest putting some engine cleaners in with your oil to loosen up the gunk and flush it out. Check with a mechanic who you trust before you do. You may create a bigger problem than you'll fix. As well, you really shouldn't be mixing different oils. Buy the best oil that is suggested in your owner's manual that you can afford and stick with it. That will give you the longest engine life. Good Luck!

I'm surprised that you had somebody who would make up a high pressure power steering hose for you. I too have a 90 300ZX, and the same hose went on my car about 3 years ago. Since it was the rubber section that was leaking, I too thought that some one local could replace that section and get me up and running again for far less than the cost of a replacement, aftermarket or Nissan. I went to 7 different businesses that make up hydraulic hoses for multiple applications, and not one would even attempt to fix it. Every one of them said there were no fittings available to fasten their hoses to the metal sections of my steering hose, that would take the pressures the power steering pump puts out. I had no choice but to buy a new hose.

Also check for a loose or corroded connector at the actuator.

Its been too many years ago that I owned my 97 ES to remember much about the specifics of the 6 pack CD player in the glove box, and I never had a reason to remove mine. What I do recall is that there were no visible fasteners on the outside of the CD unit, and that there was a lower level to the glove box that housed the owner's manual. I suspect that Toyota would make it such that the front of the CD unit could be carefully pried off to reveal at least 4 screws or bolts that secure it into the dash. (If you attempt this method, be sure to tape up the blade of the flat-bladed screw driver to prevent scratching the trim.) If this isn't possible, check that either there are screws visible in the lower level's ceiling that can be removed to unfasten the CD unit, or that the entire lower level of the glove box can be removed to reveal the CD unit's fasteners. I can't believe that Toyota would make it necessary to remove the entire dash from the car, just to get at the CD player. It may even be possible to remove the glove box door and the entire bottom section of the glove box altogether, making the CD player accessable. If none of the above seems possible, I would visit a car audio specialist store that does installations. They will have books that explain how each trim piece is removed for every car sold in North America. There will even be pictures or diagrams for each step. If you were to ask, one of their technicians might be willing to explain the removal procedure to you. No guarantees on this one, as they would rather be paid to do the removal themselves, and then get the repair job as well. If there are more than one of these businesses in your area, you may have to visit several before you get someone nice enough to do you the favour. Its worth a try. And I, for one, really appreciated that you took the time to make it easy to understand what you were asking. Thank You!

Marcus, My wife's last ES was a 97 that she put 269 000 km (167 000 mi) until we traded it on her present 04 ES330. That 97 ran flawlessly all those years with not one trip to the dealership except for a timing belt replacement at 100 km. The only thing ever to cause us problems, other than routine maintenance, was the left front turn signal bulb socket. Every 6 months like clockwork the left side turn signals would start to flash at double to triple the flash rate of normal. The fix was to remove the bulb and stretch the contacts inside the socket to make a tighter fit to the bottom of the bulb contacts. Whenever the contacts lost tension, the resistance in the circuit went up and the bulbs started to flash much quicker than normal. I guess I could have simply replaced the offending socket and been done with it, but spending time in the garage with my toys was worth it. Good Luck on finding a nice one. You shouldn't be disappointed if you can find a cream puff.

First off......... with only one capital letter and no periods at all in your post, it is nigh on torturous to read. I came close to giving up reading the rest of your post several times, and I'm sure that many others did as well. Secondly, you are on the right track as to how to fix the unit. It will have to be removed from the car, and then the case will have to be opened to extract the gum. The fix to the CD player itself will most likely require the case to be opened as well. In the past I have repaired CD players and the older cassette units that had the same no play symptoms, and found that the drive band (really just a small rubber band between two pulleys) had stretched or broken. Taking the old one to an audio repair shop, I was able to get a replacement of the proper length and shape, and fixed the units. Someone with patience and the proper DIY skills can do this kind of repair, and they need not be an electronics expert. If after getting the case apart, should a broken drive band, a jam, or stripped gear not be readily found, you may be forced to take it to an audio repair shop, or look for another used unit in a wrecking yard. Good Luck!

Each car model forum you subscribe to will have a different clientele, dependent upon the type of person who own that particular model. I've been fortunate enough to have the resources to own 6 vehicles, and consequently follow forums on each of the separate cars, and the forum members and the responses to each are all over the map. For me, the best one is the forum for my 1954 MG. The members are all in their 60's and older. They are knowledgeable, hands on experts who share freely and you get an answer for every question you ask in minutes, usually many. The people using the Tbird forum for my 55 Thunderbird are few and far between. You can go for a week on that forum and never get an answer, and then fvrequently get an answer from somebody who obviously hasn't been in the back yard long enough as a backyard mechanic. The members of the 300ZX forum for my 90 300ZX are all tuner kids who drive you nuts with the way they pound these cars and then wonder why they broke, or want to know how to turbo charge a non turbo car when they could have just bought the turbo charged model and saved themselves the grief of mistake after mistake. Just as bad is the diesel truck forum for the truck I use for towing my fifth wheel trailer. Like the tuner kids above, they can't throw money away fast enough for chip kits and big tires and skyjacker kits. The macho comments abound. The members of the Subaru forum for my OutBack appear to be a mixture of all of the above, the good, the bad, and the ugly. And then there is this forum. Here the Lexus brand seems to attract a lot of people who pay someone else to fix their car. There are few members who are really knowledgeable about these cars, some tuner kids, and a lot of others who fall somewhere in the middle. You may be well advised to subscribe to as many other Lexus forums as you can find, as well as this one, in order to get all of the answers you require. Good Luck!

The simplest repair is to replace just the mirror glass, and is a common repair. Usually you take a piece of paper and trace the outline shape of the actual mirror glass, take it to a glass shop, and have them recut a replacement. Make sure that they understand that you need the thinnest mirror that they can source. You then break out the remaining broken pieces, use lots of silicone seal over the plastic backing plate of the mirror assembly, press and centre the new mirror onto the backing plate, and masking tape well the new mirror in place. Let the silicone set for 24 hours before removing the tape. You most likely will lose the mirror heating ability of the mirror, due to the thickness of the silicone and the loss of the heater grid from the back of the original mirror glass, but the price will be right. To maintain your mirror heater ability, you will most likely have to replace the entire mirror assembly, costly, particularly if you have to paint it to match your car. Then again you might find a correctly painted mirror in a wrecking yard. I've repaired several mirrors as explained above with great success. Good Luck

JOW, You've probably popped or broken the rollers off that are attached to the glass and follow the window channel up and down. Or the scissor mechanism that moves the glass has popped out of its channel or broken off. Regardless, you won't know for sure until the inner door panel is removed and you can take a look. Something has either come disconnected or it has broken. Unless you are mechanically inclined and an avid DIYer, you are best to leave it to a service shop, and not necessarily a Lexus dealer. If parts are broken it may be prudent to find used ones from a wrecking yard, and even check to see if the same generation of Camry window parts wouldn't be interchangeable and less expensive. Good Luck!

Almost without exception all factory mounted seats in cars for the last 50 years are bolted at the front and rear of the side rails. Most have blind nuts welded to the floor pan and the bolts pass through the side rails and into the blind nuts. Your car I would suspect to be the same. In most cases you can simply unbolt the seats from the car, measure back the added distance that you require and drill new bolt holes into the floor. A word of caution!! Check underneath the carpet to ensure that any drilling will not go through any seatbelt wiring or seat heater wiring. As well CHECK THE UNDERSIDE of the floor to see if the drill would go through any wiring or brake/fuel lines. Be prepared to put large/thick washers under the floor for the bolts to mount through. This will keep the bolts from pulling through the floor in the event of an accident. Check as well to see that any underfloor bracing that reinforces the floorpan won't be in your way, requiring drilling through them as well and using extra long bolts. Good Luck!

I'm not sure that this is the fix required, but I would try one of those CD cleaner disks in the unit to see if the laser head is dirty and needs cleaning. It would seem to me that a dirty pickup lens would have a tough time tracking properly if the light beam wasn't able to reflect correctly and bounced off another set of grooves. Good Luck!

First off, you are posting on the wrong forum. That aside, from what you describe the fix is relatively easy, provided there are no broken parts. What usually happens is the the rod from the hatch handle to the lock mechanism pops out of its hole at one end or the other. Either the clip came loose that holds the rod in place or the rod somehow worked its way loose. Be prepared to find the clip in the bottom of the tailgate, or still attached to one end of the mechanism, maybe even broken. Getting the inner tailgate panel off is the first step. Its held on with screws hidden under plugs, with push in plastic plugs, or a combination of both. If after removing any screws you see no other fasteners, the panel usually just pulls off with a firm grasp along its sides and bottom. Once off you will be able to see the inner workings and find the problem. Its an easy DIYer on almost any vehicle. Good Luck!

I put all new accessory belts on my 90 300ZX several years ago and got the same results, a terrible squeal at startup. The fix was to tighten up the AC belt until it didn't squeak any more.

There is a manual method of closing the sunroof if an electrical failure were to leave it in the open position. Check your owner's manual to see how its done for your specific year. Usually they give you a crank, or have you use a screw driver, that is inserted into a hole in the headliner and you are able to crank the sunroof fully closed. During the last inch or so of travel towards closing, the sunroof mechanism on both sides rides up on a cam (more like a ramp) that pushes it up into place. In your case one of several things may have happened. The motor has failed before closing, the mechanisms that push the sunroof up into place are broken, or the drive tracks on both sides have stripped away from the motor drive gear. The only way to correct any of them is to pull the headliner, and maybe even remove the sunroof mechanism from the car. To remove the headliner and the sunroof from the car is time consuming but not difficult, and unless you're mechanically inclined and a moderately talented DIYer is best left to the professionals. Only then will you find what requires repairing. New parts will be expensive, and maybe an entire used assembly from a rearended wreck would be the cheapest way to go. Be aware that the headliner was originally put into the car through the front or rear windshield before the glass went in. To get it out now will most likely mean kinking it in one or more places that will show up when reinstalled back into the car. I've done several of these in the last couple of years, and while they are not hard to do, the job can chew up 4 or 5 hours. Keeping your hands clean and off of the headliner is an absolute must, as cleaning it afterwards always leaves marks that show up. Good Luck!

David170, Somewhere in your headliner there is a plug or in the front map light area will be a knockout. Pull the plug or the knockout and there is an opening where you can insert the emergency sunroof crank to manually close the sunroof. You should have a tool in the car, or if you check your owner's manual, it will show you what instrument to use and where. Since you say that you heard a snap and the motor still runs, I suspect the manual closing procedure won't produce any results, mainly because the emergency tool inserts right into the gearbox of the motor, since most sunroof failures are electrical. Your problem isn't electrical. There are 2 nylon cables running down both sides of the sunroof towards the rear of the car. The cables have gear teeth down their whole length, and these are what mesh with the gear box in the motor. The sides of the sunroof itself have plastic sections that attach to these geared cables, and as the motor pulls these cables, that is what moves the sunroof. It sounds as if your mounting clips to the cables are stripped, or the gearbox has stripped a gear, or the cables have stripped a section. With the age of your car, parts will be very expensive, if even available. As well is the shop time to remove the headliner from the car just to get to the sunroof to see what needs fixing. Originally the headliner was put in through the front or rear windshield before the glass went in. To get it out now will require bending and creasing the headliner, which will show up after everything is fixed. Most sunroof fixes will require the entire mechanism to be taken out of the car for repair. If it sounds like I'm building a case here to tell you that it will cost you a lot of dollars, your are right, unless you are doing the job yourself. Your best bet may be to just have the sunroof put into its parked position permanently, and forget it. The next best bet is to find a complete assembly from a wreck and install it into your car yourself. Its not rocket science, it can be done by someone who knows his way around somewhat. The key is to reinstall the repaired assembly back into the car in its closed position. Final adjustments to the sunroof to get it to match the roof opening's profile, are usually done with four small screws or bolts from inside the car before the headliner goes back in. I've done three of these in the last few years in different makes of cars, and they are all pretty similar. One hint, keep your hands clean when working with the headliner removal and install. Its difficult to clean, and most cleaned areas show up dramatically. Good Luck!

Back in the mid 80's my wife had a Toyota Cressida, the forerunner to the ES, that developed the same shimmering mirror problem. On that car I found that there was a loose screw in the mirror housing that required tightening. I suspect that your mirror has the same problem. As I recall there was an actual hole in the bottom of the mirror housing, right up close to the door skin, that can only be seen if you are on your knees looking up at the mirror bottom. The problem back then was that the screw hole was so close to the door skin, that it was impossible to get a Phillips screw driver into the hole to tighten the screw, because the curve out of the door skin would not permit the screw driver to get into the hole. One solution would have been to have removed the mirror from the car to be able to use the screw driver, but that requires removing the interior door panel first. What I did was to take a short Phillips screw driver bit (from one of those screw driver kits that gives you 20-30 different bits and one handle) and fit it into a very small box end wrench that fit the bit exactly, and used that to tighten the screw. You could also use a right hand screw driver (I think they are called) which is really a screw driver without a handle that has a 90 degree bend about an inch from the bit. If your mirror has the hole, your in luck. If not, you'll most likely have to pull the mirror from the car, and take the mirror apart to tighten the screw or screws. Good Luck!

Wow! That kind of mileage and still going strong! Obviously you take care of your ride and its rewarded you with lots of pleasurable miles. You really can't get cheaper driving than that. You are laughing all of the way to the bank. I know what you mean by a sandblasted windshield. It really does cut down on the visibility, particularly at night and in the rain. I'm assuming that you do much of the maintenance on your car yourself. If so, you might consider getting one of those glass polishing kits for automotive glass. Its a special pad that goes on your speed drill (or on a die grinder, etc.) and some fine compounds. Many car restorers use the system on older windshields for removing the scratches that wiper blades have left, as well as the minor sandblasting over the years. A few hours work and the cost of the kit is a whole lot cheaper than a new windshield, not to mention the good feelings you get from having done it yourself. Most auto parts stores will carry the kit, or you can go online to Eastwood.com and search for glass polishing. The kits start at less than $50 USD. Good Luck!

If you can't trace the problem to the filter you changed, or to the drain plug you removed and replaced, then you will have to do some detective work, and that means getting under the car and looking. It is possible that its just a coincidence that your leak started just after the oil change, and is not related at all. Anyways, you'll still need to get the car in the air to search down the source, inconvenient but not expensive. Good Luck!

Maybe you need to thrash on the engine for 10 minutes or so, or do a battery disconnect and reset the computer as well. To clarify, many of today's cars have learning computers, that is that they learn your driving patterns and provide transmission shifts and engine performance to match accordingly. Myself, I do not drive a car hard at all. I never get into the accelerator or ask the car to do a downshift, unless I misjudge a traffic situation and need to keep from becoming a statistic. Consequently, my daily driver is very sedate at accelerating and shifting. I have in the past thrashed the car for short periods, or disconnected the battery to reset the system. Invariably whenever I drive the car next it is a changed machine performance wise, almost as dramatic as a complete tuneup. My wife, on the other hand really drives her ES330, and its performance has not dropped from the day she purchased it, almost 100 000 km earlier. For sure do all of the maintenance required and get a tune up. If that doesn't change the car's performance, try my suggestions. And if that doesn't perk her up, you need to see a techi who you know is very savvy at his job. Good Luck!