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When did the symptoms start? Out of the blue or were they there when you purchased the car? If the timing doesn't change with the diagnostic jumper installed the TPS (throttle position sensor) is may be faulty or improperly adjusted. Normally the TPS is extremely durable and doesn't need adjusting, but sometimes owners or mechanics inadvertently mess them up while working on other components in the engine compartment. A hole or loose clamp in the tubing that runs from the throttle body to the air filter can cause a rough idle.

Genuine Toyota TrueStart Batteries Features Include: * Matrix Radial Grids to help your battery meet today's high current starting demands. * The right balance of Cold Cranking Amps and Reserve Capacity to provide power and cranking ability time after time. * A patented lead alloy feature that reduces corrosion of lead parts and extends the life of your battery. * A Negative Plate Paste Expander that reduces damage caused by high under-hood temperature or extreme heat. Why your battery should be a Genuine Toyota Replacement: * The only warranty replacement battery approved for your Toyota vehicle. * Meets or exceeds Toyota specifications for all vehicles. * The exceptional 84-Month Warranty! * 24-month FREE Replacement. * 60-month proration in a simple two tier priced plan. * Includes Towing and Installation Labor. * Coast-to-Coast warranty service at more than 1,200 locations!

Check fluid level and condition. If transmission slips (engine RPM rises without a corresponding rise in vehicle speed) despite the fact the fluid level and condition are both good, then you may need to get a new (or good used) transmission.

The Oct. or Nov. issue of Consumer Reports rated batteries. One brand of batteries carried by Autozone and one brand carried by Walmart both did well, plus they both had a 2 year free replacement guarantee (the best guarantee available in the battery business). The ultimate quality battery is likely the genuine Toyota TrueStart battery available at the Parts Dept's. of Toyota dealers.

LS400 thermostat replacement tutorial http://www.lexls.com/tutorials/cooling/thermostat.html SC400 has same engine and thermostat

PB Blaster is an aerosol rust penetrant type product with various petroleum solvents and ditillates that are harmful to rubber. Antisqueek products that are safe to use on rubber include silicone sprays, silicone greases (like Sylglide available in NAPA stores), and rubber lubricants.

I wonder if the shop that installed your power steering pump installed the air control valve correctly and routed the two attaching vacuum hoses correctly? http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y189/mastertech/psair.jpg http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y189/mastertech/psairb.jpg

I have asked similar questions about water spots and never got any specific answers about specific products that are CERTAIN to do a good job and where to buy them. So I've just been experimenting on my own. So far I've found household water spot remover products like Lime Away are partially effective and more fully effective if applied multiple times over multiple days. I feel there surely must be some other chemical acid type product available that could more effectively dissolve waterspots in seconds, but I have yet to fine one.

Draining the block involves more complication for a do-it-yourselfer and is not really necessary on a near new Toyota like yours. Just draining and refilling the radiator every year or two using the factory fill coolant mixture (50% distilled water and 50% Toyota Long Life Antifreeze) will keep the cooling system clean and corrosion free for many decades to come. Flushing is also unnecessary on a Toyota as young as yours because the Toyota coolant does a perfect job of preventing corrosion and scale buildup, hence there is nothing nasty in your old coolant that needs to be flushed out. You'll notice that when you drain the old coolant it will still look as clean as brand new coolant. Now when your car gets upwards of 75,000 - 100,000 miles on the odometer the exterior metal fins of the radiator and AC condenser will have accumulated alot of bugs and dust. When that time comes it would be best to remove the radiator to clean the bugs and dust off using a garden hose.

Like Toyrme said, the average life is about 100-150K, but if you are mainly a highway driver they could last longer. The reasons to change them are to maintain optimum fuel economy. Everything you do to maintain optimum fuel economy will also prolong the life of the expensive emission system componets. So new sensors easily pay for themselves in the long run (for owners who plan to keep their cars along time)

Possible items the car might need: 1. Drain and refill entire cooling system with 50% distilled water & 50% Toyota Long Life Antifreeze about every 3 years or 30,000 miles. Or just drain and refill the radiator except at more frequent intervals. 2. Replace cooling system thermostat and thermostat gasket if they are now 8 years old. Use genuine Toyota parts for another 8 years of reliability. 3. If the radiator has never been removed for exterior cleaning, consider removing it next spring to wash the bugs and dust out of the cooling fins. With the radiator out it is also much easier to clean the the bugs and dust out of the air conditioning condenser. 4. Replace engine drive belts if they have 80,000 or more miles on them. Use Toyota belts because they are metric for a perfect fit in the pulleys, plus reinforced to last another 80,000 miles. 5. Inspect front rubber CV axle boots for possible tearing and grease leakage. If you catch a torn boot before alot grease leaks out, you can buy a genuine CV boot kit from a Toyota dealer for only $30 per axle and have it installed. It comes with new genuine Toyota CV joint grease too. That way your factory original CV joints could last the life of the car because they were always kept properly lubricated and never exposed to water and road dirt. 6. Clean throttle plate 7. Replace spark plug wires if they are still the factory originals. 8. Replace oxygen sensor(s) ahead of catalytic converter if they still the factory originals. Sensor(s) behind the converter last twice as long so don't need replacing yet. 9. If engine develops any ticking type noise or a slight vibration at idle have the engine's valve clearances inspected and adjusted if out of spec. 10. Refreshen the old power steering fluid by sucking the old fluid out of the fluid reservoir using a 8 foot long piece of clear vinyl hose from a hardware store and adding back a similar amount of new Dexron auto trans fluid. Repeat 3 or 4 times over a period of days. 11. Replace brake fluid about every 4 years using about 5 pints of new factory fill fluid (genuine Toyota Brake Fluid available at Toyota dealer parts depts). Use the two man bleeding procedure listed in the factory repair manual or use the one man bleeding devices like "Mity-Vac bleeder" or "Motive Power Bleeder". Both are commonly available on ebay.

Toyota has a reputation for building the most reliable and durable cars on the planet. Toyota achieves superior levels of reliability and durability by equiping the cars with superior everything - superior engines, spark plugs, filters, antifreeze, hoses, you name it. Therefore maintaining a Toyota with factory original everything such as filters in this case is your best assurance of someday becoming a member of the Toyota 400,000 or 500,000 or 600,000 mile club. Auto parts stores carry American car quality everything. Maintaining a Toyota with auto parts store products can only degrade the potential reliability and durability of a Toyota However, Toyotas are also relatively bland and boring cars. Reliability and durability are not a priority for all owners. There is a large group of younger owners who wish to make a social statement with their bland Toyotas via customizing them with specialty wheels, tires, paint stripes and so forth. The desire to customize, tinker, modify and experiment extends to the engine and exhaust system. Thus relatively few younger owners will recommend or considering using OEM everything (plugs, filters, fluids, oxygen sensors, etc) to maintain their Toyotas. Beside age differences, I believe there are geographic differences as well. In the conservative, nationalistic Midwest, for example, I think owners tend to be more reluctant to admit a foreign country - especially a past military adversary - builds superior cars and parts, fluids and filters to maintain them.

I'd suggest trying Lexus of Westminster or Longo Lexus as well as the San Fernando Valley dealers. However, the annual Lexus December to Remember sales event is just around the corner and the best pricing during December should be the days between Xmas and New Years Day.

With the new sensors installed fuel economy is likely to increase 1-2 MPG so that will help offset the cost of the new sensors. The new sensors will also extend the life of the catalytic converter and EGR system components which not only saves money in the long run, but also maintains engine power and fuel economy at optimum levels. Aftermarket sensors are less expensive, but do not last as long. For example the company Walker recommends owners replace their oxygen sensors every 30,000 miles.

The early 90's ES owners who have have cooling system problems and related engine failures are the same ones who failed to use the factory original coolant mixture at replacement time (50% distilled water and 50% Toyota Long Life antifreeze), factory original thermostats, thermostat gaskets and radiator caps at replacement time. During the first 5 years / 50,000 miles of ownership, early 90's ES owners did not have cooling system problems because their cooling systems were still in factory original, undeteriorated, unmodified condition. Factory original stuff is more expensive and more inconvenient to for service shops to obtain and therefore eat into service shop profits. So that's why service shops do not want to use factory orignal stuff and tell their customers: "our stuff is good enough"

Over the past 33 years, millions of Toyota's & Lexus's have rolled into Pep Boys repair shops and the ones with power steering have all had the words "Use Dexron Type ATF" engraved in the Power Steering Reservoir Caps. Yet Pep Boys is still calling Toyota dealers to find out what fluid to use. That would be a good one for Jay Leno.

For 33 years Toyota has designed all of its power steering systems to operate on Dexron type automatic transmission fluids. Same with most other Japanese auto makers. For that reason if you took your car to a auto repair shop in Japan, the shop probably wouldn't even have any products on the shelf labeled "power steering fluid" because for decades they've been using Dexron type automatic transmission fluid in the power steering system.

Lets face it. American mechanics and American car builders don't give a BLEEP about reliability and durability. Americans don't even build one vehicle that is reliable and durable. So it should be no surprize they treat the top quality automobiles made in other countries like junk. Hence when it comes to automotive fluids and lubricants American mechanics think of every excuse not to use what the foreign car makers recommend. Cases in point: 1. The Toyota engineers say "Use only Dexron ATF" in the power steering system. The American mechanics substitute various brands of power steering fluid that are designed for American car power steering systems. 2. The Toyota engineers say "Use only DOT 3 brake fluid" in the braking system. The American mechanics won't use DOT 3, but will substitute DOT 4 or some other non-recommended fluid. 3. The Toyota engineers say "Use a 50/50 mix of distilled water and red Toyota Long Life Antifreeze" in the cooling system. The American mechanics will substitute green and yellow antifreezes and mix them with tap water. In these ways and more American mechanics butcher Asian cars and contribute to their premature demise. That's why I either steer clear of American auto service shops or buy the parts, fluids and lubes Toyota recommends separately and then tell the shop "use these parts and fluids."

'90-'97 LS400 timing belt replacement http://www.lexls.com/tutorials/engine/timingbelt.html

Toyota Type T-II fluid was discontinued several years ago and replaced by Type T-IV fluid. Type T-IV is approved for all vehicles which originally came with Type T-II such as the early 90's LS400's and SC400's. Simple as that.

2 quarts of Dexron III into 8 quarts of Type T is no big deal to panic over. That's why your transmission is still shifting OK. But I would get 7 quarts of Toyota Type T-IV from a Toyota parts dept. and then over a period of days do a total of three oil pan drain and refills with the Toyota Type T-IV to gradually get rid of the Dexron III from the system. Dexron III does have a proper and approved use in all Lexus's - in the power steering system.

The ES330 owners manual says 87 octane is the minimum acceptable octane and for better performance use 91 octane. The FAQ on Lexus's website further explains that the electronic engine control computer will !Removed! the ignition timing when using 87 octane to control pinging. Retarded timing = less lively acceleration and decreased fuel economy. Some owners cannot detect the difference whereas other owners can.

The factory fill antifreeze on the RX330 is Toyota Super Long Life Antifreeze and it's good for 5 years / 100,000 miles. So your cooling system will not need any attention for some time to come. I think the main thing you should consider having done now at 30,000 miles is a transmission oil pan drain and refill with genuine Toyota Type T-IV fluid (about 3 quarts worth). To save money you could have this done at a Toyota dealer since the drivetrain of an RX330 is identical to a Toyota Highlander.

Lexus offers no tire pressure guidelines for 215 x 50 17's on a 1996 ES because these were not the factory original wheel and tire sizes.

I don't know what kind of warranty Lexus offers on replacement motors. I've heard that when Lexus replaces a motor, they use rebuilt motors. Rebuilt by American firms. So maybe the American rebuilder didn't do a very good rebuild job. Like maybe the rebuilder used a used oil pump instead of a new oil pump.