Lexusfreak

I think I will stick to using the Mobil 1 5W 30 synthetic although I did consider the Amsoil. After reading the findings mburn, I don't see that much af an advantage to switching since the Mobil 1 held up quite well after the testing was completed. I can't justify the fact that the Amsoil is about $3.50 more per bottle here in Canada either & they have not completed the testing yet on the Amsoil. But good & imformative write up nontheless. B)

Check www.trader.ca (and select your region in BC) to try & find one that is in good condition & in your budget. One thing I should mention that Milage (Kilometers in our case) is not as important as how the vehicle has been maintained! So if you get a ES with higher KM's but the seller has service records vs. a lower KM's car without any proof of service, I'd be inclined to go with the higher KM's vehicle. Just my 2 cents. Good Luck! & Welcome to the club!

I suggest new weather stripping as well & making sure the two front doors are properly aligned.

Best suggestion is to ask friends & family as to where they take their cars. I have an excellent independent mechanic that charges half for labour compared to the Lexus dealers. His speciality is high end Japanese & European vehicles. I also buy the parts I need at the Dealer (the Toyota Camry is very simular as you might know so they use many of the same parts like spark plugs and the like). Compare part prices with a Lexus vs. Toyota dealer & check your owners manual for what parts you will need (usually spark plugs, fuel filter, PCV valve, air filter). Good Luck!

You don't have a small crack anywhere in the plastic resivior? perhaps 3/4 of the way up & it starts leaking when the car is hot? My suggestion is put a large piece of cardboard under the front end so it covers all areas & leave it overnight to collect the leaking fluid.......it might narrow down where the problem is coming from to help your mechanic solve the problem & let's hope it's not too expensive to fix.

If you get the fenders replaced as you mentioned & there is no SIGNIFICANT rust the rest of the car, then it might be worth getting the car rustproofed by Crown for about $110. That way, I think there should be no problems for your ES to last you a couple more years & perhaps selling it down the road & get a reasonable $$$ (privately) to put towards a newer Lexus B)

Hey everyone, here is a fantastic tire article from Motor Trend magazine. It's a little long but WELL worth the read! Enjoy & click the link below: It covers a lot of the questions we ask in this section from tire pressures to larger wheels & tires! There is even a Lexus LS430 in the pics B) http://motortrend.com/features/consumer/11...ires/index.html

mbp, the Mobil 1 or K & N filter are suppose to be superior to the OEM filters as they contain different filter media (the Mobil 1 is a synthetic filter media as opposed to the cardboard in normal oil filters). I've been using the Mobil 1 filter so far, but did purchase a couple of K & N oil filters when I went to the Florida Keys. I will report back if I notice any significant changes between the two......but they are considered the best available. Check out these links for more info: Also you might want to check out the the thread in this section titled "do you use synthetic oil" quite an intresting discussion. B) k & n oil filter: http://www.knfilters.com/oilfilter.htm Mobil 1 oil filter: http://www.mobil1.com/index.jsp go to Mobil 1 products & look for the Mobil 1 oil filter. Hope this helps :)

Where do they sell the stuff at most large auto parts chains or mail order kind of thing? I'd be courious to see what their "technical specifications" are & the gif link you posted for some reason I can't access as it says there is an error. Thanks for your comments by the way B)

Thanks for posting mburn! B) Very intresting test results. It would appear that both the Amsoil & the Mobil 1 oils held up very well all things considered. They both had their up's & down's over the course of the extended drain interval (altthough the Amsoil is only half way thru it's testing technically)......I'm not 100% sure one could call an obvious winner but to say they are both a quality product but perhaps the Amsoil came out a bit ahead because over the course of the test, they didn't have to add as much "top off" as the Mobil 1 (so far at least anyways, but we shall see). Thanks for the posting! :)

Looks awesome sw! :D B) & lexusk8 spoke for both of us with his comments! Enjoy my friend. :)

Glad your happy sw! Keep us posted about the shimmy issue....what kind of weights did you use? The ones that are put behind the wheel as opposed to on the "lip" of the ring itself? tundra, yes there is such thing as overkill with tires........& wedding rings too I'm glad I stuck to the "plain is fancy" concept with my wedding plans. Like sw already mentioned, the ES is no sports car no matter how many mods you put on the car.......if were talkin the IS than the TS-1's should be on one's "short list" just not on the 97+ ES. The ride would be much harsher also & if that's the case.....why buy an ES to begin with?

Where abouts in the country are you from yuc? You shouldn't have any problems with leaks if you haven't had any to this point. Do you currently burn any oil while using conventional oil?

dcfish, where do you get the neo synthetic & what is the approx cost? I haven't heard of that brand much so I'm courious is all. Monarch, if Toyota get their "genuine motor oil" from Mobil, isn't it pretty much just the same thing but "rebottled" with a Toyota label? I dought the instructions on the back of a bottle of that oil would say to ONLY use genuine Toyota motor oil in a genuine Toyota vehicle would it? Surely it would be fine to use it in other makes & models of vehicles that call for a specific viscosity grade? My Dad use to try a range of different synthetic & conventional oil products to try & find an inexpensive way to keep his 90 Park Avenue going strong after close to a quater million miles on the original engine & transmission.....the solution? He sticks with Castrol Syntec 5W 50 100% synthetic oil and never has to top it up in between oil changes........he actually noticed an improvement (beleive it or not) in his fuel consumption when he switched to the "thicker" grade and the thing even idles quieter than it did before. One can't tell me that there are no benefits to using synthetic oil over conventional & I'm more inclined to trust "real world" results in general such as steviej's & my father's for example and many others no dought, than to see links of endless babble (guess work in a white coat which results are usually biased because they conduct the tests representing their own oil company they work for! ) on conventional vs synthetic comparo's or "I said this" & "this person say's that" it's a broken record. One should try both for themselves & compare.......if one discovers no significant benefits & is more comfortable going back to "dino" oil for whatever reason, good for them & best of luck as well :whistles: I'm comfortable with using synthetic and changing the oil & filter at the Lexus suggested interval. I dought the oil companies "make up" stuff as you tend to suggest in order for them to charge 2 or 3 times more a qt or litre for synthetic over conventional cause if it didn't have the benefits as it claims or for the sake of arguement is just conventional oil with a synthetic label on the box........there would be a lawsiut so large that even the largest oil company would go out of business & turn into something like the Enron fiasco in the end or the tabacco companies. :chairshot: The overwelming majority of synthetic oil users will disagree with you all day long no matter how much you try & convince them otherwise & they would be right. More people leave the "conventional camp" for the "synthetic camp" as opposed to the other way around & that trend will continue. You mentioned either in this thread or another one on this subject about the cost savings you can have with conventional over synthetic.......My wife & I are in the process of looking for a house in the coming months.......If I "saved" several hundred bucks over the years by using conventional over synthetic, I don't think it will make us or break us when the times comes to getting approved for that mortgage & I probobly would have spent it on something else anyways.......like more frequent (conventional) oil changes :P but as it is.....

Perhaps the ink too?

My dad's 90 Park Avenue is rusting out pretty badly now & that's after 14 winters & rustproofed since day one. My point is that once rust does start & eats away from the inside of the metal out, I'm afraid the only thing one can do is "mask" the problem and not totally take it away. Expect it to resurface in as little as a year (after just one winter). My friend (Doug) is in Mississauga, Ontario and owns a professional rustproofing/detailing shop called Gem Auto Protection. Check out his website: www.gemautoprotection.com There is a price list on his site, but if you give him a call & talk with him directly (mention you were refered to by Brenden Heys with the 2001 Beige Lexus ES 300) he will look after you if you tell him exactly what type of service(s) your looking for. He's also a friend of my Dad as well. As I mentioned before, his work is so good that celeberties have gone & still do go to him. Folks like John Candy when he was alive & Walter Grezkey (Hockey great Wayne's father) still takes his Lincoln there on a regular basis just to name a couple. Good Luck! B)

Matthew, the Toyo Proxes TS-1's you mentioned are indeed an excellent tire & I have heard many good things about them......a very good choice on your IS to be sure, but overkill for a car like the ES. One might actually do a diservice as they are more for a performance sports sedan like the IS compared to a more tame & comfort riding vehicle like the ES. SW, how are your new TPT's? Did you go with the H or V rated? Don't forget that they are a "directional" tire when it comes time to do your rotations.......do not cris-cross them......front to back & back to front only. B)

I'll have a look sk, but like I mentioned, it is not factory equipment on a 2000 or 2001 Canadian ES......they do offer it as an "accessory" at the back of the brochure however just not standard equipment which blows my mind! Thanks again for your help sk.

Well Mobil 1 does advertise that they tested an engine & ran it for over a million miles. They took the engine apart & found "vertually no engine wear". I have yet to see a conventional product claim this. It does get that cold here in the great white north as you mentioned & that is one of many reasons I use the Mobil 1 synthetic.......as it also states......one should NOT switch back & forth between the two so...... :whistles: There ya go. I also know that using synthetic burns off a hell of a lot less than conventional oil, my dad's 1990 Park Avenue is proof of that!

:whistles: :chairshot:

Ouch

Correct sk! My guy uses two types of procucts in the process you described (one for "undercoating & the other rustproofing), but it's a permanent product as opposed to getting it applied annually (I get it "touched up" every second year to be on the safe side), but he saturates the whole car on the first application so it soakes into the metal especially the black stuff for the undercoating which gets the most punishment in the winter.

lol sk I appreciate your help. Where did you buy your block heater or suggest I go to get one? (Toyota & Lexus parts dept the same price?) How long roughly would it take a good mechanic to install?

So just "plug & play" if you will as opposed to drilling into the block? I wonder if I should buy the block heater at my dealer & take it to my mechanic to install? I assume it's fairly easy to install? Where is the freeze plug located on a 2001 ES?

Good example steviej! :)