lexusk8

I had water in the headlights of my '01 ES a month ago (thanks to my dealer for leaving the hood open on rainy days at the service lot) What I did was the following: - Disconnected the wiring and removed the headlights from the car. - Brought the headlights inside the house and removed the bulbs. - Hooked up 2 plastic straws together and sucked as much of the water as I could from inside the headlights. Spat the water out and into the sink. - Placed the headlights inside the oven and had them cooked at the lowest cooking temp. for 5 min. - Repeated the cooking cycles until I see no more fogging/condensation inside the headlights. - Let the headlights cool off at room temp. for 10-15 min. - Installed the bulbs, reconnected the wiring and installed the headlights back to the car. I know some people will be disgusted by the water-sucking technique (not recommended for everyone) but it worked for me, and I haven't had any condensation since then

Same thing happened to me to one of the rear windows in my '01 ES long time ago when we had freezing rainy weather one time. The next day when the weather dried up, the window works fine. So you just gotta wait it out until the weather gets warmer to get the windows working.

That's how all the heated seats work for the '97-'99 ES. It is simply an on/off function. The heated seats in the '00-'01 ES have a "HI/LO" heat setting you can choose from, and I believe it's the same for the '02-'05 ES also.

Lou, I also have a '01 ES, and I changed my wheels to the factory ones from an '03 ES. The wheel size is 16x6.5, and I mounted the wheels onto the same tires used for my factory '01 wheels. Fitment is perfect, and the ride is just as comfortable as before, but I noticed that the wheel lugs stick out longer by 1/2" than from my old wheels. Not a big deal to me for the time being :)

OK guys, sorry I'm a little late jumping onto the bandwagon. Blame it on CL for using up all my time with my moderator duties there LOL ;) As Lexusfreak mentioned from one of his posts, I'm running Toyo Proxes TPT on my '01 ES since the day it was purchased (which has been for a year and 9 months). The car came with the TPT's when I bought it, so I'm guessing the tires have been on for maybe 2 years or so. At any rate, these tires are strictly the best all-season performance tires money can buy. As far as winter goes, the Toyo's run great under wet and snowy conditions. That being said, I have never needed to change to snow tires. Forget about ice, NO tire will stick with ice, ever. When you drive over a small patch of ice, it's all about driver control, as the way it should be for the rest of your winter driving. Also, it's a wise idea to put some weight in the trunk and/or have passengers in the back seat if you're driving on a heavily snow-covered road. I picked up my parents from the airport one time in my '01 ES, and had all their luggage fill up my trunk. It was snowing the entire drive on the way back home, and everyone was driving super slow and cautiously stayed in the slow lane, but I was passing every car on the highways and never lost control during the snowy drive because of all the weight in the rear :) Everyone will have a different perspective on a certain tire brand and type, but I can say with 100% confidence that the Toyo Proxes TPT is an excellent choice for an all-season tire, and for a winter tire

Both of the '03 ES nozzles costed me $22. They come in different colors, and you obviously want the ones which match the body color of your ES. I installed it myself. Very easy to do, took me only 10 minutes. The nozzles are held on by clips on both ends. I used a business card to remove the old nozzles. Believe me, you'll notice a big difference in terms of the nozzle spray between these nozzles and the ones from the '97-'01 ES :)

I replaced the nozzles from my '01 ES with the ones from the '03 ES. The nozzle spray is much improved, more of a fan-type pattern and spreads out more than from the stock nozzles. You can get the newer nozzles by placing an order at the parts counter from your Lexus dealership. It doesn't cost that much, and it's a worthy and subtle mod :D

Timothy, it sounds like you need either winter or all-weather floor mats. I bought a set of all-weather floor mats from Wal-mart for about $25. It's the clear, transparent type, the mats are not too thick, and are easy to clean. Good enough for me to get through each and every wintry day :)

nancem, If you know the VIN # of the '02 ES in question (the number should be etched on the driver side of the front windshield from the outside), you can call up the service dept of your local Lexus dealership and ask them to give you a service history of the ES based on that VIN number. All Lexus dealerships in the US run a national database that keeps track of service histories of all Lexus vehicles which have been taken in for Lexus service.

'93 ES front pads = 04465-33060 '93 ES rear pads = 04466-32050 http://www.irontoad.com/Merchant2/merchant..._Code=1993es300

I can tell you from my experience that the engine and TRAC OFF lights resulted in the malfunction of the charcoal canister (located in the fuel tank area) in my '01 ES. Got the charcoal canister replaced at the dealership, and problem solved :)

That's definitely not right. Normally it should shift in the range of 2,000 - 2,500 RPM between 1st and 2nd. Tranny fluid should be changed via the "drain-and-fill" method every 30K miles (or if you do a lot of hard/aggressive driving, 15K miles). While you're at it, get the tranny filter and gasket replaced as well.

The GS wheels on the ES unfortunately won't work without modifications like spacers. Possibly the same deal with RX300 and IS300 wheels. Have you looked into plus-sizing your wheel size (i.e. 17x7, 18x8, etc.)?

If you look behind the circuit board in which the bulb is fastened, there is either a black or brown plastic socket attached to the green capped bulb which can be unscrewed with a small flathead. When you replace the bulb, make sure it's a bulb with the same colored socket (brown or black). You can get these center console unit bulbs from your Lexus dealership for about $2 per bulb.

nicksan, I feel I should pass along this info since you seem to live near the NYC/LI area. All of the dealerships in that cluster (i.e. Manhattan, Bay Ridge, Massapequa) have gotten poor reviews from their customers in BOTH the sales and service depts. Many horror stories developed from them, and as a result, some of them opted to go to a trustworthy independent service shop, or to a Toyota dealership. However for your case, if you go to a non-Lexus facility to get your car checked up, your $300 discount coupon will obviously be invalid :(

Since the ES only has 22K miles (congrats on getting a low mileage vehicle BTW!), I would only concentrate on getting fluids replaced, such as engine oil, coolant, brake, transmission and differential. Top off the windshield wiper fluid if possible. No need to look into the suspension at this time since it hasn't been driven long enough. You can ask to have the air filter checked out, or you could do it yourself by popping open the filter box cover and inspecting the filter from the other side. If you don't feel any nuances in the climate control system, then you don't need to have the cabin filter replaced. Finally, you mention that the brakes feel soft, so it may be a good idea to have the brake pads checked out and see if they're worn down enough to warrant replacement. Hope this info helps out, coming from one '01 ES owner to another. Good luck :)

As long as the base type is the same (i.e. H7 or whichever), it shouldn't be a problem. Just plug-and-play.

The "clunking" sound going over bumps could very well be coming from your strut mounts. They are located on both sides of the ES (with 3 nuts sticking out) when you pop the hood. These strut mounts tend to age rather quickly for the '97-'01 ES models, and so require replacement.

Actually, the '00 and '01 ES models were the only years from the '97-'01 era that have the factory HID as an option ;)

In addition to the balancing, check the tire pressures on all the tires and make sure they are equal and normal at 32 psi.

rayder, on your '98 ES, it probably makes sense why the A/C filter instructions are not included in the owner's manual since you are saying that there is no filter when you tried to do it yourself. Now I remember that all of the '97-'98 ES don't have the A/C filter from the factory. I don't think it was started until with the '99 ES model year.

Take the car to your local Autozone or Pep Boys store, and they can do a free diagnosis of the check engine light error coding. Do this first before you walk into the dealership.

I'd get your car towed back to the original shop/dealer who replaced your tranny and complain my butt off. Maybe the tranny drain plug from the pan was not tightened enough? This tranny incident is absolutely uncalled for, and I'd be mad as hell as well! :chairshot:

CUMan is right. 5 qts of oil is the capacity to use for a '97 ES.

Not to stray off-topic, but when it comes to washing my car, I rather either do it myself, or at a touchless/brushless car wash. Those regular automatics will leave fine scratches and swirls on your paint, and their car wash water contains acidic contaminants that I wouldn't dare to leave on my car :o