lexusk8

Most likely so. Brake pads on any Lexus must have anti-squeal shims.

All 1MZ-FE engines are prone to have sludge issues, not just the ES. You'll need to check up on the history of oil changes done to the car, and if they have been kept up at a regular basis.

Nah, the JDM clear side marker lights on the L-tuned site are to be installed on the front fender, kinda like in the same location as in most of the Audis. This requires professional custom drilling for the marker lights to be correctly installed.

frikna, if you are not mechanically inclined, I highly recommend dropping your car off at a Lexus dealership for service work. That's what they're trained to do, especially for hardcore work like transmission. They may also try to tell you to replace the entire transmission, which will be very expensive even for a remanufactured one from another ES, but this is exactly the same scenario I ran into when I had my '01 ES. Tranny started slipping around 98,600 miles, and I got the same CEL error code. Lexus replaced the tranny with a remanufactured one, and I only had to pay 50% of the cost (extended warranty covered the rest for me). It was not the best solution I could have hoped for, but all in all it worked out for me.

I remember one of them is made in the US, and the other made in Thailand. Other than that, they are both relatively the same oil filter.

Does the engine temperature gauge in the dash look normal? If not, it looks like you may have a short in the circuit for the coolant temperature sensor. Get this checked out at a Lexus or Toyota dealership ASAP.

I've had the car for a week now. Pics are located here.

If you can't find it on this site, try Google "1996 lexus es300 performance specifications". I'm sure you'll find a site somewhere else that mentions what you're looking for.

IMHO stick with filling the tires with regular air. You said that you only take your car out 2-3 times a week, which I assume adds up to low number of miles driven per year (i.e. less than 10K). I've seen results of 1-2 MPG improvement from just filling the tires with nitrogen, but this is done mainly on owners who drive every day and put a lot of miles each year. Nitrogen-filled tires may make some economical sense for the daily driver, but I don't believe there is much benefit in the long run for an owner who doesn't drive much.

After less than 3 weeks from the accident (refer to original thread here), I finally found my ride to replace the gone-but-not-forgotten ES. Here she is... 2003.5 Infiniti G35 5AT sedan (Brilliant Silver on charcoal interior) I purchased this beautiful car from a private seller near Daytona Beach for $18K. It only had 41,290 miles at the time of purchase (nice to have a non-high mileage car this time around). All maintenance has been kept up to date as far as oil changes, tire rotation, and the 30K service. Never been in an accident, and no dings, dents or scratches. The G35 is pretty much in tip-top excellent condition, inside and out, and drives very nice! :D Now, things I like about this car: - The 5-speed automatic transmission. It shifts quick and smooth with no interruptions or hesitation - Exhaust tone. Sweet-sounding with a definite race-like tone to it. I love it when the G35 goes from 1st to 3rd :) - The overall sweeping exterior design. Very attractive especially looking from the front and side - The sport suspension. It's readily tuned to take on the tough and curvy roads around town. I absolutely love the handling and steering feel; it's so good even in stock form :whistles: I drove a GS from another seller when I was car-searching, and apples to apples, the GS suspension certainly can't compare to the one from the G35 - 260hp 3.5L V6 engine. Nuff said :P - LED tailights and 3rd brake light, and HID headlamps - Instrument cluster and center console light up in orange like the BMW gauges - All auto-function windows - Steering wheel audio controls - Spacious headroom and legroom in the rear - Simplified wood trim touches on the door panel handles and gear shifter - Driver seat automatically moves forward/back in position when key is put in/out of ignition - Bose audio system (mfg'ed by Clarion). Bass is noticeable on this system compared to the Pioneer stock ones on the Lexus. Great sound quality and clarity. Things I dislike so far: - Two-piece remote control key fob. Why didn't Infiniti think about the ease and convenience of the one-piece master key design made by Lexus? - No trunk key hole (trunk is operated from either the trunk switch in the cabin or the trunk button on the key fob) - Lots of plastic material in the interior. Makes me worried about its durability and keeping it scratch-free. - Biggest issue now: The in-dash 6-CD changer is not working! Probably a jammed CD or CD-R from the seller. I've been told that this is a very common problem on the 03-04 G35's. Good thing this car is still under basic factory warranty for another 4 months, so I can get the unit replaced at no charge from the dealership. Overall I believe I made the right purchase even though I had considered getting a 02-03 GS300. This G35 met my requirements as far as number of miles, condition, service history and price. I've read that the Infiniti/Nissan reliability is not as high as Lexus/Toyota but still better than the majority of the car industry. I'm looking forward to keeping this car for at least a year, then we'll see what happens (new car models have been coming in left and right). Not ditching Lexus at all, just giving it a break for now as I plan to get back into the game not too far in the future! Cheers, Doug

You may want to take a look at http://www.leatherseats.com/. I've seen some of their work on some friend's GS and LS, and it looks really good :)

ARAIK = As Far As I Know

Sorry guys, delivery of the car is not happening tonight :( There was a VIN mismatch on the car's title which had to be fixed promptly. The seller is expecting the corrected title to be delivered overnight, so if everything goes according as planned for tomorrow I'll be bringing the car back home tomorrow night. Again, sorry to those who got their hopes up ;)

My insurance carrier is Safeco. I recently switched with them a couple months before this accident, after staying on AIG for 3-4 years. I'm pretty close to getting my "new" car soon. I just have to wait for the VIN on the car to be verified, and then I plan to take delivery at the end of today. You'll all see pics so sit tight, and there will be no teasers :)

The auto-lock feature for the ES started with the 2002 model. I believe it has to do with the C-BEST personalized settings that come with most other Lexus models, which the pre-'02 ES didn't have.

Yes, that is the correct part for your ES. The piece on the right installs first, and then the other one goes in, so they are stacked on top of each other when installed correctly.

Here you go. Lexus_2000_ES300_OEM_Radio_Removal.pdf

Alright, it sounds like I have stirred some people's emotions in a different manner which was never intended, but let me clarify a few things here before this thread gets out of hand... First off, this was what I have described in the beginning, an accident in its pure sense. I did not intentionally mean to cause it, and like what a lot of my friends and co-workers have said, "Sh*t happens". The woman in the Mustang is OK as far as I know. 3 days after the accident, I ordered and sent some flowers from FTD.com as well as an apology note for any pain and anguish I may have caused on her part. This is as much contact as I want to make with her at this point; it's not like I want to be close friends with her. This is the human nature of things, and everyone has to deal with it some point in their lives. I of course do not want to think about this accident, as it's in the past and I have moved on from it. What's done is done. Also, just in case any of you are not aware of, Florida has a "no-fault" state insurance law, where in the scene of any accident insurance companies from both parties are responsible for paying the damages from their respective sides, regardless of who's at fault. This includes medical payments and property damage. In addition, the no-fault law disallows one party to sue another involved in the accident. In other words, although I essentially caused the accident by making an improper left turn into approaching accident, by state law I cannot be sued by the woman driver for causing the accident. You could say I am very lucky in that sense, but I don't like to think of it that way if you know what I mean. Oh, one more thing about the high payout of $18,678.78 by my insurance. I believe the reason it is high is because I had fairly high coverage on my ES at the time of the accident. This includes full coverage and liability, and $250 deductible for comprehensive and $500 deductible for collision. I was paying around $400 premium per 6 months for that car. One of my in-law relatives who works in the insurance business told me that insurance companies must adjust their payouts accordingly with the customer's premiums. Of course, this is just one factor in determining the insurance payout. There are others like researching the local market of '01 ES sales with similar mileages and condition. The Orlando FL market is fairly huge and competitive in that sense. I hope this clears up any confusion for any of the respondents to this thread, but I am disappointed to hear from the attitude and behavior of snugglebunnies. It sounds like this person has never been in an accident, but yet doesn't seem to know the important part about dealing with the consequences in such an accident. I'm not going to brag about it, but I've been in 3 other accidents prior to this one. I've always made sure everyone involved is OK, that's my #1 priority, not about the condition of the cars. I always learn from my mistakes, and I tend to bounce back in a more improved manner. Accidents are not the prettiest things in the world, and neither is dealing with insurance afterwards, but I have had extensive experience after all my accidents. snugglebunnies, you need to be more careful with the things you say, especially over an Internet discussion forum. The last thing I need in this world is to say some choice words to someone who has not read about my accident situation in detail (including my feelings provoked) and jumps in with a hateful attitude and directs bitterness without regret towards me. As Skperformance said, I am a moderator and long-time poster (4 years to be exact) on ClubLexus.com, and if you ever come into that website with the attitude you dealt to me, you will be harshly lectured and possibly be given the ban flag by the administrator team. There are rules in every discussion forum. You signed up as a member, meaning you agreed to the conditions and terms stated prior to registration. Your BS is not welcome here or anywhere else To everyone else, if you have questions or comments that are unrelated to the tone of this thread, please PM me. In the meantime, I will keep you all posted on the arrival of the insurance check, and my upcoming test drive of the G35 tomorrow :) -Doug

See my latest post here.

Just a heads-up to those who are curious to know, Although it's been 2 weeks since the accident, I am doing OK and have moved on from it. The ES is officially totaled by my insurance, and I am expecting a payout of $18,678.78 from the loss. It's interesting that I originally paid $18,900 for the car when I bought it 3 years ago. At any rate, the insurance check should arrive next week :) In the meantime, I have been hunting around for my next car, and after much online shopping and a few test drives, I have finalized on these 2 choices: 2002/03 Lexus GS300, or 2003/04 Infiniti G35 sedan. Both cars are great choices, so it's kinda hard to choose between the two. Not too many differences between them other than the much-criticized interior of the G35, but I don't mind at this point; I'm looking for more value out of the car, with good resale value. We shall see... B)

Looks great in stock form. Makes me miss mine a lot :(

Unfortunately it looks like you're going to need at least a new bumper. Even if you pop back the dent, the paint will look tarnished and scuffed up, and perhaps even cracked. Not sure about the reinforcement pieces underneath the bumper but you'll have to bring the car to a Lexus body shop to do an extensive check-up.

For my '01 ES, the transmission went out at 98,600 miles. It first started with an error code indicating a malfunctional shift solenoid. This led then to jittery behavior of shifting gears, including when going from park to reverse or park to drive. This happened about a couple years ago, and I ended up having to take the car to the dealership for repairs. Luckily, my 100,000 mile extended warranty was still applicable at that time to include coverage of transmission repairs. Long story short, I got a remanufactured transmission off of another 2001 ES, which replaced the failed tranny in my car, and everything worked fine afterwards.

I wouldn't necessarily call it "price gouging". I think that term is better described for those gas stations who charge ridiculously high gas prices in a certain neighborhood where all other stations have comparable prices. Like you said, it's just common practice for all dealerships to charge an arm and a leg for any service related job, no matter how simple it is. For example, for an oil change, you can expect to pay anywhere between $50 to $80 at a Lexus dealership. I'll just take my car and put her on ramps, and do the whole oil change by myself within one hour and save myself plenty of money, thank you very much ;)

Go for it. I've seen one before, on a '92-'94 Windom in a Japanese Lexus advertisement. It looks 100X better :)