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What do you use to pull the code?

As far as mpg is concerned, I took the car on a long road trip last weekend and drove over 500 miles on the car with the CEL and the P0330 code on. When I filled up the car at the gas station, I got 418 miles on a tank of gas and I put in 14.318 gallon of gas. It came out to be over 29 mpg on this tank of gas. Beside feeling lack of power from acceleration from slow speed once in a while, the engine did not run any different than what it used to be before I had the CEL on. I wished I can find the CE1 connection on the wiring harness and connected both inputs to the ECU from the good sensor. Did anyone know where the EC1 connector located on the engine. I can't seem to find it from the wiring diagram that's on the 97 ES300 service manual.

I was wondering, what kind of problems or damages (if any) one would do to the engine if you driving around with the CEL and the P0330 knock sensor code on. As far as I can gather, the P0330 code indicated that there is a problem with the sensor (the ECU cannot read the sensor output), but the engine is not really knocking. Since the computer cannot read the sensor, so it defaults to a save mode operation. If you continue to drive under this condition, does it really do anything to the engine?

Can we get an update on this flat head screw? Did you sucessfully move the sliding moonroof using this screw.

After looking at your picture, and the fact that you didn't find a plug dead centre of the headliner at the rear, I suspect that you have found the manual close. I'll bet that if you were to remove the 2 small black screws about dead centre and top and bottom of the map light, you could drop the whole unit down to hang by its wires. That might give you a good look at the sunroof motor and drive gear. I think that flat head screw you found is what you're looking for. By all means, carefully try to move/budge it one way and then the other, to free the system up. Then try the switch to open the sunroof in slide mode.

If that doesn't get things going, you'll have to drop the headliner and possibly remove the entire sunroof assembly from the car. Be aware, the headliner was put into the car from the rear or front windshield ... before the glass was installed. To get it out now you will be forced to bend/kink it to get it out one of the front doors. When its reinstalled you will not be able to entirely get the creases out of it. This may determine whether or not you wish to proceed.

How can you tell the car is going into OD or not? I am still looking for the EC1 connector and still can't find it. Attached is a wiring diagram from the ES300 service manual where the EC1 connector suppose to be located on the right side of the engine.

Hello,

I am new to the forum and also have the same issue with my 2000 ES300. The car is currently at the transmission shop due to the transmission not going into OD while the wife was driving it on a 2 hour road trip. The mechanic stated that the he will get the transmission repaired but the problem is with the knock sensors.

I have been reading all the great information on this post but have a few questions. First, how do I find out which knock sensor is the "bad" sensor and second is it possible for anyone to post up a picture of the location and wires that I should be looking for?

Any help that I can get would be fantastic. We are planning on getting the car back on Saturday and I hope to have it up and running properly that day so my wife will not need to stay in the rental.

Thanks for your help.

Can you tell me exactly where the EC1 connector is located, I can seem to find it on my 97 ES300? I spent almost an hour looking for it, what color is the connector? Thanks.

I just checked my transmission oil on my 97 ES300 before I changed it. The level on the dip stick seems to be high when I checked it. It is a bit above the hot mark when the engine is running and at operating temperature after shifting through all the gears. After I shut off the engine and drain the transmission oil, less than 3 qts of oil came out. The manual said the refill suppose to take 3.7 quarts. These number does not add up as you can see (less than qts out and 3.7 qts in and the level already high before it is drained). Could someone tell me what is going on here and how much I suppose to put back in. I did finally put in 3 qts.

If the front cover gasket is leaking, chances are the rear cover gasket is also leaking as well. The rear gasket is a lot more differicult to replace as far as I know. Can anyone give me an idea of :( the cost of replacing both the front and the rear gasket?

Is there a place or point on the 97 ES300 that you can place a heavy duty floor jack to jack up either the front or the back of the car? I know there are points on both the front and the back behind or in front the wheel that you can jack the car up for a tire replacement, but I am looking for a place that you can jack up the car either at the front or the back end at a single point (support) under the center of the car. Anyone know or did this before. I can't find any information on either the owner or service manual. Anyone?

Since I bought my 97 ES300 late last year, I always have the clunking noise on the back of my car. I was going to replace the struts but one of my friends told me to check the sway bar and the sway bar links. I ended up replacing both sway bar links on the back and I never hear the clunking noise ever since. To improve the ride further, I am going to check the sway bar brushing as well. According to the service manual, there should be 2 of them, one on each side, just like the sway bar links. B)

97 ES300 with 144K, bought it on 10/18/07 for $3,500.

This is what I had done to the car so far:

A set of brand new brakes and rotors (front and rear).

New timing belt (at 145K) and water pump, cam and crank seals and all other belts.

A driver side fog light.

A new Sony stereo head unit with mp3 because no CD player came with the car and the LCD display is dead.

One of the back light on the climate control unit does not light up. Need to figure out how to take it apart and replace the bulb.

Other than that the car look fine and drive nice.

Some of the back light on my climate control panel does not light up. Can anyone give me an idea how much these light bulbs cost at the Lexus/Toyota dealers and can I get them any place else except the dealers. Thanks.

I just purchased a 97 Lexus ES300 a month ago. Last weekend when I try to open the trunk with my key (the master key). I can not turn the key at all and the trunk will not open. I can open it with either the trunk release button inside the car or by the remote controller. I called the preivous owner and ask him if he changed the trunk lock but he said he didn't. He also said it opens before but he had not use the key to open it for at least 3 years now. He always used the remote or the trunk release button inside. I tried to spray some WD40 or other stuff into the lock a couple of times over the course of a couple of days, but still can not get the key to turn at all. Any sugguseion please. Thanks.

:chairshot:

So, here I am with the LCD in hieroglyphics for the second time. I called Lexus before I found this board. They must have told me 25 times that the car was out of warranty. Okay, does anyone believe that a 10 year old car still has a warranty on the radio?

Lexus obviously knows of this problem. Their fix: a new radio $650.00 plus installation at my local dealer. No, they can not replace just the LCD. They should be ashamed. Shouldn't Pioneer have fixed the delamination problem by now?

I am terrified to attempt installing a new LCD. Nor do I want to continue to replace it every three years. However there are excellent instructions on this board, so I may attempt it.

Thank you all!

I am about to be politically incorrect here, but I really wish I had one of you "car savvy" gentlemen to do this for me. When I was a young woman of 19 years I did, with help of a manual and a soon to be ex-boyfriend, rebuild the top of my AMC Javelin motor. (boyfriend disappeared while there were still parts all over the garage floor). Now that I am many years older, crawling around the dash of my Lexus with a pair of nail clippers is a bit daunting.

Any encouragement would be appreciated!

Thx again,

Why don't you just do what I did, I went to Circuit City and had a new Sony head unit installed for only $250. My 97 Lexus can now play mp3 as well.

1997 ES300, 145650 miles. Just got the timing belt and water pump replaced at 145309. The struts and mounts need to be change soon. Otherwise just the normal wear and tear parts replacement.

spoke to the ebay seller, he said i will be getting the bando brand for the timing belt. he wasn't sure about the water pump though. is bando really the OEM for the timing belt, cuz i called our local lexus here on honolulu,hi and all he told me was the belt is a toyota brand. so is anybody out there could verify this for me, it would be a great help. they also suggested to change out the thermostat, should i include this....the local lexus dealer quoted me for just the parts alone for a 90k was $605. now you know why i went with ebay and take a risk on ordering non OEM parts.

Did you use the timing belt kit that you got from ebay? How is that work out for you?

I am looking at the spec on my 97 ES300, it states that the struts are Macperson struts. The only company that I can find that makes the Macperson struts is Monroe. Is that a good idea to replace the mounts and bearings as well when you replace the struts? So far, the price I got off the web is $215 for the rear struts and mounts and $287 for the front struts with mounts and bearings. They are all make by Monroe. What do you think about these prices?

How many people actually had replaced the struts and the strut mounts on their 97 ES300 (front or back or both)? What do you replace them with and how much did that cost you? My 97 ES300 had about 145K on it and it seems to bounce a lot when I went through bumps on the road. I am thinking about replacing all the structs and strut mounts, may be the spring as well if necessary. Just wonder how many 97 ES300 owner out there actually had replace them.

Well, I replaced the LCD in the ol' 98 ES300. It took me about an hour because of my stupidity. I forgot I had a cassette in the unit. When I disassembled the unit to replace the LCD, Bonehead here removed the cassette by "light" force - HUGE mistake.:chairshot: Once the entire unit was in the dash again, the unit will not accept a cassette. Oh well, one thing is I hardly ever used the cassette player anyway (mostly CD changer) and I have a crystal clear display to enjoy. Long story short, great instructions in the FIRST post - Thanks very much. ;)

Any chance you might have the exact Part Number?

And where from?

I had the same problem with the LCD on my 97 ES300, but instead of replacing the LCD, I chose to replace the head unit. I put in a new pioneer head unit with mp3 capablity and it only cost me about $250 installed. Now I can play all my mp3 cd as well.