capnfred

where do you get the part numbers from, is there a parts list available on the internet somewhere.....any help is a appreciated. Capn

I am not sure whether it was on this site or Club Lexus, but s few weeks ago there was a thread regarding the official Lexus brake fluid flush, and the consensus was that Lexus did not flush the brake system as described above, all they did was suck the fluid out of the resivoir, and refill it with fresh, this you can do yourself with a turkey baster...and a $2.00 can of brake fluid from Wally world. I think that it appears that the only thing that the Lexus Service departments are good for is fleecing their customers. I sound like I am bitter, but having read many many many threads regarding the shoddy way that the Lexus maintenence organization treats their customers is almost criminal. I will shut up and step down off my soapbox for now.... but unless you have oooodles of $$$$$ to waste find yourself a competent mechanic and make him your freind. Also invest in a Factory Service Manual, even if you don't use it let your mechanic use it to service your car. So if its not related to warranty or recalls leave the boys at the sign of the big L alone, your wallet will thank you. Capn

I am not familiar with the 92, is it different from the 93 engine wise, it appears that it may be. The 93 has two sensors one in each manifold, it is a v-6 what is yours. The codes for the o2 sensor on mine is a 21 or a 28 depending on which one it is. Does your local public library have access to alldata....that would be one way, or check the lib. to see if they have a manual for the Camry.. since these cars are nicely appointed Camry's. Hope this helps capn

motoroil, I just added an oem cd player to my car, a 93 es, I went to a junkyard, pulled the wires from a junker, and wired it in, but unless your radio has the CD changer option it will not have a plug for the cd player. without the cd option there is no external input to the radio. I have an extra OEM Radio, that does have the CD option, but even with the radiio set up for the cd, without a cd player attached to it the CD button does nothing, it will not allow you to select it, sooooo i don't think that it will do you any good. The OEM system uses a separate amplifer, which you could wire the external device to... then all you have to do is select a blank station on the FM, dedicate it to the Ipod or whatever your going to hook up, that might work, if you like I can email you a copy of the wiring diagram for the radio, its pretty straighforward, 4 wires into the amp which drives the various speakers....2 for the front speakers and two for the rear speakers. I hope this hepls, if you have any questions, feel free. Capn

very easy, look under the hood, find the dlc1 connector, get a paperclip, bend it into a you and connecg TE1 and E1, turn on the key, the CEL will begin to flash after a few seconds, count the flashes, there wo;; be a series of flashes, a short oause, then more flashes, count the number of flashes in each group.... for example code 1` would be two flashes, a pause, then 1 flash, then it will repeat itself... two flashes then one flash....if there are more than one code stored, then after the first group, then the next group will be flashed, the entire sequence will be reapeated twice, then there is a long pause and it will start over. The OD light will flash quickly the entire time, this is the normal code. Any questions feel free to ask capn

Take a close look at the valve cover gasket, its a bear to change, but will probably solve the oil leak from the top. As for the poor fuel economy, make sure that all the intake hoses are nice and tight....also check for any codes. Does the engine idle nice and smooth....start easy, etc etc... good luck capn

don't use BOSCH, they cannot be trusted, had 4 out of 6 go bad,,, I am using NGK iridiums

Go to the top of the forum where it says merry xmas, factory shop manual, follow the steps and get the manual, then follow the instructions, its all there, all you need is a paperclip bent into a u-shape, or a piece of wire, good luck, and keep us informed Capn

the odo reads 180k,

Do you know where the leak is, is it on the pump, or on the fittings...or the hose...

Ok, first of all does the check engine light come on steady when you turn the key on, some unscrupulous people have been known to either remove the CEL (check engine light), or just break it. First check all the vacuum hoses, they should be soft, not hard and brittle. Then check for vacuum leaks, make sure that the large hose clamps on the big air hose are tight. Once the intake system is air tight, so all the air getting into the engine is coming through the Mass Air Flow sensor, (the big box on top of the air cleaner), then the next thing to look into are the plug wires, they have a tendancy to arc down iniside the sparkplug tubes. I had all these problems on mine, which is 93 ES also. Once I got the CEL working I found that that I had a bunch of codes.... I fixed them one at a time. The o2 sensor codes were being caused by a massive misfire in cyl. # 5 because of the bad wire. As for the tranny, don't believe them, until the engine is running right, its going to buck, snort and drive you batty.... so put the engine back together exactly as the fine Toyota engineers designed it to be...it should idle soooooooooo smooth that you can barely feel it..... then if the tranny still doesn't shift, check the trans. for codes too, the O/D light will tell you some of the important things going on inside the A/T. This is a pretty sophisticated engine, but the injection/emission crontrol system is not that complicated. Once you understand it, its pretty straightforward to troubleshoot. The key is air/fuel mixture and this is determined by the computer, based on how much air is getting to the engine along with temp, throttle position, etc etc.... so if the intake system is not tight, your *BLEEP*ing up a rope, to put it into the vernacular. Find a mechanic that really understands the injection system, and emissions systems and make him your best friend. Good Luck .... if you need any other advice drop me a line..... I basically had to restore my entire system from the air cleaner to the exhaust and everything in between, including the computer. Most of this I learned the hard way, by having to figure out what was happening to my car. Fortunately I have many years of experience and training on mechanics and electronics... thanks to the USN.....go Navy Capn

As for the injector, I was able to ascertain that the problem with the injector was because there was a constant ground from the ECU to the injector. Under normal conditions B+ (12VDC) is applied to all the injectors whenever the key is on. The ECU grounds the other wire, completing the circuit, causing the injector to fire. My problem was that as soon as the key was turned on the injector was open, duping raw gas into the cyl. I got a new ECU, which solved the injector problem. But read on, as it now gets very interesting... While I had the air chamber off to replace the cyl. head cover gasket, I also decided to change the plugs. I was going to use NGK Iridium plugs, but the local Advance Autoparts did not have them in stock, also the Bosch plugs were on sale, so I got 6 Bosch Platinum +2 plugs, I installed them, re-assembled the engine and was rewarded with a smooth Idle, No CEL, and no misfires. All was going well for 1 day, then suddenly with no warning the CEL came on, the engine barely idled, and finally died, I had the car towed to my mechanic, thinking that maybe a wire went bad, (they were just replaced a few days before), he began to trouble shoot the engine. after lots of investigation, measuring the resistance of the wires, checking the spark, and finally measuring the resistance of the individual plugs as a last ditch test. Surprise of surprise, two of the 6 brand new Bosch Platinum +2 were defective, no continuity from the tip to the cap. So we went to Advance to exchange the plugs for two new ones, and being suspicious of the plugs decided to test the new ones before purchase, the store only had 2 left of the Bosch, we checked them both, and they too were open from tip to cap...... so I exchanged the 6 Bosch plugs for NGK iridium plugs....my mechanic explained that had we driven the car for some time we would have loaded the Cat with raw gas, washed the oil from the walls of the effected cyls. and possibly damaged the O2 sensor for the rear bank. I am writing to Bosch to complain, asking for damages, (compensation for towing the car and having to have it repaired). I was wondering if anyone else has had a similar problem with the Bosch Plug. One of the reasons I felt comfortable using Bosch plugs is that they are made in Germany, (which up til now imho = superior quality, and I have have used them for 100's of thousands of miles driving VW Buses.... roughly 700k miles in 4 different VW's. On last cautionary note, because the injector was constantly flooding the cyl. I was dripping gas, I did not want to run the engine with this situation, so to try and find the source of the fuel, I engergized the fuel pump by jumping B+ to FP in DLC1 iaw the FSM. I let the pump run, did not see any leak, so I decided to take a chance and start the engine and try and see where the fuel was coming from. I removed the jumper, and hit the starter, and wow, it just clicked......what had happend was that the faulty ECU filled the cyl. with fuel, causing a hydraulic lock (liquids cannot be compressed). After many expletives, I pulled the plugs one by one, hoping the problem was in the front 3, of course not, it was in the back 3, number 3 to be exact. With the pugs out, I turned on the fuel pump and could hear the gas being sprayed into the cyl. This is when I figured out that the injector was stuck, I unplugged the injector, and it quit, so I then analyzed the problem and learned that the ECU was grounding the injector causing it to stay on. Fortuneately the piston was close to TDC, and I did not damage the engine, I could have bent a rod, or blown the head gasket. Whew! Wonder if anyone has had a similar problem. Oh yeah when I got the engine back to the way the Toyota engineers designed it it ran like a clock, except for billowing white smoke from the exhaust, after a few minutes of running the smoke slowly diminished, and now all is normal... my thought is that the cat/exhaust system was loaded with raw gas, and I had to burn it out.....also before I started the engine I changed the oil as it was contaminated with fuel, and I also poured some oil into the #3 cyl to replace the oil washed from the cyl. walls when the plug was misfiring,,, all in all it was a very educational, frustrating and stressful couple of days.

Ok, well if you have been following my posts regarding my engine and getting it on the step, you know what I have been through, just when everything was going great, no codes, no lites, gas mileage appearing to be good, this afternoon the CEL was back, along with a noticable miss. Drove it home, keeping the idle up, 1500 or so, watching the temp. guage like a hawk..I got home ok, well, I decided to let the engine cool a bit before doing anything else, so I worked on another project for a few hours, I went back to troubleshooting the miss, the only code was 55, knock sensor not working, but I noticed a distinct odor of gasoline, so I looked really hard for any sign of a leak, then I noticed a puddle on the driveway.... hmmmmmmm had my GF run the engine while I looked to see where the gas was coming from, about then I noticed the exhuaust.....white smoke.....sooooooooooo my guess is a blown headgasket worst case, best case is a dead sparkplug..... with fuel injection, the dead cyl. is still getting gas, just not doing anything with it....so the white smoke. Tomorrow is pull the plugs, check the compression and go from there..... the only real puzzle is where is the cas coming from, my supposistion is that the unburned gas is exiting from the blown head gasket.... or ...........only time will tell, or maybe the shadow knows. any comments or adivice are solicited.... thanks, capn well, here is the promised update, for some reason the injector for #3 is staying on all the time, thus flooding that cyl. I troubleshot this by first pressureizing the fuel system my jumping FP and B+ in DLC1 and looking for any obvious leaks, none found. Next pulled the spark plugs, found cyl. 3 full of gasoline.....this was because cyl 3 injector was pumping fuel all the time. so now I have to find out why it is on all time (whenever key is on and fuel system is pressureized. Analyzing the ckt. for the injectors, it appears that the ECU fires an individual by putting a ground through the internal transistor. So now I have to find out why I have a ground external of the one in the ECU. Any comments or advice, or am I on my own here?

I too just did a cyl. head cover gasket replacement, unfortunately I did not know about the OEM spark plug seals, and used ones from AZ, had to tap them in, but not too tricky, there are lots of things to take off, fortunately all the hoses are pretty self explanatory, as long as you dont take off both ends. I removed the throttle valve, left the IAC and EGR valve attached to the plenum, disconnected all the wires and hoses from the IACV/cold start end. Removed the support brackets, and EGR pipe, then removed the air intake chamber. Removed the Emisson control valve assy, be very careful on older cars as the plastic is very brittle, I used a piece of string to hold it out of the way. Removed the connectors from the injectors on and the 135 bank, undid the two bolts holding the wiring harness in place, removed the dogbone, and support bracket, gently lifted the harness until it would clear the two studs, then pulled toward the front of the car, held it in place with two pieces of string. Now the back bolts could be accessed with an extension and universal. I replaced the washers under the bolt heads for cover bolts with faucet washers from the hardware store.... much less expensive than the ones from the autoparts place. while I had the cover off I resealed the 1/2 moon inserts on the head, replaced the gasket and sp seals. Torqued the bolts to 4 1/2 ft/lbs, started in the center and worked my way around... crossing front to back, did this in three passes. Put everthing back together, started the engine and checked for leaks. I forgot, removed the plug wires.... replaced the plugs, wires, rotor and cap... very easy to do with intake assy removed. Not counting gofer time took about 3 hours total. Most of the time was spent cleaning the covers and replacing the sp seals. Mine were soooo hard that they were like hard plastic and just fell out. The most difficult part was getting to the back bolts to torque them....aslo there is a clamp on the hose to the hydraulic fan hose that attaches to the plenum. Not difficult, but very aggravating getting the interferences out of the way to do the work. I did not have to deal with the TV cable to the tranny as it has not been connected yet, but the easy way is to remove the two 10mm bolts that hold the actuator to the throttle valve, or just remove the two cables, the one from the cruise control just lifts out, the one for the TV has two nuts that clamp it to the assy. If you do loosen these nuts mark them so you can get the TV cable properly adjusted when you re-assemble everything. Good Luck... Capn capn

KKKK I am not sure what your referring to..... LOL, thiink you mite have sent the message to the wrong person. Anyway another update, finally got around to replacing the wires, and lo and behold number five connector was badly burned and was causing a misfire.....which of course set off the O2 sensor, not sure about the knock sensor issue... but anyway have been driving for about 100 miles or so, and no lites, engine purrs, except when I mash the acccelerator, then it kinda roars a bit...but a good sound. Now find all the oil leaks hope this improves the mileage.

something that everyone is forgetting is that these are ABS Cars...could be a malfunction with the abs system, it could for some reason be commanding a lockup on one cylinder......... food for thought, Capn

Well, slowly but surely I am finding the problems, the latest turned out to be code 22, which is the EFI coolant temperature sensor, it to was jury rigged, and the fault was hidden. When I pulled the connector off, the male side came with the female. Prior to replacing the sensor I was also getting a tranny lite, shift solenoids, once changing the sensor the tranny lite is staying off, and more importantly rather than starting out in 2nd. it is now shifting correctly. I am off for a couple of 100 mile drive tonite, so we will see if the problems are gone. Don't understand the relationship between temperature sensor and transmission not starting in 1st. gear.... the last two problems other than minor oil leaks is a rough idle, and an intermittent code 55 ( knock sensor ), this appears to be a bad connection at ED1, the connector between the knock sensors and the ecu. I was able to temorarily fix the problem by inserting a piece of paperclip into the connector to tighten the connection, this seems to be working for now. Just wondeering if anyone out there has seen similar problems. Capn

without looking at the car, my first thought is hand brake cable is somehow beeing pulled from under the car....... especially when you mentioned that there was no problem backing up...by design hand brakes generally don't work very well in reverse...keep us informed..... capn

Another update, 14 is staying out now, but after a reset the light comes back, getting codes, 28 (o2 sensor), and 55, (knock sensor), I believe I can check the o2 sensors from DLC1, and the knock sensor at the ED1 connector. Not sure exactly where the knock sensors are located, but they appear to be under the intake manifold. I believe the o2 sensors are located in the exhuast manifold or the downpipe... any advice is appreciated. Will search the forums to see if anyone has had similar probs. capn

The ashtray is stuck closed, needs to removed cleaned and re-installed. Check out the FSM listed on the sticky at the beginning of the forum. My car is a 93, the Ashtray is held in by two screws on the top, and two on the bottom. The top ones are hidden behind a trim panel between the bottom of the radio, and the cupholder, the bottom two are accessed by removing the trim around the shift lever. Your the radio and climate control are reversed, but maybe the access procedure is the same, don't know. As for the fluid check, drive the car til it is up to normal operating temp, move the shift lever through all the gears, (p,r,n,d, 2 and L. Then back to park. Leave the engine running, check the level with the dipstick, should be between the marks labled hot. hope this helps. capn

I too would like to get a copy of the pdf.... I have a vintage 93 ES300, and have no clue what has been repaired in the past except for the obvious evidence of someone being there before me...... stripped and missing hardware...LOL thanks Capnfred57@yahoo.com, if anyone has any other advice for a newbie lexus owner I would appreciate it.... if I figure anything out I will post it here. Also if you have not gotten it yet I strongly reccomend that you get the facory service manual... see the very first post on this board. Capn

mine is a 93, with 179k on the clock, but I do not have a clue as to the maintenence history on it. Any insight as to why number six would be the commen location for the blowout..... the early VW engines had a problem with number three burning valves, but that was because the oil cooler was in theway and block the cooling air to it.

Pulling the rear seat is pretty easy, once you have it out there is a cover over the hole that has to be removed, and even then I don't think the hole is larger than the trunk opening. To remove the seat, first remove bottom seat by pulling up on the front of the bottom, it will come loose.The rear seat back is held on by two bolts on either side and hooks across the back. Once the bolts are removed lift the back right up to disengage the hooks across the back. Once the seat is removed there is a metal and fiberboard cover that must me removed both from the cabin side and from the trunk side. Good luck.... Cqpn

Have you checked the compression for a possible blown head gasket, is the fan running at the correct speed, have you done a pressure test on the cooling system to see if there is a problem holding pressure, have you checked the cooling system cap,,, these are a few of the other things that could cause an overheating problem. good luck Capn

when the check engine light comes on it is because thr computer has stored a diagnostic code which can be read by following the procedure I put in my last post. But first you have to solve the key issue....in order to read the codes the ignition must be on...