GrayES300

Gray, In my opinion, why not do a drain and fill of the tranny and final drive every time you do an oil change? Change the filter every 30K-50K. I mean why the hell not? Tranny fluid is cheap and the service is easy. I'd rather do it too often than not often enough, personally. My other car is a DeLorean and I change every fluid on the whole car every spring. 2 or 3 oil changes during the summer (stored winters) Andy ← If were talking about the 'filter' as being the transmission filter mesh screen, why in the world are you changing the filter so often? It's re-usable, as it's a mesh screen, not paper or anything. Your waisting your money huge on that replacement. It's like replacing your moonroof glass every couple years.......why? just clean it! ;) ←

I also have a 2001 ES300. I have experienced the same "Security feature" you are describing. I have hunted all through the manual, but all I find is that you need to open the door within 30 seconds or the doors will lock. I thought I read somewhere in the manual that if you open and close the rear doors or passenger doors once after they are unlocked, the car will still lock itself. I usually keep my door open when I need to return to it and not have it lock or I open and close it twice. I think that kept it from happening to me a couple of times. I'll keep looking in the book. I could have sworn I read about it in there somewhere! ← I think DobieG is onto something. If you use the button on the key, you have 30 seconds to open the door. If you use the key to open the door, I don't think it applies.

I also have a 2001 ES300. I have experienced the same "Security feature" you are describing. I have hunted all through the manual, but all I find is that you need to open the door within 30 seconds or the doors will lock. I thought I read somewhere in the manual that if you open and close the rear doors or passenger doors once after they are unlocked, the car will still lock itself. I usually keep my door open when I need to return to it and not have it lock or I open and close it twice. I think that kept it from happening to me a couple of times. I'll keep looking in the book. I could have sworn I read about it in there somewhere!

I'm not sure where to repair the belt at, but I know that if you pull up on the front of the back seat, it should pop the front clips out and you can remove it and take a look.

You can also check the fuel injectors by holding a long screwdriver tip against the injector and the handle near your ear while the car is running. Be careful not to get close to moving parts! You should hear a constant pronounced clicking sound from each injector. If the clicking is muted or irregular, the injector is dirty or defective.

Sell it privately if you want to get the most money for the car.

Gray, In my opinion, why not do a drain and fill of the tranny and final drive every time you do an oil change? Change the filter every 30K-50K. I mean why the hell not? Tranny fluid is cheap and the service is easy. I'd rather do it too often than not often enough, personally. My other car is a DeLorean and I change every fluid on the whole car every spring. 2 or 3 oil changes during the summer (stored winters) Andy ← Certainly, there is nothing wrong with changing the trans fluid more frequently (except for environmental reasons). I choose the 6,000 mark because I drive at least 150 miles per day so if I changed it more often, it probably wouldn't make much of a difference. If you drive a lot of city traffic, changing every oil change would make good sense. I like to change the filter a little more often, because no matter what fluid you use, there will be some metal residue in the fluid and filter. The filter is cheap and easy to change so why not do it often? How often do you drive your DeLorean? I personally love those cars. I saw a special on the History channel all about DeLorean and how he designed the car. It had a ton of original footage of him in meetings with his design team. Extremely interesting. You should check it out if you get that channel and they re-air it. I think it is very wise to change all the fluids in it when it sits winters. You probably wouldn't have to do the power steering or antifreeze that often, but like you said, it doesn't hurt. Do you keep it up on jack stands during storage? That's important to keep the tires from getting damaged. I have a 1966 Cadillac Coupe DeVille Convertible and 1951 Packard I am working on right now. Earlier this year, I sold my 1978 Porsche 924 (piece of crap!). I love old and classic cars, especially independants.

Maybe you can get a used OEM replacement from EBAY?

My old ,92 had a rough idle that cleared up somewhat when I accellerated. It turned out to be bad ignition wires. Try running your car in a dark garage or late at night and look for arcs from the spark plug wires. My car also had a lot of gas smell probably because of the poor idle.

I agree with 82DMC12. There shouldn't be any problems flushing the transmission if you keep up with the fluid mainenance. I personally don't use synthetic because I change my fluid regularly and feel the benefits of the synthetic might be waisted in my application. I do agree that synthetic is better than conventional, but might not be necessary. My question is if you change your fluid every 6,000 miles, is a flush even necessary? I would think you would have so much clean fluid that it wouldn't be needed. Just a thought. I'm no mechanic. I just have personal experience to go off of. I also talked with the guy who bought my '92 and it has about 280,000 miles on it now and he says that he hasn't had any transmission problems. I have a feeling he isn't taking care of it like I did so we shall see how much life is left in it. I also never used synthetic oil in it either. Just changed the oil frequently. I started to use synthetic in my '01, then changed to a blend.

I just wanted to let all of you know, in case you are interested, in the status of my timing belt job on a 2001 ES300. First of all, I would like to thank all of you who gave your suggestions on how to get parts off. It turned out that I couldn't get the power steering pump bolt off to get the belt off. I had to break down and take it to a dealership. The Lexus dealership wanted $850.00 to do the belt and replace the water pump. The Toyota dealership wanted $525.00 for the same thing. Obviously, I went to Toyota. I just got a call today from the service manager wanting some info on my car. At first I thought he was going to tell me the engine was shot or something. I told him I got it used and it has 69,000 miles on it when I got it. According to his tech, the timing belt looked almost brand new! Our assumption is that the previous owner had an older Lexus before this one and changed the belt at 60,000 like he used to do on his old car. 2001's don't need to be changed until 90,000. So after annoying this forum with my stupid questions, wasting two weekends and blowing $100.00 at the dealer, it turns out that it didn't even need to be changed! I do have to commend Gentile Toyota in Sturtevant, WI for their honesty. I know a lot of other dealers would have just replaced the parts without saying a word. They have definately earned my trust!

It has been a while but I believe it was Dexron III. I would buy the stuff that was on sale at Walmart. No synthetic.

This might be a little off subject, but do any of you fill your new filters with oil before installing them? I always have because I heard that the engine won't be oil starved on first start up. That can get really messy if the new filter slips out of your hand while you are installing it!

Thanks! It looks like it would come off if I worked at it a little, but didn't want to break it. Now that I know for sure it should come off, I'll give it another go!

I don't think the oil change is that messy. My wifes Chrysler Sebring has the oil filter laying vertical under the engine. Not a lot of oil drips on the motor, but you can't get the filter off without having oil run down your arm! I'll change the oil in my Lexus over the Chrysler anyday! Instead of newspapers, I get some absorbent pads from work and use them under my catch pan. I jack up my car from the driver side so more oil gets out of the pan. Under the filter is a bracket that collects a lot of oil. I use some paper towels and engine degreaser to mop that up. Changing the filter on a 2001 is a lot easier than on a 1992. The 2001 has more clearance by the filter. On my '92, I was constantly scratching up my arm getting the filter on and off.

If you can change the oil in your car, you can change the tranny fluid too. It's really easy. All you need is a 10mm Allen Wrench and a bar (or a deep socket and extension) for leverage and the bolt will break free. If you at least change the fluid every once in a while on your own, you'll save some money. Dropping the pan is easy too if you want to change the filter. Just 12 or so bolts and the pan is off. The trickiest part is getting the new gasket to stay while you bolt the pan up. Don't over tighten the bolts or you'll regret it. Trust me, I know!

I had a '92 with 265,000 miles on it. Luckily, I knew the previous owner and he drained and filled his transmission every 6,000 miles. It seems like a little overkill, but I never had a problem with the transmission. When I got the car at 165,000 I changed the fluid every 12,000 miles and dropped the pan to clean it out and replace the filter (many say it is not necessary) every 24,000 miles. Other problems forced me to sell the car, but never had trouble with the tranny.

Thanks CAMLEX, that diagram pointed me right to the bolt. It would be the #1 bolt I suspected. Unfortunately, it is on there TIGHT and I can't get much leverage on it. I'm going to keep working at it and hopefully get it loose. Thanks to all for the help!

I have instructions for the removal of a 97 ES300 Power steering pump which includes belt removal, Remove right front fender apron. Disconnect right tie rod end. Remove drive belt. Using power steering hose nut wrench [ 09631-00020}, Disconnect pressure line. Remove pump mounting bolt and nut. Remove pump. To install, reverse removal procedure. Bleed system. This is for a 97 ES300. Hope that this helps in some way. ;) ← dcfish, Have you ever removed the power steering pump? What I am looking for is exactly which bolts I am supposed to loosen to get the belt off so I can change my timing belt. If you have done it, do any of the bolts I mentioned look like the right one? I loosened the one that attaches to the slotted bracket, but I need to know which one pivots the pump. I can't find a picture of an ES300 power steering pump anywhere. If I saw one, I could take a better guess at which bolt it is. As you can see from my pictures, there are a couple of bolts in the area of the pump. I don't want to remove something I'm not supposed to. Thanks

Do you remember getting at the bolt from the bottom of the pump or the top? I'm leaning toward bolt #1 right now, but it is torqued on there pretty tight and I don't want to loosen something that isn't the right one. #1 is very difficult to get at. So far, I have only been able to get a crecent wrench on it, and not been able to break it free. My socket with the smallest extension is too big. Using just a deep socket is too short. Anything you can remember about this would be appreciated. I am also having trouble getting the engine bracket off. I mentioned it in a different post. It seems to be hitting the lower timing belt cover, but everything I have read says to remove the mount before the crankshaft pulley and lower timing belt cover. Any ideas? I have more info on this on my other post. Thanks

I am trying to change the timing belt in my 2001 ES300. I have looked all over this site and it looks like I am the only one who is having a problem getting this bracket off. It is the aluminum bracket that holds the "dog bone" engine movment rod on top of the engine. I have removed two nuts and loosened two bolts to the point that they just slide in and out of the holes. It looks like the bracket is hitting the bottom timing belt cover that is behind the crankshaft pulley. Some pics in my Haynes manual have the upper part of this bracket off. Mine swivels, but doesn't come off. Is is supposed to? Everything I have read says that this bracket comes off before the timing belt cover. Could it be the power steering pump belt in the way? PLEASE HELP!

Here is a pic from the top of the engine looking down on the power steering pump. Are any of the numbered bolts the one I should loosen? If not, could someone point me in the right direction? PLEASE HELP!

I've posted before under help with timing belt and got some hints, but I still don't know how to get the power steering pump belt off. I have a 2001 ES300. Attached is a pic from the bottom of the pump. I loosened the circled bolt on the slotted bracket with no problem. I just can't figure out which bolt I should loosen to get the pump to move and get the belt off. I really need your help with this. I have my car taken apart and only have today and tomorrow to get the timing belt done. PLEASE HELP!

1. 2001 Lexus ES 300 2. 2002 Chrysler Sebring Convertible 3. 1966 Cadillac Coupe DeVille Convertible 4. 1951 Packard 200 Sedan

I changed the starter on my '92 before. I would imagine it is pretty much the same thing. There are only two bolts holding it on. Sometimes it is a little hard to get at them, because of the tight squeeze so you might want to use an air ratchet if you have it. I'm pretty sure you will need to take out the entire airbox assembly. It took a little time getting the starter around the hoses and everything, but it eventually came out. I just replaced mine with a Toyota Camry starter from Checker Auto Parts. Never had any problems with it. Also check the terminals on your battery and make sure they are not corroded. Sometimes that will cause the problem you are having.