imtheking

yup, looks like I have to. Not paying $99 for them to look at it though.

Before I took my car to the dealer, I use push one button to unlock my driver side door and hit it twice to open all doors. Also, all i had to do was hit the lock button once and all doors locked. well, since disconnecting the battery and reconnecting it, my door locking/unlocking routine is not the same... The doors unlock fine, but when i try to lock them, i hit the lock button once, hear the beep, then 3 seconds later the doors lock and the dome light goes out. Wasnt like this before.... Kinda irritating because sometimes all the doors lock and sometimes they dont. Do I have to reprogram anything? With my old viper alarm system, if i left one door open while hitting the alarm, the alarm would disable itself...thats for when my car was going througha car wash or something or i had to disable it while it was being worked on so car wouldnt arm itself after 30 seconds..this was with the honda i had... should i try to do same thing with gs? Help? Im confused.... can anyone tell me more about the factory alarm?

well, door finally locks but i have to press the "lock" key on my keys twice. Damn it. Looks like dealer will make even more money off me if this stupid thing craps out on me :(

my passenger side door lock does not lock after pressing the "door lock" button on my keys. All my doors lock except for that one. I have to play with it a bit by moving the lock back and forth. I dont even feel the spring "snap back" when moving it. Seems like spring needs to be adjusted again or something. any ideas? How easy is it to take door apart and fix this?

Yes that used to be the correct way to adjust. Now with OBD-II and electronic throttle etc. it is easier and more accurate to use a diagnostic tool. ← Kewl, thanks colin <_< ← ok, finally took my car to dealer and the code came back as a engine misfire. After further investigation, it was my spark plugs. Thats what i thought in the first place. I used cheap $1 spark plugs and they crapped out on me. Then they said my car is a 98 which is 6 years old and said i need to change timing belt. GS has 64,000 miles and they said either 6 years or 90,000 miles...which ever comes first. well all in all i walked out spending $700 :( one thing i learned is to use dealer parts. find another mechanic to do the work but at least use dealer parts. just my opnion. Damn did those spark plugs make a difference. car rides smoother than before.

youre right.......

ive also had that same acceleration problem a few times. doesnt happen often but thee are times i pressed on the gas hard and it 2-3 seconds for car to accelerate. hmmm, so autozone can check for codes? then maybe i should just take it there instead of paying the dealer $99........ what do u guys think?

Yes, i know. Luckily, the lexus dealer is right up the street from the body shop that is fixing my car so i wont have to drive far. But everybody i have talked to said its a tune up problem. Maybe its my spark plugs or something. I hope so, because its christmas and im broke. Hopefully its not a $1000 problem. I appreciate everyones input. thanks again.

What are some possible causes for the check engine light to turn on or blink? spark plugs, O2 sensors? this goes back to my previous post about my GS giving that "chug chug chug" feeling when accelerating at any speed. I made an appointment at the dealer today to check it out. Wont be till next week but the guy said if the check engine light came on, when they hook it up to the computer, they will know in a second what is wrong. will cost me $99 :( For that price, im gonna have them check everything else out to. (A$$holes) sorry. But any other thoughts before then on what it could be?

you guys are great. Thanks for all your help. I remember a few weeks ago I met a mechanic in the barber shop. To make a long story short, he said that its not a good thing to use generic parts on luxury cars. I remember telling him about how i used cheap spark plugs instead of dealer plugs and he said "does the car drive sluggish or struggle a bit?". Low and behold, look what happened. I think just to be sure, im going to take the car to the dealer and have them tell me what is wrong. At least they will have all the technology to test the chips etc. If its something easy that i can replace, i will do so. But if it requires a mechanic, i will take it to our family mechanic. I would take it to him first, but like i said, the dealer has a few special tools specially made to test lexus parts etc that my mechanic wont have. I will keep you guys updated. For now, my car is in the auto body shop getting repaired from hail damage. :( again, thank you.

You probably got a wire on the wrong cylinder,or the wrong gap. Did you wash the motor? How long has it been doing this? Check engine light could be 02 sensors, there are three, that should be replaced around 60 0r 70 thousand miles. ← [/qu The jerking just started yesterday and the check engine light came on today. I never washed the motor. I dont know where to start. Spark plugs will run me $86 from dealer. What do O2 sensors usually go for? Can I replace myself?

98 Gs300 When I accelerate going any speed (go from 60-70, or 30-50 etc) the car begins to jerk a bunch of times. Jerks and shakes I should say. It only does it when stepping on the gas. It feels like its really struggling to get up and its about to cut off. It shifts fine and the RPM goes up and down as usual. The check engine light finally turned on today. There are no noises or anything. One thing I can say is that my dumb a$$ used generic $1.29 spark plugs a few months ago when i did my own tune up. My friend and I are thinking that it could be spark plugs or wires. Can anyone help me with this before I go to the dealer and spend $80 JUST for them to diagnose the problem........Any feedback would be appreciated.

mono amp? hmm i would re-check my wiring on the amp and subs. Does the sound cut off? or does the voltage just drop? what happens when the voltage drops? but check your wiring first.

so the stock bumber on a gs300 is urethane?

My 98 gs300 has a small "quarter" sized chip in the rear bumber. It didnt go all the way through, just a small piece of the fiberglass is missing. Well, i had a few estimates done, and to my surprise, the price to fix it is between 325-350. Way to much for a small little chip in the bumper. I understand the labor that needs to go into it but thats just rediculous. So i was thinking of just spending 300 for a new explosion body kit off ebay and calling it a day. But i hear the kits usually dont fit and i will run into problems. So now im just confused. 325 to fix small chip? or spend that money and pay a little extra to put it on etc and get a new body kit. what do you guys think? Dont those kits scrape the ground? Thanks dudes. PS...thought i would share this..some lady had front end damage done to her 04 es300 and the front just dropped. wasnt crushed all the way in etc but there was significant damage....Guess how much the body shop said it would cost to fix it?? 13,000 for parts!!!!!! 7,000 labor!!!!! thats just crazy!

while im driving, sometimes when i press on the gas, the car jerks forward. and no, im not going down a hill...i know about that spec already. any ideas....its usually at low speeds..like 30-40mph..thx guys

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The engine fan on my 98 gs300 turns on frequently. Is this normal? I recently changed the coolant and did a major tune up. But even before all that, the engine fan would turn on and off all the time. Not all the time, but more than it should. Thanks!

I guess youre lookin at 10,000 + another 3-4 thousand. Sounds like you need some body work done and its not cheap. You can find a 1998 GS between 15-17 with like 55-60k. If you want to put up that kind of money. The GS you saw is not worth it in my opnion. Not 10,000 for a 10 year old car that looks like its been through hell and back. Get a carfax report on it also. Or you can wait a little longer till the new GS drops in Spring. Than the 2nd generations will drop in price a bit. I dunno. Your choice. But dont get it in my opnion.

it all depends on how YOU take care of the car. The GS is built nice. I think its very reliable. Its a lexus. What do you expect...my friend has 212k on his 1995 gs and it still runs super smooth believe or not..He drove that car to NY from DC at least 3 times a week for over year. It still keeps up because HE keeps up the car. LS to me is the old mans car. Gs is sporty and the ES is a camry. Gs is in a class of its own. just my opinion.......but its very reliable but remember, much smaller than the LS, so less roomier.....

I love the gs300. I think it looks better than most cars out and there arent to many around here in DC. But I had a question...what other cars are you guys really feeling right now? I must say the only car I have fell in love with so far is the BMW 745. BMW did it this year. Mercedes better step up and change the S class a bit. The fake rolls royce phanton (chrysler 300) is ok. But i despise american cars......... sorry for posting this on a gs300 forum...

Call the lexus dealer or a few audio shops in maryland. Call places like DSI in laurel maryland. they do good work and will let you know if they have a harness, better yet let you know if you have to rewire. I know i rewired mine but i added a new radio. just keep looking. Call crutchfield.

go to ebay....do search for lexus gs300 and look through the pages to find the harness. ive seen it a few times for like 30-35 dollars.

For that price, you can get way better rims. Try ebay and see what you find there. I always seem to find great deals there. Better yet, look in low rider magazine. Rims sold in the west coast always seem to be cheaper than east coast prices. Look at new rims by lexani or giovanna. They would look hot.

Thank you! I also felt that slight jerk while driving and said "what the hell?". "is this normal?". Oh well, at least now I know its not a problem and thats just the way the car was built. Thanks again for the detailed explanation.