squarehat

in the US, try aaarims.com, they have Lexus OEM wheels and OEM reproductions. Make sure to save your center cap for reuse if you get a replica wheel, as they don't have the right Lexus "L" on them.

Yep, "pathway lighting" is the term for the headlamp delay, to light your way up the driveway, etc. I may be borrowing that term from the advertising of another brand, can't remember if that's Lexus's term for it. I wish I had access to a C-BEST (customizeable body electronics system) card for your ES, I was just going off what I could find on another Lexus board.

Anybody else (especially those of you with the black leather), have problems with the seams stretching on the tops of the rear bench, as the leather loses its moisture? I've tried many things to try to soften the leather up there, including "baking" 2 jars of Hide Food in on sunny days. I've noticed (from parking lots and cars on eBay) that cars with the beige seats don't seam to suffer from this problem the way the cars with the black seats do. The rest of the car looks good, I've been using Lexol, Meguiars Gold Class, and Mother's leather conditioners on a regular basis.

Silverstars (have them in my '96, more of a white color, not much blue). Also try PIAA Extreme White (hard to find in stores, and a bit pricey), or Razo Premium White Zero (hard to find in stores, but cheaper than PIAA)

Looking at a C-BEST card for the '01 IS/GS/LS/'02 SC430, the delay for the pathway lighting system is settable for off/30sec/60sec/90sec. I'm assuming the 02-03 ES is the same.

If you click the lock button on the key a second time after exiting the car, the lights should shut off immediately.

Coach Edition was offered in 96, 99, and 01. Platinum Series (similar to the Coach Edition) was offered in 00, early 01, I believe. Don't confuse that with platinum, a.k.a. "black pearl/black chrome" badges.

I'm just getting my "Is color 202 (Black Onyx) clearcoated info?" from another Lexus web forum, where there was a huge discussion thread in the SC430 forum. The consensus was that it wasn't, something to do with clearcoated black showing scratches too evidently. However, I don't know if I've noticed much pigment on my rag after using a cleaner wax (a sign of a non-clearcoated finish).

What color is your car? A one-stage paint like Black Onyx (no clearcoat) is a lot simpler to repair to match the rest of the car than a two stage metallic with clearcoat (Cashmere Beige, for example), and toughest would be the three stage pearl (Diamond White Pearl--basecoat, pearl coat, clearcoat). As others have mentioned in this thread, matching the interference of metallic paint is tough, and is most noticeable in bright sunlight.

I'm interpreting this to mean you damaged the rubber around the front turn signal/sidemarker assembly in the process of removing the amber reflector insert (aka "clear corners mod"). Luckily, the 97-01 have separate assemblies for the sidemarker and headlamp. On the 92-96, it's one big, expensive piece. I've read of people repairing the seals with black silicone sealant, however. Good luck.

Since you have a '98 (the last year before VVT-i), your engine will stall out, rather than get destroyed, when the belt goes. To answer the other question, Toyota does use rubber belts. Chains aren't a panacea either--if the tensioner goes, bad things can happen. I read the story of a guy whose timing chain tensioner failed on his Infiniti Q45--engine was interference, got ruined, and he ended up junking the car because the new engine would have been more than his car was worth.

I'm in the same boat as you, I just hit 91K on my 1996 ES, but I'm holding out until August to change the t-belt and water pump, I'm expecting a bonus at work.

If your GS has factory HID, all you need are a pair of 6000K bulbs, in OEM (D2R) size. The wiring remains the same, autolevelling, the whole deal. It should be a plug and play. Many people on another board I frequent have done the Ultinon upgrade to Lexuses with factory HID.

There were actually two stock wheels for the '02 LS430--the 16" on the base model, and the 17" on the higher option packages. I assume you went with the 17" On my 17" wheels, I'm running 215/50-17 (see my sig), which is the closest possible to OEM diameter. Not sure if the LS rims are two wide to run a 215 width tire, though.

In Japan, the LS430 (Celsior) is modded as a "VIP" style car. Companies like Wald, Fabulous, and AutoCouture, to name a few, make a range of kits for the Celsior that range from subtle to extreme. There are Japanese magazines like the "HyperRev Celsior Bible" that have examples.

Wow, those are some huge looking rims. What size are they?

I've read very good reviews of the TSX. Outside North America, the TSX is sold as the Accord. The only downside, other than price, of going with the TSX over the Accord or Camry is that it's a bit smaller than either of those two cars.

It seems, at least anecdotally, that the 1st Gen LS is the most reliable Lexus ever. Perfect build quality, great engineering (the 1UZ-FE V8 is incredibly overbuilt), and not as complex as say, a 2003 LS 430 with all of the gadgets.

On the US ES300, the 95-96 cars had fewer taillamp bulbs (there was no red lamp above the turn signal).

Long awaited fuses:

One goes on the bottom of the "STOP" fuse, (20A), The other goes on the bottom of the "TURN" fuse (7.5A)

The third wire is spliced into a green wire that runs underneath the steering column (this may be a ground wire, due to the green color).

Around here there's a mobile windshield repair service that comes around in a van. Check your local yellow pages, I'm sure there's a similar service. Explain your situation over the phone, they'll be able to tell if its fixable or if the windshields a total loss.

I had the shop that installed my new 17" Milles paint the calipers. The tech and I had hit it off when I was ordering the wheels, so he agreed to paint the calipers during the install as long as I brought my own paint. I used silver engine spray (1500 degrees F, I think). Unfortunately, a couple of weeks later, a caliper got bent from hitting a pothole on the freeway (at least the rim was unscathed, I had it professionally examined :), although the CV boot and halfshaft were damaged too and needed to be replaced ). I had the caliper replaced, but the shop didn't have time to repaint it that day (although they gave me a sweet discount--they've been trying to kiss up to me after all the delays on the rims). Luckily, it's brand new, so it just looks a bit darker.

I was going to do the rear rotor hats (the part where the e-brake fits into was rusty), but I knew I was replacing the rear rotors soon anyway (did so on Tuesday).

A buddy saw my calipers, and wanted the same on his Pontiac. We just masked off the fenderwell and things behind the caliper, and sprayed away. Some people recommend pulling the brake pads, but we were concerned about getting the shims perfectly aligned afterwards, so we just masked those, too. We did three coats on each caliper, since that what the tech at the shop said he did to mine. When the weather cools down a bit, I may very well go back and do that replacement caliper on mine.

I just used a little flathead screwdriver to tuck the wire, I remember it being a bit snug, but not too difficult. Don't worry, I'll check the fuse situation in the morning, when there's more light.

About the crack-- is it cracked all the way through, or just on the inside? Does it extend past the black square? I don't think much of my black square is visible from the inside--the compass pod covers most of it. Did you look for any DIY epoxy to fill the crack?

Oh no! My telescope wasn't too tight of a fit, in fact I had to extend the telescope about 1 cm to fill the gap. Perhaps you can put some epoxy filler on the crack to keep it from extending. I'll check on the fuses in a bit, I've been doing some painting around the house.

Glad to hear the putty knife technique worked. I'll run out to the garage in a bit, and see if I can give you some specifics on the wiring.

I was told by the tech who had experience with Lexus mirrors that heat doesn't affect the Lexus adhesive, that only mechanical force would. Try the putty knife trick (go very light, and have a buddy push in on the window where it's bowing out). Otherwise, keeping calling shops until you find one as cooperative as the one that did mine.

Compass is easy to calibrate. It comes with instructions to set region code (based on longitude, the deviation between magnetic north and geographic north widens). The mirror is set by default to the region for Michigan, where Gentex is located. Once you've set the region code for your location, the display will read "C" to indicate calibration is needed. Drive around the block in a circle a couple of times, and the display will shift from "C" to displaying a heading. The compass automatically recalibrates every time you drive a circular route (don't worry, you only see the "C" during the initial calibration)

Same exact spot. There's a black painted square on the glass to hide the button from the outside. The glass guy just centered the new button horizontally in the square, with the top edge of the button on the top edge of the masking square. As for the cord, the mirror comes with a telescoping piece of wiremold that hides the wire between the mirror and the headliner. I've been in cars without the wiremold (friend's Grand Cherokee) where the cord just hangs, and it looks messy. But our mirrors have the nice wiremold to keep things neat.

As for both sunvisors, use a small flathead screwdriver to pop the screw cover. Lexus does a great job of covering up screwheads.

The four bolts to pull the panel under the steering wheel are 10mm and are in the following locations (doing this from memory at quarter to 2AM, having trouble sleeping): top left is inside the fuse door (pop the panel off), top right is behind the cover for the climate control sensor (pry this off carefully, like the visor covers), bottom left is near the hood release, doesn't have any cover, and bottom right can be traced on a line from the other two, and shouldn't have a cover, either.