Maxx941

iTrader: (1)

Just bought a 97 ES300 silver, 106,000miles paid $7600 cash.
give the exterior a 9 interior 9,
1 owner, documented miles since new, carfax checked, all ok.
really clean,
I am the proud new 2nd owner.

Wanted to know if you guys think I paid to much or was a good deal or not.
BTW I bought techically from ebay, but I did inspect the vehicle in person before I bought it.
Any comments are appreciated. Thanks Everyone
oh heres the link 2 it if you wanna see
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...RK%3AMEWA%3AIT
PS: thats not the price I paid, asked to end the auction

Maxx

vin 78

I don't know if you over paid or not, but w/ only 106k miles, it will last for a long time. If the previous owner took care of it, I wouldn't doubt it would last another100k w/ no problems. Based on what i could see on the ebay link, its very clean, except for some little paint problems, which isn't the metal part, only the bumper and mirror. Good buy

BTW, I didn't know they offered silver for the 97 models, I only remember black, white, green, maroon, and tan.

Kohinoor

iTrader: (22)

if its that great of shape, you got a great deal for only $7600

Pheonix

Na, I don't think you overpaid. I paid about that for my '93 several years back.

I'd start with using some Seafoam ($5 a can) to clean the heads & combustion chambers out. (Add a half can to oil, half to a gas tank when you fill it up, use another can in 1/3 increments 3 times sucked/poured into the intake manifold through the brake booster line - pour 1/3 of the can in, immediately shut the engine off & wait 5 min. Crank & watch it smoke another 10 min, then drive around until the smoke stops. Best to hold a few gears and let it rev a few times to make sure it get's it all burned out.)
Then take the same brake booster port on the passenger side of the intake. Take a 16oz. spray bottle & spray 16oz of water into the engine while idling. Pump just fast enough so you hear the rpm drop slightly. -> Basically, free water injection. The water will bust the carbon out of the combustion chamber, valve faces & piston tops.

Remember this it's important...
NGK, or Denso plugs only. You go putting some other plug in there & the spark will degrade over the period of a few thousand miles. Who cares why - it just does! ($1-2 generics work great & last the specified amount of time. Skip platinum plugs for iridium if you want to shell out $10-15 a plug. I don't like them, but whatever floats your tires)
At some point... You're going to need to change the spark plugs. The rear bank is a pain. With the right flex extension & u joint, you can do it, but I suggest just pulling the upper intake air chamber (commonly misnomered the intake manifold) off to change them.
When you take it off, clean the inside of it, and everything connected to it by hand. You'll gain 5-10bhp back that you loose from the sever carbon build-up.
This is also a great time to replace the PCV valve!!! $5. No biggie.


Bobistheoilguy.com forums for any "what kind of lubrication is best" questions.
Mobile 1 Synthetic is pretty much the best oil that's commonly available. AMSoil is tops, but ultra expensive. If you're changing the oil every 5,000 miles like the book tells you, don't feel bad about just grabbing any oil they say is pretty good. (Tons of cheap dino oils that are good).
Denso Toyota filters are equal to the best oil filters ever made. Buy them at Toyota dealers for $4 a pop - use them.

Toyota/Lexus suggest draining the pan every other year.
I suggest flushing the pan every other year, or draining the pan every other oil change. Just draining the pan doesn't change near half the fluid in the system!!! (That's 10,000 miles, or about once a year. Keep 5 quarts on hand, but you won't need that much.)
Again, synthetic is the best, but if you keep a regular schedule anything will be great!

Buying 5' of 5/16" Fuel/Oil hose, a few clamps, and install an auxiliary transmission cooler after the stock radiator cooler. (If you buy a new one, a bar & plate type, not tube & fin), or go to a Junkyard. You can find millions of used ones for $5.

90% of transmission failures are caused by bad/low fluid.
Every time fluid exceeds it's recommended heat range, the lifespan halfs!
Spending an afternoon gathering & installing $15 worth of parts that cut your transmission failure rate odds by many times is an awsome thing!

Lastly. Don't forget to flush the brake fluid out now & every few years. & change the powersteering fluid to some type of synthetic Dexron III ATF. That way you can change it once & forget about it.
A great guide is here. Easy to do. Takes a quart or two...


@ 107,000 miles, I would keep $160 in the bank for two new Bosch generic o2 sensors. It's good to change them out every 100,000m - but they may last you for years. Who knows!






In all seriousness. I would change the oil & filter, install the A/T & drain the transmission pan asap. That way you know when the major fluids have been changed!
P/S fluid before Thanksgiving & Intake/Plugs/PCV before the holidays.

Maxx941

iTrader: (1)

Great Help!
Thanks Alot!
Do you know what type of master keys is the 97es300, i think im only getting a valet ket, it looks very small, and theres no included remote. there is a alarm led on the climate control? I think, I'm really picking up the car tommorrow

vin 78

my es came w/ 3 keys, if i could remember, it was large 2 masters, and 1 smaller valet. it also came w/ 2 alarm remotes.

metalface

I bought my '97 with 115k miles for $6000. It's dark metallic blue, looks black at night. It came also with a Viper security system, with remote start. It came with only one key.
I bought it on eBay also: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...tem=4551459983
It looks like I paid $6500 for it, but it claims to include an in-dash Alpine DVD player, which the owner claimed had broken and had to be removed. Yet he did not make that claim until I had driven a few hundred miles to get it, so we ended up agreeing to drop the price $500 to make up the difference.
No rust, but there was a big scratch on the bottom passenger side of the bumper, but a few weeks after I bought it I broke the entire passenger side of the bumper off by sliding off the edge of a dirt road into a ditch and then back into the road.

I should have got Pheonix's advice about the transmission fluids though, because after smashing the bumper off I had been having transmission problems, where it would stutter on acceleration and take forever to get into reverse. Then one night, about 2-3 months after buying the car, I was driving late at night on some very curvey roads and going way too fast and I ended up burning out the entire transmission until it broke down on the side of the road. Only reverse was still working at all.
I found a '97 camry transmission, which is the same as the AT in the es300. It had only 15k miles on it and was $660. I bought it and had it installed for about 8+ hours of labor. The whole deal cost me about $1250 to remove and replace the transmission.

So taking that ordeal into consideration, I paid $7250 for the car, but the transmission only has 15,000 miles one it.

Lexusfreak

You paid perhaps slightly more than normal, however those service & maintenance records have to be worth something so I wouldn't worry about it if you have trouble free motoring for a long time!

Trexus

You can go to KBB.com to see what the private party value is and it appears that the price is right where it should be.

http://www.kbb.com/kb/ki.dll/kw.kc.u...300&9;LE;A6&&&

Bmoney86

Wow I also have a 97 in that exact color. I even have the same paint problem on the passenger mirror! It's a very clean car, I think you got a nice deal. Some places call the color beige instead of silver, I'm not really sure myself.

Maxx941

iTrader: (1)

Interesting.. Same paint problem, whats the chances? Defect?
I get the same i say silver, some say pearl

redzeppelin

I think you got a good deal, looks good

Maxx941

iTrader: (1)

Turns out its called Oyster Pearl

Thanks Everyone. Great Car. Great Forum

Anzial

I've read somewhere else that this seafoam procedure could be dangerous for your catalitic converter. It's a pretty expensive piece of hardware, so I'm not really sure it's a good idea to use such cheap stuff to clean out carbon buildup and potentially damage the cat.converter. What's the concensus on this board?

And yeah, congrats on the purchase! I just got the same car, slightly different color (antique sage pearl), 74k miles I gotta say I love it although it does have its share of problems

davesday21

I am a recent owner just like you I am also the 2nd owner but mine is a 1995 es300 and I paid 4k it had 115k miles on it and runs pretty well seeing that I already put 5k more miles on it in the last 2 months. I enjoy my car hope your car treats you well to