LexieLS

Hello fellas,
I just bought a 98' ES300 with 98K for $7,000. Was this a good buy? I'm very pleased with the appearance of its condition inside and out. The vehicle has clean title and seems to have been kept very well. However, I found couple things that I want to address. I would like to get some of you guys opinion on these matters if I could. Thank you in advance.
1) Let's start with the first issue I have. The vehicle seems to be going straight down the road (cruise & coast) BUT when I accelerate, the car seems to be pulling to the right. This behavior seems to stop when I let go of the gas. I also tried to do both hard & soft braking. The car goes straight down the road when braking with no problem. So I wonder it may not be the alignment. WHAT IS IT THOUGH??? Note: The steering wheel is straight as well. Could it be a drivetrain? Not to mention that the tires are very old and need to be replaced bad. Do you think new tires would take care of this problem?
2) Second issue I'm having is clunking noise from the front end when I go over rough road or speed bump. It sounds like something is loosen. I want to refer this to my 99' Camry V6 that I have. On the Camry, the front bumper and left headlight is not tight, therefore making noise. But on the Lexus, everything seems to be tight. So I do not know where the noise is coming from. Does anyone have the same problem?
3) I'm also thinking about getting a set of 01' LS430 16 inch wheels. Would these wheels fit my ES?? It is just that I'm going to be spending money on the tires, I might as well update the rims. I can get these particular rims very cheeply from a frind of mine in case why someone might wonder why the 16" LS wheels.
Other than these 2 issues, the car runs very smoothly. It does not seem as quick as my Camry V6 though. Probably the extra weight from the extra options. Thank you very much!

chrispy

iTrader: (21)

not sure if i can answer your questions but congrats on the new ES! i think you got a pretty good deal since i got mine for $6000 at 165k miles. but that was a year or two ago. the LS wheels should fit btw.

edit: just noticed your name is kind of like mine.

Tammy

Have a good mechanic put you ES on a lift the have the struts, balljoints, A-arm bushings, tie rods and steering rack bushings checked of wear or damage... All the engine mounts and "dogbone" mount atop the engine. Look for cracked or worn out mounting bushings on all suspension mounts...

I would insure there is no suspension damage, front and rear.

Did you do a history Carfax? Was this in an accident? Has the 90,000 service been preformed? Did you get any service history with the vehicle?

LexieLS

The vehicle has a clean title, clean carfax and has no damage. I think I'm going to take it to get the complete suspension looked at. Do you think I need to go to Lexus or could I maybe just go to Sears. Flecther Jones Lexus in Las Vegas is well-known for its high price services.

papachino

heard of torque-steer?

texrexlex

Yeah, lexieLS,

Hey, first congratulations on a spectacular deal.

Like papachino mentioned.... the pull that you feel when accelerating is *most likely* due to what is called "torque streer". almost all (maybe ALL) front wheel drive cars suffer from this in some form or other. there's nothing wrong with the car. new tires might help matters a weeeee bit, but, torque streer will always be there to some degree.

and like tammy said, the "clunking" sound you hear when going over bumps, may mean that the struts, or mounts are worn out. I don't know about the engine mounts, but if the struts are worn out, this *should* not cause any damage to the car whatsoever. mine makes (what i'm guessing) to be a similar sound, and the lexus mechanic said that the sturts are worn out. i can replace them, and smooth out the ride, and quiet it down, but if i don't, it won't hurt anything. that's what i was told by the lexus mechanic.

but i'd have a mechanic look at the struts and mounts and suspension to determine what it is that's is worn out.

good luck and let us know what it is, and how much $ it will cost to fix....

Tammy

Call around for a shop that specializes in Toyota automobiles. I have yet to hear good words on Sears services, aside from battery exchanges.. Their replacement parts are questionable..

intrmsof2

don't worry about the pulling problem. the torque-steer condition you're describing should correct itself with a good set of tires on the drive wheels. It is also always a safe bet to have your car aligned relatively regularly, as even everyday driving can have a dramatic effect on suspension geometry. Between these two, I think this problem should be pretty well corrected.

as for the knocking, the first place I would check is the aforementioned A-arm (control arm) bushings. If you're mechanically inclined take a pry-bar with the car off the ground and move the arm back and forth, watching for excessive play or any cracking in the rubber. If that seems ok, do a similar pry test on the ball joints at the other end of the A-arm (these could also affect alignment, tying it to your other problem as well). If you're not so inclined or don't trust your own judgement of what is "ok", take it to a pro.

I make these suggestions because i recently had both of those problems on my '97 ES. I could be wrong but they're the first places I would look.

BTW, congrats on what sounds like a nice buy.

Pheonix

Yeaaaaa. That engine doesn't have enough torque to introduce torque steer to any major degree.
Mechanical problem/worn suspension parts/worn engine mounts.

zoomzoom

I had a similar problem with my wife's 97 ES 300 when it was < 3 yr old w/35K miles when driving over speed bumps or bumps at slow speed, and the front end would make a clunking noise, and in extreme cold, going over bumps the front end made a creeking & clunking sound. Overall the handling was fine, only that the noise got to us going over bumps. We took it back to Lexus, and there were a number of ES300 that had reported the same problems. It turn out to be the front end struts & bushing. Lexus replaced them with no cost to us, perhaps while it was still under warranty.
At the time, I was very concern if this would reoccur again say... 70-100K later, and Lexus assure that it was defective batch struts & bushings. We had to wait for a month before the replacement parts came in. Since then, we haven't had any problems. We now have 125K miles & are the original owners.

Of course the 97 model was 1st yr redesigned for 97-2001, so not sure if the 98 models had this issue resolve by then.

3rdelement

iTrader: (1)

the clunk is most likely the sway bar bushings.(for me its the rear ones)

the "torque steer" you are experiencing was something i noticed in mine also. im replacing both lower control arms(and bushings) and also the half shafts as well. that should solve the problem.

nhprman

Well, I feel like I have something in common with the originator of this thread.

On Friday, April 7, I bought my 1999 Lexus ES 300. I paid a bit more than him, but still way under retail. It has 84,400 miles on it.

Interestingly, I also noticed a clunking noise when I drove it around yesterday. At first I thought it was something shifting in the trunk, but nothing's there. I'll have to have this looked at, but overall, it was a sweetheart deal, and I love Lexus! (so far).

It's my first Lexus, although I owned a distant uncle (a '75 Toyota Celica) back in '85, and even then, I was impressed with Toyo products. I hope my faith remains strong.

lexusk8

nhprman,

First of all, welcome to ClubLexus, and congrats on your first Lexus purchase.

Second of all, although your first post is innocent in nature, it would be wiser for you to create a new thread and showcase your thoughts on your ES purchase, instead of in another person's thread. The purpose of the thread from the original poster (LexieLS) is to ask for help on a few serious maintenance issues with his '98 ES. When you reply to this thread with an introduction of yourself and a pic of your car (with or without feedback for the original poster), this kind of behavior would be called "hi-jacking" the thread, and is considered improper forum etiquette. I'm sure you didn't mean to do this, and I know you are new to this forum, but I just want to let you know about some of the ground rules laid out behind this Lexus discussion forum. At any rate, I do hope you consider this as you make future posts, and you learn more about this forum by utilizing the forum search engine.

Thanks for listening

- Your moderator, Doug

nhprman

Hi, Doug:

Yikes. Consider me "slapped back."

I actually did have the same problem as this poster (i.e. clunking) and addressed it in the post, so I think it was at least *halfway* relevant, particularly if other 99's have the same issues as the '98s.

I think you're being a *bit* overzealous here, but in any case, sorry for the unintentional "hijack" re: my new car in the message. It was actually ettiquite that kept me from jumping right in and posting threads 10 minutes after finding the site.

As for the search engine, thanks for the pointer, but that's the first place I went, and I stumbled on quite a bit of off-topic rubbish re: politics, etc. that I don't think I'll be involving myself in, but was very surprised to see here..

tiguy99

Could just be bad tires. Are they all seasons or directional tires? The fact that they're old seems as if A they weren't rotated properly on time or B one has better traction. I would have them rotated first to see if that solves the steer issue when you accelerate. With my SC430 wheels on the 99 ES I have now, sometimes my car steers a certain direction when I hit a wierd bump or dip in the road. That's because of the low profile tires. ITs not a big steering issue but more of a tiny tug going the way of the road. Its not a big deal and goes away when I put the stocks back on but I've learned to live with it no prob