WAES300

I just purchased a 1998 ES300 last weekend, with 205,000 miles on it. The thing runs like new, and I fully mean that- I work on a car lot and it compares to the new cars. The car was a one owner, and maintenance mostly done by Lexus dealers- 13 pages worth that I found on the "mylexus" on the Lexus website. Nice!! Got it cheap too, cant beat it for the price.

Any suggestions on what to look out for? I don't think sludge is an issue at all, the timing belt was done at 180K, as well as a few other things...Planning on changing the tranny fluid around 210K and switching to Mobil1 synthetic. My family's had great luck with these Toyota products and I don't see why this one wont be either. My first Lexus though!!

LeX2K

Congrats. They really are great cars, I much prefer them to the newer Lexus and Toyota models, well most of them anyway.

I would change out the tranny fluid right away though. If Lexus used Toyota brand fluid (likely) it has a habit of turning brown quickly. When I got mine, the transmission had less than 10,000 miles on the fluid according to the service records, and the stuff was ugly looking. I did a drain and fill twice in about a week, will do another drain and fill when I next change the oil (I recommend to everyone to do a drain and fill every other oil change).

Only way to know for sure if the engine is sludged is to crack open the valve cover. But seeing the car runs good@205k, no way you have a sludge engine. BTW, if you see crud under the oil filler cap, they do that when run on dino oil, that doesn't mean the engine has a sludge problem.

88Legend

Congrats on your purchase. I wanted an es300 as my first car but ended up with a legend coupe. I wanted an ES because I like my dad's so much.

It sounds like it was well taken care of. There is nothing that is known for going bad on these cars. They are pretty much mechanically perfect. Since the 90K service was performed recently all you have to do is the the regular maintenance and these cars will keep running.

There would be no problem switching to synthetic oil. I switched at 167K miles in my Legend and I have 172K now and it running perfectly. But our ES is still using conventional oil.

Where in WA are you? I'm in Fed Way.

WAES300

Thanks! It was sitting on a new car lot, so I was pretty skeptical of it but...Well you know how that turned out. The only thing that bugs me about the car is that it holds onto second gear when the engine is cold- I read though, that it's normal.. Having driven manuals since getting my license, it's hard to have your car do what it wants instead of what I want it to do.

I'm still amazed at how well this thing runs. & Quiet. I keep telling myself this can't be a 200K mile car! I'll start giving it synthetic, for what it's worth.

I'm in unincorporated Snohomish county- near Mill Creek and Lynnwood. Kind of a coincidence though, I went down to Federal Way last month to look at a V6 stick shift Camry supposedly "mint". Kind of wasted my time there..

Bedore

I too notice that when cold, the transmission holds onto second gear longer than others. I understand not shifting into OD when it's cold, but does anyone know why it holds second gear longer? Usually when I speed up to 40 it will shift into third no matter the temperature....seems like it should just shift into third like it does when its warm. Any input on this would be appreciated, as that too bugs me a bit.

LeX2K

It must be because of emissions concerns, to get the engine to warm up as quickly as possible. My car does the exact same thing, it's just how the computer is programmed.

WAES300

I read that the tranny has to warm up to a certain temperature before it shifts into O/D, it apparently puts less load on the tranny thus longer lifespan.. It must be okay because my car still runs like it was just driven off the truck. Love it!!!!