sinergy

Hello everyone, newbie here. Last week I purchased a 2000 ES300 platinum edition. 257,000 miles yeah, bad I know, to make matters worse, it was an impulse buy by my wife at the auction, so didnt get a test drive. This was her first auction, ouch. We wanted another Lexus as we love our rx300 and have shared that car for a year. Anyways, auction over, car purchased, crank it up, well after jumping it off, drive it off lot, overheating. Tried to turn on heat to bring down temp, no heat. coolant boiling out of expansion tank. Get the car home after stopping 5-6 times to cool down. During the drive I noticed there was no overdrive, running 3-4k Rpm at 40mph, will not shift into high gear. Oh and there is about 4" of play in the steering. FML. Ok, so took thermostat out, it had been cut and bypassed to allow flow, interesting... Replaced fan temp switch and radiator cap that was bad as well and running hot still at idle, still no heat so I assume no coolant flow, going to replace water pump. Fans work only when a/c is on, otherwise never come on. So, if this doesn't work still where do I go from here, besides the crusher of course, lol. Any ideas what would be causing the overdrive problem, is this all linked? I plugged my code reader in and it is running in an open cycle, so it looks like there were codes, although I have no idea what they were, and they were cleared out to not show up at auction. And what would be causing the excessive play in steering wheel, feels like I'm driving on ice, sounds like a tie rod to me, would I be correct? Sorry to bombard everyone with all this as my first post, but man my hands are full, thanks hun. Thanks everyone for any help you can provide.

vcheng

Looks like you bought a money pit. It can be repaired, but it may not be cost effective to do so.

donbryce

Some thoughts:
- The no-upshift may just be an electrical problem, like a speed sensor. The overheating is probably related to the high revs from driving in 2nd gear (or whatever the lower range is on this transmission).
- A visit to the local alignment shop should tell you quickly what needs replacing to cure the steering play, which could be many things in the front suspension.
- Obviously non-functional cooling fans will contribute to overheating, so this is a must fix, and is likely electrical as well.

Lots more info needed to help you.....

BDSL

Coolant system, check:
- radiator condition
- line might be clogged
- air might be trapped in the line

Transmission, check:
- transmission fluid
- should drain and fill

Steering/suspension, check:
- ball joint
- tie rod
- PS fluid
- any play in the suspension

BDSL

Sometimes, it might be better if you just sell it (take a hit) instead of spending $$$ on fixing the vehicle.

BradTank

I know some people around here think these cars never break, but when you buy an inexpensive car with 257,000 miles, you're buying a disposable car in my opinion (unless you can do repairs yourself) You buy it cheap and drive it into the ground, and it sounds like it's already "in the ground."

It's not worth throwing thousands of dollars into a car that's worth so little and has so many miles. They become money pits that you'll never see a penny of it back. From what you're describing, it could need a new head gasket, transmission and a complete rebuild of the front suspension/steering. You could be looking at over $4,000 already. And the list just keeps getting longer of things you'll have to eventually do with a car that has that many miles.

My advice would be to find a reputable mechanic to go over everything (don't start throwing parts at it yourself) and give you an honest assessment. But I can tell you right now, the symptoms you're describing are not "easy fixes", you're looking at thousands of dollars.

I'd dump it (hopefully it was cheap) and don't let your wife buy a car on a whim at an auction. There's a reason many of these auctions aren't open to the public, they don't want inexperienced consumers getting taken. Also, usually car dealers dump their crap inventory from trade ins at these auctions, the stuff they don't want to retail on their lots because they don't want the liability of an angry customer or it simply needs too many repairs and it's not worth their time and money This sounds like it was meant to be a "mechanics special".

Sorry for your loss, it's a really crappy situation.

mdbrown

From a cold start, how long before it overheats at idle?

sinergy

Starts overheating within 2-3 minutes from starting.

mdbrown

Well, you need to decide on how far you want to go with this. You could have a waterpump issue, OTOH you might have a head gasket issue. A block test kit is relatively inexpensive and is available at any auto parts store. You might do that before you tear into the front of the engine. How much can you do yourself??

sinergy

I am fairly mechanically savvy, I can do alternators, thermostats, oil changes, tune ups, etc. As far as a complete engine overhaul, ill leave that to the pros.

yeldogt

With that many miles on the car everything is at the end of its life -- and it sounds like whoever owned it was just keeping it running. I bet it has something seriously wrong with it. I would not spend any money fixing it until you get an idea on what is up with the engine and the suspension--- the transmission at 250k plus is more than likely needing a rebuild.

If the car is in fantastic cosmetic shape -- rebuilding the transmission may be worth it. My 2000ES had around 220k on it when the transmission failed. I thought long and hard about fixing it -- and mine is in unbelievable condition. Because of the condition ..... I figured I may get lucky and be able to keep it another 30k (2 years) without too much additional work.

The rebuild was $1700.00.

mdbrown

Get the block tester kit. If the engine has failing head gaskets then I'd stop there. If the block tests out okay then you can move forward from there. I concur with the others though, if it's in great cosmetic condition and you really like it then you can decide to invest in it. If it's in fair condition or less then I think I might consider parting it out or selling as a mechanics special. Let me know what happens with the block test.

sinergy

It is in flawless condition inside and out, like New immaculate. I think that is why my wife was so keen on it, overlooking mileage and mechanics. I am amazed how great it looks. I love the black and grey color scheme. Our rx 300 is a hideous cream/tan mix that I hate. Just frustrated with the mechanical issues.

Lust4Lexus

Now why do you think that it is soo immaculate? Hmmm? It is probably because the car is so mechanically screwed up, they were hoping to polish a turd to put a wolf into sheeps clothing.....it sounds like they did. No offense to you and your wife. Just opening your eyes. You could have motor full of sludge. That's what I am thinking.

LeX2K

Could be something as simple as a bad/clogged radiator.