drum2beat

Actually excited to be here and drive my first lexus-even though it is almost 16yrs old. My mechanic sold me a ES300 w/199000 miles (Grandma put 50,000. Grandson commuted to college in New Hampshire, so yeah mostly highway? hope) anyway. mechanic replaced all valve covers, has new brakes, new tires, new catalitic converter? basically went through the entire engine, and put new struts in the back. $1200. i thought a fair price? so a few questions to the forum:

need to replace antenna. took it off, no cable. is it gone or break off, down to far ? replacement info.

leather is rip and cracked in some places, really bad on driver side (seat cover for now)

how to replace and add dash lights; including gas meter(does not light up at night) comfort control panel is out completely.

change out the stereo for CD and ipod connection.

I really would appreciate any information and thanks for all your time.

drum2beat

DRACO A5OG

Welcome, please post a pic of your baby

Antenna is gone.Replace it with pretty much any motorized antenna and splice the wires to operate with the OEM system. I had a spare Porsche antenna and swapped it in with no issues.

Dash lights, you will need to remove the gauge cluster and replace the dead bulbs, regular blubs will give off a incandescent glow the OEM has a light blue tint cap on them to give them a whiter light. Get them from Toyota, if on a budget replace them all with aftermarket bulbs to keep the look consistent, I chose the aftermarket because I was too lazy to go to the dealer and get raped. Look is fine and matches the rest of the illumination in the car, so no biggy.

I went cheap on the iPod connection, just went to radio shack and got the tape adaptor, cheap and with the great OEM system, it sounds great. All you can see is a wire coming out the tape port but I routed it between the seems of the center console and carpet down to the E-brake to connect the iPod.

Hope this helps a bit,

Jim

imherenow

congrats on the car..
most of the stuff can be found here..just do a search on this forum
also do post pics of ur ride..

GoodRevs

drum2beat, there are a couple good size salvage yards in MA. The largest is Jacks in Billerica, I've seen a few 2ES's there in the past.

EEngineer

for antenna, do a conversion from the electric one to stub, it's better that way. it won't seize or break again.

I did a Celica conversion for the antenna base. as for the actual antenna I used a Honda Element antenna, it has better reception. you can use a s2k one as well no difference.
the conversion shaved like a pound and half too lol, the motor is heavy lol

DRACO A5OG

I just keep the antenna clean and lubed, it seems to like that and works well, but it's a Porsche antenna