amblyn

So i need a quick cheap car for my gf

found a 92 es300 on craigslist going to look at it tomarrow

"I have a 1992 Lexus Es300 in very good shape leather interior clean in and out new tires,recently tuned up, only has 140,000 miles on it runs smooth great on gas askin 2500.00"

This is what it is listed for.. price sounds about 1000 over what it should be. person i talked to said price is neg. so i will talk him down..


while im checking this car out what are the KEY things i should be looking for that go the most on these. i am aware it is a 92 and will not be perfect thats a given.

is there an easy way to see if timing belt was done recently. is timing hard on this vehicle? ive dont a 99 camry with help wasnt allll that bad.

any advice would be great this forum is great i used to own a 00 rx300 and had great support here so hopefully ill be back

Es300Lover

When buying a car first thing I notice to see is if the engine bay is clean, if there's grime all over it hasn't been taken care of. The serpentine belt will be easily visible, I'm not sure about the timing belt. Good luck :-)

vintagelex

I'll start off by saying that the 92 ES is a great car, I have one which we have had since my dad bought it new in 1992. If it's in nice shape then the price might not even be that far off... but that all depends of how it was taken care of. If you open the hood, you will see the alternator belt, and down below it (and further back) another thinner belt which is the power steering belt. Timing belt is under the black protective cover that you'll find in the same general area. It's supposed to be changed every 60k on this car, but if it's a few miles over that then it should be no big deal, we just had ours done 3 months ago and the belt had about 90k and like 12 years on it. So you have an idea - the timing belt job (parts + labor + 1 year 12,000 mile warranty) cost just under $1200. But that included timing belt, water pump and gasket, thermostat, tensioner, all pulleys, idler, crank seal, both cam seals, and also a new power steering belt.

As far as other things go, we have never really had many major problems with our car. After 150k miles never any problems with the engine or automatic transmission, and no leaks other than the front valve cover gasket (common on these cars but very quick and cheap to fix) which I will be fixing soon. We still even have a totally original suspension, with no noises or rattles, and no play in the steering - but a set of shocks and struts might be in order soon...

Good luck buying the car, I'm sure you'll enjoy it. And post some pics

rlx101

on a 1992 pretty much anything can go wrong at this point. So i would not buy the car unless i knew what was done/serviced already.

Do not buy it if it does not come with service history UNLESS you can get it for 1000$ or less and it is great driving condition. 2500$ with no history is way too much.

moonphase

You might also want to take the car to a qualified mechanic for an overall inspection before you buy it. You will need to pay for the inspection, but you will have a better idea of the condition of the car. We used to have a 1992 ES300 and had lots of problems after 100,000 miles, including all the dash lights failing which cost around $3,000 to repair at the dealership (common problem for the earlier ones). Ended up selling it for $500.00.

canucklehe

I have 2 1993 ES300s. i bought the second one as a parts car but am in the process of fixing it up since it runs and drives good, but has items needing attention. Part of my attraction to the daily driver was that it was "orignal owner, dealer serviced." And I was able to speak with dealer and look at records. Yeah, okay...whatever. In hindsight, dealer serviced was way over-rated. Still many issues to deal with and repair, and owner knew everything it was going to need outweighed cost of repairing it= money pit. Maybe i should have had experienced toyota/lexus guy look over known problem areas first. Many things I knew (like brakes, VC gaskets, cluster lights). I knew about PS fluid leak, but not steering rack (rack issue is easy to hide once warmed up).

my mileage is very close to yours.

BOTH cars have worn out lower motor mounts, BOTH have Y pipe leaks. BOTH need driver side CV axle (so much for my parts car!!). While doing Y pipe, great idea to replace the oil filter bracket gasket as they are famous for leaking oil onto exhaust. ALSO... I agree that valve cover gasket is a common leak and I just had it done on one of these 2 cars. But not easy to do the rear VC gasket and it's usually the leaker.

steering rack is starting to go. i just bought the Lucas treatment to see if that helps for $12, instead of $120 for a new rack (parts only). ANY car with 140K will benefit from replacing struts, but not 100% required.

I have a clunk in both cars when I let off gas, then give it gas to accelerate. Haven't pinned that down but have read posts that lower control arm bushings wear, and possibly balljoint. I see those for about $100 for both sides. Alignment mechanic friend is driving it to work tomorrow and will report his findings to me.

rear hub bearing is worn on one car ($50 for part). Knock sensor is fairly common and gives CEL (check engine light). Knock sensor helps adjust timing for knocking and pinging and isn't critical, other than the CEL light. Sensor is about $50-60. ALSO, these are OBDI, so harder to troubleshoot some issues.

VERY common problem on these seems to be cluster needles burning out, and cluster bulbs. For $160 Tanin will replace all bulbs and all needles, lifetime guarantee. Very easy to remove cluster. I had him repair my cluster.

On timing belt cover, mechanic usually puts a sticker to indicate mileage when belt was replaced, and if W/P (water pump) was done. Both my cars need it. I just received a how-to link and it doesn't look too bad and i may do myself, but i have done before on other cars.

My dealer maintained car also needed brakes & rotors x4. I paid $100 for 4 rotors and ceramic pads. good enough, car stops, no squeaks.

Parts seem quite cheap. In most cases, i am looking for cheaper stuff as i will not keep car more than a few more years. I went big on the Timing belt kit with pump (all Aisin) = $180 in parts. Motor mount was $35. Y-pipe is $105 with gaskets, O-ring gasket (oil filter bracket) $8. CV axle complete is $52. Valve cover gaskets I had mechanic do, and it cost me $350-400 (parts included). Also had throttle body cleaned at same time. Throttle body tends to get pretty caked up with crud by this time.

i may send out my radio and climate control to get re-done (lights), another $160 (for both, with new LED). Another option is replace stereo with better aftermarket for $100 and not worry about CD player in trunk which is usually broken by now, and burnt out lights on factory unit.

maybe it sounds like I'm whining: I'm not. When you buy a 20 year old car, expect to spend time and money to get things up to speed, and then you keep spending. It's all relative. And no guarantees that spending $5K on something newer will be much cheaper to keep going. I am very fussy and like everything mechanical to work properly. Body I am less fussy about as that's just lipstick and rouge.

canucklehe

forgot to mention, both of mine have AIR BAG light displayed. Mechanic told me very hard to troubleshoot and pin down. Forum research pointed me to the air bag module ( i think it's under the arm rest). I don't think I'll bother chasing it.

vintagelex

I just did my climate control lights (one bulb was burned out, LCD was thankfully working). There are 2 bulbs for the buttons, and 2 smaller (as I found out the wrong way) bulbs for the ****. They cost about $9 each from the dealer. On ours the Y pipe was also replaced about a year ago with a brand new one. Cost $300 for the part and $300 for the labor.... that was not a happy moment. But it did last 20 years so I guess it's alright.

canucklehe

i went to pickapart and removed 3 different Y pipes for my parts car. Unfortunately, 2 of them were corroded on the accordian flex joint. The one I took had been cut just before the CAT so I couldn't mount it without a lot of fabricating. It took me about 10 minutes per car to remove pipe. I am not a mechanic and these were the first Y pipes I had ever removed.

my daily driver also had Y pipe replaced and i got new Bosal pipe from ebay for $88 (shipped). I had mechanic do that job and also had lower motor mount & oil bracket gasket all done at same time, as it's all easier to do with more stuff out of the way. They charged me 1.5 hours labor @ $80/hr.

I wouldn't be happy either, as $600 for parts and labor for a Y pipe seems excessive. Also, in Canada our parts and labor rates tend to be higher than USA (although I got my pipe in USA).

amblyn, did you look at, or buy this car? at least knowing some of the common issues, you can use that as negotiation leverage. despite all my quirks & repairs, the car seems solid in the motor/tranny department.