SaturnAndT

Hello!

I'm Saturn, 16, and got my first car months ago, being my precious Lexus ES300. It's my baby, I named them Sylvia, and I always do my best to keep them clean. I love the car for many reasons, but I do have some problems I was wondering if anyone knew how to easily fix?

1.The tape speed on the Mark Levinson stereo is noticeably too fast. I've fixed Walkmen before, but I can't find a speed adjustment hole when I take the stereo out. I'm also scared to take it out again because I broke one of the clip holes for the AC and had to super glue it together...

2. How can I increase HP in this car? It drives super smoothly, especially since we had to replace its transmission, but it just doesn't accelerate fast enough for all the highway driving I have to do everyday.

3. Is there anyway to make this car more fuel efficient? On a good day this car seems to only get about 276 miles of range on a tank, and with gas prices so high I can't always afford to get it refilled right away...

I thank you all in advance for your advice, it's greatly appreciated.

Arsenii

Hello,

Do you test it on real cassettes or on an AUX adapter? There is no speed adjustment for the tape deck in that unit, it is fully automated, at least as far as I know.. Here is the Owners Manual for you car, see if there are any settings that may work for you.

Unfortunately, there is no easy way to increase power output of those cars, though with that, it should have a pretty good punch all on its own. My 2000 ES300 is quite good at getting to highway speed, it could the problem with drive-by-wire throttle, which is described here.

What is your primary drive routine? I once got to 500 highway miles on one 18.5 gallon tank, and it was in the summer with AC on, but I usually average about 400 during long trips, since I don't like going on major highways if I am not in rush. If those results are from the highway, it is a good reason to investigate the cause - check the tire and brake wear, see if there is anything unusual, if not, check Engine Live Parameters. With that, if you primarily drive in the city, it is a normal result and there is not a whole lot to do about it unfortunately.

Hope this helps and best of luck!

SaturnAndT

To answer your first question, I use real cassettes. And they play good, don't get me wrong, they just sound fast and warped compared to how they sound in my Walkmen...

For your second question, I do a bit of mixed driving, but I usually always end up on the highway for most of a trip. It couldn't be tire wear because I just replaced those, but I am suspicious of the breaking system, it feels very loose compared to other cars I've driven.

Thank you so much for your response! It's helped a lot.

Arsenii

Try using an AUX adapter to see if you will run into the same issues, since it doesn't rely on an actual speed of the deck. If the issue would leave, there is an issue with the deck, if not, there is something up with post-processing..

Wear is not the cause, it is more of a consequence, if tires wear excessively fast, it can indicate that the alignment is out, if it hasn't been done in a while, it may be a good idea to do so, if nothing else, at least you will make sure that none of the fasteners have a chance to seize..

Brake system being loose is never a good sign, perfect time to pay that a visit..

Hope this helps and best of luck!

BROCKES300

Have you checked the felt pad behind the tape on the cassette? 95% of the time that is the problem I have with speed. My sports Walkman has really great tape speed control, and the pad doesn't affect it's playback speed too much, so I don't really notice pad problems. However, in my 2000 ES, if that pad is loose or gone, the tape goes too fast and the sound garbles.

I generally only listen to cassettes if I can't find the album on CD. So I just cannibalize another cassette I don't care about, and use its pad if it is gone. If it is just loose a dot of E6000 will cure the problem.

Good Luck!