KIS350

Soooooo I find myself on the wrong side of forum posts now..

Problem:
Long story short...a few weeks back my IS350 died close to home, in town, after gently accelerating from a light and after an hour drive on the hwy. I was able to vear off onto a side road and pull off safely to the side. Then it wouldnt start...sounded like the starter was labouring to turn over the engine.

Diagnosing:
Originally thinking VVT recall, or worse; timing chain,I took the top end of my engine apart and it's all good. All mechanical aspects of the engine are working properly. During troubleshooting and looking at the starter and everything (even tho the starter wouldn't cause an engine to stall) I found the battery was cooked. It seamed strange that it worked and then just stoped. It still powered the lights and everything...even though it wouldn't give enough power to the starter. Anyway, car turns over easy now with a new battery. While I ad the engine apart I put in brand new spark plugs. New battery in, it turned over great and started with a little persistance. It ran for a minute and died. Now it won't startagain....turns over but won't start.

Sooooo....I'm left with two things...spark or fuel.
I'm half way through anew tank of gas. And I have new plugs. Assumption now being cold or plugged fuel filter...

My question:
How does the ignition button work in this? I've read there are some issues with them over time. I have some knowledge with what I'm going through here, but there are electrical aspects that I know nothing about. Such as the way the ignition works in these. Also could cam or crank sensors call a stop to the ignition firing? Any other sensors. OBDII gave me several readings. But I originally was thinking it was because of battery short. And it did start and run for a minute before dying again.

Sorry for the long post...any insight will be greatly appreciated....I'm exhausted from going through this rocket ship in the freezing cold. A drink and some reading is required now.

tcr101

iTrader: (2)

I would check your alternator.. if a new battery solved it, its probably drained from running the engine.

KIS350

Okay...it's actually one thing I never checked because the alternator went 4 months ago and was replaced...the battery I didn't even think twice about because it's the original battery. Still....it's either not sparking or not getting fuel...unless the circuitry involved with the alternator effects spark...

Another thing that was funny is the battery read 12.7 volts on its own. Got the same reading on the starter terminals. I don't know that much about batteries but I do know it's pretty close to 100% discharge at that reading...weird. I was also thinking maybe a mouse got no the wires somewhere but I haven't yet been able to locate anything visually.

I think there seams to be more than one issue occurring. Perhaps an ECU failure??

Thanks for the reply. I'll check the alternator in morning.