Brando

Alright here is the story. I was driving along one day and my 93 ES kinda stuttered a little, then it ran fine for about five more minutes. Next thing I knew it started shuddering and then just lost power and died. Then on the side of the road I tried to restart it and it acted like it was going to for a while and then it would not turn over any more at all. So I called a tow truck and towed it to a shop. They ran the diagnostics and said everything checked out fine. They then noticed an animal had chewed through the spark plug wires. They were going to charge $115 just to change the wires. I told them just to tow it back to my house and I would change them myself. When I got it home I noticed the wire from the distibuter cap to the ignition coil was chewed up. So I replaced all the wires and figured I might as well change the cap and rotor as they were original and I have 145k on the car.
Now the car will start but then runs really rough and dies in about two minutes. I can't keep it running for anything. When I got the car back from the shop the distributer cap was off and the wire that was chewed was disconnected. I am wonering if there could be something else they disconnected that I am not seeing. Or maybe I have a problem with the maintenance I did. What should I do???

mcelligott

replace the plugs too

Brando

I thought of that too but I just replaced them about a year ago. They should still be good. I am going to pull them tonight and have a look at them. Does anyone know how to get to the middle rear plug without taking the intake manifold off?

blue_dlb

iTrader: (3)

since your car still starts, try starting it at night time and turn off the lights. Look all around the engine and see if you see anything sparking cuzz rat may have chewed other stuff.

1993ES300x

recheck your wires.. make sure they're in the right conection on the cap.. ..

Lexbox

Dont forget rat traps.

Brando

I have rechecked the wires and they are all correct. Now I am leaning toward the fuel filter being clogged as well. I was able to start it yesterday and as long as I kept the gas pedal down and the rpms at like 3 grand it ran fine. As soon as I let off it starts sputtering and dies. It sounds like it is not getting fuel. I am going to try to change it tonight. Any advise for changing the fuel filter?

blue_dlb

iTrader: (3)

When i changed my fuel filter, I unplugged the the battery power for a long time but for some reason, when I undo the ilnes, the fuel keeps comming out. So I recommend getting a bucket because it will slowly drip out. It's easy to unscrew the lines from the filter but hard to put it back on so unscrew everything that's in the way so you can easily screw the filter back on the line. use two wretches. One to hold the filter and one to unscrew the line. I forgot what sizes they are. I'm thinking 19 and 17MM. Ohh by the way, I don't think it's your fuel pump because fuel is going through fine when you step on it. You might want to check ur timming.

thirdmotio

I had the similar problem with my 98 ES a while ago when i had the fuel filter changed at a local oil change place and they screwed something up.. The engine would start and few seconds later it would shut off with a shudder. but when i step on the gas the engine would stay on. I ended up taking car to Lexus repair shop and they changed the filter to OEM and got it fixed...
Good luck..

Brando

Well I tried to change the fuel filter the other day and the top bolt came off fine. The bottom bolt refused to budge. I am going to try to use some kind of lubricant to help break it free. It is a pain to get to! I will update you all when I get farther along.

1993ES300x

yeh. the top was easy to take off. but the bottom bolt was hard as hell. i was trying to turn it and i kinda bended the gas line a little.. scared the crap outta me. so i went to a local auto shop and have them do it for 20bucks(just labor).. that freaking haynes repair manula sucks ***. they make it sound so easy.

Brando

Well I finally got around to working on the ES. This is what happened. I replaced the cap and rotor. When I took the rotor off I noticed it was cracked in two places and had a burn spot on it where the plastic melted. I think this is what caused the initial problem when the car died. The wire going from the distributer to the ignition coil was chewed on but not through the wire so I think the auto shop was yanking me on that one. I replaced all the wires anyway. I also cleaned the throttle body and noticed that the shop had cracked the intake snorkel where it attaches to the throttle body so I think it was getting a vaccum leak there that was causing the problem with the idle. So I duck taped it for now until I can get another one. I then replaced the fuel filter just because I was already doing so much I figured I might as well. It took me and my dad to get it off. What a pain! Anyway, now the car runs better than when I first bought it! I will never go back to that auto shop ever again! What a rip off! Anyone know where to get the intake snorkel cheap???

Pheonix

Actually, I wuoldn't diss the autoshop.

More than likely the rubber intake hose was split on it's on long ago. (they wear out very quickly).
And $115 for new plugs is not a bad deal at all. Considering OEM wires are over $100, as long as they didn't buy the cheapest crap they could, it was a good deal you passed up.

Glad it's running again!