Alvin77

My ES300 has recently been having some problems. At first I thought it was the transmission because of the way it was acting but now I'm starting to think its the Fuel Injection.

When accelerating away from a stop the car would seem like it wants to shift into 2nd gear, but would hesistate to get there. I'd have to let off the gas and very slowly approach 2nd gear to get it to shift up. This was when the tank was nearly empty, I had maybe 10 miles left in it. Every time I would accelerate it felt like I was letting off the gas for 1/2 a second maybe then stepping back on it.

So I went and filled the tank back up and the problem stopped. Because of this I began to think it was fuel injection and there wasn't enough pressure from a near empty tank to keep it moving properly. I bought a bottle of that STP Fuel Injector cleaner and put it in and the problem still hasn't resurfaced. I'm at about 3/4 of a tank now.


Is this the same "transmission hesistation" that everyone talks about on the ES, or is it really the fuel injection? Do I need to do anything other than put that fuel injection stuff in it maybe the next 2 or 3 times I fill up? Anything else I can do to further diagnose the problem to figure out for sure exactly what it is?

Lexmex

Alvin,

Probably pull your negative battery cable and let your car adjust to your driving habits for a while. I do this with my RX and eventually it gets to where I want it when I accelerate.

I know what you are referring to about gas pressure and having a low tank. For ages...unless on long trips... I keep my tank between 1/2 to 1/4 full...because I race 1/4 mile and bracket races on the weekend and do not need a heavy SUV. Sometimes...the car gives me some punch or boost and sometimes it does absolutely nothing on the accelerator.

The funny thing is that the difference in the 1/4 mile when I have these issues is only about .2 difference on the virtually the same level of gas.