Poizun

So i recently woke up one morning and got into my car and it made a louder noise starting up. Then once i reached the end of the street the car seemed to be running a good bit rougher then it usually would. I got on the highway and my check engine light started to blink.

I recently scanned the codes and it came back as

Multiple Misfires Detected
Cylinder 1 Misfire
Cylinder 2 Misfire
Cylinder 3 Misfire
EGR Flow Excessive

I went to the junkyard today and was fortunate enough to find and pull 3 coil packs for like 25 bucks. I changed them, and it still gives me the same exact codes. I changed the spark plugs first before anything, and It didn't make a difference either.

Anybody got any information that may be helpful? It would be greatly appreciated! Hope everyone is having a great holiday season!

P

KLF

Sounds similar to what happened when my front O2 sensor burned out in my '98. Easy fix.

BoostedE21

A stock narrow-band oxygen sensor shouldn't have the reach to alter the AFM enough to cause that much kicking and screaming - go back to the junk yard and grab a few spare O2 sensors, though, and see if that does the trick.

KLF

BTW, according to the FSM, if the MIL is blinking, that's how the car tells you to STOP DRIVING IT ASAP. You will risk damaging expensive parts, the first will be the cat converter(s).

When my sensor died, it first turned the MIL on, but as I was approaching home, it started blinking. By the time I got it into the garage, I could smell the cat converter cooking away.

If you keep driving, and the injectors are dumping unburned fuel into the cylinders, this will wash the oil off the rings and burn them out, potentially scoring the cylinders.

BoostedE21

Only if the AFR stays at or below 10.0:1 for a decent amount of time - I thought there was a fail safe built in to the ECU to prevent that.

Poizun

I just recently changed the 02 sensors not even 6 months ago. I had my uncle who is a mechanic for a living change them. He lives out of state so I only see him every so often and he doesn't really work on imports. I would have just called him.

So a 02 sensor can make my car drive that rough and cause 3 cylinders to misfire?

I rarely drive it. and if so, its only to the store and back, which is roughly 1 mile. The check engine light won't be on when i first start the car or start to drive, only every so often once i'm driving and it goes off and on.

I'm really stuck trying to figure out what could possibly be wrong. If anyone has some experience with this issue, or has some tips, please help! lol

Thanks to everyone that stopped in the thread. Appreciate it!

P

KLF

They did add that failsafe to the ECU at some point, but I don't know when. I guess I was making more of a potential blanket statement as an example, not sure if it's happening in this case.

It did on mine. It happened very suddenly. Car was fine on the drive in that morning, then I ran an errand at noon, and the MIL popped on, and I could tell it wasn't happy, it didn't feel right. On the way home that night it got progressively worse (8 mile trip), by the time I got home the car would hardly run. I don't remember the codes I got from my reader though, it was several months ago.

My '98 was actually a CA-spec car (no idea what it was doing in New England), so it didn't actually have O2 sensors, it had A/F Ratio sensors, which meant the things cost $200+. I believe all the ES's went to 50-state emissions in '99. I did a bunch of reading on the web that night, and everything pointed to the sensor being bad. The next day I took the wife's car up to the Toyota dealer with the correct part number in hand, and bought the front sensor. The parts guy and a tech standing there confirmed my diagnosis as soon as I started describing it, apparently it is a common thing. Swapped it out, cleared the code, no problems since.

The "louder noise" thing now has me wondering though. Have you tried to locate the source of the noise?

Poizun

Its not an actual sound, its just how the overall way the car is running, like the engine runs rougher and louder. I'm gonna check on the 02 sensor this weekend, see if that solves anything. If anybody happens to know a actual Lexus tech or can refer me to someone I could call and get some knowledge from that would be greatly appreciated. I just don't want anyone telling me some crazy stuff when its not even related to it and have me paying money for unecessary stuff.

KLF i really appreciate you stepping in and taking the time...

P

geckoguy

I have the same issue on my 2000 es300. Misfire 1,2 and 3. Bank 2 cat was plugged so I hollowed it out. Bank 1 cat was already hollow and pushed back to the small third cat where I cleared out all the debris. Changed out plugs, coil packs and even injectors and still have the same misfire. Also changed vvt oil solenoids and o2 sensors. Car was running really smooth (prior to changing parts) until operating temperature where the bank 2 cat heated up and restricted air flow. After hollowing out the cats I now have these misfires that won’t go away. I’ve already moved around the plugs, coils and injectors hoping the misfire would also move. But no. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Arsenii

Hello,

This thread is 14 years old by now, none of those users are around anymore, so it may be helpful to start a new one.

Either way, here is a thread that describes some ... shortcomings of the shotgun approach replacing all the parts within reach that you took, if you still have old Original parts, my suggestion would be to swap all of them back in to start with a clean slate.

Hope this helps and best of luck!