vfgermann

Any thoughts or assistance would be appreciated!

1999 Lexus ES300

Original issue: car stalled out at a stoplight after driving for about 8 blocks and would not restart. Had it towed to a nearby local shop. First they told me that I needed a new crank sensor. I told them to go ahead with that and then heard nothing from them for almost 2 weeks after repeated calls from me. The manager finally spoke with me and they told me the timing chain broke and the engine seized.

I had a hard time believing this as the ES300 is a non interference engine and had a timing belt not chain. They told me maybe I could sell it to a junk yard. I get the car towed back to my house and my neighbor, who is a retired mechanic, offers to look at it with me.

The timing belt is not broken. The engine is not seized. They did not replace the crank sensor (but charged me for it!)

Actual Issue: We are able to get the car to crank but then it immediately stalls out and the spark plugs get flooded with fuel. It appears that the issue is that there is no compression. But why?

Any advice or someone who has had a similar issue? My neighbor, who is being kind enough to help me, has really only worked on Chevy’s so he has asked me to further research the problem so that we can figure out if this is something that might be common with a Lexus. This forum appears to be very helpful from the many threads I have read in trying to diagnose my issue!

LeX2K

How many miles? The timing belt may be shot and the cams are not timed anymore. Or it could be a bad crank sensor or some other issue. I'd pull the upper timing belt cover and have a look. Do you have a code reader? If so check for any codes, don't disconnect the battery until you check for codes.

vfgermann

Thanks for your response! The car has about 113,000 miles. My brother gave it to me the beginning of June as he was moving across the country but loved the car too much to sell it. He had the transmission rebuilt about 2-3 years ago and hasn't had any issues with it since.

I do have a code reader and checked the codes but was disappointed to find that none were coming up.

While we did confirm that the timing belt wasn't broken, I'll go back in and check the threads as you made a good point that it could be shot and causing the issues.

Thank you!

daredeil95

definitely check TB condition and check for belt tension. if all that checks out, compression check using a gauge will definitely help, I know in the past I had a car that would start and shut off within a second and it turned out to be clogged catalytic converter. I had friends car do the same thing and it turned out to be the key cylinder so, definitely a pesky problem without codes although a faulty fuel pump may not show up on the dtc list and you could buy a cheap gauge and hook it up to the schrader valve on the fuel rail. it's all about gas, air & spark.....Good luck and update when you find out what it is?.

vfgermann

Thank you Daredeil95! I didn't think of checking for a clogged catalytic converter.

Will definitely post the outcome on here as that is the best part of these treads!

wmj259

How one go about checking for a clogged catalytic converter?

Richardsr

daredeil95