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99 ES300 shake shake knock knock after P0303 fixed?
Dad tells me his 99 ES300 is having an earthquake no CEL. So I connect a scanner and was able to pull a p0303 code. I assumed its the coil, so I replace it, and all seems fine in the driveway. He takes it out for a spin and all seems okay for the first mile, then going uphill it suddenly starts to sputter; not as severe as the earthquake before, but more like slight knock knock hesitation.
You can feel it when driving, it seems okay for a bit then a stutter stutter, okay then a stutter stutter, its consistent. So I decided to replace the spark plug as well, but still the same. This time no code on the scanner
What's the mileage on the car?
Did you get a P0300 code together with P0303?
Was any work done to the car before the issue?
What coil did you use as a replacement, OEM or aftermarket?
Doe the car behave the same when hot as when cold?
Is the car running fine while driving?
Not a whole lot of information go from. The fact that the code was erased and it didn't come back right away doesn't always mean that the issue is resolved unfortunately.. Try going for a ride while checking Engine Live Parameters, see if you can spot something out of the ordinary. That car should have a misfire count, pay close attention to that, as well as to ignition timing and fuel trims. You can also try checking for damage in the wiring coming to the coil, looking at the connector, Pins 1 and 4 are constant 12V and Ground, Pin 2 is only powered when the ignition is in the ON position, Pin 3 is used to switch the Ground on and off to trigger the coil.
right before the issue, we had an an oil change and smog check. during the smog check they stuck a rod into the tailpipe.
a few years ago we had P0301 then a few months after that P0302, both times the car shook violently like an earthquake; both times we used aftermarket coils and it fixed the issue.
the slight cough cough by the engine happens while driving and in idle. its a feeling of a consistent wave wave of lull power, you almost feel a knock knock from the drivers seat.
You can also try to pull all the coils you can have easy access to and look for cracks in the plastic body and carbon tracking on the rubber tip and loose connectors, could also be weak spark.
The P0303 is a cylinder #3 misfire as you know but from my experience these generic misfire codes can sometimes point to the wrong cylinder in some cases and can be caused by problems other than coils.
Can also be other things but hoping for you it's an easy coil fix.
right before the issue, we had an an oil change and smog check. during the smog check they stuck a rod into the tailpipe.
a few years ago we had P0301 then a few months after that P0302, both times the car shook violently like an earthquake; both times we used aftermarket coils and it fixed the issue.
the slight cough cough by the engine happens while driving and in idle. its a feeling of a consistent wave wave of lull power, you almost feel a knock knock from the drivers seat.
Did you replace the second coil on the back of an engine?
The fact that you only had one code may indicate that the third cylinder is the only one having issues. Try swapping your new coil with the other one and see if the code would shift to the other cylinder, if so, then you got a defective coil, if not, proceed with my previous post.
Aftermarket coils can vary from being passable to defective right out of the box, depending on the manufacturer. If it were me, I would much rather find a low mileage, used OEM coil for a similar price than an aftermarket, since there is a higher chance I can trust it.
Watched some Youtube vids of a person with codes P0301 and P0302 on a 1996 ES300, and both times it was a bad fuel injector.
Could this be my issue? Replacing coil #3 did address the violent shakes for a mile. Now the shake is less violent.
Does a bad fuel injector have a specific code of its own?
Unfortunately, leaky injector won't have any codes of their own, the only codes you will get for those are for a circuit malfunction. That said, one of the symptoms of a leaky injector is a hard start after the car was sitting overnight, and depending on a severity, fuel in the oil. Considering that the car has noticeable issues running, the leak would be pretty severe, so the symptoms would increase accordingly.
Other than leaking, injectors may also get clogged overtime, especially if the car was sitting for a while, causing injectors to drip fuel instead of creating mist, though the only way to check them for sure is to take them out and check the spray pattern, which can get quite tricky on those engines. What you can try is running some fuel system cleaner to see if it will help; there is also a bit of a brutal way to clean the injectors and the combustion chamber by running the car on straight cleaner using a makeshift fuel tank and an air compressor. Some say it is quite effective, but I didn't dare trying it on my car when I was cleaning my injectors.
I think you were on the right track with the coils as previous poster mentioned how to swap them, etc.
You've already had a couple fail, just my opinion.
I had a mech replace the #3 Fuel Injector and it seems to have fixed the problem. The mech mentioned that the faulty fuel injector was dry, so he knew it was bad.
When I got home however, I used a multi-meter to probe the bad injector (thinking I would get no reading), but to my surprise it read 15v which is good.
Injectors are ground side switched so you will always find voltage at the injector connector. It's rare to see a Denso injector go bad. What does your meter say when you test right at the battery? 15 volts is too high.
Or do you mean 15 ohms. An injector can test good for resistance but still not work.
10-02-21, 11:10 PM
99 ES300 shake shake knock knock after P0303 fixed?
