Shinobiend

iTrader: (2)

It hasn't ever happened to me since I've bought the car. The car has 40k miles and right after I filled up with 93octan gas, this happened while I was turning at an intersection. I did a search and so far I've been seeing the Throttle position sensor being the culprit. Has anyone else experienced this and if so how was it fixed? The only symptom is that the car has a slight vibration in drive while stopped. Prior to the car stalling it felt like there was some bogging. After the car stalled I was able to immediately restart the car. It happened a second time a few minutes later but didn't happen again the rest of the day.

I will start with the MAF sensor and Throttle body clean since its the easiest and cheapest to do.

Thanks in advance

sleeper408

iTrader: (6)

I think you're on the right track. That has happened to me before on a few occasions as well. One time it happened while idling at the light. I noticed that vibration you were mentioning and right when I look at the tachometer, the rpms dropped all the way to 0 and the car died. Another occasion was when I was driving through an intersection and as soon as I left off the gas from accelerating at about 35mph, the rpms dropped all the way down and the car died. It freaked me out because I had lost all power controls (brake booster, power steering, etc.). The car was coasting while dead, then I quickly popped it in nuetral, then started the car up, then put it back in D.

So after these 2 experiences, it prompted me to clean my throttle body and MAF. I did, and the symptoms did not return for a while. My car has died here and there in the past 2 years. I think cleaning of the MAF and throttle body helped as a bandaid, but I think that the TPS might be the culprit also.

RLGS300

are the rpms really low when the car vibrates?

Shinobiend

iTrader: (2)

Yea the car vibrates at about 600 rpm. Since the car idles at a higher rpm while the car is in park, there is no vibration there.

ShadowGS4

This is "normal" as far as Lexus is concerned. The car idles very low when you don't have the Climate Control / AC on. You can alleviate the problem by cleaning the MAF and Throttle Body, but it will eventually come back.

One way to counter this problem if you don't want to ride around with the A/C going all the time is to leave your headlights on. For some reason it provides enough draw on the system to keep it from happening. Many people have posted before of similar experiences such as yours as well as it dying at a stop sign / stop light. I read one guy adjusted the length of the throttle cable to keep the revs higher at idle, but I don't think this was a popular fix for most. I haven't read of anyone having a definitive fix yet.

I think the Throttle Position Sensor dealt more with the GS430's as they have a drive-by-wire system instead of a direct connection via throttle cable. Anyone feel free to chime in if I missed something or got something incorrect though.

JiBBeL

iTrader: (2)

Nah, it affected all models 98+. Anyway, the true fix for the low idle vibration is simply new engine mounts.

Shinobiend

iTrader: (2)

Thats great information to know, HEADS ARE NOW GOING ON 24/7