After driving for 5 hours with 275 miles my 98 GS300 lost power and the engine stalled and finally went silent. All the warning lights in my dash board lit. Initially i thought i ran out of gasoline althought my guage said i still have 1/4 tank full. I had the car towed to a gasoline station and filled it up with 11.5 gallons to full tank. I concluded that i still had a lot of gasoline left when my engine stalled. I started the engine and of all surprises, it started and everything went fine except for the engine light that remained lit. Decided to bring the car to a mechanic the following day to inspect the engine check light; which went off on my way to the mechanic that morning. Anyway, the mechanic said it did not show on the history that my engine had a problem and that it was as good as if my car did not stall at all!!! My questions?
-Had anyone encountered similar problem?
-Are there any possible problem that i missed?
-If it happened again, how do i solve the issue at the spot without the car being towed.

Would appreciate any feedback. Thanks.

 

This very same issue happened to me 3 days ago. After driving for 3 and a half hours, I was going 80 mph and then my engine just shut off. I had it towed to a local goodyear where they ran diagnostics and hooked it up to the computer. End result, they haven't found anything wrong with the car. They have started it up 3 times and driven it around with no problem. The only thing that came to mind would have been the fuel pump, but that was checked and was in good condition. I'm going to pick my car up on my way back to school and I'm just hoping it doesn't happen again on the way home

 

wow that some weird stuff...

 

Ive been dealing with this issue for the past four years. I have probably ran out of gas five or six times since I had the car. My issue is the same whenever my car gets a little below 1/4 it will shut down when there is still about four or five gallons in the tank. Please keep me informed if you figure this out.

 

sounds like fuel problem. check for fuel pressure and volume under load. make sure it's within specs.

 

Your fuel sender units behind your rear seats are going to give out soon. This is the tell tale sign.

 

I had this same issue with my GS4 back in April....had been driving for 4 hours at 75-80 and it just quit. Had it towed to a Lexus dealership in Lexington KY. The next morning they said it started up fine. They said the fuel pressure was low though, so they replaced fuel pump, pressure regulator, fuel filter, and screen. I think the fuel pump failed myself after running at high demand for 4 hours plus, but they covered all the bases. They actually gave me a loaner RX350 to drive to Dayton OH where I live until they got it fixed. Gotta love the Lexus perks.

 

Thanks for your feedbacks. guys. My co-worker mentioned about the gasoline cap not being thightened properly after tank fill-up. This causes tank pressure issue or sometime gas emission issue; which would be corrected once the cap is tightened. In addition to this, i intend to replace my fuel filterand hopefully correct my problem.

 

Seems like if that was the case it would throw a check engine code though. If you do long trips with your car, which seems to be the common circumstance when this issue happens, I would replace the fuel pump. I havent had any issues with mine since I replaced it, and if nothing else have peace of mind that I know that part won't fail anytime soon. My car had 203k when it failed, how many miles does yours have on it?

 

Mine is approaching 120K. If my fuel filter is clean, i might have issue with the fuel pump which i would have to replace. Otherwise, would stick to original plan. By the way... my maintenance manual says timing belt replacement is at 120K; but on another thread i read that it should be done at 90k. Since we have same model, what did you do?

 

I'm second owner of car, original owner had it done at around 90k, I had it replaced around 185k. I would definitely get it done, I've read some stories on here where guys timing belts went bad, and engine was basically shot. I'm surprised manual says 120k, seems like I've always heard 90k.

 

this is voodoo magic!

 

I have had the same problem and the result was actually that the siphon system was not working. In my case, as well as the other cases that I have seen personally, the siphon was not pulling gas from the other side of the tank. That would be the reason that a lot of you seem to be "shutting" down at around a quarter tank.

You should have it looked at. As far as any other reason, I cannot think. especially since the first post illustrated that the car only needed 11.5 gallons to fill to full tank. The stock tank takes about 15-16 gallons to fill from empty.

This is the item I'm describing. Setup is integrated in the stock fuel system in the tank. You see it separated here because I have modified my fuel system for my engine needs.

Here is the part (23020A) as it is illustrated by Sewell parts. (I am in no way affiliated with Sewell in case some may wonder)

 

Can you explain why in my case and other cases I have read on here that it failed after driving for long periods of time, and not any other time when the tank got down to 1/4 of a tank? To me it made sense that the pump probably had a heat related failure after running at high volume for an extended period. I work in the medical electronics field and see components that wouldn't work when they got hot, but then work after they cool down.

 

The fuel in the tank is what keeps the pumps cool. if you run the tank down and you are not submerging the fuel pump, the pump will get hot. So it may be due to the lack of cooling effect.

The stock fuel system is a "dead head" setup in that there is no return line. If there were, fuel would heat up more since the fuel is going to the engine bay and then unused fuel returning to the tank is warmed up.

I was merely pointing to the problems that "Trouble-T" and "owel" were having. I should have been more specific in my post.

While I agree with you that the fuel pump may overheat and cause a problem, my experience has not been with a faulty fuel pump. I am just stating what I have seen and what I have done that fixed the problem.