GS300 intermittent no-go, showing yaw/ABS codes
05-05-18, 10:14 PM
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GS300 intermittent no-go, showing yaw/ABS codes
Hello Lexus aficionados! I've been fixing my own cars for years (pre-1990 VWs and Porsches), but have never worked on a "drive by wire" car chock-full of computers, so please bear with me :-)
My wife's 2002 GS300 (106,000 miles) has developed a rare, but frustrating (and potentially dangerous), intermittent problem. Sometimes when pressing the accelerator from a standstill, nothing happens for several seconds. We almost got T-boned making a left turn at an intersection, when the car rolled forwards into the path of oncoming traffic, but then would not move. After a couple of seconds, it drove ahead, and seemed to work fine after that. Until a couple of weeks later, when it happened again. It hasn't happened for the last few weeks.
When it happened, it didn't feel to me like the engine was stuttering, but rather, that it wasn't being commanded to go at all. My guess was that the car's computer thought the wheels were spinning, or the car was skidding or something, and therefore refused to open the throttle, despite the gas pedal being pushed down. Maybe a defective sensor was sending a wrong message?
I got myself a BlueDriver bluetooth OBD2 scan tool on Amazon, and ran a scan with it. The Check Engine light and the VSC OFF light on the dashboard were both unlit. The scanner showed no trouble codes, but when I clicked on the option to scan all systems, it showed three:
C1233 Open or short circuit in yaw rate sensor circuit
C1256 Accumulator low pressure malfunction
C1223 ABS control system malfunction
Can anyone tell me what to make of this?
It looks like the yaw sensor code matches what I thought the problem might be. If the computer thinks the car is sliding, it would close the throttle. Does it mean I should replace the yaw sensor? If I do replace it, does it need the zero-point calibration that I read about in some other articles, or is it good to go as-is?
Maybe the other two codes (C1256 and C1223) are irrelevant to this no-go problem? We don't seem to have any braking problems. Just this occasional refusal to get moving from a standstill.
Many thanks for any help! Robert
P.S. I read some posts here that mentioned a "limp mode"....that if you floor the gas pedal, a mechanical connection will open the throttle partially, regardless of the opinion of the electronics. I plan to try this if the problem happens again before we manage to get it fixed.
My wife's 2002 GS300 (106,000 miles) has developed a rare, but frustrating (and potentially dangerous), intermittent problem. Sometimes when pressing the accelerator from a standstill, nothing happens for several seconds. We almost got T-boned making a left turn at an intersection, when the car rolled forwards into the path of oncoming traffic, but then would not move. After a couple of seconds, it drove ahead, and seemed to work fine after that. Until a couple of weeks later, when it happened again. It hasn't happened for the last few weeks.
When it happened, it didn't feel to me like the engine was stuttering, but rather, that it wasn't being commanded to go at all. My guess was that the car's computer thought the wheels were spinning, or the car was skidding or something, and therefore refused to open the throttle, despite the gas pedal being pushed down. Maybe a defective sensor was sending a wrong message?
I got myself a BlueDriver bluetooth OBD2 scan tool on Amazon, and ran a scan with it. The Check Engine light and the VSC OFF light on the dashboard were both unlit. The scanner showed no trouble codes, but when I clicked on the option to scan all systems, it showed three:
C1233 Open or short circuit in yaw rate sensor circuit
C1256 Accumulator low pressure malfunction
C1223 ABS control system malfunction
Can anyone tell me what to make of this?
It looks like the yaw sensor code matches what I thought the problem might be. If the computer thinks the car is sliding, it would close the throttle. Does it mean I should replace the yaw sensor? If I do replace it, does it need the zero-point calibration that I read about in some other articles, or is it good to go as-is?
Maybe the other two codes (C1256 and C1223) are irrelevant to this no-go problem? We don't seem to have any braking problems. Just this occasional refusal to get moving from a standstill.
Many thanks for any help! Robert
P.S. I read some posts here that mentioned a "limp mode"....that if you floor the gas pedal, a mechanical connection will open the throttle partially, regardless of the opinion of the electronics. I plan to try this if the problem happens again before we manage to get it fixed.
05-06-18, 11:59 AM
#2
I don't believe those C codes would cause those symptoms cause they're more connected to the traction control system. Sounds more like your Accelerator Pedal Position Sensor (APPS) may be on its way out, or less likely your TPS or Throttle Motor. Electronic problems suck because they're usually intermittent, cant test a sensor if its intermittent other than replacing and "seeing" if it solves the problem 
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