What you are about to read is happening on an 01 IS300
So yesterday i changed my sparkplugs and realized how dirty my engin was so i decide to clean it. This is something i would do like twice a month on my civic i used to have. So i take it down to the car wash and cover my air filter and then spray it down. i take it home and dry off my car and clean out the interior. Now with my civic i would let it run for about 15 20 min after i got done cleaning it, but it had been so long sense i had cleaned an engin that i didnt do that i turned it of and left it for about an hour. So i go to drive it and it wont idle right the whole car is shaking then my check engin light starts to flash and my traction contol light starts to flash as well. I was thinking maybe it just needs to dry so i just let it idle for a while and drove it some then this morning it was still the same way so i put the hood up to see if the sun would help on drying it. then i was driving it this afternoon coming up a big hill the engin clunked like three times. The engin only shakes at low rpms when its above 3000 it runs smooth and has power but anything lower than that it shakes and sputters and has a deffinet power loss. Does any one have any ideas on what might have happened or how i could fix it?

 

more than likly u cracked a spark plug

 

once your check engine light comes on, you will need to somehow reset it for ithe car to run back to normal anyway. if you can scan it, it might help you to figure out where/what you got wet. for example, on my subaru, the gear oil fills from the engine bay. if i make a mess when i fill it up and don't clean it, the gear oil will get to the o2 sensor right next to the transmission fluid fill hole and i'll have a check engine light for o2 sensors, until i clean it off.

if you didn't use too much water pressure, it should be fine once everything's dried up. i'd open up all the plastic covers, especially the computer cover and nearby harnesses and dry it for a day or so.

 

On the RX300s and I am pretty sure across some other Lexus models, we pull the EFI fuse (key out of the ignition) in the fusebox in the engine bay for about 10 seconds and that should reset it though pulling the negative battery cable can also do this but you lose settings.

I wash my engine compartment out several times a month and I always put plastic bags on the battery and the fuse box. My RX just comes alive after that with all of the road crap out of it.

 

So in the end i decided the washing wasnt the reason for my engin problems it felt like it was miss fireing so i decided to check my plugs and i got talking to this guy and he suggested on cleaning my plug wires so i did that, because they had some oil residue on them so i did it and the problem cleard right up i just hope it stays that way!! ill tell you what, that is a big weight off my shoulders!!

 

yes u can do that on the older cars but on the is250,350, 06 gs....in the manual it says pulling the efi fuse will not reset the ecu