Threxx

My GS400 has always been babied as much as possible. I'm a very slow driver (relative to you guys at least), use strictly Mobil 1 oil, OEM filters, etc.

It had the full recomended service at 35,000 miles from our local dealership, and I've maintained it since then replacing the oil several times, trans fluid once, and air filter once.

Anyhow... I hadn't driven my car in 4 or so days straight due to all my family being in town for Thanksgiving and just riding along with everyone else.

Well when I went to start my car this morning it was pretty cold out (for TN). By far the coldest it has been this year so far. But certainly not even close to the coldest temps this car has seen while I've owned it. (I'd guess it was around 35-40 degrees out)

Anyhow... as soon as I started it it sounded sluggish to crank. Immediately I thought it might be the battery and let go. I tried again and again it sounded slow to start but this time it started.

But it sounded like a darn 1974 Cadillac that's about to die. Choked, sputtering, loud, and the RPM was not right either (don't recall if it was high or low as I was too taken aback by the situation). Immediately I freaked and shut it off and went to check my oil to make sure it wasn't all drained out or something crazy. Nope.. still there. Then I went to start it again and got out and noticed the garage was definitely filled with quite a bit more smoke and exhaust fumes than usual, and the engine was LOUD. It sounded similar to a diesal motor in a truck. Very 'rough', and with a loud ticking sound that almost sounded like a belt or something.

So I said screw it... and just decided to drive and see what happened. It sounded like a total POS driving out of my neighborhood, but after about a mile of driving, the noise started to go away. After maybe 5 minutes or 2 miles of driving it was gone entirely as far as I could tell. Once I got to my fiancee's house, I shut it down and started it back up immediately and it made no noise or no hesitation. We went to a bball game tonight, and by the time I got back to my car it was cold (or at least the engine temp guage was all the way down... I'm sure it still wasn't as cold as it would was after sitting in my garage for 4 days straight like it was earlier that day when I started it up the first time). But anyhow... it acted perfectly normal.

So I'm hoping that there's a simple explanation to this such as bad gas, or carbon buildup somewhere in my fuel system caused by leaving my car shut down for 4 days straight. But even that second explanation has me worried because I've left plenty of other vehicles of mine for quite a bit longer than that with not a single hesitation upon startup.

So I'm not going to be driving my car again until tomorrow morning hopefully... I'll report back to you guys to let you know if it does it again.

Threxx

Oh I should also mentioned that I did not notice any sort of check engine light... or any other warning lights.

bitkahuna

iTrader: (20)

Could be some moisture in the gas. Could be bad plugs not liking the cold? I'm just guessing (obviously!).

JBrady

Could be moisture in the gas causing an injector to stick. Once warmed up and the injector freed up all was back to normal. Probably a tough thing to diagnose now that it is working properly again. You may want to run a can of dry-gas through the system to absorb any moisture. Buy gas only from reputable stations (not a guarantee but improves your odds).

dsouth

iTrader: (4)

Had almost the same thing happen to me after having the car sit for a couple of days. But my engine shook like you said an old Caddy. it seems to not want to do that VROOM start after it sits for a while. Anybody know what it is???

bmgs400

Sounds like bad gas to me. Make sure you're buying "top-shelf" gas and at least 91 octane. I have a friend that drives gas trucks and he says there's a difference between 91 octane at "maNpa" gas station and Mobile. When it's below freezing is when you'll notice the diffence during startup. It you plan on not driving for a long period of time, add gas stabalizer before you leave town.

tmf2004

iTrader: (15)

My car does this to after sitting for a few days.... It starts up fine but just idles high for a few minutes and then comes down.. I don't experience any other problems like sputtering, hesitation etc....... What can i say i have a garage queen and proud of it

Tony

Threxx

LOL... a full year later I'm getting answers.

I only use top tier 93 octane fuels (Chevron, Shell, and Amoco only), fwiw.

And also fwiw it never since occured again...

Ronsully

You got the BAD GAS... Next time take a few tums and go to bed.

Billydog

I'm a worry wart too!


My 01 430 had been driving a bit strange lately...hesitating....not really feeling all that "good".

So I'm on the HWY going about 75 and I hear a loud "Boom"....like a backfire. I first thought I may have a blow out...so I pull over and everything is cool.

But the rest of that week on that tank of gas (it was 93 from BP by the way) the car felt lazy. I even took traction control off and hammered if from a stop in the cool 40 degree Chicago weather...and it couldn't break em loose!


I dropped in some Seafoam cleaner in the tank and when I was down to 1/4 I topped it off with some fresh Shell.

Now it will burn the tires quite well...and feels better. BUT....now I seem to be noticing some pinging (detonation) under part throttle acceleration.

I disconnected the ECU for about 10 minutes and drove around again and it "seemed" to help. I just hope I didn't clog an injector or something!


Is it worthwhile have the injectors professionally cleaned with 61k on the clock? I only use premium fuel and throw in injector cleaner every 3-4 months.

How much would a Lexus dealer charge for that?


thanks guys!

viggen

Here's another one... I had exactly the same symptoms 2 days ago: Uneven idle, copious smoke (but it didn't smell like oil smoke), along with a very scary sounding knocking noise. My first thought was that something had gone horribly wrong with the variable valve timing, leading to one or more bent valves. (Question for you hard-core nuts-and-bolts guys: Is this an interference type engine?)
I shut it down immediately, then I cursed, then I felt an immediate and intense pain in my wallet, 'cause I thought this could be EXPENSIVE.
After a minute or two, I thought "what the heck?" and tried it again. It acted exactly like it was flooded, so I resorted to the tried-and-true method of starting a flooded car: gas pedal to the floor (2nd question for you smart guys: does this do anything on a throttle-by-wire system?) and keep on cranking. The thing finally started, ran like crap and smoked like crazy for a few seconds, then settled down and seemed pretty normal.
When I finally get some time, I think I'll pull the plugs and take a close look at them (should've done that when it first happened), and reset the ECU. Any other thoughts?

Threxx

The 1UZ-FE is not an interferance motor though that usually wouldn't matter much unless your timing belt was screwed up or something.

Also, I don't think that hitting the gas pedal while the car is off does anything on any fuel injected car as far as fuel flow goes. It will open the intake butterfly valve on a typical car, but with drive by wire I'm not so sure.

Oddly enough I think when I've cleaned out my intake I tried hitting the gas pedal and the intake valve opened up slightly but nothing like it would on a normal car (I'm surprised as to why it did at all?), but I had to do it manually by just pushing it open and using something to hold it open while I sprayed intake cleaner in there.

PhantomZX

Could be a stuck EGR valve as well.

viggen

Correct
That is what I wanted to do. I'll have to check and see what happens when you put the pedal to the floor while starting the engine. (I know what happens when you do that at a stoplight )
Hadn't thought of that ...good thought. I'll check that as well. Thanks.

Threxx

OK update to this... here it is almost at the 2 year anniversary to this thread. I've sold the car to my best friend, it is approaching 90k miles now. It had not done this once since my initial post and he called me freaking out describing almost exactly what happened to me in the initial post.

He only uses BP and Shell gasoline, 93 octane. It was kinda cold yesterday when it happened, but nowhere NEAR below freezing and nowhere near the coldest day we've seen so far this fall.

He claims he heard a proclaimed ticking noise, much like I did, but it sounded more like a valve to him or at least like it was coming from that area.

Hmmmm... any ideas on this or additional experiences from our members? Better yet, any Lexus dealer/tech diagnosis of the issue?

It seems like the starter on this car is going out, too. Could that have anything to do with it? I doubt it. And the starter hasn't ever shown a sign of a problem until about 3 weeks ago... so 2 years ago when the issue first happened to me the starter was probably fine.

I'm getting *very* disappointed in Lexus reliability here recently. I guess "fortunately" it happened after I sold it, but it's happening to my best friend because I sold the car to him thinking he'd get many years of trouble free enjoyment out of it. I mean I gave him a damn good price on it but even then I still bad what he's going through kinda because of me (though of course it was his choice to buy it and it was seemingly in great shape when I sold it)