Jakex1

Posting this up for my mom, shes told me that once in a while her '99 rx300 awd will just shut off. Once when i drove this to flushing, i turned on the ignition, and was backing up in the middle of the backing process the engine shut down on me. I had to restart the engine again. It has 130k miles on it, and I know people who have 150k+ around these forums who dont have any problems. So help anyone?

Lexmex

How did it shut off, abruptly, or did it chug and then die?

Jakex1

it just shut off, not noises i didnt even notice it shut off till i pressed the gas to go and it wouldnt. I thought i had the ebrake down or something.

Lexmex

I would take a look at two things immediately:

1) Condition of tranny fluid (should be red and sweet on the dipstick). Not to scare you, but when I hear of an abrupt shut off, I think tranny having had my uncle have clients who have experienced such an issue just prior to a tranny failure in a variety of vehicles.

2) MAF filter (see sticky in thread about gas mileage at the top of this forum when it is dirty). Going in reverse doesn't get the same air flow as going forward, and a dirty enough MAF sensor can trigger this.

IACV valve being dirty along with a dirty air filter are also a remote possibilities.

I am sure that there is an OBDII code in that engine, since when it shuts off like that there should at the very minimum be a P0171 error.

Jakex1

thanks for your help ill check it out

chinkster

this is the same problem my mom's rx300 has. turns on the car, shifts tranny to reverse or drive and the thing just dies out silently. i took it to putnam lexus today (actually using their computer to post this) and they said it wasn't covered under the GOLD PACKAGE my father purchased when he bought the car here. so i asked the guy "so my dad paid $2000+ in advance for a couple of oil changes?" YOU'VE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME! what a rip off!

RX300Gary

This sounds like the IACV problem. We had it a couple years ago (at around 60k). The car just wouldn't idle.. but you could keep it going by keeping your foot on the gas pedal. I found a good write up on the net somewhere.. took about 20minutes after I found that to pull it and WD40 lube it. It hasn't come back since (now at 80K).
Gary

ek9vboi

iTrader: (3)

I also believe it is the IACV, it is a mechanical part that just needs to be cleaned. Do a search, there is a GREAT write up on it.

It happened to my father's rx300. All I did was take it apart and the butterfly like part was really sticky. I took some carb cleaner or brake cleaner will even work. Just work at it and clean it off. Save yourself $600+ from the dealer. We thought it needed a tune up... waste of $1k+.