miss_cebu

Hello all,
My RX300 has 89k miles. I love the car but I'm very frustrated with the pick up. I took it to the mechanic. He replaced 6 spark plugs, 2 coils, plenum gasket, did Air/Fuel induction clean. Still the same. Could this be a sign that the tranny is about to go? Any ideas how can I improve the performance of this car?
Thank you very much!

RX469

iTrader: (1)

How did he clean the Air/Fuel system?

miss_cebu

BG products. One of them is BG 44k and 2 other BG cleaning stuff. I ask to check if MAF sensor is dirty and he said it's clean.

thomas1

Is your transmission actually slipping ie the rpm jump? The other thought is your engine has sludge. Did your mechanic pull a valve cover and look....What year is your car. The warranty for engine sludge is 8 years and 120 days...

Lexmex

Welcome to the Club?

Do you have a check engine light on the dash or did you before?

Describe what happens at a light when you accelerate.

miss_cebu

Thomas1.......I'm not sure about the sludge. I read about it in the forums and thought it has been taken care of because of the recall (I bought this car in 06 with 64K). I will have to ask the mechanic to check.

lexmex....Thank you.
The Check Engine came up and the car was "jumpy" when I start to drive and it dis it everytime I stop and go. That's when I took the car to the mechanic and he told me that I needed spark plugs, 2 coils, and the gasket which cost me almost $800 including labor. The CEL went away and it fixed the "jumpy" start but it still sluggish and hesitates when I drive the car. Sometimes I think that ALL RX300 have the same issue because of the weight of the car and small transmission?

I need to get to the bottom of this and all your advise will be very helpful.

Lexmex

I'd still have the codes read again (even if the light is off) to see if there are any pending codes. AutoZone and a lot of car parts stores will read it for you for free, and then let us know what they are if any (I'd like to knock that possibility out first).

miss_cebu

okay, will do that tomorrow. Will keep you posted.
Thanks!

thomas1

There was no recall for the sludge problem, just an extended warranty...As a matter of fact the 2003 engine which is not covered still has the same issue....

salimshah

Do not draw a conclusion before systematically going through simple tests.

a) check the free roll ... coast in "N" on a flat open area.
b) Engine response in "N" to gas pedal.
c) Self diagnostic [CEL or obdII read for active or pending codes]
d) Quick look at the air filter, engine oil, transmission fluid.
e) Driving with gear stick (instead of "D=> auto-selection").
f) Observe torque steer (FWD) and or tire-spin on gravel.
g) Observe rpm, gear-selection and your speed as you accelerate from stand still (on a open road)
h) Your expectations. RX is not a speed demon high 8 or realistically 9+ for 0 to 60.

Salim

miss_cebu

Thanks Salim...

a) check the free roll ... coast in "N" on a flat open area. = car moves fine
b) Engine response in "N" to gas pedal. = car moves fine
c) Self diagnostic [CEL or obdII read for active or pending codes] = Auto checked the codes, Did not find anything. PASSED
d) Quick look at the air filter, engine oil, transmission fluid. = Air filter clean, oill and trans fluid just changed.
e) Driving with gear stick (instead of "D=> auto-selection"). Not sure what this means?
f) Observe torque steer (FWD) and or tire-spin on gravel.
g) Observe rpm, gear-selection and your speed as you accelerate from stand still (on a open road)
h) Your expectations. RX is not a speed demon high 8 or realistically 9+ for 0 to 60.

miss_cebu

Thomas1...
regarding sludge problem, if I pull the valve cover, will it be visible?
Also, autozone guy said that maybe fuel filter is dirty/bad?

mikey00

Fuel filter is possible but highly unlikely. It is located in the fuel tank, is a real pain to change and rarely goes bad. There are also other possibilities liked a partially clogged catalytic converter but the check engine light catches most(but not all) performance robbing faults.
Pulling a valve cover is the way to check for sludge.
My money is on h) Your expectations. Is there any way you can test drive another RX before you spend time and money fixing something that is not broke?

salimshah

fuel starvation can some what be eliminated by revving in "N or P" .. under load you need more gas, but if there is some thing choking supply it happens in "N or Park" as well.

e) is typically referred to as gate-shift (although the gear-stick for RX does not have gate). Instead of "D", engage the lowest gear and practically (safely) floor the RX. You should launch and see the rpm go-up as you gain speed. Since you are not in "D" the rx would not shift gear. Go up to about 5k (or little less if you are squeemish) and shift to lever to the next gear. And shift again at 5k to "D". This procedure takes away the auto-shifting part of the transmission and slippage loss if any.

One more thing is to clear the memory by removing the +12v of the battery .. in case there has been any adaptive learning.

Salim

dragular

well i had this very same hesitation problem. Use to think i would die when merging onto the highway because it never use to go right away. Went through a similar checklist of what could be causing it and it turned out to be a slack Throttle Cable. I had almost an inch of slack on the throttle cable, it was an easy DIY to fix. After tightening up it runs like a sports car in my mind because of how bad performance had degraded.

Check your throttle cable before wasting money on the other fixes. My mechanic made me clean injectors and change spark plugs which was a waste of money. If it was not for this forum i would have spent alot more money guessing what the problem was when it was so simple.
I hope this is your prob and not something more costly!