Jhua

First off, hello everyone. There are amazing DIY instructions here and has helped me gain a better understanding of my vehicle. I have a 2002/03 RX 300 with 186k miles. It currently has starting issues. I would start the vehicle and the engine would essentually sputter. RPM woukd dance around. If I press the gas thr vehicle sputters even more and dies. In order to start the vehicle, I would start the vehicle 10 plus times and it would finally stay on. However, I have to let the vehicle sit for a few minutes because if I back out and put it in drive, it sputters. Once I let it sit, the car is fine for essentially the rest of the day and will start uo the first time. This issue starts again the next day. What do y'all think?

fastnoypi

welcome to CL. How up to date are you with your maintenance and what were the last issues you tackled? Any CEL codes coming up?
It might give us some insight to what might be the cause.

Jhua

There are no codes coming up last time I checked. Last issue was a failed water pump. That shut off the car while driving. Replaced after getting my mechanic neighbor to see if the head gasket had failed. Since it hadn't, replaced water pump and changed the timing belt while we were at it.

I should say I took it to Lexus and thwy couldn't figure out the cause of the problems. They did a whole battery of tests and had the vehicle for over a month. Just wanted to see if the minds here could help me out