Engine Dies After Starting

sradhakr · June 17, 2004

My 2001 ES300 has the following problem (in the last couple of days)

The engine starts fine, but dies if the transmission is shifted to R or D.

Has anyone seen this problem , what could be the cause of this problem?

thanks

srad

SKperformance · June 17, 2004

alittle more info would help

does it always start fine?

what rpms is it at before shifting into gear?

Is the engine hot or cold?

If you rev the engine a bit does it not stall?

sradhakr · June 17, 2004

Yes it always starts fine.

RPM is pretty low , probably in 500 rpm , definitely less than 1000.

engine was cold. I dont have this problem once the engine becomes hot.

I have to rev it a whole lot , and it takes quite a bit(of revving and restarting) before I am able to shift gear and move.

SKperformance · June 17, 2004

clean your throttle body

Lexusfreak · June 17, 2004

Agreed, that exactly wat the problem sounds like. B)

:cheers:

lexusk8 · June 30, 2004

srad, I had exactly the same kind of problem in my '01 ES: Upon engine start-up, a rough/low idle occurs around 300-500 RPMs or sometimes fails to stay above idle and goes to zero. All it needed was a trip to the local Toyota dealership, and they performed a throttle body service which involves cleaning up the gunk inside the TB. Costed me an hour's worth of labor ($85), and my car now starts up fine and idles normal at all occurrences.

A TB cleaning service does not happen too often in our cars, but it does happen. You may also want to check the air filter itself and see if it's dirty or not. A tank of bad gas could also be the cause of slow engine start-ups. I suggest looking into these simple approaches/answers before getting into the TB cleaning ;)