Engine Misfire . . . Can Anyon Help?

[bdonkersgoed]

Hello Everyone!

Ever since bringing my car to the mecahanic for a tuneup about 3 weeks ago, my car misfires or something while idling. If you feel the air coming out of the exhaust pipes, it comes out in spurts/puffs that you can actually hear. These spurts/puffs shake the car a bit. This is the best I can descirbe the situation . . .

Does anyone have any idea as to what this could be? I had the spark plugs relpaced, and they put it simple Densos (non-platinum) all around. Would this problem be occurring beacause I am not using the original platinum Densos and NGK combo? I have read that the car can be picky about the plugs . . .

Any help is greatly appreciated!

Bryan

[tundra-lover]

I don't think it would be plugs. It could be bad plug wires (and related ignition parts), or even a sensor going bad. It's hard to say not looking through the vehicle. What maintenance have you done so far? It could also be from not driving it very much in the past- carbon build up? Tell us whats up!

[bdonkersgoed]

Well, I have owned the car for about 2.5 years now, and have never experienced this problem. It has 210,000kms on it (131,000 miles). I bought it 2.5 years ago with 132,000kms (82,000 miles).

It just seems weird that this problem occurred as soon as I got the car out of the shop.

I don't have the invoice right now, but I believe they did the following the last time I was in the shop:

- Replace Plugs

- Replace Distributor Cap and Rotor

- Removed sludge or something from the engine? They mentioned something about this . . .

- Rear Struts

- Repair leak in exhaust

- Oil Change

A while ago, I tried to adjust my idle a bit by increasing it . . . could this have an effect? Maybe I increased it too much and the computer is trying to compensate? However, I did this about 4 weeks PRIOR to bringing it in to the shop, so I don't think this is the problem . . .

Thanks for the help guys!

Bryan

[monarch]

Independent shops don't use genuine Toyota / Lexus parts and don't usually even own a Toyota / Lexus factory repair manual so they don't follow factory approved servicing procedures. And no one here can diagnose problems with a Lexus that has been equipped with aftermarket parts.

If you want your car to run like new you've got to return it to stock condition using exactly the same spark plugs, distributor cap, rotor and plug wires that were originally put on the car at the factory. Driving around with a misfiring engine can do permanent damage to the engine and emission system.

[dropspace]

the shop may have connected a pair (or more) of the wires up to the distributor incorrectly. new plug wires are sometimes not marked with the cylinder number on the wire, so it can get confusing unless you label them.

your distributor could be firing to wires in the wrong order

or one of the wires may be disconnected causing a cylinder to not fire at all

my opinion would be to focus on the cap/rotor/wires

i am not sure what regular (non platinum) plugs would do....but I would put denso platinums in there as that is what is specced from toyota.

[jkosasih]

Several issues need to check. You could have a vaccum leak, the timing could be wrong and ignition coil could be about to fail. Do you feel a power loss with you car? or just puff and shake the car when it's idling only?

[SKperformance]

take it back and tell him,

you didn;t state what work was done ,so we have no clue where to look for problems.

he does let him figure it out .

[bdonkersgoed]

Thanks for all your replies guys . . . much appreciated!

I stated above all of the work that was done while the car was in the shop last. They probably used aftermarket cap and rotor (as the parts were very cheap on the invoice). Maybe they did screw up in putting the wires back on? That theory is consistant with the fact that the car didn't misfire until immediately after the car was in the shop . . .

What is an ignition coil?

I'm not totally certain if there is a loss of power or not. Nothing too drastic if there is a loss. The ES300 has never been a very powerful car to begin with . . .

I am currently having another problem that I mentioned in another post though . . . if my gas is below 1/4 tank and I rev the car up to about 4-5000 rpm when accelerating, the car stops, RPMs drop, and then the RPMs jump back up, giving the car a violent jolt. When the gas gets really low, I can't even take off slowly from a stop sign without the tires squaking due to this. I'm not sure whether or not this is related to the misfire . . .

Thanks once again!

Bryan

[SKperformance]

the ballasts in the tank might be broken causing the gas to lose suction and regain after it sloshes back to the pump