Ls430 And Sc430 Flood When Refueling

[markham51]

I own an SC430 and LS430. Occasionally both cars will not start after being refueled. This has happened twice in both cars, three times for me and once for my wife. Twice in the winter and twice in the summer at different gas stations. The LS has 40,000 miles on it and the SC only 2,000 miles.

Both vehicles will only restart after applying the "flooding procedure" in the owners manual. To restart the vehicle I have to crank the engine for 30 seconds with the pedal to the floor, wait for a minute or two and then crank the engine without applying the gas pedal and it then it starts.

Has anyone else experienced this problem?

[VMF]

i had something like this, but my engine check light went on, and when i went to the dealer he resetted my comouter and said that i have to keep the ignition off while refuelling, otherwise this problem can happen again, so try to keep it off. he said that they have some kind of isolated cicle which is based on the pressure, so if u have the tank open and ignition on, you car computer will get wrong data from sensors and this problem will occur.

[markham51]

Thanks VF,

While I never leave the ignition on when refueling, it is possible that the gas attendant is not properly closing the gas cap and when I try to start the car it trips out the computer. It was interesting to note that once when this happened (to my wife) the gas attendant went and checked the gas cap to ensure it was tight, so he thought it could have been caused by a loose cap.

I am taking the SC into Lexus next week to get them to check out computer codes and see if they can figure anything out. If this happens again during refueling, I will check the tightness of the gas cap myself.

Thanks for the lead...it gives me a great place to start. The fact that it happens only on refueling makes a lot of sense in this case....gas cap opened...