jbrow095 Posted February 25, 2010 Posted February 25, 2010 I have a Lexus ’07 IS250 and a few months ago, while waiting at a red light, my RPM’s dropped to almost 0 and my car started shaking like it was going to cut off. The same thing happened a few weeks later and has since happened a total of 8 times. I have taken the car to the dealer twice and they have found nothing wrong. I'm wondering if anyone else has had this issue and if so, what turned out to be the problem. If you haven't had the issue I'm open to any ideas about what the problem might be!! My dealership is pretty clueless and although I will admit I’ve had a quite a bit of warranty work done, I almost always have to diagnose myself. Thanks!!
smooth1 Posted February 25, 2010 Posted February 25, 2010 Sounds more like fuel quality issue. You might have some water in your gas tank. I would drain the fuel tank, and refill it at another quality gas station. Maybe drop a pint of gas dryer/conditioner in there and run it out and see if that solves the issue.
jbrow095 Posted February 25, 2010 Author Posted February 25, 2010 Sounds more like fuel quality issue. You might have some water in your gas tank. I would drain the fuel tank, and refill it at another quality gas station. Maybe drop a pint of gas dryer/conditioner in there and run it out and see if that solves the issue. Thank you! I really appreciate your response. I'm going to give that a try because I'm really clueless and the dealer is too (lol) so thanks again!
Sidney07 Posted February 26, 2010 Posted February 26, 2010 Man, that is very poor of the dealer to just let it go like that. Doesn't sound like the car threw any codes, so the fuel problem would be suspect. Let us know how it works out...
CJAY Posted March 9, 2010 Posted March 9, 2010 Sounds more like fuel quality issue. You might have some water in your gas tank. I would drain the fuel tank, and refill it at another quality gas station. Maybe drop a pint of gas dryer/conditioner in there and run it out and see if that solves the issue. totally agree, try to stick with premium 93 octane gas. you car will love you and stick with chevron and shell.
jbrow095 Posted March 16, 2010 Author Posted March 16, 2010 Sounds more like fuel quality issue. You might have some water in your gas tank. I would drain the fuel tank, and refill it at another quality gas station. Maybe drop a pint of gas dryer/conditioner in there and run it out and see if that solves the issue. totally agree, try to stick with premium 93 octane gas. you car will love you and stick with chevron and shell. Thank you! I actually live right next to a Shell so that's usually what I use but we had some really cold weather here recently and that's what the dealer thinks might have caused water to get into my tank. I've tried running dry-gas through a full tank and I am almost on E now and my car almost cut off again today. So my hope is that if there was any water in my tank, it should be almost clear?
IS_Willie Posted March 17, 2010 Posted March 17, 2010 Sounds more like fuel quality issue. You might have some water in your gas tank. I would drain the fuel tank, and refill it at another quality gas station. Maybe drop a pint of gas dryer/conditioner in there and run it out and see if that solves the issue. totally agree, try to stick with premium 93 octane gas. you car will love you and stick with chevron and shell. Thank you! I actually live right next to a Shell so that's usually what I use but we had some really cold weather here recently and that's what the dealer thinks might have caused water to get into my tank. I've tried running dry-gas through a full tank and I am almost on E now and my car almost cut off again today. So my hope is that if there was any water in my tank, it should be almost clear? Does this always happen when your fuel is very low? I've always heard that it is better to fill the tank when it is at half way, rather than to let it pull all the way down before refilling. Just a thought.
CrunchySkippy Posted March 17, 2010 Posted March 17, 2010 I've always heard that it is better to fill the tank when it is at half way, rather than to let it pull all the way down before refilling. The theory behind that is that any sediment in the tank/gas will sink to the bottom, and the fuel pickup will start to pick up the crud as the fuel level gets to the bottom. This sediment would eventually clog your fuel filter. Another theory is that the fuel helps keep the electric fuel pump from over heating (in cars where the fuel pump is submerged in the gas tank). I've always driven my vehicles to almost Empty and have not had an issue with clogged fuel filters or a burned out fuel pump. Your mileage may vary though. I believe the fuel quality control programs have improved greatly over the years, as well as improved gas tank materials. But as I'm typing I realize that I'm not sure what our tanks are actualy made out of. Composite/plastic perhaps...anyone know?
bartkat Posted March 17, 2010 Posted March 17, 2010 I dunno what they are made of, but if there's any water, it will be in the bottom of the tank.
eatingupblacktop Posted March 17, 2010 Posted March 17, 2010 Sounds more like fuel quality issue. You might have some water in your gas tank. I would drain the fuel tank, and refill it at another quality gas station. Maybe drop a pint of gas dryer/conditioner in there and run it out and see if that solves the issue. totally agree, try to stick with premium 93 octane gas. you car will love you and stick with chevron and shell. Thank you! I actually live right next to a Shell so that's usually what I use but we had some really cold weather here recently and that's what the dealer thinks might have caused water to get into my tank. I've tried running dry-gas through a full tank and I am almost on E now and my car almost cut off again today. So my hope is that if there was any water in my tank, it should be almost clear? There are plenty of threads on this. Here are a couple that might help explain some things: http://us.lexusownersclub.com/forums/index...st&p=391963 http://us.lexusownersclub.com/forums/index...st&p=392031
tuanville Posted March 17, 2010 Posted March 17, 2010 I don't think it's your gas quality, if it was the gas quality you would only experience lost of horsepower or rough idle. One of the main reason why a car would shut off is the ignitor. When a ignitor start to go bad in the early stage, it'll let your car run fine for about 2-3 hours or without a problem, then it'll idle like it's about to shut off when you're waiting for a light sometimes, and then when the ignitor gets worst you can drive it only for 2-10 minutes and it'll shut off. Since your ignitor isn't completely dead yet, the diagnostic won't tell you that it's the ignitor's fault.
jbrow095 Posted March 19, 2010 Author Posted March 19, 2010 I have an appt. to drop the car off again next Tuesday. Yesterday my car started to violently shake as I was coming to a stop and continued to do so until I let off the brake. Normally it starts to shake when I am already stopped so this was a first. I have never let my tank go below half until the dealer asked me too. I have run the tank close to empty twice and used the dry gas but there's definitely a chance that some kind of sediment could be in my tank. I'm just hoping the dealer can tell me something because yesterday was the worst yet and it really scared my daughter. Thanks to everyone for your suggestions and thanks also for the links, I will definitely read them. I'll will keep everyone posted.
kevinwang Posted March 21, 2010 Posted March 21, 2010 This happened to my friend's car and after replacing the o2 sensor everything was fine; might want to check that out too.
jbrow095 Posted May 7, 2010 Author Posted May 7, 2010 Ok so a month ago I tried putting some injector cleaner in the tank and since then I have not had a problem. I'm not sure that it is fixed but at least the car hasn't tried to cut off on my lately. Thanks to everyone for your feedback!
Mike0414 Posted July 27, 2010 Posted July 27, 2010 Ok so a month ago I tried putting some injector cleaner in the tank and since then I have not had a problem. I'm not sure that it is fixed but at least the car hasn't tried to cut off on my lately. Thanks to everyone for your feedback! I'm glad I did a search and found your thread. I've experienced the SAME exact problem. When stopping at a red light, the car seems to stutter and the RPM's drop as if I was driving a manual car in gear and letting off the clutch. The car continues to shake until the light turns green and I accelerate. I bought my IS250 AWD brand new, and I've experienced this problem since ~6K until now (i have 55K). I've brought the car into the dealership numerous times (probably a dozen times or more). On many occasions, they indicated that they couldn't replicate the problem but it seems to be a problem that Lexus has made note of and they are "trying to find a fix" (according to the service adviser). Many times, they've run some solution through the engine to clean the valves. This is a temporary fix and it seems to come back soon after. I got tired of the same story, so I told them it was a problem and I didn't buy a Lexus to deal with it. They asked if the lead technician could take the car home to see if the problem would present itself. When he took it, the technician FINALLY replicated the problem and said he didn't know what it was. He apparently took a snap shot of the computer (i think through the OBDII) to send to Lexus for investigation. In the mean-time, they ran that solution through the engine to clean it again. Fast forward to recently when Lexus announced the problem with the valve spring issue. I called HQ's because the 250 wasn't specifically named, but I figured it could be related. HQ indicated that they thought the problem was unrelated but I should try taking it to another dealership for a 2nd opinion. Another issue is scheduling warranty work at this other dealer (another problem in itself), but I finally have an appointment to take it in tomorrow. Apparently they have some "field technician" coming from Lexus HQ that's on the Lexus IS assembly line that knows the car in and out. I'm hopeful that they find the problem and fix it, or else I'm going to sell the car. I'm tired of the run around for a defect that they can't seem to fix.
NykNaq250 Posted August 12, 2010 Posted August 12, 2010 I have a Lexus ’07 IS250 and a few months ago, while waiting at a red light, my RPM’s dropped to almost 0 and my car started shaking like it was going to cut off. The same thing happened a few weeks later and has since happened a total of 8 times. I have taken the car to the dealer twice and they have found nothing wrong. I'm wondering if anyone else has had this issue and if so, what turned out to be the problem. If you haven't had the issue I'm open to any ideas about what the problem might be!! My dealership is pretty clueless and although I will admit I’ve had a quite a bit of warranty work done, I almost always have to diagnose myself. Thanks!!
NykNaq250 Posted August 12, 2010 Posted August 12, 2010 I'm having the same problems and so far brought my car in almost 7 times. When I get to a stoplight or stop sign, my rpm drops, car shakes and even jerks at times. It seems like this problem occurred after they changed the fuel lines in my car. I have repeatedly told them about this issue and still no solution what so ever. It has become very frustrating! It's sad that the dealership response was,"sorry we cannot find anything wrong, we're just gonna have to wait til the car pretty much???" They said they kept everything documented but to think that this is a luxury car and I have to drive it and take the risk of it shutting down on me is kind of ridiculous!
terry993 Posted August 15, 2010 Posted August 15, 2010 Has anybody had the Lexus tech check the idle stabilizer valve? From experience on another car, they do get fouled and a flap fails to open or close. Can be taken out and cleaned, but not an expensive part to just replace.
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