94 Es 300 Stalling In Road

[Wyesong]

I have a 94 Lexus ES300 with 80 k miles on it. I bought it last year.

At different times in the past three months it has stalled on me while driving. Then won't start. After maybe a half hour it will start right up.

There have been three times we have had it towed to a repair shop.

It's like there are no parameters on just when it stalls. Once it was after driving just three miles from a cold start. Once it missed and then kept re-starting while going down the road. Praying, I might add! Then it finally konked out and I made it to a parking lot and called the wrecker.

Spark plug wires, alternator, and spark plugs have been replaced. It always does this while it is on the road.

This keeps happening. It will give us a week or so sometimes and then do the same thing again.

This past Saturday it stalled after first having the engine miss in a drive thru. That was not the best place to do it.

Two kids from the restaurant pushed my car to a parking place where I called the wrecker again.

This car was owned by someone who didn't drive it much, and was the original owner. I did run a CarFax and the mileage was true.

Thanks so much for any advice.

Ann

[landar]

I have a 94 Lexus ES300 with 80 k miles on it. I bought it last year.

Thanks so much for any advice.

Ann

My advice would be to post this on the ES300 forum -> http://us.lexusownersclub.com/forums/index.php?showforum=86

[SW03ES]

Moved it ;)

[Wyesong]

I have a 94 Lexus ES300 with 80 k miles on it. I bought it last year.

Thanks so much for any advice.

Ann

My advice would be to post this on the ES300 forum -> http://us.lexusowner...hp?showforum=86

Thanks, Steve

I'm new as of yesterday! Didn't know this forum existed until I searched my problem on Google.

Ann

[Wyesong]

Posted Yesterday, 09:01 PM THIS IS THE WHOLE POSTING

I have a 94 Lexus ES300 with 80 k miles on it. I bought it last year while in Florida and drove it home to Michigan, no problems.

At different times in the past three months it has stalled on me while driving. Then won't start. After maybe a half hour it will start right up.

There have been three times we have had it towed to a repair shop.

It's like there are no parameters on just when it stalls. Once it was after driving just three miles from a cold start. Once it missed and then kept re-starting while going down the road. Praying, I might add! Then it finally konked out and I made it to a parking lot and called the wrecker.

Spark plug wires, alternator, and spark plugs have been replaced. It always does this while it is on the road.

This keeps happening. It will give us a week or so sometimes and then do the same thing again.

This past Saturday it stalled after first having the engine miss in a drive thru. That was not the best place to do it.

Two kids from the restaurant pushed my car to a parking place where I called the wrecker again.

This car was owned by someone who didn't drive it much, and was the original owner. I did run a CarFax and the mileage was true.

Thanks so much for any advice.

Ann

[TA in KC]

This sounds like a particularly odd problem that I think will be difficult/impossible to diagnose through the forum. I think your best bet may just be to bite the bullet and take your car to a Lexus dealership or independent mechanic who specializes in Lexus vehicles. It would almost certainly be less expensive to pay the mechanic to properly diagnose the problem that it would be to replace various parts based on recommendations from forum members.

[lexis lexus]

While TA in KC offers a conservative view -- of course taking it in to a mech would be a direction to go in -- I bet you already thought about that, and just wanted to see if there was some help here on the forum.

I don't have a specific answer or solution, as my '94 hasn't had this type of problem, but I'm willing to give it a thought or two.

Firstly, you should take it into Autozone, get a free code check and see if there are any codes that have been thrown. This is usually associated with a check engine light. If there are no computer codes then that puts you back to square one, but if there is one, then your on the path to solving your problem.

Dying engines have usually one of three main problems, no spark, no fuel or no compression.

This type of intermittant problem suggests an electrical problem (vrs fuel or compression). A bad ground connection or ground wire could do this, but it could also be another wire leading to a critical component. Check to see if the ground terminal on the battery is lose or has a lot of corrosion. If you can remember, during the stall, did the dash stay lit or not? If it were me, while the engine was running at idle, I'd start moving parts of the wiring harness around to see if I could reproduce the stall. It could also be a malfunctioning computer ( I just had to replace mine, would have never believed it if I hadn't seen it...).

OTOH, my Haynes suggests under trouble shooting, "Engine stalls" that there could be a clogged fuel filter (inexpensive fix), and/or water and impurities in the fuel system or a faulty emissions system component. The latter would cause check engine light, the former not.

I'm also curious about your "miss." Exactly what happens, does the engine stop completely and then start up again, or is it just a stumble, or a brief momentary loss of power.

Also, if it was me, I'd just keep trying to find a way to reproduce the stall. Take it out around the block several x's a day. Of course if this is your main drive, and you have to commute 100 miles a day in remote wilderness, then you may not have the luxury of such experimentation.

LL

[Wyesong]

Hi,

No, not my main ride, thank goodness! It would be if I could trust it.

It just a miss, and I hear it about a couple of minutes before it stops wherever it is.

It is hard to hear if the engine is running or not on a Lexus.

Anyhow, she's in the shop now and I'm hoping. That one post about the sensor on the

crank shaft scared me!

Will let you all know what they say. I gave the mechanic a laundry list of what it could be.

Ann