Help, Misfire On Cylinder 5 P0305, Check Engine Trac, Seafome Service

saman · March 14, 2012

hello all,

i bought a 2000 es 300 with vvti 140k and drove it out of town 500 miles with no issues, i did get it checked out before i left and they said all was well with the car, The people i got the car from said they changed a whole bunch of sensors and that was all i was told the car looks in good condition and the o2 sensors look new as far as i can see,

so after i got to my destination i got track off and check engine light on, i red the codes which showed code p0305 witch was a misfire on cylinder 5, today i changed the coil on cylinder 5 witch was a tight fit but i got it in there. i cleared the codes and the car was running ok, so when i pulled off the oil fill cap it had some sludge build up so i figured i would give seafome a shot, so i poured about half in the gas tank, some in the oil and the rest in the vacume hose for the booster, The engine light flashed for a while showing random misfires, expected when there is fluid going into the intake, Anyways the car smoked for about 45 min A LOT OF SMOKE! then it cleared up i threw some 91 in and so far so good,

So in a couple days my plans are:

!: to drain the oil and put 5-30 valvolen max life with new filter

2: change spark plugs with ngk v powers with .044 gap

3 change both front and back valve cover gaskets with spark plug tube seals

Now the issues that im having are:

1: i started getting a slight clunking when hitting light bumps from the front end on the driver side, What ive been reading is the Stabilizer sway bar link is the probable issue here,

now for the other preventive maintenance:

1: im not sure the history of the timing belt or water pump or when it was replaced there is 140k on the car, it looks like you can just pull of the top cover with minimal effort but not sure,

2: valve stem seals, since im pulling off the covers this weekend is is possible to change the seals without pulling the whole head off?

3: transmission flush and filter replacement, i plan on flushing all the fluid out of the system and putting in VALVOLINE max life i did this on my old rx and had no issues ive herd lots of arguments on this and i dont plan on starting another one.

so finally are the any other recommendations anyone has for me? or anything else you would do if you where in my shoes?

thanks

lexis lexus · March 15, 2012

sounds like you know what your doing. would be able to see if the dreaded oil sludge build up is one of your probs, once you pull off the valve cover gaskets. while you're down that far, swapping in new plugs and doing the timing belt makes sense w/ 140 k, particularly if you don't have any history on the car.

not sure why you want to do new valve stem seals. usually if you're blowing oil up through them, you can diagnose this prob by running the car down a hill w/ your foot off the gas, and then at the bottom, hit the accelerator hard, will cause a cloud to blow out the exhaust. can't recall why, but it has to do w/ quick shift in vacuum.

I once replaced valve stem seals on another car (suzuki) w/out pulling the head, by using a "rope trick." rotate until the cylinder is at its lowest point, then feed a rope down into the cylinder until it seems filled up, then rotate the crank a bit to compress the rope and push valves upward. this will allow you to pluck the seals up and off w/out the valves falling down into the cylinder.

Never did the seals on one of the v6's, not sure how easy it is to get them off.

LL

saman · March 15, 2012

i kind of know what im doing lol, ive never worked on lexus before mostly just mercedes and gmc cars, im getting familiar with this car real quick! anyways in the past cars ive worked with valve stem seals go quick so i figured if i could use the rope trick on this car and change them out while i had the valve cover off. also i couldn't amagin the timing belt hasn't been changed with 140k on it, but who knows,

my question is it looks like the top cover is only a few screws and you can view the condition of the belt,

second question is i was working on a older 4runner and did the water pump belt and tentioner I couldnt find the timing mark on the crank with the crank pully off so i lined up the pulley and set the crank to 0 tdc and the top two cams had a line on the top,

It looked like everything lined up and i put it all back together " i forgot to spin the crank one whole revolution and see if the marks lined up again, so now when running the car it has no power and verry hard to get the timing correct the only way it will run is to advance the hell out of the timing. so do i need to pull everything off again or can i just line up the crank to zero and set the top cams and rotate and see if they line up?

i know this is the wrong forum for this engine but just thought i would ask.

thanks

lenore · March 15, 2012

Here is the timing belt procedure, same engine as your car.....

saman · March 16, 2012

i think im going to give it a shot in a few weeks honestly if i do it i want to do all in one shot. the tbelt water pump all the rollers, tensioner cam and crank seals new belts, and prob change the alternator do to my flickering light issue,

on the flickering light issue all the lights flicker when the car is first started then will go away after a few min. I read to test the battery for 12v with the car off and 14v with the car on and it all looked fine but prob going to do it anyway unless anyone has any other sugections

this weekend i got to deal with the valve cover leak i got new gasket and spark plug tube gaskets, im going to do the plugs while im in there.

i also got to deal with the clunking issue on the front driver side. i looked under the car today and it looks like the sway bar end link on the driver side looks new and the passanger side looks like the orignal,"STRANGE THE NEW SIDE IS MAKING NOISE" i tried to see if the bolts are tight and the top bolt is and the bottom bolt keeps spinning. the fsm says "If the ball joint turns together with the nut, use a 5 mm hexagon wrench to hold the stud" so im going to try that first and tighten it to 25 lbs and if that dosnt work pull it off and do the joint inspection. and then go from there i guess i can disconnect it and drive real slow around the naborhood and see if it makes that nose when disconnected.

Finaly the rotors are warped in the front, when i brake on the freeway super bad Steering wheel shakeing, going to see if i can get one more turn out of them for now and get some soft pads for now till i can get some cross drilled and ceramic ones when i get some more cash

open to suggestions thanks

landar · June 21, 2012

I like the above tutorial, yet there are several issues that "bug" me about the work in part 2. The mechanic goes through some pain to remove the damaged studs in the water pump bracket, yet reuses the damaged studs. I would have tried to get new replacements for them.

The second issue concerns the tightening of the crankshaft bolt. He says that he is going to torque it down but never shows how he did that. And it is no simple feat. You have to hold the crankshaft somehow which requires a special tool. Kind of important.