Need help

Mamas boy · October 5, 2016

Hello everyone,

I need your help, I promised my mother I would fix her car, its a 2000 Lexus ES 300, but no such luck yet. My OBD pulled the knock sensor codes p0330 bank2, however I replaced both sensors twice and the connector, but the check engine and the trak light came back on with in a few miles, can someone help and provide some solutions that might be causing this, thanks for the help.

gbhrps · October 7, 2016

Mamas boy,

You are in over your head, and I don't say that unkindly.

Throwing parts at a car is just a waste of money, which you've already found out, unfortunately.

After the first pair of Knock Sensors failed to solve your issue, you should have bit the bullet and taken the car to a GOOD independent mechanic who could properly diagnose what is causing your problem. It may be that the knock sensor wiring harness needs replacing, or something else entirely. Chances are its the age of the car and heat related, since the parts are buried under the intake manifold on top of the engine..

There aren't many wrenchers on this forum who have a lot of experience. I follow 12 different forums for the 6 vehicles I own and the two garden tractors, and this forum has the least experienced backyard mechanics who really know what they're doing. Personally I've been wrenching on cars for over 45 years, and if my wife's ES had your codes pop up, I'd be off to see my independent mechanic to ask his advice. He's done loads of Camry and ES repairs and knows their issues. Based on his advice, I would then decide whether it was an issue I could correct myself, or as Dirty Hairy says, "a man has got to know his limitations", whether I just turned the repair over to him.

I've waited a day to respond to your post, to see if anyone would respond, and they haven't, because tracking down this kind of an issue takes a great deal of past knowledge. Anybody can do a brake job, or change a set of spark plugs, or do a timing belt change. There are pictorials and YouTube videos on all of them. What you're into doesn't fall into that category.

Seek some professional help.

pj8708 · October 7, 2016

Hi Gene and thank you for your respone. We just bought our 4th Lexus and the most amazing thing in my opinion is the ever growing features and automation. Along with that comes an "Ownwers Manual" with almost a 1,000 pages! You make an excellent point in saying that your experience over time is crucial to your ability to diagnose and fix problems on your Lexus.

Your also right in saying our forums have less technical information across the 100,560 members. That is not by purposeful design, but more of the needs that our members ask for. Unlike Club Lexus and other Lexus sites, our forum is strictly all volunteer and non profit. Places such as CL can operate on their income from placements and additional other than Lexus products. The Lexus Owners Club began in 2003 and has continued with all Lexus products since. One of the movements in enthusiast web sites.is the continual shifting downward of users that choose to enjoy the content of social media. This trend is becoming more popular and affects the number of postings on the narrow subjects forums. It's going to be interesting to see what the future holds. We will work to continue providing what our customers want.

Have a good weekend.

Your participation is a good thing and we will be happy to "talk shop" with you any time.

Paul

gbhrps · October 8, 2016

pj8708,

Thank you for your kind words! Most appreciated.

I've been blessed with the resources to have 6 vehicles and the time and place to do most of the work on them myself. I have relied on specific forums for each of them (several of the cars have two forums that I follow) in order to keep each of them on the road.

What I found is that the make up of the forum members is vastly different for each type of car, and I based my comments on that. There are very few Lexus owners with a lot of mechanical knowledge who work on their own car. The same can be said for the 1955 - 1957 Ford Thunderbird forum I followed. The most wrenchers were on the MG T Series cars , TC, TD and TF. All of those guys were hands on. The Subaru OutBack forum members are about half and half. The 1990 - 1996 Nissan 300ZX forum guys all wrenched, but most were into mods. and the problems they created after they did them. And the Duramax Diesel forum people are about 50/50 for big turbos, jacking the truck up, and actual fixes for issues.

I'm sure that a great deal of the lack of knowledge in this forum is because Lexus holds its service manuals and propriatory systems so close to its chest, ensuring that owners will be forced to go to the dealership to fix their car. It would be so beneficial to everyone if the service manuals were readily available, rather than $600. Having one allows you to study it and decide if its a fix you can do yourself, or one that the pro's need to do, but at least you are armed with the knowledge to see through the BS that the dealership might toss at you. Some are pretty predatory.