Goz

Thanks guys. Safro, yes the terminals were the first thing I checked and throughly cleaned and all looks fine. I agree that I think I'll get after replacing the fuel filter and performing a good throttle body cleaning and idle air control valve cleaning this weekend in hopes that does the trick. One last thing, could it be the alternator? I read that Lexus has an shut-down mechanism if the alternator doesn't work properly when taking over for the battery and the fact that the car doesn't even idle and quickly dies when taking foot off the accelerator...has me suspect.

Starting and Idle Problems with 1997 ES300 Problem: (1) The car will not idle properly. In the time it takes to move my foot from the accelerator to the brake in order to put the car in Drive, the engine stalls. It does not cough to a halt, just immediately goes from foot on accelerator to dead. (2) Intermittent ignition problems. With key in the ignition and turning to start, there are no dashboard lights, no sounds, no clicking noise and no turning over. This seems to be corrected by toggling the battery terminals, but will reoccur at random times. Question: Does anyone have suggestions on a possible fix for both the intermittent starting problem and the continuous idling problem? Details: On Saturday afternoon (3 days ago) my Lexus starts fine and I go to the grocery store. Returning to my car 15 minutes later, the car will not start. With the key in the ignition and turning to start there are no dashboard lights, no sounds, no clicking noise and no turning over. I figure to get out and check/toggle the positive and negative terminals on the battery. Coincidence or not, the car turns over immediatel, but now the car will not idle properly. In the time it takes to move my foot from the accelerator to the brake in order to put the car in Drive, the engine stalls. It does not cough to a halt, just immediately goes from foot on accelerator to dead. We were in a hurry, so left car in parking lot returning 5 hours later only for the car to start and run fine. Car runs fine for the next two days even traveling 50 miles to/from work. Then this morning, I start the car fine and stop 5 miles down the road to run into the store. I return to the car only for the same thing to happen in the same order as described above on Saturday afternoon. Again after toggling the terminals, the car starts without a problem but again I have an idling problem to the extent that trying to drive home the car stalls as I approach intersections or slow to make turns (basically whenever the engine goes < 1,000 RPM). Thinking it is an electrical issue, I cleaned the terminals when I returned home, but that did not fix it. As for the starting problem, my friend suggested cleaning the contacts on the back of the ignition switch. If no help, maybe it is sign the starter is going out. As for the idling problem, I plan to check the alternator tomorrow as I have read that Lexus has an automatic low voltage engine shut-off and may be the problem when the battery tries to hand off to the alternator. I have also read (albeit in the RS300 forum) that it may be worth removing the air intake values and cleaning the valve with a carb cleaner.