Lexus IS 220d loss of power

[SpryCoo]

Hello there, I'm new to Lexus, just got my first one a few months ago, the 2007 220d, it has about 240000km on it, but it has a slight problem. Didn't really notice it much, but when I went to get my car remapped, it was put on a dyno and it only put out 109kw(146hp) instead of 130kw(175hp). So I didn't get the car remapped because of this, only got the EGR blanked and mechanically blocked off, which barely helped it to get to 113kw(151hp). Also, the torque doesn't seem to be down, it's 391Nm. Was wondering if anyone has any ideas about what could be causing this?

Also to add to this, the car sometimes would stall while idle at 800rpms for a few minutes, and then start up roughly, but after that, it's all right. Pretty sure this tends to happen more when I do slow city driving. Also, my gas mileage seems to be down. Any ideas and help much appreciated:)

[stevbloxj]

What is your car used for daily? What miles do you do? 

If local only you have your answer. This forum is a wealth of knowledge and nearly every problem encountered has been covered before. 

Just needs a bit of research. 

I have a is220d 2006 which I've owned for two years and only because my budget wouldn't stretch to an is250 manual at most. 

The only problems I had was when my daily commute was too local. 

Since a change of job and nearly 20,000 miles later not a problem traveling just 46 miles a day five days a week. 

My car is on over 160,000 miles. Has never let me down. 

Your problem could be one of many things including a MAF sensor that needs cleaning to a dpf that's partially blocked etc. 

[stevbloxj]

You haven't stated if there was an improvement after the egr valve was blocked off. Was there an improvement? 

Like I said above my only problems were with not enough of a daily commute. Then my car went into limp mode twice with no fault codes on dash or obd reader. 

If your car is used for local journeys only you bought the wrong car ie the is220d. 

If maintenance is carried out as it should be and you do enough miles, spirited at times the is220d isn't the devil reborn as some state. 

Not the best but it's a lexus interior and shell. I love my car yes it's sounds like a tractor but a standard is250 won't leave it in its wake. 

I'm also aware that I would have bought an automatic is250 in decent nick if I had the opportunity but my budget wouldn't stretch. 

[Linas.P]

On 11/3/2023 at 10:21 PM, SpryCoo said:

Hello there, I'm new to Lexus, just got my first one a few months ago, the 2007 220d, it has about 240000km on it, but it has a slight problem. Didn't really notice it much, but when I went to get my car remapped, it was put on a dyno and it only put out 109kw(146hp) instead of 130kw(175hp). So I didn't get the car remapped because of this, only got the EGR blanked and mechanically blocked off, which barely helped it to get to 113kw(151hp). Also, the torque doesn't seem to be down, it's 391Nm. Was wondering if anyone has any ideas about what could be causing this?

Also to add to this, the car sometimes would stall while idle at 800rpms for a few minutes, and then start up roughly, but after that, it's all right. Pretty sure this tends to happen more when I do slow city driving. Also, my gas mileage seems to be down. Any ideas and help much appreciated:)

Well... so technically I can't advise you because you have blocked EGR... that would be illegal modification and that is against forum rules to discuss. 

As for power in itself - IS220d is rated for 177hp at the crank, so if you got 146hp at the wheels that is more or less correct... if it was already adjusted for transmission loss (which would be arbitrary 10-20%) then yes it is a bit lower, but the car is 240,000 kilometres, so obviously it won't have as much power as new car. Reasons - many... don't even know where to start. In your case case could be DPF, but removing it is ABSOLUTELLY illegal and immoral. Try forced regen and try not to use car for short journeys, as well use 5th gear more on longer trips and keep revs high, that helps DPF to clean-up a little bit. 

As well I would advise against mapping the car, not to gain power anyway. These cars already struggle with the power they have and pop headgaskets, Toyota solution... upgrade headgasked and de-tune to 150hp... so you half way there with your power already, consider that a good thing as it makes car more reliable. If you add power to it - you asking for trouble, these cars are just not good for tuning.  

[SpryCoo]

On 11/10/2023 at 10:03 AM, stevbloxj said:

You haven't stated if there was an improvement after the egr valve was blocked off. Was there an improvement? 

Like I said above my only problems were with not enough of a daily commute. Then my car went into limp mode twice with no fault codes on dash or obd reader. 

If your car is used for local journeys only you bought the wrong car ie the is220d. 

If maintenance is carried out as it should be and you do enough miles, spirited at times the is220d isn't the devil reborn as some state. 

Not the best but it's a lexus interior and shell. I love my car yes it's sounds like a tractor but a standard is250 won't leave it in its wake. 

I'm also aware that I would have bought an automatic is250 in decent nick if I had the opportunity but my budget wouldn't stretch. 

The egr did make a little 5hp improvement, and the car doesn't stall anymore after idling for a bit. I drive my car 20-60 miles per day, also I do sometimes try to force a dpf regeneration keeping it at higher revs. Did already change air filter, cleaned MAF sensor, going to try changing the fuel filter too(heard its a bit difficult tbh). Honestly it doesn't bother me much that it's making less power, it's just the àmmount of fuel it is consuming is way too much, getting around 20-25mpg. 

 

On 11/10/2023 at 1:32 PM, Linas.P said:

Well... so technically I can't advise you because you have blocked EGR... that would be illegal modification and that is against forum rules to discuss. 

As for power in itself - IS220d is rated for 177hp at the crank, so if you got 146hp at the wheels that is more or less correct... if it was already adjusted for transmission loss (which would be arbitrary 10-20%) then yes it is a bit lower, but the car is 240,000 kilometres, so obviously it won't have as much power as new car. Reasons - many... don't even know where to start. In your case case could be DPF, but removing it is ABSOLUTELLY illegal and immoral. Try forced regen and try not to use car for short journeys, as well use 5th gear more on longer trips and keep revs high, that helps DPF to clean-up a little bit. 

As well I would advise against mapping the car, not to gain power anyway. These cars already struggle with the power they have and pop headgaskets, Toyota solution... upgrade headgasked and de-tune to 150hp... so you half way there with your power already, consider that a good thing as it makes car more reliable. If you add power to it - you asking for trouble, these cars are just not good for tuning.  

It's not 146whp, it's in fact 146 engine hp, also I was only thinking of getting the remap done to get better fuel economy.

[Linas.P]

21 minutes ago, SpryCoo said:

The egr did make a little 5hp improvement, and the car doesn't stall anymore after idling for a bit. I drive my car 20-60 miles per day, also I do sometimes try to force a dpf regeneration keeping it at higher revs. Did already change air filter, cleaned MAF sensor, going to try changing the fuel filter too(heard its a bit difficult tbh). Honestly it doesn't bother me much that it's making less power, it's just the àmmount of fuel it is consuming is way too much, getting around 20-25mpg. 

It's not 146whp, it's in fact 146 engine hp, also I was only thinking of getting the remap done to get better fuel economy.

Running rich and bad fuel economy? Could be leaking injector and you would be down on power due to that. 

How was engine power measured? Measuring WHP and and adding 20% on top? Dyno results should always be taken with grain of salt, at minimum you need to know all the corrections they did to actual measurement and even then one can have huge difference going from one dyno to another. I know people use dyno to brag about things, but dyno is actually suppose to be used for completely different purpose - it only measure difference between baseline and modification. So let's say you blocked-off EGR that made 5hp difference, that is what dyno can confirm, but whenever car makes 140 or 170 hp really depends on what is being measured and what is being corrected. Just based on dyno settings alone same car can do 80hp or 400hp, so I would take 146hp "at the engine" with the grain of salt. 

Your plan is solid - if you can get it mapped to run more efficiently, then it may actual prolong the life of the engine 25MPG is awful and I think that is where you should start. Not with the power, but with fuel consumption.

Blocked fuel filter will not cause high consumption, but there is not no downside replacing it. My bet would be issues with injectors, or 5th injector, need to look at the live data or do injector leak/ volume test and see if all of them at least injecting equal amounts, if 5th injector is not stuck open etc. 

[SpryCoo]

52 minutes ago, Linas.P said:

Running rich and bad fuel economy? Could be leaking injector and you would be down on power due to that. 

How was engine power measured? Measuring WHP and and adding 20% on top? Dyno results should always be taken with grain of salt, at minimum you need to know all the corrections they did to actual measurement and even then one can have huge difference going from one dyno to another. I know people use dyno to brag about things, but dyno is actually suppose to be used for completely different purpose - it only measure difference between baseline and modification. So let's say you blocked-off EGR that made 5hp difference, that is what dyno can confirm, but whenever car makes 140 or 170 hp really depends on what is being measured and what is being corrected. Just based on dyno settings alone same car can do 80hp or 400hp, so I would take 146hp "at the engine" with the grain of salt. 

Your plan is solid - if you can get it mapped to run more efficiently, then it may actual prolong the life of the engine 25MPG is awful and I think that is where you should start. Not with the power, but with fuel consumption.

Blocked fuel filter will not cause high consumption, but there is not no downside replacing it. My bet would be issues with injectors, or 5th injector, need to look at the live data or do injector leak/ volume test and see if all of them at least injecting equal amounts, if 5th injector is not stuck open etc. 

I don't really know the details about the dyno, I'll attach a photo of it. The guy that was doing the dyno and egr quoted that it feels like the turbo isn't boosting properly or something is clogged up.

Would there be any other symptoms to possibly help me diagnose if there's a problem with the injectors? Really hope they're not bad, because injectors alone cost about half the cars value.. 

[Linas.P]

34 minutes ago, SpryCoo said:

Would there be any other symptoms 

Poor fuel economy would be a symptom.

Clogged DPF would be a symptom for loss of power, but usually it does not cause as bad fuel consumption as you have, it could prevent turbo to spool-up, so again you will be down on power and have higher consumption, but your one is very high. Not sure if you used correct MPG for conversion (there are american units as well), but 20MPG in UK means nearly 14L/100km - that is very bad for IS220d. Especially if you running on motorway more you should expect 6-8L/100km, 10L would be already quite high. I mean I have better MPG in GS300 which is heavier 3L petrol v6. 

As well clogged DPF probably would send car in limp mode, so it would be quite apparent it is clogged... that is obviously if you car has DPF in the first place.

[SpryCoo]

44 minutes ago, Linas.P said:

Poor fuel economy would be a symptom.

Clogged DPF would be a symptom for loss of power, but usually it does not cause as bad fuel consumption as you have, it could prevent turbo to spool-up, so again you will be down on power and have higher consumption, but your one is very high. Not sure if you used correct MPG for conversion (there are american units as well), but 20MPG in UK means nearly 14L/100km - that is very bad for IS220d. Especially if you running on motorway more you should expect 6-8L/100km, 10L would be already quite high. I mean I have better MPG in GS300 which is heavier 3L petrol v6. 

As well clogged DPF probably would send car in limp mode, so it would be quite apparent it is clogged... that is obviously if you car has DPF in the first place.

Maybe did convert it not the right way, the avg with some some city driving and some 110kmh driving is at 11.4l/100km rn, if I'm just cruzing at 110 it shows about 8l/100km

[Linas.P]

8L is still way high, especially at relatively low speed of 110km/h, it should be closer to 6L at those speeds. 

Not sure what you mean by "convert".