Is 220d Failing To Start And Cutting Out

iseer · May 8, 2009

Apologies if this has been discussed before.

Purchased a 57 plate IS 220D SE in Feb this year. In general the car is great, comfartable, easy to drive, fuel consumption okay 40mpg combined urban and town, 45 on a long motorway run, 6th gears as much use as breasts on a fish, however i can live with all these tiny issues. Recently however, last two weeks, the car has failed to start but not from cold. Problem only occurs when attemting to restart afetr a hot engine has been stoped for 5 -10 minutes. On one occasion the engine once started, from cold, just stopped when pulling out from a junction after only 200 yarsd and not through stalling.

Anyone else any similar experiences. Purchased car from Edinburgh Lexus and was told that all recalls for 5th injector and ECU re-maps had been done. As the car was previously owned by Lexus i've no reasons not to believe this.

Thanks in anticipation

Cougar · May 14, 2009

Apologies if this has been discussed before.
Purchased a 57 plate IS 220D SE in Feb this year. In general the car is great, comfartable, easy to drive, fuel consumption okay 40mpg combined urban and town, 45 on a long motorway run, 6th gears as much use as breasts on a fish, however i can live with all these tiny issues. Recently however, last two weeks, the car has failed to start but not from cold. Problem only occurs when attemting to restart afetr a hot engine has been stoped for 5 -10 minutes. On one occasion the engine once started, from cold, just stopped when pulling out from a junction after only 200 yarsd and not through stalling.

Anyone else any similar experiences. Purchased car from Edinburgh Lexus and was told that all recalls for 5th injector and ECU re-maps had been done. As the car was previously owned by Lexus i've no reasons not to believe this.

Thanks in anticipation

It might be worth speaking to your dealer about having the injector pump SCV re-initialised as these have a tendency to stick. This is because:

1. At a certain temperature, the SCV has a tendency to stick momentarily when the learning value is very low

2. The ECU logic does not adjust the common rail pressure correctly when the SCV sticks momentarily

Either that or the ECU requires an update. Your dealer should be able to check this for you

iseer · May 16, 2009

Apologies if this has been discussed before.
Purchased a 57 plate IS 220D SE in Feb this year. In general the car is great, comfartable, easy to drive, fuel consumption okay 40mpg combined urban and town, 45 on a long motorway run, 6th gears as much use as breasts on a fish, however i can live with all these tiny issues. Recently however, last two weeks, the car has failed to start but not from cold. Problem only occurs when attemting to restart afetr a hot engine has been stoped for 5 -10 minutes. On one occasion the engine once started, from cold, just stopped when pulling out from a junction after only 200 yarsd and not through stalling.

Anyone else any similar experiences. Purchased car from Edinburgh Lexus and was told that all recalls for 5th injector and ECU re-maps had been done. As the car was previously owned by Lexus i've no reasons not to believe this.

Thanks in anticipation

It might be worth speaking to your dealer about having the injector pump SCV re-initialised as these have a tendency to stick. This is because:

1. At a certain temperature, the SCV has a tendency to stick momentarily when the learning value is very low

2. The ECU logic does not adjust the common rail pressure correctly when the SCV sticks momentarily

Either that or the ECU requires an update. Your dealer should be able to check this for you

Cougar, many thanks for the information.

The car failed to start again on Wednesday 13 May from cold. Left work early to check car out. Battery was down at 11.6 V however i put this down to my good lady's attempts to start the car in the morning. Put the Battery on charge for a couple of hours and with voltage at 12.6 the car started. With the car started charging voltage was 14.2 with all equipment on, fans, air con, heated window, lights etc. Now I know that Toyota have huge problems with batteries and wondered if Lexus have similar issues. Spoke to Edinburgh Lexus and they booked the car in for the next day.

Lexus reported that the permit run switch wasn't fully closing when the clutch pedal was pressed so they adjusted it. I'm not 100% convinced that this was the problem however as an engineer, i'm willing to give it a try. Will update should any go wrong again.

iseer · May 16, 2009

Low and behold, the damn car failed to start this morning. Its booked back in for Monday so we'll see what the magic fix is this time. Battery voltage is back down at 11.8 V, there must be drain somewhere, possibly the alarm system or the 18 month old Battery could simply be knackered.

adjust8r · May 16, 2009

Low and behold, the damn car failed to start this morning. Its booked back in for Monday so we'll see what the magic fix is this time. Battery voltage is back down at 11.8 V, there must be drain somewhere, possibly the alarm system or the 18 month old battery could simply be knackered.

Battery, which is relatively new, shouldnt be knackered. Dont take car back until you have a definitive answer.

iseer · May 18, 2009

Car back in today and low and behold the Battery was indeed faulty. It was a faulty cell, it couldn't hold a charge. Having charged it yesterday for hours it was as flat as a pancake this morning. Lexus Edinburgh fitted new replacement Battery so we'll see how things go.

Adjust8r I agree batteries shouldn't go faulty in 18 months neither should most engineering components. I am prepared to accept that occasionally failures do occur prematurely

The After Sales Manager at Edinburgh was horrified to find that my car had been in only four days previous for the same problem and promised to investigate what diagnostics were completed at that time. True to his word he called only a matter of hours after I left the garage and confessed that the Battery wasn't checked despite having the symptoms explained to the service reception - so well done to him for being honest. For the inconvenience caused Lexus Edinburgh have agreed that for my next service, due August, there will be no labour charges.

Hopefully the new Battery is the end of the problems.