Auto Tranmission

michaelca · July 8, 2013

My is200 is a 2001 which I have owned for 10 years. Great car.

A few weeks ago on reversing out of my garage, I noticed instead of coming out, on tick over smoothly, it was gently jerking backwards. It then drove normally. A week later it did it again at some traffic lights so I took it out of drive and it stopped jerking staight away. A few days later it did it again and the malfunction indicator light started flashing. Now this light is on all the time and the TRC light is now flashing and saying TRC Off. When I press the button it does not change to on. The car has done 120,000 miles as I only do about 2,000 miles a year around town. The Lexus owners manual (page 44/45) gives a few different causes and I was wondering if anyone else has had this problem or knows the cure. It still drives perfectly apart from this.

Many thanks mike.

ColinBarber · July 8, 2013

it could be an injector or coil pack playing up. Are you able to take it somewhere to get the error codes read?

michaelca · July 9, 2013

Thank you for your reply to my problem. I rang Lexus Bristol who were very helpful but said I would have to bring the car in for a dianostic check £50.00. I then rang a mobile tuner (Tony Englander) in Wells and he came to my place this afternoon and plugged his £6,000 piece of gear in and first thought is could be the coils as you said, but on looking closer decided it was the spark plugs and is coming round to change them tomorrow. He changed my cam belt a few year ago and charge me £150. Lexus quoted me £450. I will let you know how this all pans out. Thank for your help. Mike.

michaelca · July 11, 2013

I have had a new set of plugs fitted and it has not solved the problem. That £6000 piece of kit does not seem so hot now.

Its now saying it could be one or two of the coils playing up or the air intake sensor is faulty. I drove it this morning and it drove fine, but the malfuction and the TRC light were still on. Stopped car for five minutes to get paper and when I started again these lights had gone out. Great. Just got home and it started playing up again and the lights came back on. Bummer.

The-Acre · July 11, 2013

I have had a new set of plugs fitted and it has not solved the problem. That £6000 piece of kit does not seem so hot now.

Its now saying it could be one or two of the coils playing up or the air intake sensor is faulty. I drove it this morning and it drove fine, but the malfuction and the TRC light were still on. Stopped car for five minutes to get paper and when I started again these lights had gone out. Great. Just got home and it started playing up again and the lights came back on. Bummer.

I would put my mind at rest and get a proper Lexus diagnostic. I once took my Vectra to a "specialist" who had to same equipment as Vauxhall, they came up with 3 possibilities, as it turns out, all wrong! I took it to a main dealer and they found the fault straight away (using the same equipment)

Phil

ColinBarber · July 11, 2013

do you know what error code(s) are being produced? If it is an error code for a specific cylinder then swap the coil pack over with a cylinder and the fuel injector with another. Then if the error moves you can determine the cause by where it moves to.

If it is a generic multiple misfire then you may have to replace things one at a time. There is no need to be replacing multiple coil packs or injectors at the same time, they don't all fail at the same time - although at that age none of them may be optimal. For this type of multiple misfire it tends to be fuel related more often that ignition so an injector rather than coil pack/plug.

Resistance measurement of the injectors and coil packs can be taken to see if they are within spec first so you are not having to spend money on parts that aren't faulty however just because they measure correctly doesn't mean that are fully working.

In theory an official dealer has probably seen most of the faults possible on an IS200 and therefore is able to diagnose quicker, that isn't always the case and some will just swap out parts until the issue is resolved.

Actually performing proper diagnostics and troubleshooting are sadly lacking these days. It should be possible connect a data logger and capture all the sensor data when the fault occurs, that way you can eliminate possible causes without just swapping parts out - you would certainly be able to see if the air intake sensor was playing up. However with the labour prices so high it can be cheaper just to throw parts at the problem.

michaelca · July 13, 2013

God this site is really hard for an old person like me to use. Why does it not go staight to my page (when I sign in to see my replies to the problem) I am going to try to change the problem that I have got with my car to a engine problem as its obviousely not a auto gearbox problem. It might take a while, but hopefully not. Cheers Colin please bear with me. mike