Intermittant Non Starting / Won't Idle / Stalling Immediately

[IS200JJ]

Hey guys,

I have a 2001 IS200 manual which has developed this problem over the last couple of months:

Starts fine 9/10 times. Drives perfectly once started. 1/10 times it just turns over and won't start (recent new Battery with good voltage, turns over fast). If I press the throttle it will try and catch and may struggle to idle very slowly, and very, very lumpy before stalling immediately.

The only way I can start the car when this problem occurs is to turn the key, hold the throttle down full and it will idle very roughly at maybe 2-300 rpm spluttering away for maybe 30seconds before the revs slowly climb, and the engine begins to rev throughout the range as normal. I can then release the throttle and it idles and drives as normal.

This problem occurs intermittently both when the car is cold, and when the car is hot after being turned off and restarted.

Any ideas? I'm thinking it must be either throttle body or ignition (spark plugs / coil packs), but I have little experience with IS200's.

Thanks, Jonathan

[steve2006]

Hello and welcome to the LOC.

1st course of action on any modern car is to have the OBDII codes read and see if there is anything stored related to the problem.

It's normally either fuel or spark related but from there the possibly causes are numerous.

[lexustoy]

i have same problem but not all the time only now in the last 2 day

[ColinBarber]

it sounds fuel mixture related rather than ignition so throttle body, idle control, fuel injectors rather than plugs/coils.