Hi,
Ok, I'm back with a bit of an update. It has been a pretty horrendous couple of months cost wise for the little Lexus to say the least and I have come fairly close to parting it out or more than one occasion! I picked up the car for a fairly low price, but not quite low enough to cover what I have had to shell out!
So far I have had a new rad, cambelt, head skim and gasket, water pump, oil, coolant and a battery... It went in for a cambelt change a few weeks ago and that uncovered the fact that the rad was leaking, this then uncovered the fact that radweld had been used to try to mend a blown head gasket (probably due to a previously leaking rad, which i guess overheated the car and warped the head at some point) so it was a choice of get it fixed or sell for parts. I went for the fix it route as the rest of the car is in very good condition, but the jury is still out as to whether it was a good idea...!
The original starting issue still remains though.... The old original battery was certainly tired, but a new one has made no difference. I have not checked the ground cable yet. I am still not convinced it is electrical though... The car only has issues starting from cold after it has been left for a few hours. I takes 3 or 4 tries to get it to start, but once started, driven for a bit, it then starts fine. Get back in the car a few hours later and it takes a few tries to get it to start again. During driving, the car drives fine...
I will still check the grounding, as recomended, but other thoughts are:
- Ects butterfly valve clogged up?
- IS300 specific ecu flash update related to starting, but this is only for earlier cars I think (mine is a 2003) and I would have thought this would cause a more regular pattern.
- Camshaft positioning sensor?
- Fuel pump? (When I put petrol in it, there is quite a prolonged rush of air from the tank, any thoughts?)
- Spark plugs (my mechanic thought they looked fine when he did the head gasket)
- starter motor? (Sounds fine)
- Immobiliser ?! (Security light goes out ok)
When cold, you could hold the key for the first or second try for eternity and it won't fire up, but by the 3rd or 4th it decides it will burst in to life. Trying a couple of short bursts on the key and then a longer one also seems to work...
Whilst the car is still usable, it is rather frustrating! Needing the car to be cold to replicate it doesn't help matters... I will continue investigating, but any other ideas would be appreciated...
Cheers.