Got a 2000 LX 116k miles in impossibly good condition! Except a stall issue today..

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yuji

yuji

10 Year
Joined
Mar 11, 2012
Threads
53
Messages
258
Location
Portland, Oregon
After 6 months of searching 80 series, 100 series, and LX470s - I finally found one that I made a purchase decision within about 30 seconds.

This thing is CLEAN! I paid 16.5k, about a 3k premium happily paid for a few reasons:

  • Unbelievably clean. How does one take a vehicle to 116k and not even scratch the floot metal plates, or the dash plastic people put their keys on? I've never seen it.
  • Every maintenance record at a Lexus dealer for the first two owners.
  • New tires.
  • Clean.
  • Clean.

The mechanic said it's all original body / paint. There are 4 dents/scratches.

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How do you even do this? Every plastic surface looks like this: untouched.
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It's clear nothing was loaded in here, ever. These plastic panels surrounding the back get destroyed by anything.
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That's the good!

The bad:

Stalling
I researched the previous owner having taken in the truck at 110k miles for an intermittent stalling issue that the dealer could not reproduce, even after giving the PO a loaner for an extended test.

I was able to reproduce it last night after removing the battery to replace the headlights.

I've heard of crazy issues after removing the battery while the system "learns" - so hopefully it's that because I stalled out a good 6 times on the road. Engine RPMS were hovering at 200-300 till it would die.

I turned on the AC and that helped raised the idle to 500-600, but the needle kept jumping around.

This morning on a cold start, the RPMs are back up to 800 or so. Today it's running well... perhaps it was just the battery. I didn't realize it took a whole day to settle. Intermittent stall was definitely in the PO's records though.

I am going to clean the throttle body, MAF sensor today.

Shocks / AHC
I distinctly remember a 150k 100 series feeling much much better in ride quality. I think it had bilsteins replaced at 100k.

The AHC appears to be working correctly (going to do the measurement test soon) but it feels a bit bouncy. The problem is that my memory is very subjective. Anyone want to come take this for a spin in the Portland area? :) It's hard for me to gauge "normal" from "worn out" since it's new to me.

My gut is telling me to get rid of the AHC and go with an LC suspension!

Thanks for all the help over the months!
 
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Nice truck but I am not thinking any kind of stalling is normal after battery replacement.. Do you completely lose power or does it go into limp mode ?
 
My 10 year old battery which was a POS had trouble starting the car. But once the car got started, it would stall sometimes when I stop at a stopsign or a light.

I replaced the battery because I got fed up with it and it fixed it.
 
yeti in ga said:
Nice truck but I am not thinking any kind of stalling is normal after battery replacement.. Do you completely lose power or does it go into limp mode ?
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It was starting, then the needle would fall slowly towards 100 rpms at which point the engine would stop, so I'd completely lose power unless I had my foot on the pedal.

Well I like what I'm reading about the battery because I'm reading more than fringe single accounts (across autos in general) that the ECU might need to relearn the idle if you say start it and gas it right away. I may remember firing it up and gassing it to keep it alive, letting it adjust to a completely wrong baseline.


Just got TB/MAF cleaner so will see how that works out. That also seems to be another diagnosis I'm consistently reading.
 
Beautiful truck.

I also found a receipt that it was taken in for stalling and the tech found his lost pen light.


Shane.
 
yuji said:
Just got TB/MAF cleaner so will see how that works out. That also seems to be another diagnosis I'm consistently reading.
Click to expand...

This would be more likely to help.

Hopefully it is not some kind of ignition related issue because those can be an absolute pain to track down and sort out.
 
Have you checked to see when your spark plug wires were changed?
I've had issues similar to yours on other vehicles that turned out to be a spark plug wire shorting out on metal only in certain situations. I had my old Tacoma completely die for no reason when coasting up to a stop sign once. Odd, and I think it turned out to be old wires, loose battery, or a poor ground somewhere.
Pop the hood when it's dark out and wiggle wires around while the motor is running. Slim chance I guess but you might see a blue arc that would tell you where the short is coming from. Hope you find an easy fix!
 
12guns said:
Have you checked to see when your spark plug wires were changed?
I've had issues similar to yours on other vehicles that turned out to be a spark plug wire shorting out on metal only in certain situations. I had my old Tacoma completely die for no reason when coasting up to a stop sign once. Odd, and I think it turned out to be old wires, loose battery, or a poor ground somewhere.
Pop the hood when it's dark out and wiggle wires around while the motor is running. Slim chance I guess but you might see a blue arc that would tell you where the short is coming from. Hope you find an easy fix!
Click to expand...

This motor doesnt have spark plug wires. Its run by 8 separate coil packs.
 
Sounds like it's air or fuel related; I doubt it's electrical based on your symptoms.

I would clean TB/MAF/Intake etc, also as indicated by Roverrad, I would do the fuel filter at the same time. If not that, maybe a bad fuel pump?
 
I wouldn't rule out an electrical short. It will cause it to miss and could stall if severe enough. It also could happen with a hot motor or a loose wire being jossled around just right. The coil packs still have wires/connections that could be checked. Good luck and post back to let us know what you find!
 
yuji said:
It was starting, then the needle would fall slowly towards 100 rpms at which point the engine would stop, so I'd completely lose power unless I had my foot on the pedal.

Well I like what I'm reading about the battery because I'm reading more than fringe single accounts (across autos in general) that the ECU might need to relearn the idle if you say start it and gas it right away. I may remember firing it up and gassing it to keep it alive, letting it adjust to a completely wrong baseline.


Just got TB/MAF cleaner so will see how that works out. That also seems to be another diagnosis I'm consistently reading.
Click to expand...


Congrats on the clean truck. As for the stalling after the battery replacement, that can happen on any of our cars with a drive-by-wire throttle body however the most problems I have with that is on ES350s. Rarely have I seen that on a LX. I have replaced a few throttle bodies but it is few and far between and if memory serves me correctly they were throwing codes. I think you are on the right track with a throttle cleaning service. I have seen carbon build-in in LXs cause charging issues due to a low idle speed. I say do that and I am interested to see if that helps. Also, I have never seen a LX blow a headgasket and almost any sort of misfire would be throwing codes. Either from a bad coil not sending a signal back to the ECU or from the crank sensor measuring a dead spot in the revolutions.
 
I cleaned the MAF / Throttle Body. There was a fair amount of gunk. I had read about checking resistance between the MAF leads before / after but it didn't change for me.

By the way: what good does cleaning the throttle body do? Is there a sensor beyond the throttle body that may be getting mixed signals? Because I don't think the small amount of soot will do much on its own?

I'm feeling pretty comfortable it was related to the battery / immediate start and how I juiced the engine for several minutes to keep the rpms at 1k "artifically". I do hear the ECU tries to calibrate the TPS and idle somehow.

It does concern me that the same issue seems to have occurred to the PO at 110k / undiagnosed by Lexus.

It sucks to have it on my mind as I drive. Well! We'll see the next time it pops up! Thanks for all of the input guys it's much appreciated.

Next up: fix this AC passenger drain leak.
 
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