Speedy0o

Hi all,

Well as the title says I am experiencing a misfire with my 450h. Its quite a strange really as it happens only once the engine hits the halfway point of optimum temperature, starts with a gentle misfire then gets worse to the point where the whole car vibrates. Once it reaches optimum temperature the misfire practically disappears!

I borrowed a generic fault code reader from a friend which has 7 fault codes present (that it can read anyways)

1 - multiple cylinder misfire
2 - Cylinder 1 misfire
3 - Cylinder 2 misfire
4 - Cylinder 3 misfire
5 - Cylinder 4 misfire
6 - Cylinder 5 misfire
7 - Cylinder 6 misfire

The EML comes on but thats the only light that comes on and it flashes when it misfires badly then stops flashing when the misfire stops! Tells me that it probably isn't a coilpack or spark plugs (carried out spark plug change around 3months ago)
I work 75miles away so my daily commute to work is 150mile round trip (expensive in the GS I know lol!) so I've been letting the car warm up for 10mins before driving it as I have no other car! This seems to help and it doesn't play up after that!

I've got it booked into lexus, but they cant fit me in until the 21st! so I will have to do another 450miles to do before its looked at hopefully I wont cause any damage to the cats ect but I'm a little worried its going to cost the earth as Its WELL out of warranty and the car is @ 151500miles now

Any ideas or thoughts welcome

Cheers

Ben

ibidu1

iTrader: (1)

Is the battery good, and have you tested the electrical system? You said you changed the plugs did you use OEM Denso plugs? Have you checked your work maybe you left something unhooked or a plug may have come undone.

Also what are the fault codes that popped up?

Speedy0o

They were the only fault codes that popped up hence why its a bit strange! Def not a spark plug issue, as 'Ive probable done around 2000miles since then! And yes bought plugs from Lexus dealership, didn't check gaps as plugs pretty much all come pre gappped these days! Plus for it to misfire on all 6 cylinders, it would have to be pretty bad luck for all 6 plugs to go down! =/

Was thinking fuel issues perhaps??

edit...

Not checked battery, but once warmed up and enough juice in hybrid system it works in battery only mode just fine! Everything seems to work normally just with a bad misfire for 10mins which then disappears!!

ibidu1

iTrader: (1)

Could possibly be a camshaft or crankshaft sensor. When either one goes out it usually throws off the timing on the spark fire.

Best bet is to take it to the dealer to put it on their scan tool. Their tool can tell them what is going on. I wouldnt clear the CEL codes, leave them for the dealer.

Speedy0o

Yea it's either cam or crank sensor or pos o2 sensor, as presumably they have a heating element to heat the plug up from cold! Could explain why it only happens while warming up maybe and not when cold or upto temp??

ARISTOh

iTrader: (3)

My GSh has been at the dealer since October 19th, they tried everything from swapping fuel pumps to testing cam sensors to putting a camera in the motor to check for moisture ran tests to see if the head was cracked and ended with replacing VVTi gear assembly. When the shop Forman took the car home to test it, Check engine light came on again. They have been in touch with hybrid engineers in California sending them "data packets" and they are completely stumped. I don't know about your situation but I'm getting random cylinder misfire and cylinders 1,3 & 5 misfire. I hope they figure out what the problem is Lexus is covering the repair even though I'm out of factory warranty because I purchased the car in the beginning of September and the car has spent more time in service than it has with me. Good Luck. My GSh has 85k and is a 07 model.

Speedy0o

wow sounds like your having some serious issues with getting it repaired! Was your misfire intermittent or did it happen under the same conditions every single time (like mine)? Did they charge you for VVTi gear assembely? As i hate to think how much that would cost especially as mine has almost double your mileage! Thinking about it, this could b part of the issue I'm having, if the VVTi is oil pressure activated, and its blocked and not letting cold thicker oil to flow through, it could cause my problem, then as the oil thins out with heat it works like normal! Really hope that isn't the case though!!!!!
Would of sold it by now as costing too much to run but who's going to want to buy a hybrid with 152k on the clock
Would def buy another lexus though, so far customer service has been fantastic

ARISTOh

iTrader: (3)

They haven't charged me for anything at all. I asked my SA what happened now and he said he has no idea he's never seen anything like this before they have over 52 man hours in my car already and after sending the data packet over yesterday we're expecting a Hybrid engineer to fly to Orlando and should be here Wednesday. I'm hoping this gets fixed soon the 19th makes it a full month that my GSh has been there. I'm glad Lexus Corp is taking the tab on this one cause I sure wouldn't have.

ARISTOh

iTrader: (3)

Also he did mention that after doing the VVTi assembly that the misfire results improved by 50% not sure how or why but that's the message that was relayed to me. Check Engine still came up misfire still occur but only by half now.

Speedy0o

Ahh well if you've only had the car 2 months, then they will want to fix it otherwise you will be within your rights to ask to buy the car back!
Obviously an unfortunate issue for you and the dealer, seeing as the dealer is caught between a rock and a hard place! A faulty, extremely hard to fix vehicle and a customer who will want their money back if it cant be resolved! I would certainly start drafting up a letter expressing your anger and frustration of buying what can only be described as a lemon! Albeit it, it's not exactly their fault but you've now been without a car for a month which isn't exactly ideal!

I'm still counting down the days until the fiasco of diagnosis begins! Got my fingers and toes crossed it's something simple and relatively cheap! Already spent £970 on a rear suspension hub carrier (and 2 tyres) when a simple bush failed that you are unable to replace separately! None of the parts seem to be cheap for these cars and that in itself is a pain especially as there is a new model out and cars like mine (2006) are getting older and heavier on the mileage front!!!

ARISTOh

iTrader: (3)

I don't think I have any lemon law rights considering I purchased the car used "as is" Lexus is covering the repairs because I have been a loyal client and this is in fact my 6th GS to date. They gave me a 2013 ES350 base model so I haven't been without a car just been without MY car. I'm more frustrated that they can't find the problem than I am angry. Manny at Lexus of Orlando has been extremely diligent in keeping me updated on the status of repairs and trying to keep me at ease. I'm going to be patient with them for now because I don't have much leverage and I don't want to end up having to pay for anything at all. I'll try to post a thread with all the info I get when my car is repaired showing everything they tried. Hopefully this Hybrid engineer knows his stuff

Speedy0o

I'd certainly like to think he knows his stuff if they're flying him in! Definitely sit patiently then and see how it pans out, hopefully it'll be for the best and it won't cost you anything!
Good luck with the outcome and keep us posted! I'll do the same when they take a look at mine!

Speedy0o

Well I've just got back from Lexus and i can say I'm not in a very good mood!

Had the car booked in since 14th of Nov as they told me that they are so busy that they are unable to fit me in until today (21st)! So off i went and they took the car into the workshop while i was served a hot drink. Sat there for 20mins and read the paper dreading the news, thought I'd be polite and went outside to smoke my e-cigarette and saw my car parked back up. So i went back inside to be told that they think its spark plugs... That all 6 cylinders misfiring points to spark plugs! Which I said "Well surely that doesn't make sense, that all 6 spark plugs would give up at the same time??" He replied "Because of the frequency of the misfire and the fact that its all 6 cylinders misfiring, it points to something simple like spark plugs." I said I've driven the car for a week like it and it only happens when it warms up, and now its even worse and does it all the time when hot! I booked it in a week ago for you to take a proper look and your telling me your starting with a guess?" They then said that they are unable to look at it for at LEAST ANOTHER WEEK due to being extremely busy! They were also unable to give me a courtesy car but if I left the car with them they would look at it ASAP but cant promise it'll get looked at until next week at the earliest!

So that's what I've done, they couldn't even muster someone to give me a lift home so I had to walk home.... I am EXTREMELY unimpressed with the way I've been treated here but don't know what course of action to take now!

I also asked if they replaced the spark plugs and if it doesn't cure it would I still be liable to have to pay for them @ ~£400 ($643 to you guys)? He said "I can't guaranty that I will be able to waiver the costs, as they take time to replace and its work carried out" !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! REALLY?!? So basically He's telling me that its a complete guess and that if it doesn't cure it I will have to pay for his guess work?!?! I think not!!!

Speedy0o

Also for me to have to wait a week for them to be able to look at it and then for them to look at it for just 20mins and be fobbed off with a "were too busy to do anything" excuse and to tell me something I pretty much already know is really unacceptable!

I was expecting them to actually spend some diagnostic time on the vehicle. Although I didn't pay for this 20mins, I didn't want to have to spend my week really carefully nursing my 340bhp car around, looking like a right fool coughing and spluttering and sounding like a complete P.O.S for them to not even take a proper look at it!!!

XxGoKoUxX

Really bad experience.... Jeez! Have you looked at getting it to another dealer? Here in the US if we don't like one dealer, we can move onto another.