bam

So our new 450h has a little over 15k miles and I've noticed lately that on cold starts, the car seems to fire up but has a very rough idle. It's almost to the point of where it feels like it's going to stall. On top of that, on cold starts, the engine doesn't sound good. It sounds like something metal is rubbing and is definitely not smooth.

So we were leaving to the hospital to bring our newborn home and the next thing I know, the check engine light comes on. I wasn't sure if this was a serious problem or because it was due for oil service and I haven't taken it in. In any case, we took it to the dealer instead of driving the baby home because if it was a serious issue, I didn't want to be stranded on the freeway with a newborn.

So we dropped it off and went on our way. We got a call from our SA the next day and he said that he believes one of the fuel injectors is bad and will use some kind of machine to confirm it. He called back later to say that the injector was bad and that he's never seen this before on this car but in his experience, if one injector goes bad, all of them will usually go bad so he said he's going to get the one fixed for sure and will try to get all 6 replaced.

Fast forward one week later and all 6 fuel injectors are replaced. I thought I'd post the write up for those that are interested or are getting the same symptoms. The write up says, "fuel injectors, code P0300, multiple cylinder misfire. debris found on injectors. replaced all 6 fuel injectors as per bulletin, L-SB-0045012." The last part is what caught my eye because it was written up to say that this was part of a service bulletin so you guys might want to take notice and get this in mind if this issue comes up for you.

There were a bunch of things replaced.
6 fuel injector set
6 injector insulator
1 gasket, egr valve
1 gasket intake ma
1 gasket egr pipe
3 gasket air surge

Hopefully, all is good. I reset our avg mpg to see if this fix will provide some better fuel averages. We'll see. In any case, the SA said that this warranty work cost over $1400. Good thing this wasn't coming out of my pockets.

If anybody has questions about symptoms, let me know.

Cruiter

Richard, thanks for the narrative, that was a good write up. If I were you though, I'd think about what caused them to go bad. Pretty much had to be gas as there just normally isn't a problem with them. Time to change stations and hope that doesn't happen again.

It did several years ago for me and fortunately I had a receipt for the gas. I always get one when I fill up and keep it at least till the next tank. In my case, Chevron took care of my bill and several others too. They found water in the storage tanks. But sometimes it's debris or trace amounts of whatever was hauled in the tanker at an earlier time.

DunWkg

I glanced at the service bulletin and it pretty straight forward:
Not a mechanic, so I'm wondering, do these cars have fuel filters? If you were doing this repair why wouldn't you replace the fuel filter too? The fault seems to lie within the Lexus from the fact this is warranty, but still.

While at Costco filling up last week, the attendent clocked the pump. He said it was pumping slow and grabbed a filter to replace in the pump when I finished. No matter how it's filtered, stuff still ends up in your tank.

watch37

Congratulations on the new arrival! What a way to remember the occasion - car issues. I had 46,000 miles on my car (2010 model) when I let her go, and had 0 issues.

yeehawbob

First of all Congratulations of the new arrival!

If you don't mind please post the symptoms so we all can benefit. I think my RX engine is a bit too loud when running and i seem to be getting poor milage.

Thanks

bam

If you're looking to compare specific symptoms, feel free to ask but I basically already described my symptoms in my original post so I'm not sure if you're looking for something else or just missed it. Let me know.

Jaquimo

Had the same experience as the original poster. Turned out the most likely cause was dirty fuel. Had the injectors cleaned and problem resolved. I am very weary of where I fill my vehicle since it was a very expensive exercise.

tdott

Yikes! What year and mileage was this done on?

Jaquimo

The symptoms started suddenly during 2015 when the odometer was around 200000 km (124000 miles). I tried various fuel injector cleaner including the Lexus branded cleaner. The results were temporary and on advice of the staff at the local Lexus workshop I had the injectors removed and cleaned as well as the fuel tank removed and cleaned. For the past month the engine is running like it used to without all the misfiring especially during cold starting.

rsutoratos

Funny, I never caught this because the tsb didn't have dashes, same thing happened to my 2010 rx

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/hyb...t-came-on.html

I only use BP fuel now, not that is any better, they claim it cleans better, and 2 its the cheapest in town

Bekh1987

Sorry about my English .I had problem Vs injector 1 they fixed in 20 day because Lexus bay ridge order part it arrived in 13 days and they fixed after 1 month it's happen again and I went again to Dealer Bayridge they told me you car right now have problem vs injector #4 , he said to me he has to replace all of them and he order 3 came and he said I don't wither 3 when coming ..and I told them guys fixed my car 1 month ago and now saying again I have to leave it in you sharp servixe

I have questions they can lie to me 3 arrived and 3 not yet
do you think they lie to me ?

alisher

Stay away from Bay Ridge Lexus, their service department not good in diagnostic. Just enter 'lexus dealership' in google maps or yelp, check rating and to the better one. I had good expirience with Lexus of Freehold in NJ even if it away from NYC.

spineman

Can you just clean the injectors, or must they be replaced as the service bulletin says? I heard from a friend that they can rebuild them???

North

Hope I'm not posting this twice, but the same thing happened to my 2013 RX 450h today, when I first started it up, and the gas engine engaged, it ran rough, jumped around and almost sound like it clunked, before it finally smoothed out. I love the car and it is an incredible driving vehicle, but this concerned me and it is a CPO so you better bet I'll be taking it in next week to my Lexus dealership for a checkup! Thanks for all the great information. Tim

tempestv8

I wonder if low grade fuel causes the build up on the injectors. Question for all who have experienced the rough start idle, what grade of gasoline have you been using all this while?