sp16

I didn't try hooking up the extra battery at startup yet after jmcraney post - made perfect sense and kinda scared me off maybe damaging something else by hooking up with jump leads to another battery.

I did however manage to order a genuine cam sensor new for about $50... it's an easy swap and eliminates one of the things that it might be. I'll let you guys know how it goes when it arrives next week.

Thanks for all the help so far guys!

sp16

So the replacement cam sensor didn't help, acted up immediately just like with the old one fitted. So it isn't that.

Im still tempted to try jumping off my spare battery before Monday when I take her in for a full Lexus diagnostic session... but I'm worried about doing damage as people have warned!

I wish I could have worked this out before paying for a session with Lexus

sp16

Well Lexus couldn't find anything wrong, they had the car in for over an hour playing with Techstream and monitoring sensors... everything within spec.

It hasn't struggled to start since late last week, I'm beginning to wonder if it's fixed itself... famous last words.

The guy at Lexus said to stick a bottle of fuel additive in the tank and just let the problem wait until it's bad enough for an engine light.

jmcraney

Seems to me like a good question to ask would be: is this starting problem evident if you only start your car car every other day, or every third day, or every fourth day? In other words, if you went several days without starting the car would the problem be evident when you first tried to start it?

sp16

Well I drove about 60 miles Saturday, didn't use it Sunday then it started no problem this morning at about 28F - a chilly morning

bob3636

I had a similar starting issue. Of course when I brought the car to the dealer, it would start perfectly every time. I eventually started adding two bottles of fuel injector cleaner to a full gas tank. I did this about 4 times over a 3 month period. My car starts properly now.