sanjonmomo

it starts with purchasing the vehicle with a "gelled" motor (unknown to me). I have had nothing but issues with this car !! with the not so important issues such as Antenna, A/C noises, Water on the passenger floor board, etc,etc,etc. i recently experienced the vehicles lack of power, sputtering at take off, NOT shifting into 4th gear (OD), rough low idle, and jerking at highway speeds. I had the vehicle checked at autozone with the OBD reader which indicated "misfire" "Knock sensor" "02 sensor". as i drove home the first catalytic off the manifold was making the sound of an air leak. i raised the hood and noticed a bright fire orange color at the base. to shorten this story, i replaced plugs, catalytic, and oil changed with synthetic. Thinking this may have put to rest these issues, i was wrong..... NOW, the check engine & VCS has appeared once again, and this time its indicating "Knock Sensor". No other code is showing at this time.. The car is still not shifting into 4th gear, however it seems to be running more smoothly than before the repair..

Any Ideas ???????

lexus114

Sounds like you have two choices, 1) bite the bullet and get it fixed up either at your dealer,or reputable ind.shop, and keep on truckin. Or 2) Sell it. but you would take a loss selling/trading it as is.

salimshah

How many miles? I think the knock sensors start going away at about 120k miles.

The knock sensors malfunction will prevent you from getting into overdrive. The bandaid solution is to reset the CEL by OBDII reader or by removing battery power for a bit. But it will keep coming back again. You can also switch to premium gas to prevent knocking (that may result in knock sensors not sending the signal ... but end of life is end of life).

You can price the knock sensor replacement at the dealer or other shops. I did a DIY (with help of other people who have under taken this task). Search the DIY list. It is labor intensive and I highly recommend that you replace all sensors and replace the harness too. Also dont mess with non OEM sensors. Gaskets and all is your call ... I stayed oem through out.

Salim