I've enjoyed my 167K '99 ES300 for about eight months now. Bought it as a daily driver, but I've found it has exceeded expectations. Have been having on again, off again engine check light (with Traction Control disabled) over the last two weeks but no real symptom to report until tonight.
Light came on this morning. On the commute home, (15 miles or so), pulled up to stop light. Light went green, depressed throtle and it crawled. Wouldn't go over three grand on the tach. Put it in neutral and engine rev'd free. Back in gear, crawled along untii I finally hit 35mph. Then, next stoplight. Same thing.
Got home and there is a hot smell.

When check engine light codes where diagnosed back in the fall, the O2 sensors where both faulting and replaced. In addition, had new set of plugs installed.

Trans or something else? Catalyst?

I do plan to have the code pulled and soon. Just trying to prepare myself for what to expect.
I've been able to search a couple of other threads and found what looks to be the same set of issues, but I can't find where the solution was listed. If anyone can point to one, that would be great too.

Thanks,
cookc327

 

Codes came back as Knock Sensors, both of them. In addition, sub-wire harness seems to be overheated. Total w/ labor $968.00
Two questions: 1) Has anyone else had this fault and also had the trans. refuse to shift into overdrive? 2) Wire harness melting - unique problem?

Thanks.

 

i think u should have had the car towed once it started having hesitation problems.. may be you could have avoided some damage .. did you check if transmission fluid smells burnt? any particles in it? abnormal color?

 

Thanks - to your point, as soon as the Check Engine Light stayed lit consistently I noticed the hesitation and limit in RPM's. I parked it until this morning when I got a time slot at a local specialist. I did drive it in - ran great. Light was on, but no hesitation. However, it would not go into overdrive.
I didn't notice any strong smell to the fluid. Color is light coffee brown. The shop reports the trans seems to be passing all the tests and feels the overdrive was linked to cpu induced limp mode resulting from the knock sensor failures.
But the original hot smell and the overdrive issue kinda bugs me.

I'm going ahead and having them replace the sensors and the sub-wire harness. Too cold to do it myself. And I guess I monitor the trans to see how it works.

 

I had a similar problem with the hesitation, lack of power, etc. along with the transmission not shifting into OD once it warms up. Engine codes read knock sensors. Did a little research and found that the catalytic converter could be the problem, had it checked and sure enough, it was bad. Might be worth a try.

I still have the OD issue and have pretty much resigned myself to a trip to the dealer.

 

I will add that to the list.
In fact, went ahead and had the knock sensors replaced. But codes kept turning back on. Service folks tried cross wiring, removal and replacement, and lastly, a third sensor. Appears one sensor was bad (from Toyota). Things were good for about 100 miles - then horrible misfire. Now I have flashing check-engine light.
This is getting frustrating - and, the trans is still "locking" O.D. out for extended times.

Thanks for the suggestion - I'm open to any ides.

 

The OD lockout could be due to the severe cold WI has had lately. It takes my ES several miles to warm up enough to shift into OD even having it garaged. From my experience this is normal cold weather operation. What were your operating conditions when you first had the OD problem - highway speed, rpm, engine normal operating temperature?

 

flashing light and misfire i would say coil. pretty common on 99es's. easy to replace if it is on bank 2 =) . let us know .