New to the site, I'm glad I found it. I have a 1996 es300 with 260k plus miles. I got it in January and the car has run amazingly. Problem is I power washed it on Friday and the check engine light turned on Saturday night. Now driving the car shuts off like I turned the key off. I wait a little bit and it starts right up idles normal, I put it in gear and it'll misfire or bog down and shut off. I unplugged he battery for an hour while I checked all connections and made sure everything is dry. I checked fuel pump the filter and so on. It starts fine idles and drives for a second and cuts out. I just don't know what to do anymore.

 

When referring to power washing - my guess would be you power wash the engine bay? You need to use a scanner to read the check engine light codes.

 

big mistake.. NEVER power wash the engine bay on an old lexus. I did that twice and it severely screwed with the car. lesson learned. id rather have a filthy engine that runs right then a clean one that freaks out. I just wipe mine down now. ill spend an hour or so cleaning it by hand with rags and all purpose

 

When shampoo the engine, you need to cover all electrical components.
I have shampoo'ed on the engine bay on all my vehicles....some old vehicles (1991). You just have to be careful where you are spraying the water....

 

You gotta check your electrical connections. I would check the spark plug wells and the air intake sensor, then go from there.

 

Agree with above posts. It will work fine once it is "more" dry. Had a problem like this when I washed my honda without engine on. Normally wash with engine on and after it has warmed up. It did not start for a while and kept dying after 5-10 secs. When it does stay it was very low idle, one move and it turns off.

To speed it up you can spray wd-40 or another agent on the electrical connectors to help water expel. I got water into the coil connectors. I also had good luck with using leaf blower to dry the engine bay. Or it needs a really hot day for it to dry off good.

As for washing, have been using garden sprayer with dish soap with good luck. I either use garden hose to rinse or user the sprayer again.

 

the intake itself was terrible. I stuck the shop vacuum hose in there and started scrapping as far as I could. So this morning I put it all back together and connected the battery, started right up and I let it idle for about 10 minutes, I got in and gave it some throttle and it shut off. Waited a couple of seconds and it fired up. I parked it and just a bit ago I went on a test drive and it ran ok I was very light on the throttle on my way back in got on it a bit and around 4500 rpm it started to hesitate it didn't shut off. When I got home I revved the engine and it was fine. I left it running and went inside for a couple of minutes and whenI came out it had turned off. I fired it back up and I revved it again and at 4000rpm it acted like it was hitting the rev limiter right now I have a fan in the engine bay to see what happens in a few

 

Sounds like a defective throttle position sensor and/or faulty idle air control valve.

 

I tried posting pictures of the throttle body and intake manifold the other day. And I guess it didn't work. Well it's Wednesday night and this morning I put everything back together again, I went through EVERYTHING two or three times. I went on Facebook and asked a page from a community I follow if anyone had a scanner is could use and all the people trying to make a buck came out. But twice as many wanted to help me out for free. I didn't want to drive it since I had my nephew with me so this guy came over, put the scanner on and nothing showed up. We talked for a little bit helps said to call him if the light lites up and he'd be back. So when I was free I drove the snot out of the car, it ran like a champ. I think the trans kick down cable might need adjusting, it shifts real quick and at slow speeds like 35 it's already in over drive at light throttle. Getting on the freeway is more fun. All this mess because I wanted to clean up the engine because I'm planning on replacing the timing belt and the components that I should replace, water pump, oil, pulleys and so on. Any tips would be great. I need to replace the driver's side cv joint,I'll do both, they are pretty cheap at auto zone. Driver side tie rod ends I'll do both side. Should I replace the whole thing, I'll think about it. While I was taking things apart the intake boot started to fall apart, I have tons of duct tape holding it together, where can I get another one other than the junk yard. What about aftermarket parts, does anyone make headers for it. Just in case it's a 1996 es300 260k +miles. I plan on getting 500k. I think I've mentioned it before the motor hasn't been a part. It does have another trans. I'll keep posting stuff since it's been a great car and this site and the people in it are great, thanks everyone for the suggestions, your feedback is important to me, so now you know

 

I ran the scanner and indeed it was code p0121 . What are some procedures that I can do to check and make sure that's part is the problem. Just to eliminate other possibilities. In similar words what's the process of elimination