I got a V6 2007 ES, with 135k on it. Looks like it got another cylinder misfiring and Toyota may charge 1-2k to fix that depending on cylinder location. It had new fuel pump and belt with some other maintenance. It does have very slow oil leak, supposedly from timing cover.

I use this car only couple months a year, is it worth putting more money in it? It actually my favorite car, I had 3 Lexus SUVs and they do not drive as smoothly. When I buy another one, it will be probably another ES.

 

I bet it is one of the coils, probably on cylinder four or six because they go very often. You can get the coil from Amazon for 40 to 50 bucks but first you need to check the trouble code.

 

Agreed, get a code scanner. You don't need a pricey one. I too suspect a bad coil. We had a 2007 ES350 and replaced the first bad one at 120K. By 300K I had replaced four. The odd thing, the error code for the specific cylinder will show as a letter. So “A” will be cylinder 1. “F” will be cylinder 6. The coils/plugs facing the firewall will be cylinders 1-3-5. The front are 2-4-6, left to right for both as you face the engine.

The timing cover oil leak is common on the 3.5 engines. Even our 2018 RX350 has it. It is more of seepage than leaking. Just clean the area and don't fall for the pricey fix as it involves pulling out the engine. On the ES I switched to 10/30 oil to reduce the seepage. On the RX it is not so bad yet.

 

Stop going to the dealer as those charges are insane for a bad coil replacement.
A good independent shop can diagnose and replace a bad coil. This same engine is used on millions of Toyota and Lexus vehicles and every shop has worked on one.
Note that the rear coils and spark plugs are much more difficult to get at and thus, more expensive to replace. You may want to replace the spark plugs at the same time.

 

Yup, for some reason on mine the outside coils (2-4-6) were the first ones to go, when the inside ones start to go I guess I'll do the plugs and swap them round (so the old ones are on the outside again and easier to replace).

 

He didn't say a bad coil was the diagnosis. We are speculating that’s what it could be.

@spaceballs It took some effort but I was able to replace the coils in cyl # 1 & 3 without removing the plenum. If you are limber, it should not be a problem for you. Good idea swapping the good coils to the rear when you do the plugs.

Note, When the first coil went bad in our ES, there were few aftermarket vendors. I paid $90 for a lifetime coil from Autozone. That was about 12 years ago. The next 2 bad coils were replaced with AA Ignition coils, about $15 each on Amazon. One lasted less than a year and the vendor would not honor their one-year warranty. The other lasted about 14 months. I replaced them with Yec Flamma IGC112F, a Japanese aftermarket vendor. They were about $25 at the time and ended up replacing two more coils with them. None ever failed, nor did the Autozone one.

 

Probably should have all coils replaced at same time as getting to rear ones is more difficult?

 

No, Denso coils do not suffer from the "if one goes it's probably time to replace all of them" problem that some other manufacturers (ahem, Ford) might have.
If you're replacing the rear coils, try the method that @chuyrobles suggested, if you're replacing more than one, it's probably worthwhile to get all the rear bank ones replaced.
The front ones are easy to do so just replace them as they wear out.

 

Finally got to OBD reader and malfunctioning coils are 3 and 5 per computer. I probably will have to go mechanic as it is hard to get to those.


OBD

 

Not necessarily, check out this video first:

 

Thank you, guys! We were able to get to back row coils without taking everything apart. Car runs good.

 

I got all 6 coils and spark plugs replaced with aftermarket parts. Drives like a champ. Thank you, guys!

 

I had bad experience with aftermarket coils- AA Ignition from amazon. I got three and one did not last a year, the others barely 18 months. For aftermarket, Yec Flamma are good, made in Japan.