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Have owned this car for 3 years and love it. Bought with 179k miles and just turned over 200k, Purchased from original owner who took very good care of the car. A couple days ago I had an issue happen twice, Starting off from a complete stop and pushing on the accelerator and the car would barely move. The rpm's did not go over 1000 even though the gas pedal was pushed down plenty. It took about 15 seconds to get up to speed. I thought transmission but it wasn't the usual high rpm's and not moving thing that a slipping transmission will do.
Has anyone had this happen or heard of it happening before? I don't want to take it to a dealer and have them troubleshoot me to death.
Thanks in advance for any ideas!!
I agree throttle body, it will be intermittent for a while, and might throw a code before long. You will know almost for sure if it does it again and you push the throttle all the way down and the car will get slowly up to about 35-45 mph, if I am remembering how mine went bad. that way, you can at least get home with it.
Depending on how its done, the expense does not have to be that great. As already posted, it is a common problem once you get to this mileage.
Ebay has throttle bodies anywhere from 100 to 1000 dollars depending on whether they are used take-outs, refurbished, or new.
This saves you from having to guess which of the three components is bad and having to replace them, and just replace the whole unit. This is what I did.
The other option is to wait for a code and maybe get a lead on which of the three components of the throttle body to replace, maybe some other participant can tell you which one is the most common one to go bad.
Rockauto.com and others have the components, but you have to recalibrate to some degree, I think.
If you do the work yourself and only have to buy the parts, it will take 4-9 hours *(wild guess) depending on your familiarity with replacing the throttle body assembly, which you will ultimately need to know for replacing spark plugs, wires, coils, or about anything else on the top end of the motor.
I agree throttle body, it will be intermittent for a while, and might throw a code before long. You will know almost for sure if it does it again and you push the throttle all the way down and the car will get slowly up to about 35-45 mph, if I am remembering how mine went bad. that way, you can at least get home with it.
Depending on how its done, the expense does not have to be that great. As already posted, it is a common problem once you get to this mileage.
Ebay has throttle bodies anywhere from 100 to 1000 dollars depending on whether they are used take-outs, refurbished, or new.
This saves you from having to guess which of the three components is bad and having to replace them, and just replace the whole unit. This is what I did.
The other option is to wait for a code and maybe get a lead on which of the three components of the throttle body to replace, maybe some other participant can tell you which one is the most common one to go bad.
Rockauto.com and others have the components, but you have to recalibrate to some degree, I think.
If you do the work yourself and only have to buy the parts, it will take 4-9 hours *(wild guess) depending on your familiarity with replacing the throttle body assembly, which you will ultimately need to know for replacing spark plugs, wires, coils, or about anything else on the top end of the motor.
Thanks for your reply! From further research, it sounds like the pedal sensor is the most common fix other than replacing the whole throttle body. Just a little concerned because I saw a video of the pedal sensor being replaced and upon removal, springs went flying everywhere.
Thanks for your reply! From further research, it sounds like the pedal sensor is the most common fix other than replacing the whole throttle body. Just a little concerned because I saw a video of the pedal sensor being replaced and upon removal, springs went flying everywhere.
It should be just one assembly. The GS400 has 3 main screws. I think the GS3 has 4. Many DIY on both GS3/GS4 to install the sensor. Like mentioned above I would get all three components to rebuild at one time.
I decided to go from easier/least costly to more costly. I was going to clean the MAFS and when I checked it, it was very clean. Next I wanted to check the throttle body and flap to clean as necessary and they also looked very good. in the process of disconnecting vacuum lines I found one was cracked . I replaced the hose and am going to drive it awhile. Also, I never got any codes, just the 2 "limp mode" occurances.
My car had the same issue a few weeks ago. It started with having a bad catalytic converter in which I changed out and thought my problems would be over. Nope so of course I did the throttle body swap first was from Pick n Pull no difference, then from ebay no change. Finally found that my 3rd cat in the down pipe was clogged so i changed my complete exhaust car back to new. With the 3rd cat which does not have o2 sensors reading it codes I got was for the front cats and yes my front ones was bad too saw the material all messed up. I suggest trying a junk yard one like a pick and pull from a wrecked GS IS or SC300. Basically if the car was wrecked means it was driving. Do that before spending a lot on one.
I didnt read all the above essays, but I don't believe its the throttle sensors, you'd get jerking motions from fluctuating sensor readings (usually) at least once. You said the car DOES move a little, just not going over 1000rpm. Without any further info, or a test drive, it could be an o2 sensor, or 2... or 3. Does it sound/feel like bad missfires when you press the pedal? What happens when you go full throttle?
Mr Jokster
The problem happened twice within 15 minutes of each other. Both times it happened from a complete stop. I would step on the gas pedal to go and the car would barely crawl with the RPM's NOT going over 1000. Slowly (10-20 seconds) the car would get up to speed. Happened 5 days ago and hasn't happened since. The CEL didn't come on and no codes were thrown.
With clogged exhaust it will do the exact same thing and depending on where it is clogged you may not get any codes. When my car did this I unplugged all the o2 sensors including the one connected in the passenger side under the carpet to see if any difference and no difference. By the way after replacing exhaust I used same o2 sensors its driving great. Catalytic codes can take awhile to show up do you have a code reader that will show you emissions readiness. If you have android phone download torque or any you choose I use torque it works great. Look it up on youtube its cheap and best thing I have ever bought for diagnostics. It will even read your o2 sensors. if you can unbolt your exhaust right after your headers that will give an idea caution it will be loud.
With clogged exhaust it will do the exact same thing and depending on where it is clogged you may not get any codes. When my car did this I unplugged all the o2 sensors including the one connected in the passenger side under the carpet to see if any difference and no difference. By the way after replacing exhaust I used same o2 sensors its driving great. Catalytic codes can take awhile to show up do you have a code reader that will show you emissions readiness. If you have android phone download torque or any you choose I use torque it works great. Look it up on youtube its cheap and best thing I have ever bought for diagnostics. It will even read your o2 sensors. if you can unbolt your exhaust right after your headers that will give an idea caution it will be loud.
I need to check into Torque more but a quick look and it looks like the bluetooth ODBII plug isn't cheap. I'm heavily considering getting a ODBII code reader off of Amazon for about $35 that will read/clear/emission codes. Of course it doesn't do any performance stuff so it's all in what you're looking for.
You should also be seeing the VSC and CEL lights on the dash. I had the same issue on GS3 about 3 months ago around 120K and it was the Accelerator Pedal Position Sensor called THROTTLE BODY LEVER SENSOR 22060-46010. I paid about $165 on ebay from good seller for new OEM part. I think it was 4 screws. Note there are little metal flaps on 2 of the screws that need to be bent back before you can get access to them. It appears you are in limp mode, where you can only move if you press pedal all the way to floor. This bypasses the sensor and uses only the throttle cable to limit your speed. Typically about a $1500 job at dealer as they likely want to replace entire throttle body. I had the codes P1120 and P1121 when read at O'Reilly. Hope this helps.
I bought my Bluetooth adapter for about $15 from Amazon Elm227 I think is the protocol. I also just got the Techstream with cable and software on ebay for about $40 and that is specifically for Toyota and Lexus even allows custom settings and key programming.
GS300 throttle issue?
