ARoberds

*STARTING ISSUE* (Currently think its fuel related) 2006 Lexus GS300 Awd Let me begin by saying your advice will be greatly appreciated, and could potentially save me hundreds of dollars if I can fix this myself.

What happens is when I get in my car and start it after it has been sitting for over 3 hours, it cranks for several seconds sometimes up to 6 seconds, before it finally turns over. I have noticed this issue get progressively worse over the last week.

I have already done a couple of things myself, I cleaned the corrosion on the battery and I cleaned the MAF sensor. I left the car to sit for a few hours and came back to crank it. The issue still occurred.

I'm active duty, currently stationed in Guam. Cost of living here is expensive and local mechanics are not trustworthy from what I've heard. I went to the lexus dealership where they told me it will cost $100 just to diagnose the issue. And who knows how much they'll charge to fix it if it turns out to be something like the starter. I'm really hoping it's a sensor or something I can fix myself. I dont know if the car is throwing a code because I bought the car with a TPMS code, and the HUD only tells me I have low tire pressure and nothing else. I would go buy an obd2 bluetooth code reader but I seriously doubt a business on the island sells them. If anyone has experienced starting issues, or has some sort of advice, links, or input please add the details in the comments. If you PM me please say it in the comments.

ibidu1

iTrader: (1)

Have you ever replaced the plugs with oem plugs? Have you ever cleaned your throttle body? Air intake filter?

2006 US made GS300 suffer from carbon build up issues. Its a design flaw in that the injectors do not wash the intake valves as a typical engine design. Because of this the intake valves crud up with oil, sand, grit etc. Eventually when it hardens up it becomes carbon buildup. This will slowly destroy your engines power, by choking the inside of the head and pistons.

I am thinking this is your issue!

What you can do to help, here are 3 options that may help you.

1. Easiest and cheapest, but not the best with the engine hot from a long drive. Buy 2 bottles of seafoam traditional stuff not that spray stuff. Pop off the plastic engine cover off the engine. You will see a blanked off vacuum line on the intake manifold, remove the clamp and plug. Find a small section of vacuum hose that will fit into that nipple. Pour seafoam into a coffee cup and with the engine running let the vacuum from the line slowly suck the seafoam. Keep doing this for about 30 min, then turn off the engine and let it sit for 30 min and keep repeating the cleaning until you finish both bottles.

2nd option completely remove the intake manifold from the car, with long stiff brushes and chemicals like seafoam or carb cleaner. This should give you access to the inside of the intake ports. From there you can spray the valves with the chemicals and manually scrub the insides. Once you finish, I would remove the spark plugs and pour seafoam into the spark plug holes and let it sit overnight. Then turn the engine over without the plugs so that the seafoam can spray out of the heads. Then install the plugs!

3rd option remove the engine and transmission, completely tear apart the engine soak and free up the pistons. Clean the valves etc. Very costlty but this is the best results. This is what the dealer recommends

tghw

Start with the simple stuff. If it's cranking, it's not the starter. How old is your battery. Have you had it tested. You can check it yourself with a voltmeter. Don't just measure the voltage with key off. Measure the battery voltage while the starter is cranking. If you have chain auto parts stores there like Adavance, Autozone, Oreiley's, etc. they will test the battery in the car for free.

MX73

The GS is really sensitive to voltage. I would have the battery\alternator checked out first. If that checks out, check the starter. The solenoid may be going bad.

ARoberds

I havent checked the battery or the alternator. I dont have a voltmeter to check it with and there's only a napa auto parts on island. Which I tried to drive to the other day and Google maps sent me to some abandoned road. I'm sure I can find it bu asking around though. I'll try to take care of that today and check them out.

tghw

If the solenoid was going bad, it would not engage the Bendix and the starter would not crank the engine. He has stated that it cranks fine, it just takes too long for the engine to fire. That's not a solenoid problem.