2007 Intermittent Failure to Start
#1
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2007 Intermittent Failure to Start
I have a 2007 S-250 AWD, on a trip I stopped for gas and the car would not restart after fueling. Here is the scenario:
- put foot on brake pedal
- press start
- car didn't try to start. Dash says "Check System" and the triangle exclamation mark is lit.
- push start again and message comes up to put foot on brake pedal (already on)
During this time the fob wouldn't open the trunk or lock the doors. I finally disconnected the battery hoping to reset the vehicle computer and then reconnected the battery. This didn't change anything. After about 30 minutes, I decided I needed to move the vehicle away from the gas station pumps so I used the emergency procedure to get the car out of park and into neutral so I could push the car out of the way. After doing this, I put the car back in park and for no particular reason, I tried the normal procedure to start the car and it started normally. Nothing showed on the dash lights out of the ordinary.
I drove straight to the Lexus dealer and had them check out the car. I had had a "low key battery" warning a couple of days prior and they thought the problem might have something to do with that. They changed the battery in the key and checked out the car including codes. They told me they couldn't find anything wrong.
The car worked okay for a couple of days, but then the problem happened again. I opened up the top of the two relay modules and beat on the tops of the relays with my fingers and manipulated the wires to modules thinking I may have a sticky relay or dirty module connection. The car then started up but I had the "check VSC" warning and triangle exclamation mark. I don't know if my action caused the change or it was just coincidence.
I have tried the car several times this week and it continues to start with the same VSC warning message. The Lexus dealer cannot find any problem.
Any ideas about causes for this?
- put foot on brake pedal
- press start
- car didn't try to start. Dash says "Check System" and the triangle exclamation mark is lit.
- push start again and message comes up to put foot on brake pedal (already on)
During this time the fob wouldn't open the trunk or lock the doors. I finally disconnected the battery hoping to reset the vehicle computer and then reconnected the battery. This didn't change anything. After about 30 minutes, I decided I needed to move the vehicle away from the gas station pumps so I used the emergency procedure to get the car out of park and into neutral so I could push the car out of the way. After doing this, I put the car back in park and for no particular reason, I tried the normal procedure to start the car and it started normally. Nothing showed on the dash lights out of the ordinary.
I drove straight to the Lexus dealer and had them check out the car. I had had a "low key battery" warning a couple of days prior and they thought the problem might have something to do with that. They changed the battery in the key and checked out the car including codes. They told me they couldn't find anything wrong.
The car worked okay for a couple of days, but then the problem happened again. I opened up the top of the two relay modules and beat on the tops of the relays with my fingers and manipulated the wires to modules thinking I may have a sticky relay or dirty module connection. The car then started up but I had the "check VSC" warning and triangle exclamation mark. I don't know if my action caused the change or it was just coincidence.
I have tried the car several times this week and it continues to start with the same VSC warning message. The Lexus dealer cannot find any problem.
Any ideas about causes for this?
#2
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Perhaps whatever noid or switch that tells the car that you're in "P" isn't communicating correcting? I've read of this before and the temp fix was just move the gear selector through the gears and back to "P". Then start the car normally. All was well.
After the last "check VSC" message came up, did you have the codes pulled again?
After the last "check VSC" message came up, did you have the codes pulled again?
#3
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Thanks for the reply. I did try shifting out and into park at the time and it didn't help. The dealer said the VSC message was common after any problem and didn't really mean anything. They didn't mention any codes. The message cleared itself a couple of days later. It's hard to trust this car right now. I feel like it could leave me stranded at any time.
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