I have an 07RX350 purchased July 2006 with about 1600 miles on it.

It's been a great vehicle, but last night I went into the garage to start it and it wouldn't start. I had turned the key and it sounded like it was going to start, but maybe I didn't keep my hand on it long enough, and it didn't. Went I went to try again, I heard the starter make a noise but nothing happened.

I tried again several times, and the lights/accessories all went on and the starter made noise but nothing happened with the engine.

I took my GX instead, and came back a few hours later. I again tried to start the RX, and this time it started right up!

I'm guessing it was somehow flooding, but I never heard of gas flooding after one partial attempt to start a vehicle! (I'm not even sure how cars without carbeurators flood). I did check the manual today and it mentions flooding as a possibility, but just tells you to try to start the car normally afterwards I remember there was an old trick of flooring the gas pedal while running the starter, but that does not seem to used anymore.

I've had many cars of different types/brands/ages/engines/systems, some with all kinds of starting problems, but I actually can't recall flooding any of them.

Has anybody had this problem of the RX350 suddenly not starting? Any better ideas what the problem is or what to do about it? I could take it to the dealer, but what could they find now? Meanwhile, I've lost confidence.

Oh yeah, I had driven the RX earlier in the day, didn't leave any electrical on, and the weather was in the 40's, dry and the car inside the garage.

 

Lexus will make it right if you give them the opportunity.

 

Not starting:

1. Does the starter spin the engine at the rate it used to [guess, wrrr vs wr-wr-wr] and engine failes to catch.

If yes battery and starter are good. Note if you repeatedly try this over time you will drain the battery out.

If no, you have a problem with battery, cables or starter.
Cables ... visual ... look for crud, frays etc. Also you should not be able to twist the terminal by hand. Clean crud by wire brush and or baking powder paste.
Battery... observe dash lights if they dim when you try to start, you have a bad battery or bad cable/connectors. Typically you hear clicking but the engine does not turn over. Get a jump start. typical life of battery is 2-3 yrs. Battery can be load tested at most auto shops.
Starter ... eliminate above two. Jump will not help.

2. If the engine is not catching .. the problems are with fuel or spark or air.
If you are here, mostprobably you will need expert help to get the engine running. Some of the syptoms are listed:

Fuel: Check guage to ensure there is fuel in the tank. Smell exhaust ... unburnt gasoline smell indicates fuel is getting into the chamber. If you are adventurious, you can undo a spark plug and a wet looking tip indicates you are getting fuel.
Air: Check and shake out your air filter
Air metering: Beyond the scope of discussion here.
Spark/ignition: Lexus uses imobilizer and you need the right key transponder near the ignition switch to allow creation of spark.
You need both the spark and the spark timing needs to be correct. Broken timing belt or wet wires can affect.
Timing light can confirm both.

Salim

Salim

 

Salimshah-

If any of the above things were wrong, the car would not have started normally a few hours later (particularly as it was now colder). The battery was fine, and obviously there was fuel.

I doubt if the wires were wet, as it was dry and in the garage (the last vehicle I had wet wire problems with was my '73 Dodge Dart Lemon, so I hope you are not saying this is common in the RX!).

I'm trying to find out if anybody else had a similar problem with their recent model RX. If I just bring it back to the dealer with it working, I don't think they will be able to tell much.

 

My post was very generic to help any one triage non-starting problems.

I could not figure from your first post, if the starter was spinning the engine at a decent rpm.

If so we would be in fuel/air/spark/timing problem. Since it did run eventually you can eliminate timing [timing usually does not fix it self].

Air rarely happens but the sensors play a major part.

Flooding was more pronounced in carb based engines. Every time some one presses the gas pedal beyond 1/2 the standbye boost chamber would spray in extra gas. Solution was DO NOT Pump gas pedal, but hold it down to open the air intake to max and thus feed more oxygen.

Back to you issue, it seems bad gas, bad injectors or a quirk in sensors prevented you to start. Only advice I can give you is to be patient as fleeting problems are hard to diagnose. Complete failures are much easy to deal with.

Salim