Hello,

own 2004 RX-330 (Japan man), 120k. Recently knock sensor died + thermostat. Going to replace sensors + thermostat + spark plugs and looking for recommendation - what else make sense to change ?

thanks!

John

 

If you're going to be touching the rear bank of spark plugs and are going the route of removing the intake manifold instead of the wiper cowl, change every gasket in there. I'd also change the PCV valve.

 

HI,
I will be fixing a coolant valley leak soon and plan on changing my knock sensors too while I am in there. Recommend knock sensor wiring harness(cheap on ebay)- known failure point and maybe replacing coolant bypass hose if you pull the intake manifold- at least that's what I'm doing while I have it apart.

While you are in there and you see a lot of red crusty stuff you may have an old coolant leak from where the top radiator hose connects to the water outlet over the manifold and dripped down or you could have a coolant valley plate leak. you will know when you get in there and have it apart if you have a problem or not. lol

I have to pull my intake manifold to get to the coolant valley plate where it is leaking.
This is the parts I bought showing coolan bypass hose and gasket material for coolant valley plate.




There is no gasket for the coolant plate so it needs to be made with OEM Toyota seal packing(there is a good video on youtube on the and replacing knock sensor and fixing this leak).
My car is 2004 RX330 FWD NAP 148k miles.

 

When my car has P0328 code, I search web and I have not find simple and cost effective ways for RX330 owner to deal with knock sensor related check engine light. I hope this can help others.
I have 2004 RX330 with P0328, tried RX300 knock sensor bypass-using good knock sensor signal feed into bad knock sensor connection. It did not work for my RX330. I connected new knock sensor with extended original wire, relocated it to easy access location --outside of engine. It is super low cost and take about 30 minutes for actual repair, cleared P0328 code, my car passed state inspection and for more than 1000 miles by now, no check engine light.

Disconnect battery
Find knock sensor connector to ECM ( remove air filter box will make easier access), locate the correct 2 wires, (there are 4 wires for 2 knock sensors on RX330), P0328 is for Bank1 knock sensor, which is close to firewall side engine, mine has one white wire(signal) and one black wire. I cut these 2 wires on knock sensor side, leave long enough for connect to new knock sensor wires.

parts required: 1) OEM knock sensor for RX330, 2) knock sensor connector ( some call fuel injector connector) with piggy tail wires 3) replacement machine screw with length longer than original, same diameter
the extra length is equal or smaller than thickness of new knock sensor 4) electric wires long enough (to connect new knock sensor to current knock sensor to ECM connector)

Tool required: 1) torque wrench, 2)wire connector/soldering gun and soldering, other common tools like screw drivers......

Take original machine bolt/screw out from affected engine side, mine is bank 1 side, lowest possible area ( closer to original knock sensor location, but easy reach from outside, no need to open up engine), mount new knock sensor on the longer bolt/screw in the same location with required torque, ensure knock sensor connector is facing direction to have room for connector piggy tail.

connect piggy tail connector wires to the cut off knock sensor wires, so the new knock sensor will provide signals to ECM. make sure there is enough wires length to connect the new knock sensor and ECM plug.
If the wire between new knock sensor is not correct, after reconnect battery and start the car, check engine light will light up immediately. Disconnect battery and switch the 2 wires for knock sensor, try again. It will work.

I am not a car mechanics. Do it at your own risk. I Just share my DIY experience.

I think the replacement knock sensor location is so close to original, it should be able to pick up most of required signal from engine and function quite well. At least should be better than by pass knock sensor method. It still sense the engine for abnormal. My relocated knock sensor function well enough for me. It costs me total < $20 in 2019.(new Toyota/Lexus knock sensor from ebay $10, piggy tail connector from ebay $7, replacement longer bolt from Home depot $2). I have used connection wires and heat shrink tube and soldering...not counting as cost.

 

Do you have a photo to show where the knock sensor connector attaches to the ECM? Thanks.

 

Bypassing or taking a knock sensor offline on a rx330 is easy but the rx300 has different wiring schematic and the process is different. The 300 uses a 1 wire per knock sensor but the 330 uses 2 wires per sensor. I have successfully performed the process on my 330. I would suggest fixing the problem correctly. I have my own reasoning to why I did what I did.

 

Can you explain how to take the knock sensor offline on a RX330 so I can clear the check engine light? I use the car to drive 4 miles each day on local roads to go to the train stop and just want to pass inspection. Thank you! Any photos of the location is greatly appreciated.

 

 

Hopefully you can get these two schematics. You will be tricking the computer to think both knock sensors are working by connecting both cpu knock sensor wires to the one good sensor. First you need to know if bank 1 or bank 2 is bad.
bank 1 sensor uses white and black
bank2 sensor uses red and green.
behind the glove box is your cpu.
e9 plug is the second to the bottom plug
pin 1 has a black wire. Sensor 1
pin 2 has a red wire sensor 2
pin 20 has a green wire sensor 2
pin 28 has a white wire. Sensor 1

my issue was a bad bank 1 knock sensor. So I cut the black wire 2 inches away from the connector and attached it to the red wire using a connector. Do not cut the red wire. I then cut the white wire 2 inches from the connector and connected it to the green wire.

I cleared my codes and I was done.

if you bank 2 sensor is bad. You will do this in reverse. If you look at the wiring diagram you will see the black for bank 1 and the red for bank 2 are side by side. Same with white and green.

 

There is another write up on this on this site also. Just fyi