Got in my SC300 today and tried to drive it but I realized it was sputtering. I had to run an errand that was about 10 miles away so I thought it would clear itself up on the highway. Well it did not it actually got worse and my check engine light began to flash. I came straight back home and hooked up the CanOBD2 Tool and received 15 codes (1 of them was already there for the shift solenoid) so let me list them in order:
1. P0304 (Cylinder 4 misfire)
2. P0302 (Cylinder 2 misfire)
3. P0300 (Random misfire)
4. P0150 (02 Circuit Bank 2, Sensor 1)
5. P0153 (02 Circuit slow response Bank 2, sensor 1)
6. P0401 (Exhaust gas circulation recirculation flow insufficient)
7. P0773 (shift solenoid E electrical)
8.P0300 (Random misfire)
9. P0302 (Cylinder 2 misfire)
10. P0303 (Cylinder 3 misfire)
11. P0304 (Cylinder 4 misfire)
12. P0150 (02 Circuit Bank 2, Sensor 1)
13. P0153 (02 Circuit slow response Bank 2, sensor 1)
14. P0401 (Exhaust gas circulation recirculation flow insufficient)
15. P0773 (shift solenoid E electrical)

When I was driving I could tell I was only on about 2 cylinders -- maybe 3 and it kept getting worse. I did clean off the engine bay today but I have done that many times before without any problems and I only use light water. I did it because I just got the car back recently from MAACO (that is another horror story) and there was dust everywhere from them sandblasting it. I noticed another problem that was not there before I took it to MAACO -- my intake is completely off -- no of the bolts are in place and there are screws missing from below the air filter for some reason. All of the screws that hold it in place were either loose or missing -- it is like the engine was shaking them loose if that makes sense but none of that was the case prior to the car being taken to MAACO. I know because I just did a lot of work on the car also there is a big dent on the plastic near the intake that was not there -- it looks like someone left a very hot object sitting on the intake hoses. None of this makes any sense to me so I am asking for some expertise on how this could have happened. I have distributor cap and rotors, etc. if that is the problem but the car was driving perfectly just yesterday and I checked the scan tool with none of these codes previously within the past week.

 

I always first look at what changed since the last time it ran well. In this case you added water to the engine compartment. Me and many others feel that is a definite no no with the 300 or 400. I would pull and check distributor cap and rotor and if you see any carbon tracing inside the cap replace it. Start there and see if it's more involved.

 

^^^^ This. ^^^^

The only way to know for sure is to pull the plug wires and make sure there is no water down in the holes where the plugs are. It is very very common to do what you are describing after you have gotten water down in there. Very common

 

I have not been able to get to the plugs but I have checked the distributor cap -- no water or anything. I still hit it with some contact cleaner just to make sure it was free from anything. I been running the car since that day and I would have thought if there was water in the spark plug galley it would have evaporated by now. The car is still running poorly after a week so I am not sure it was the engine bay water that caused the problem. I noticed there is a missing piece from what I believe is part of my intake on the back of my car that was left there by MAACO. Also, there is a huge dent in the curved intake cleaner hose that was not there and it is getting bigger it seems to me. That leads me to think it is something clogging the intake.

The reason I have not been able to check the spark plugs is of course time to get to them and I figured I may as well change the valve cover gaskets too if I am going to remove all of that same stuff any way. I am considering replacing the cap and rotor too as well as the belts along with the spark plugs. I am more concerned with the dent that looks like it was caused by heat -- almost like someone placed an object on that intake cleaner hose that was very hot. Along with the bolts that are missing from the air filter -- not only are the bolts missing but the plastic is broken so the bolts would not hold the system in place anymore. I think I need to take pics so you can see what I am describing to you all.

 

After a week of it doing the same thing I took it to the dealership because if it was water in the galley it would have evaporated by that time. Well the dealership service dept said that it has jumped time and the timing belt needs to be replaced so of course they want to replace the water pump ($1,400), they want to replace the air intake cleaner system along with my fan shroud ($1,000) and I have a missing clip on my passenger door so they want $800 to fix the door. However, no price for the solenoid shift assembly and I know that code was showing -- that is why I hate taking my car there -- they never do a thorough job in diagnosing the problem. They seem to just look at the obvious and never find out all of the problems -- the same thing happened a year ago when I took it to them -- they took 2 days to do a diagnostic and it was incomplete. I asked them about some of the parts that were found in my car but they never responded to that and I told them I had a check engine code for the shift solenoid but they did not quote me for that either. Can anyone tell me what these parts are? They were left in my car by the body shop --MAACO (ugh they are awful).........

 

Ignore that middle pic -- I do not know what happened there. Here are more pics of the parts. If anyone is interested in seeing the horrible paint job I have pics of that too but for now I am trying to get my car running properly.