Help Lexus gs450h p0016 code

alexchrisro · December 2, 2016

Hello guys. I need some help regarding a 2007 Lexus GS450h with 100k miles. The problem is very strange in my opinion. Sometimes when the car idles specially in heavy traffic and the engine stops and starts allot of times to recharge the batteries the check engine light comes on. Even with the CEL on everything is running perfect, no limp mode, or anything regarding a power surge. I plugged in my obd2 reader and it gives me the p0016 fault. Camshaft corelation or something like this.

I observed that this fault only occurs when the car is iddling allot in very heavy traffic (ex. one miles in one hour) in my country traffic jams are a very common thing :) If i delete it i can travel for weeks and it doesen't come on.

Is it something i shoud worry about? I heavn't reached a Lexus dealer yet. The car had all the recalls done(valve springs and stuff). Thank you and excuse my bad english.

Britprius · December 2, 2016

24 minutes ago, alexchrisro said:

Hello guys. I need some help regarding a 2007 Lexus GS450h with 100k miles. The problem is very strange in my opinion. Sometimes when the car idles specially in heavy traffic and the engine stops and starts allot of times to recharge the batteries the check engine light comes on. Even with the CEL on everything is running perfect, no limp mode, or anything regarding a power surge. I plugged in my obd2 reader and it gives me the p0016 fault. Camshaft corelation or something like this.

I observed that this fault only occurs when the car is iddling allot in very heavy traffic (ex. one miles in one hour) in my country traffic jams are a very common thing :) If i delete it i can travel for weeks and it doesen't come on.

Is it something i shoud worry about? I heavn't reached a Lexus dealer yet. The car had all the recalls done(valve springs and stuff). Thank you and excuse my bad english.

The code relates to the crankshaft or camshaft position sensors.

The fault could also be caused by the camshaft timing oil feed filters being partially blocked. There are two of these small filters located on the side of the cylinder heads near the front. Each camshaft timing unit is fed with oil through an aluminium pipe running up the side of the heads terminated onto the head with a banjo style bolt. The filters are under this bolt. The filters can be removed and cleaned but new ones are not expensive. This would be my first port of call since the problem appears at low engine revs "when there is likely to be lower oil pressure"

Cleaning the crankshaft and cam shaft position sensors might also clear the fault.

John.

alexchrisro · December 3, 2016

Thank you very much for your answer John. I think you are definitely right, especially because the car was bought second hand and the last owner changed the oil but the oil filter wasn't changed for about 30.000 miles because the shop where he would do the service oil did not have the tool to remove the oil filter housing (he did not know that those mechanics did not change the oil filter) and when i did the oil change i saw that the oil filter housing was very dirty and the oil filter pretty much toast. I cleaned up the oil filter housing, changed the filter, but i suspect that the enigne is still a little dirty inside. I will keep this oil for 2000 more miles and then i will changed again to do a flush (the oil was changed last week).

Today i had about 250 miles with citys and highways and mountain roads. Traffic was moderate and the car run flawlessly.

The CEL lights up only when the engine stop and starts allot of times on idle to power up the battery's. Strange thing is that i saw this only occurs only when the batteries are completely empty.

Britprius · December 3, 2016

When the HV Battery is empty the engine is forced to idle to charge the Battery.

The filters are easy to get to once the engine covers are removed, and only require one spanner to remove the tubular bolts that cover them. They can be washed out in petrol as they are made of plastic with a fine mesh. Dirty oil would soon block them reducing the flow through particularly at low engine speeds.

Use 0w30 or 5w30 oil or even 0w20 as I do. The 0w20 oil may be more expensive, but in my opinion is well worth the extra with the faster cold start lubrication it provides along with better fuel economy.

John.

alexchrisro · December 4, 2016

Thank you very much for the answers. As soon as i will find out what it was i will post here.

Boddney · December 5, 2016

John, would those filters be on a 2002 GS300 as well?

Bod

Britprius · December 5, 2016

If it has variable valve timing? Yes.

John.

alexchrisro · December 6, 2016

Just a little update. Today a plugged in again my obd reader. The CEL did not went on but i was curious to see the rpm at idle on the engine. It idles at 990-998 rpm but this sound ok to me. The strange thing is that i checked for errors and i had a p0017 but it was in pending. Something i shoud worry about? I did not clean those filter that John told me about. I am hoping to do that next week.

alexchrisro · December 15, 2016

Ok so after a week and so everything was perfect, no errors car runned great until... I left the car for 3 days in the garage. In my country it is pretty could this time of year. I started the car it ran great for a couple of seconds and then the idle began to be very rough. Check engine light came on and it started flashing. I restarted the car and everything was perfect. I pluged in my obd reader and it only gave me: "p0300 random multiple cylinder misfire detected".

Does anybody have any ideas? When i restarted the car everything was perfect. Thank you very much.

steve2006 · December 16, 2016

Did you replace the VVTI oil filters as suggested by Britprius?

steve2006 · December 16, 2016

On 05/12/2016 at 11:05 AM, Boddney said:

John, would those filters be on a 2002 GS300 as well?

Bod

Part number for both GS300 and GS450h is 15678-46020 priced around £5.00 each, just one needed for GS300 being a straight 6 engine (located on passenger side head) and 2 for the GS450h with one on each bank.

alexchrisro · December 16, 2016

@Steve: next week i will do that. Thank you

Britprius · December 16, 2016

The misfire code can be caused by condensation on the plug insulators if the car has been left standing with cold damp conditions. It quickly disappears as the heat from the engine drives off the moisture. However with the oil being cold and "thick" it could be caused by blocked cam timing filters.

John.

alexchrisro · December 24, 2016

Ok so I think i can say everything is very ok. I cleaned the filters that John told me and changed the spark plugs. The check engine light did not come on since the first post of this topic. The filters where not dirty as far as I could saw but i cleaned them anyway. The strange thing is that when i took out the right screw with the filter for bank 2 of the engine, there was no oil coming out but on the left screw on bank 1 when i got the screw out some nasty dirty oil came out, probarly that was the cause for the CEL that i was mentioning in the first post.

About the misfires, the strange thing is that the problem i think was related to the oil dipstick not plugged in correctly. Probably it was a vacuum leak because when i plugged the dipstick correctly, the engine cold started fine and this was before i changed the spark plugs.

Anyway guys thank you allot for your help especially Britprius (John) for all the good advice about my problems. I will keep this topic updated in case others need help.

alexchrisro · January 24, 2017

Ok guys, i am re writing here regarding the problem with the cold start problem. The p0016 code never came back, i cleaned the filter just like John said and everything is ok. The other problem is related to the cold start. I think it is better to write here then start a new thread. It is not something of a big deal but it bugs the hell out of me. The cold start problem is not fixed. The thing is this. If I don't start the car for a couple of days the engine misfires at cold start. But the misfire is weird in a way that I will try to explain the best i can:
Start the engine, everything is fine, it idles ok, then after a couple of 10-15 seconds the engine starts to shake, if I let it to shake it will eventually throw the p0300 code or (p0300, p0301, p0302, p0303, p0304, p0305, p0306) if i gently push the acceleration the shaking goes away and it idles perfect. This only happens when the vehicle is left for 2 days minimum and it misfires for a couple of seconds then everything is ok.
The thing isn't a big deal because when i start the car if I see that it shakes I gently push the acceleration pedal or put it in drive and go and everything is perfect but still... what could be the problem? Spark plugs are changed, MAF sensor changed, throttle body cleaned, oil, filters, vvti filters everything is new. I have no idea what the problem is. The coils i assume can't be bad since i got misfire on all cylinders. I thought the problem was the dipstick not plugged in correctly but it was only a coincidence... however today i saw something a little weird. At the bottom of the dipstick where it plugs into the engine there is some oil leaking very slightly. Is it possible that a vacuum leak appears there? I don't know what to do anymore and i do not want to throw money anymore on changing parts that are working

Thank you.

Britprius · January 29, 2017

Try cleaning the throttle body "butterfly and surrounding area" and lubricate the throttle shaft (WD40). You should be able to operate the throttle against the spring with your fingers, and it's operation should be smooth with no sticking or grittiness.

Next carefully clean the MAF sensor being careful not to break the two fine wires. Best done by removing the MAF sensor and using aerosol can of MAF cleaner.

Check all vacuum hoses for secure fitting and air leaks.

Chang e the "o" ring on the dipstick if there is one.

John

Boddney · January 29, 2017

Sounds similar to what old diesels used to do. When you leave it for a while the fuel used to run back toward the tank. You start the engine and it would use the fuel in the injectors then run all lumpy as the air ran through the injectors then as the fuel came up it would be fine.

However, on a modern petrol it could be loosing fuel pressure in the common rail thus giving a misfire code on all cylinders.

It may be nothing like this, I just thought I would give you another angle to look at it from.

Bod.

alexchrisro · January 31, 2017

The throttle body is perfectly cleaned. Yesterday i took it out and cleaned it again and it is brand new. The maf sensor is one week old and again i changed with a brand new one. The problem still exist. I will take the car to the dealer and see what is their opinion. I don't know what to do anymore and the problem is very iritating. :(

Stokesy · December 17, 2017

Hi

are there any pictures to where the filters located

SpeedyGee · December 31, 2017

Are you still having issues @alexchrisro

On 29/01/2017 at 1:20 PM, Boddney said:

However, on a modern petrol it could be loosing fuel pressure in the common rail thus giving a misfire code on all cylinders.

It may be nothing like this, I just thought I would give you another angle to look at it from.

I immediately thought fuel pressure too when I read that misfire code get set for each cylinder but applying some revs clears the issue.

I assume fuel pressure (at least for the Direct Injection) should be viewable using TechStream.

alexchrisro · January 3, 2018

I did not update this topic because i wanted to be sure that the problem is fixed, but for now, it's been almost an year and i did not have that issue anymore. It seems that something happened when i cleaned my throttle body. The cold starts where stupid with missfires and shakes throwing p0300 code. To cure the problem i simply unplugged the 12v Battery terminals located in the boot.

When i plugged the terminals back and cold started the engine, it somehow calibrated itself because for about 30s the revs where going up and down, then it settled itself and since then... no more cold start problems.

As for the p0016 code, the enigma was partially solved. My guess is that the ring tone in the phazer is damaged or something. I had the vvti sensor changed(camshaft sensor) and it turns out it was bad. Now the error is still returning but very rarely.

Mine pops the code when the engine is shutting off and on, so the cure this, i now start the car and drive it with the gearbox in S mode (in this mode it does not allow the engine to shut off) till the engine temperature gets to 95 C. Then i put the gearbox in D and no more p0016 code. It may sound stupid but this is how i cured the problems with my car. For this code i am guessing it could also be the crankshaft position sensor but to change it you must remove the a/c compressor and i decided to leave it like that