3rd Service, MOT and a Misfire

rayaans · January 11, 2019

So, had my 3rd service and MOT on the RX. MOT passed with no advisories.

3rd service was fine, said that the rear offside tyre was wearing on the edge but I remember having a picture on that side so I presume its from that and will even out.

The most worrying news was that Injector 1 is misfiring intermittently discovered on service. No codes stored and the car itself drives fine when warm but shudders on occasions when cold

Been told to put Fuel cleaner in and see if it helps, otherwise work will be done under warranty.

olliesgrandad · January 11, 2019

Out of interest what fuel do you normally use?

rayaans · January 11, 2019

1 hour ago, olliesgrandad said:

Out of interest what fuel do you normally use?

Always used BP standard petrol for many years including on my 3RX which I had for 5 years, our IS300h which is over 5 years old now. The 4RX is not even 3 yet so I presume its a fault rather than the fuel being used.

olliesgrandad · January 11, 2019

14 minutes ago, rayaans said:

Always used BP standard petrol for many years including on my 3RX which I had for 5 years, our IS300h which is over 5 years old now. The 4RX is not even 3 yet so I presume its a fault rather than the fuel being used.

Quite interesting that you use BP exclusively.

When I was running the dirty diesels I thought that they never ran very well on BP.

I tend to use whatever is best value at the time.

In my previous IS 300h and my GS300h I tended use either Texaco or Shell. Since I bought my 3RX I have been using a mixture of branded fuel and supermarket fuel. Certainly I haven't noticed any difference in performance or economy, but of course the RX has a lot more power than the 4 cylinders and my car is always running hot.

rayaans · January 11, 2019

43 minutes ago, olliesgrandad said:

Quite interesting that you use BP exclusively.

When I was running the dirty diesels I thought that they never ran very well on BP.

I tend to use whatever is best value at the time.

In my previous IS 300h and my GS300h I tended use either Texaco or Shell. Since I bought my 3RX I have been using a mixture of branded fuel and supermarket fuel. Certainly I haven't noticed any difference in performance or economy, but of course the RX has a lot more power than the 4 cylinders and my car is always running hot.

This misfiring only seemed to occur starting end of November last year. Now it is intermittent and the dealer couldn't find the fault properly as it's not stored so I don't really know what's going on.

They know about it though so said if something is to happen they'll do it under warranty even though it runs out on 14th Jan.

Can only has 22k miles on it so very unusual indeed. I wonder if it's just a duff spark plug

olliesgrandad · January 11, 2019

Is the misfire occurring under load - appreciate it might be difficult to decide with the hybrid?

Could be a plug or even a plug lead.

In the olden days when copper plug leads were replaced with surpressed carbon it was common for them to break down under load.

Wonder why the dealer suspected an injector - have they encountered it before and how did they identify which one?

If it was a plug or lead I would have thought it more likely to have given problems when hot, in the old days coils would do that.

rayaans · January 11, 2019

7 minutes ago, olliesgrandad said:

Is the misfire occurring under load - appreciate it might be difficult to decide with the hybrid?

Could be a plug or even a plug lead.

In the olden days when copper plug leads were replaced with surpressed carbon it was common for them to break down under load.

Wonder why the dealer suspected an injector - have they encountered it before and how did they identify which one?

If it was a plug or lead I would have thought it more likely to have given problems when hot, in the old days coils would do that.

No it doesn't occur under load. Rather the opposite. It only seems to occur when the engine is cold.

No idea why or how they suspected it but they say it's injector 1 that's misfiring intermittently.

olliesgrandad · January 11, 2019

40 minutes ago, rayaans said:

No it doesn't occur under load. Rather the opposite. It only seems to occur when the engine is cold.

No idea why or how they suspected it but they say it's injector 1 that's misfiring intermittently.

Surprised they didn't suggest replacing it, if they have identified the issue especially as the car is under warranty.

rayaans · January 12, 2019

13 hours ago, olliesgrandad said:

Surprised they didn't suggest replacing it, if they have identified the issue especially as the car is under warranty.

They can't diagnose it because it hasn't put any lights on. Now I do recall my 3RX used to shudder in the cold a bit too and once warm it'd be okay. It's a similar case here.

I'm going to put some redex in before Monday and just see if it helps. If it sorts the issue I'll use BG44K from now onwards

olliesgrandad · January 12, 2019

18 minutes ago, rayaans said:

They can't diagnose it because it hasn't put any lights on. Now I do recall my 3RX used to shudder in the cold a bit too and once warm it'd be okay. It's a similar case here.

I'm going to put some redex in before Monday and just see if it helps. If it sorts the issue I'll use BG44K from now onwards

Be very interested to see if redex sorts the problem.

Britprius · January 12, 2019

The RX does not have plug leads as such as the individual ignition coils are mounted directly on top of the spark plugs. This is almost universal now doing away with the distributor, and HT leads. Of course the coils themselves can give rise to problems, but if this were the case fault codes would be stored.

John.

GSLV6 · January 12, 2019

It could well be a faulty coil pack is this is exactly the sort of symptoms you get Ryaan. As the engine warms up, contacts can close and the fault can disappear. This was especially problematic for VW/Audi/Seat petrol cars a few years back and coil packs would be very short lived on those. If they can identify the cylinder which is misfiring, it may be worth having that coil pack replaced to see if the problem goes away...ditto a new plug for the sake of a few pounds. I'd be very surprised to learn that it was an injector but it's possible I suppose.

rayaans · January 12, 2019

33 minutes ago, GSLV6 said:

It could well be a faulty coil pack is this is exactly the sort of symptoms you get Ryaan. As the engine warms up, contacts can close and the fault can disappear. This was especially problematic for VW/Audi/Seat petrol cars a few years back and coil packs would be very short lived on those. If they can identify the cylinder which is misfiring, it may be worth having that coil pack replaced to see if the problem goes away...ditto a new plug for the sake of a few pounds. I'd be very surprised to learn that it was an injector but it's possible I suppose.

Theyve identified its cylinder 1 misfiring. I put redex in this morning just to see. Im driving about 10 miles today and 10 miles tomorrow but Im still going to take it in on Monday to see whats going on.

Thackeray · January 12, 2019

22 hours ago, rayaans said:

So, had my 3rd service and MOT on the RX. MOT passed with no advisories.

3rd service was fine, said that the rear offside tyre was wearing on the edge but I remember having a picture on that side so I presume its from that and will even out.

The most worrying news was that Injector 1 is misfiring intermittently discovered on service.

A while ago, there was a thread by an American RX owner listing the faults the car had had since new. It made me wonder if there was any difference in quality between Lexus cars made in Japan and those made in the US. Same question arises for Mercedes cars that aren't made in Germany - are they all of equal quality?

I think I read the RX was made in Canada. But I wonder if that's just for the North American market. Is the RX that's sold in Europe made in Japan or somewhere else?

ColinBarber · January 12, 2019

10 minutes ago, Thackeray said:

think I read the RX was made in Canada. But I wonder if that's just for the North American market. Is the RX that's sold in Europe made in Japan or somewhere else?

European models are all made in Japan. NA vehicles are made in Canada.

I don't believe there are any quality issues due to the country the plant is located in.

rayaans · January 13, 2019

So the issue is still there today so Ive decided to take it in tomorrow. Will update in due course

rayaans · January 14, 2019

So the car went in today. Parts are being replaced under warranty on 24th but I don't know which ones. Will update further when I have more details

olliesgrandad · January 14, 2019

21 minutes ago, rayaans said:

So the car went in today. Parts are being replaced under warranty on 24th but I don't know which ones. Will update further when I have more details

Hopefully will sort it out