So my dad got his lexus gs300 towed home from the fire station today. It overheated when another firefighter was driving it to another station. Im not sure what happened but the kid told my dad that the car just shut off. He said there was a "grinding noise" when it happened but I cannot confirm this. My dad thought it was a broken timing belt but he later found no coolant in the resevoir and the lower rad hose had come off. So it overheated. Now it wont start. He filled it with water and it wont start. Now its in my garage and Im going ot try to get it started. I told him worst case scenerio is that it straight up over heated. The engine seized, piston walls got scored and now that its cooled off its back in tolerance and will turn over fine but the compression is so low it wont start or even sputter. Im thinking there might be a computer that has to be reset after an over heat and the car may have shut itself off automatically when it reached a critical temp. Any thoughts? I have no idea how this thing works. Its japanese and gasoline .


I know this really doesn't belong here but diesel discussioners seem to know EVERYTHING and can solve problems exceptionally well. Im gonna go work on it now and ill try to see if I can tell if the belts broken. How do I do that? Lol. You cant see the camshaft through the oil filler like a 617!


I know with a gasoline I have to look for three things to make it start (or atleast putter). Fuel, Spark, Compression. Wish me luck.


He only got this car becuase he got it for $1500 from a friend with 180k on it but it ran good and is a straight car. Maybe now hell finaly by an mb diesel...

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1981 300SD 512k OM603

Can you do a compression test? That would be the quickest way to determine if you have any engine left.

Darnit bad grammar even in the thread title

Anyway no I do not have a compression tester. I may be able to borrow one from dieselkraut. I just jumped the ignition coil to the body of the car and I can tell the ignition system of online because I can get a nice spark to jump. Id imagine if the car was in "safe" mode it would just shut off the ignition. Im thinking it may have cut the fuel supply but when I crank it for a good length of time I can smell unburnt gasoline from the exhaust

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1981 300SD 512k OM603

Im fairly sure this car is toast. It may be a lexus but it really is heartbreaking to see such a straight clean car be junked. It reminds me of all the mercedes Ive seen at pick n pull

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1981 300SD 512k OM603

How hard is it to swap in a good engine from the junkyard?

TurboBenz, I see the 3 liter Toyota motors go for like 250$-300$ on craigslist.

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-Justin

91 560 SEC AMG - other dogs dd
01 Honda S2000 - dogs dd
07 MB ML320 CDI - dd
16 Lexus IS250 - wifes dd

it's automatic.

I wouldn't be so quick to declare it dead. One of my customers overheated her es300 to the point of the engine turning off on three seperate occasions before it started to burn a ton of oil, which in turn she didn't fill up, and locked up that motor.

The gs300 engine is a pretty tough little engine, even if it has no compression check to make sure the timing belt didn't blow or jump teeth, either one is highly likely when you severely overheat an engine.

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83 300SD.......sold
96 integra SE....sold
99 a4 quattro....sold
2001 IS300.......sold
2002 330i.........current.
2004 highlander limited....current.

I'm not aware of any passenger car that has engine protections built in so their is no safe mode. Overheating doesnt always mean death. Do a compression test and post the results.
remove all the plugs
disable ignition system
pull fuel pump relay if you can find it
record pressure after 7th compression stroke

If you leave the fuel system working you can eventually wash down the cyl walls of their oil and lower compression test readings making the engine look worse than it is.