I am having trouble diagnosing multiple cylinder misfires. There’s a burning smell coming from the exhaust, car is shaking badly, has little to no power when giving it gas, and the check engine light is flashing.
I noticed the misfires and assumed it was a bad coil/spark plugs, only to find that there were misfires in cylinders 2 and 4. I drive a 2000 Lexus ES300 and each cylinder has its own coil, so I figured the chances of them both going bad at the same time and the car still starting is slim to none. I moved the coils around and have the same issue. When looking at the spark plugs, the we’re running lean (white hot) in all 3 cylinders in the front bank (2, 4, 6), but looked to be in good shape, so I’m wondering if there is a fuel issue? I could hear the fuel injectors ticking but don’t know if there’s actually fuel going to them.
Any ideas on what’s going on?
Running too lean can cause misfires. The next step after checking plugs, swapping coils; fuel test.
There are step by step instructions in the FAQs under "Maintenance".