The other night around 11pm my car lost power on the highway. I was traveling 80 MPH. The RPMs would not stay up no matter how much I pumped the gas pedal. The car did not die though. I would hold an idle, but felt like it was missing a little.
I had the car towed to my hotel. Two days later I tried to drive the car to a mechanic. The car started up fine. It drove for about300 ft and stopped moving again. The car did not die and would hold the idle.
Towed to the mechanic. It sat over a Monday holiday in his lot. On Wednesday I called to see how it was coming on the car. They put it on the computer and the only thing that came up was an engine misfire. They have been driving the car for 2 days with no incident.
They have not done anything to the car as they don’t want to throw money or parts at it not knowing what the car is doing.
Feels like a fuel restriction but it idles.
Need some help. My daughter is driving the car and I am out of tows on AAA.
Thanks,
Podnick
“the only thing that came up was an engine misfire. They have been driving the car for 2 days with no incident.”
Engine misfire is not a trivial thing, and if this mechanic is test-driving the car while the engine is misfiring, he could wind up destroying your catalytic converter. A good mechanic should be able to cure engine misfire fairly easily. Are you sure that this mechanic is competent?
What can you tell us–in detail–about this car’s maintenance over the past 3 years?
Also–you did not mention anything about the Check Engine Light.
I am assuming that it was flashing/blinking.
Was it flashing/blinking, or was it steadily lit up, or was it not lit up at all?
Stalling Lexus IS300
Model-Year ?
CSA
Sounds like a possible fuel pressure problem.
do you frequently drive over roads that need serious repair and drive the speed limit then, or a good 5 or ten over? maybe you over worked the transmission.
“maybe you over worked the transmission”
What–exactly–does that mean?
Can you explain, “overworking the transmission”?
And, what would “overworking the transmission” have to do with an engine misfire that likely stems from a fuel delivery issue or possibly from an ignition problem?
VDCdriver, The care is a 2002, IS300 with 153,000 miles. I believe the mechanic to be competent, highly rated by AAA and Yelp. Unfortunately, he is not my normal mechanic because where it broke down is over 5 hours from my home where my daughter goes to school. The car has not misfired in his care. The misfire was the only thing that came up on the computer and it had happened sometime previously. That’s part of the problem, it is not having any problems now after sitting for 2 days. I have all the major service done on the car and have had no major problems other than the water pump and that was 60k ago. No details to speak of over the last 3 years. As the car was losing power and I had to pull over I was pumping the gas to keep the car going to the side of the road, no engine light ever came on. This is a scary piece of interstate so I wanted to see if I could pull a little farther over so I put the car in drive. I still needed to pump the gas to get enough power to get the car to move maybe 100 yards or so. At this time the check engine light only came on for 2-3 seconds and went off. As I said before, the car never died and never had a problem restarting. The mechanic has been driving the car for 3 days now with no recurring problem.
I do not believe it to be a transmission problem because I was not experiencing spikes in rpm from slippage.
Thank you for providing the clarification on both the car and the mechanic. Yes, this does sound like it will be difficult to track down, unfortunately. 
The possibility of this being a transmission problem is…remote, especially in view of your relevant observation that the RPMs were not spiking.