Red93sc400

Ok, so last evening I was suffering with this rotten headcold that I came on strong last Tuesday. I woke up at 3 AM caughing and hacking. I padded downstairs (to allow Mrs. RED93 to sleep), took some cough medicine and settled in to the old leather chair, flicked on the reading lamp and picked out my favorite book....

"The LEXUS SC400 Shop Manual - Volume 1"

As I was flipping thru the manual, I got to thinking that when I was under the SC400 last, one thing I noticed, or did not notice was the starter. Gee I said to myself, where is the starter? It is not where it shoud be. (somewhere around the lower bell housing of the engine or trannie). Where is it?

I thought nothing more about "THE STARTER" until last evening when I was wide awake, hacking and feverish with delusion....

So I flipped thru the poorly indexed manuals and found the starter area of the manual.

The exploded diagram SADLY told it all....

I had to rub my eyes....

The starter motor and selenoid are located smack dab in the damn middle of the engine. No kidden.

The starter is UNDER the intake manifold. I then flipped with amazement past page after page of procedural diagrams that illustrate how to dis-assemble the upper half of the engine just to get to the starter motor.

OK... so, has any poor soul here had the unhappy experience of having their SC400 starter motor replaced?

Did you do "the deed" yourself? (if so my hat, coat and everything else is off to you)...

If you had the dealer do the work... is you loan paid off yet? I can imagine it taking 8 hours of labor to get to the motor and another 8 hours to get everything back together. That is assuming you know what you are doing.

Since "the Starter" is rarely if ever a topic here. I thought this little missive would be of interest to ya'll.

Then again, maybe I was halucinating and this starter location is just a Nyquil induced bad dream.....

Enjoy the weekend... and take it easy on the starter amigos!

Purplexed

I know of a fellow who had his belt replaced at 140k miles. I venture to guess that the perfect person to ask this question would be a Lexus service manager. They have seen it all.
For example:
When I was inquiring about this engine, he told me that the timing belt can easily go to 100-110k with no problem. The only times he saw a belt break (twice) was when the water pump "froze" (not due to cold) and bearings came to a halt. That he believed may have been a problem due to not using toyota coolant. These were high mileage issues (120k and beyond)

reLEXin247

I had my starter rebuilt a few months ago.. I have a friend that has a starter/alternator reman shop, so he did the rebuild for free... but my mechanic (not lexus) took the starter out and replaced it for me after the rebuild.. not a fun task, he said that he pulled it from underneath and it took a good 6 hours of work to pull it, then another 6 to replace it. My starter never fully went out, but it was making a funny noise right after I started the car.

Purplexed

Did the car have alot of short trips requiring several starts per day ? And what was the mileage?

Thanks

VQT

I asked the same question a few months back, no one replaced it himself.
From what I remember reading the manual, the starter located above the intake manifold not under. Nevertheless, to get to the SC/LS400 starter will be a bi%^h.

BLK13X

Hi,

I don't have the V8 model so I wouldn't really know much about the (compared to the 1JZ), but I haven't really heard of many starter motor problems with the 1UZFE. What I HAVE heard though with these engines is that you always have to make sure that your power swteering pump ISN'T LEAKING otherwise you're up for big $$$ getting it fixed as well as the alternator, which is right under it.

ChrisSC300

My starter went out a few weeks ago, scariest day of my life (well second most scary day, the worst was when I spun out, jumped a median, and ended up sideways in a hooters parking lot). Well, for a few weeks prior to it totally dyeing my car wouldn't start on the first crank. Everything worked in the car it just wouldn't start. It usually started on the 2nd or 3rd try. But one day before class it just wouldn't start. I called to have it towed to the dealership and they said that the truck would be there in about 2hrs. Well, I decided to just give it one more try, and wha do ya know??? IT STARTED!!! but it was making a strange noise, kind of a grinding sound. It freaked me out so I then decided to just turn the car off and have Lexus look at it, no since in screwing something major up. WELL, when I turned the key to off and took it out of the ignition the car remained on!!!!! And it was making the most horrible sound ever and i could smell something burning. I turned the key back to on and the noise somewhat went away. I WAS FREAKING OUT. I was calling the service department no stop, but of course no one was there. I then tried to turn it off again and still no luck, but when i took they key out the second time, the car stared to die out. I figured i could let the car turn it self off and at least then i could have it towed and worked on. WELL, as soon as the car died out the HUGE cloud of smoke came out from under the hood and wheel well. I was freakin out. I actually had tears in my eyes cuz i had thought i blew my engine somehow. Well, I had it towed and it turns out that it was the starter and that the selenoid had burned up (which caused my entire garage and 1/2 my house to fill with smoke). I WAS SOOO RELIEVED. Ended up taking only 1 day to repair and set me back $500. I was just happy my beloved lexus didn't have any serious engine damage.

007lexus

I am dreading the day when I have to change my starter. When I bought my sc400 the car had a weird start up noise. The noise is coming from starter and here is the noise: the bushings inside the starter are on their way out. I know how a car is supposed to sound while cranking it. The noise happens occasionally and its noticeable (maybe I can record it for you guys).

The point of the story is that my starter is on its way up and since I had my car(1.5yrs) and one day my car will not start, hopefully not in a dark bad area.