Hi Guys,

Went to turn over my GS and the car would not start?

P/S warning light came on?

Disconnected negative battery connection left it for a while then when I turned it back on the same happened again but now the outside temperature gauge in the car is not working and displays "E".

Outside temperature gauge is minor issue, why is the car not starting and P/S warning light coming on?

Any help appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

 

Have you checked your battery voltage with a multimeter? It should read ~12V.

Does it attempt to start up, and you only hear a click?

If the battery is low, electric power steering is disabled to save juice.

 

Don't have a multimeter, I will try and get my hands on one to check.

I have the car on charge since its been sitting up since June its on a Banner Accugard-Car 1.8A Power Charge System Battery Charger.

I have driven it a few times since its been off the road, I was only driving it 2 weeks ago and all was OK!

It doesn't even attempt to start up it, the fan comes on and the P/S light appears?

Lets hope its just the battery!!

 

If it doesn't attempt to start up, you have a whole other issue.

I'd take a check on your fuses to see if any of them are the culprit first.

If battery's low, MOST of the time it will ATTEMPT to start up... Lights should dim, and you should at least see the car attempt to click and start up.

MAYBE.... you attempted to start it on low voltage and the car popped a fuse that initiates the starter somewhere.

A couple ways you can go about this is:

1) Get the multimeter like speedkar said. Put it on VDC setting, and measure battery (it should sit between 12.4-12.9V).

2)Get a OBDII Scanner (any will do, i bought a cheap one off of amazon for $15). See if any codes come up.

I SWEAR, somewhere a long time ago.... (don't quote me on this please), I remember something being wrong with the HVAC system or something that causes similar values like 'E' to appear on your temperature gauge.... I just forgot what exactly it was, or where exactly it was (this was on a 4runner).

Does the radio and the A/C fans and controls still work at least?

 

 

It sounds like it might be a bad starter/solenoid possibly. In order to completely rule out the battery, try to jump start it with another vehicle. Sometimes a bad battery can show a good surface charge even though it is shot. If it doesn't start with a jump, I'd be looking at the starter.

 

If you can't connect to the PCM to at least read codes, you may have a blown fuse or bad ECM. Does the OBD port have voltage(you may have to look up the pin).
I see techstream scanners on Ebay in the $20 range. You are going to need something like that to read anything not related to emissions, but if you get no response from any scanner you have to deal with that first.

 

 

 

I heard certain parts of them going bad, but I know Toyotas have issues with their PCMs, there were recalls(Corollas come to mind). Others may know more.

 

Ok Thanks gs350fan
Any other help welcome guys!

 

First off what car is this? Japan spec GS300?

Does the engine turn over when you press the start button? Or does the engine not turn over at all? If it does turn over is there any coughing like the engine is trying to turn on? Did you make sure theres fuel in the car?

 

There was a recall on the 06 one, at least, but the reason was because they changed the type of oxygen sensors for reasons I no longer remember and a new one was needed to properly read the output of the new sensors.

Actually recall is the wrong word, it was just a TSIB which got applied if you took the car in for oxygen sensor issues.

 

 

Euro spec cars are different then the US spec GS300's, I believe theyre not a direct injection like the US spec.

About your no start, one more question when you try to start it does the acc/lights in the dash/radio does all that work? If it all works it leads me to believe you may have a bad starter. The easiest way to test is to grab a volt meter and test out the electrical current going to your actual starter. First locate your starter if its like the other GS's its near the front drivers side behind. Theres a huge wire that connected to the starter, put your positive side multi meter on that and the other side to a negative ground. If you have power going to the starter then your starter is bad.

You can either fully replace the starter, or you can try tearing your original starter apart and just replacing the contact brushes. The brushes are not difficult to replace and are very cheap like $15-25 dollars compared to a $250-350 starter