You bet, I will pick up the parts today and post photos of them with part numbers and cost. As stated I wont tear into the car until this weekend due to it being driven everyday. But when I do I will try to a lot of photos.

 

This happened to my 1999 at 63,000 miles. I had the starter replaced at Putnam Lexus in Redwood City, California in 2005. $1,000.00. Good luck.

 

As promised here are the photos.

I did this repair by myself with little or no knowledge on Lexus motors. I did not rush and it took me about 4-5 hours from start to finish. Total cost was $81.90 and used all factory Lexus parts. The car went back together great and starts and runs perfect. Well worth the effort to do it on my own, my friend paid $1,400 to have the same job done at the dealer.

I replaced the contacts and plunger in the starter and here are the part numbers and prices.

Item: Starter Kit (contact) Part Number: 28226-72010 List: $13.80 Shop Price: $11.20

Item: Contact Part Number: 28226-54412 List: $7.00 Shop Price: $5.95

Item: Plunger Part Number: 28235-54380 List: $26.58 Shop Price: $22.59

Item: Intake Gasket (x2) Part Number: 17171-50020 List: $24.80 (x2) Shop Price $21.08 (x2)

Total: $81.90



Exploded View of Starter.



Motor as I started.


Tear Down.

 

Starter.


Inside the starter.


Contacts Before Old VS New.




Plunger Old VS New.

 

Clean Up and Reassembly.






I then replaced a bent control arm.

 

DeLorean00 great job on making this thread very helpful and informative.

Looks like you did everything right except put that dirty engine cover back on, nasty.

...and how the heck did you bend that control arm?

Nice Ferrari BTW

 

Thanks!!

Yea, I know I should have cleaned the cover. I was cold and tired. LoL. The control arm was bent when we bought the car a few years ago. It caused some tire wear but didn't drive bad. I didn't even noticed it was bent until the other day. I am going to get it aligned tomorrow.

 

awesome write up! i had a really hard time taking off that gas line and dealing with the brittled plastic.

and how did you notice that the arm was bent???

also, moar pics/vids of the ferrari

 

just did my contacts on my gs300 with a 120k on it. .and starts like a champ..

 

Great pics..

Quick question. I left my car siting with the key on and it killed the battery. A fully charged battery and not it only cranks. Do you guys know how to test the ignition igniter and is there an easy way to check spark or should I just do it at the coil?

The car has been sitting a couple months already and I am afraid the has is bad. Does anyone know if the tank has a drain?


Thanks for the help.. Sorry for the hijack..

 

The gas line went great, I must have been lucky. Also none of the plastic felt very brittle. I know working on american car that the plastic wire connectors tend to fall apart in my hands. But not the case on this Lexus. I must say I really enjoy working on Japanese cars compared all other cars out there.

With the control arm, I noticed that the wheel on the passenger side sat back about 1/2" farther then the driver side. This really looked bad when we had our 19" Volks on it. But now that the arm is fixed we can put the Volks back on.

As requested another picture of the F 355.

 

My experience (just replaced my starter):

'98 GS400. I'm pretty mechanically inclined, but not a mechanic. To me, a disc brake job is very easy, a spring/shock swap is easy, a subwoofer install is easy but tricky, and internal engine/tranny parts scare the crap out of me. I don't do my own oil changes because its not worth it. OK...enough about my background.

This project was more intimidating than anything. It was my first time removing engine parts to this extent, so I was nervous. Took pics before removing hoses/wires/etc. Intake manifold is heavy! I got my starter rebuilt locally ($90) vs. buying a new one (qtd. $150-$360). Reused the intake manifold's gaskets--no issues here. I did remove the coolant crossover over the starter, but if I were to do it again, I'd try harder to get my skinny arm behind it to avoid coolant spillage and having to buy new gaskets for that ($26). I needed my car to be back in service, but if I hadn't, I would've looked into what gasket-matching the intake ports in the manifold and head would've involved. Whole project took me roughly 6-8 hours from hood close to hood close, being very careful, and double-checking the work--not as difficult as I would've thought. I'd say an easy to moderate project. Manifold hold-down nuts/bolts are torqued to 18 ft-lbs per factory specs. Couldn't find coolant crossover torque specs. When trying to start the first time, the gears didn't mesh, so I stuck my arm behind the engine, found the starter's bolts, and tightened as much as I physically could...tried again, car started (seating the starter is very important, and hard to determine). Whole project ran me ~$120 with tax. Local Lexus dealership quoted me $800+.

Any questions, feel free to PM me.

 

somewhat of a showoff huh? just had to put the book/parts on the ferrari huh? haha jk

excellent write up man....wonder if this works the same for the gs430? i mean like the part #"s and such. oh one minor suggestion....SIZE DOWN your pics sir.

again great job man

 

Great writeup. Couple questions. Looks like the throttle cable has to come off. Any tricks to watch for there? Also, is there a tightening pattern for the intake manifold?

 

Is that a ferrari Fiero?