I own a 93 ls400 with 143,000 miles. I am the second owner and I know the first owner took very good care of it. My car was running perfectly and it seems like my starter went out without any type of warning. Normally when a starter goes out doesn't it start having trouble starting a few times before it completely goes out? Also as I was checking the wires I noticed the negative on the battery was hot while he positive was cool. I know it wasn't hot from anything else because the car has been sitting all day. Any suggestions on anything else this could be? I have a mechanic coming to my house on Tuesday (to possibly tow my car to his shop) and would appreciate any tips/ suggestions.

 

Well it is like a 20 year old car so definitely time for stuff to start going out. Also a starter is an electric motor, so no they do not give signs of going out. A battery getting old and weak may how ever. Most anything electric works just fine till it dies. Then it is just dead, simple as that.

 

if the battery terminal is hot, you have a bad connection or a short, so it is likely not the starter, I would start with replacing the positive battery terminal with the real version from the dealership and thoroughly clean the area where it bolts to the cable, and also thoroughly clean the negative terminal and check the tightness of the big ground strap on both ends that terminates at the A/C compressor

make sure you buy the real Toyota + side battery terminal and not some aftermarket autozone/advance/o'reilly/NAPA crap - the real Toyota part is cheap, about $15, and prevents the dissimilar metal types from causing future issues.

also check all of the major fuses near the battery in that big box

 

put the car and neutral then back in park. Ruling out the neutral safety switch is a good place to start.

 

If you don't hear a distinct "click" when turning the key to the start position, then the shifter interlock is definitely suspect, like PD said. But if you do hear a click, but it won't turn over, then you either have a bad battery/connection (easily fixed), or a worn out solenoid/starter (much more difficult, $$).

 

when the starter goes on a 1st gen Ls400 it will let you know, atleast in my personal experience. had to replace the starter in both my 90 in 04 and my 91 in 05, when its on its way out it will start with a grinding sound. unlike other cars, the ls400 will talk to you when its sick and will usually give you some warning before crapping out. idk about the ucf20 95-00 starter but I assume its the same deal, I have a 95 now with almost 170k miles on it with what im pretty sure is the original starter, and I know that dreaded repair is probably in my very near future,,

anyway check youre batt connections the 1uz takes a lot of cranking amps to turn over and even if the terminals seem tight it still might not be getting a good connection, move them around and tighten them down as much as possible, and try again.

nobody likes a starter repair on these cars, and because its such a expensive pain in the *** to change, unfortunately its the end of the line with some of them cause the owner dosent wanna put that kinda time/work/money into a 20 year old car. good luck.

 

I hear a click, however its just one click, wont even attempt to turnover

 

have you replaced the positive side battery terminal with the real one from the Toyota dealership? - clean that area really well, where the bolt attaches to the cable

it could be the starter contacts/plunger, but that is a nightmare of a job, I would sure go over all of my battery connections, grounds, fuses, etc before making that determination

I would also check the main starter cable and see if current is being pulled

also take a voltage reading across the battery with car off and post it here

 

If it turns out to be your starter, the-electric-connection.com has a OEM starter repair kit for $ 20.00. There is also an instruction tutorial to assist installation. This site sells the replacement parts that Cowboy mentions in his above post. Either way- removing and re-installing the starter is a major job that requires a lot of patience. I think mine on my '92 LS is about ready to go south. At times, the starter will turn over the motor rapidly and at other times it just barely seems to turn over the motor-although it always starts. It also occasionally will do nothing after turning the key to start and I will have to turn the key off and on several times before it will start. Hope this info helps!

 

As "cowboy" kind of said, see if your starter is pulling excessive amps. Starters can be intermittent as they fail - spinning fast sometime and not at all at other times.

 

any idea on how much the starter costs through the dealership? my friend is helping me out and replacing it for pretty cheap but said I should only buy the starter through the dealership because of the amount of labor it takes he doesn't want to put on a cheap faulty one or a rebuilt one

 

the neutral got hot is what gives it away

cause for the neutral to get hot and for it to just click and nothing shows its a high resistance joint on the main negative line

just do regular maintenance on the connections..

battery positive and negative
body earth point from battery negative.
negative connection point on the block


maintenance is disconnect, clean battery posts and terminals with a battery post cleaner (about 5 bucks at any after market auto part shop).

use wire brush on lug and body of body earthing point.. same for engine block

then reconnect.

should fix your issue


ps another tell tail issue is when you turn the starter and hear the click. does everything go dead, even though ignition key is at ignition point on switch? another tell tail its a high resistance earth joint

 

translating from Auzzie into USA English:

earthing point, earth joint is what we call "ground", "body ground", and "engine ground" and the wire connecting them would be a "ground strap"