Hi Guys,

I am a new member here, and own a 1998 model Lexus LS 400. I am from Mumbai, India and have a collection of 90s vehicles in reasonably good condition. Would like to know from you stalwarts about the meaning of this light turning on. The orange light on the meter says " VSC off" and the car just cranks but does not start. This has happened 3 times in the past 6 months of me taking the car and my electrician does not have a satisfactory answer for this. Though he solved it in a few minutes whenever shown. I might also have seen a "Check VSC" message displayed on the strip below the meter, a few days back, but that went away.
The car is in superb condition overall and this is the only matter troubling me at times. Some people say its a battery voltage issue so disconnect battery and restart, which is not working; while the electrician says that this is a fuse box issue and a longish kind of a work.

Kindly express your views.

Javed.

 

Beautiful car, get the plastic off the top of that battery though, batteries need to breathe.
As far as the starting issue, that's kind of tough, VSC is vehicle stability control, should have no effect on starting the car, sounds like possibly a security issue, or something basic like missing fuel or spark, good luck.

 

you can toggle VSC on and off via a button located on the center console above the ashtray. i believe this has nothing to do with your starting issue however.

since you are in a humid area such as india, i would lean towards a very common issue on our cars which are the internal capacitors in the ECU. at this day and age, the are known to go bad and cause weird issues and starting is one of them.

check this out:
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/ls4...capacitor.html

 

'98-00 don't have ECU issues nearly as often as earlier cars.

This is a voltage(ie-battery/alternator)/ground/starter issue. Vehicle needs to be taken to someone familiar with these cars, your "electrician" doesn't seem to be overly transparent or legitimate.

 

Did the electrician check the code?
Electrical issues are not simple to find out the cause. I suggest you to tell him to check the code first.

 

Thanks friends for some input. I will see if I can solve it through that. Timmy, Its not due to that button. Once this light comes as an error, that button becomes unresponsive at least in vision as this light does not go. Just to further clarify, out of all the lights appearing when you push the keys, all lights vanish in 2 seconds like normal, but this remains.

Will try to play around with the battery also as a few people advised. The electrician also says its mostly an issue with the fuel pump.

 

How did you come to the conclusion that its a voltage, battery/alt/ground/starter issue? It cranks fine but doesn't start, all those wold be fine in that case.
The issue is clearly that the car is missing fuel or spark intermittently causing it to crank but not start, this should be a simple first step that any mechanic would check before anything else, most likely a bad fuel pump or crank sensor I'd say.

 

Hello, this is a best guess based on information given. The best way we can help is if OBD codes are checked and posted.