2000 es300: had started tested and it's good. had a problem with broken key a couple weeks ago, but had a good copy made and paired with original chip to allow car to recognize legit key for start. at that time, and i don't know if it was trued, but the turning of the key seemed to need a sweetspot to get the starter engaged. I think at the time i just needed to get the chip of the key closer to the ignition (the housing of the key broke apart) to have the car recognize the legit status. now it is only making a very distant-sounding cluck-cluck, cluck. that's two clucks close to each other and one follows close but off by one. i say cluck because it doesn't sound like a crisp KLIK. i have no radio, no lights, but power seat moves and the dash lights up. i tried to lock the doors outside of the car manually with the key four times to reset the antitheft deterrant... i welcome your guesses. oh, today it did that very brief engagement of the starter sound like a "KGH!" and one extremely brief "KG!" when i tried to find the sweetspot. could it be ignition switch relay? autozone gave me a instructional to replace the $70 item but i dont think i can follow it.

 

Its too bad they don't have hand cranks on those cars, or do they? ES300 ????

 

you are in the wrong section to get help.. go to: 2000 es300

 

es or LS, the problem could still be mechanical and related. I suspect the battery is low to begin with.