1998 LS400 with 270K miles - when I attempt to start the car, I don’t always get cranking. I have dash lights and I can hear the fuel pump running when I turn the key. The starter is relatively new. The previous owner said that if I fiddle with the shifter (shifting it out of and back into park) that it would eventually start. This has been my experience but it doesn’t always start after letting the car resettle into park. As I said before, after attempting, sometimes, many times it will eventually start and once it’s running I have no issues. It seems to be getting worse so I think I need to figure it out. What thoughts have you all? Thanks for the help in advance!

 

Go here for some suggestions:

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/ls-...ing-issue.html

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/ls-...mediately.html

 

Kinda sounds like the neutral safety switch might be failing.

 

Judging from the symptom "fiddle with the shifter (shifting it out of and back into park) that it would eventually start", I bet the neutral safety switch is not working well. The best way to fix is to replace it to a new one but there is a way to bypass the contacts if "a current-activation method (post #5 below)" is not effective.
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/ls-...ch-bypass.html

 

3rd vote here for the neutral safety switch. I've seen alot of them go bad here over the years. I've never had one go on my LS400s but on a different car I had the same symptoms as you.