Hey all!

Following a strut replacement and helping my brother move from DC to Pittsburgh, I put around 700 miles on my LS and everything went pretty well. Stopped in PA for a Lexus dealership to go over everything that I've done in the last year and have an alignment done, and that morning I heard a crunch on startup. Only when engine rpms started to come online though. I got her back home to WV and I didn't hear the crunch again for about a week. The second time I looked into it and read that low battery voltage and some other things could cause the starter motor to not correctly engage or disengage from the flex plate and most likely by placebo, I thought I got away with extending the life keeping the radio and other acessories all turned off during startup. The third time I heard the crunch it didnt even turn the motor over, only could hear the whirring from the engine bay. There was a nice lady I met from work who ended up stopping by and steering it for me as I pushed it up on the trailer, forgive the side note, and she turned out to work on cars as well. The intake coming out is definitely the most intensive work I've done to a car yet. Im lucky with the lack of corrosion on this florida car but those bolt holding the starter in are an absolute menace to get to. Finally was able to pull the unit out today and prep everything for install, before I cam across the big one.





I found one ball bearing right next to the flexplate in a tray near the connection point for the starter. I've done some research to see how many ***** may have come in this bearing and so far I've recovered four but I am very inclined to not start this motor until absolutely sure I get all the junk out of the bell housing, where I'm certain the only place those bearing could've gone. One of my friends had offered me help with a boroscope through the top and inspection plate as an alternative to dropping the motor/trans, or just transmission out of the car.

Has anyone else seen or heard of a starter failing like this? I will definitely never hesitate to pull one now after being suspicious of it. My two 400's dont have ACIS and would be much easier IMO. Would appreciate any advice and to hear if my line of thinking is going in the right direction. Thanks for your time and knowledge as always yall!

 

My starter failed like that. At 200k miles.

 

Thanks for the input! Im at 204k on mine right now. Pretty good run for an original component if it is. Did you have to go fishing for the bearings k7q?

 

My previous LS failed like that and the bearings fell into the bell housing, they'll fall out into the little window where the flywheel is, and will just fall out. Finally a few months later i had to replace the transmission and found 3-4 inside the bell housing, i don't think it did any damage. My trans failed for a shift solenoid

 

I just replaced it with another starter.