Ls 430 2001 Has been extremely reliable up to this point.


I went to the store and when I came out I tried to start the car and all I heard was 1 click with no other noise. I tried again and it did 1 click again no matter how long I held the ignition for. I popped the hood to move the battery terminals to see if something was wrong with them. I got back in and it made 1 click again. I tried a couple of more times with some time in between them. Finally someone jump start it .

I got home with no problems then tried to go turn it on again, and it would not start. 1 click again. No noise just 1 quick click.


The battery is about 1 years old .

 

sounds like a bad battery.

 

^Either that or voltage ran low because you left something on.

 

Go to any local Pepboys and they'll check it out for free.

 

Welcome to Club Lexus.

First place to check is the battery. If it is still good, it will not have a problem operating the electrical system like lights, windows, radio, etc. They will also do an alternator charging test to verify it is charging the battery properly. Next in line is the starter.

 

My first guess is bad battery as well. Please have the store that installed it run a check for you and replace under warranty. If battery checks out fine, my second guess is the starter relay or solenoid. I believe the relay can be found in the fusebox under the hood and the solenoid is a replacement item but the starter is a ***** to get to per what I see of the engine bay (pardon me - I'm just beginning to familiarize myself with the LS hence the hesitation in assistance).

 

This suggests that other than the battery NOT having enough juice to start the car, your generator (aka alternator) is making enough power to sustain the engine's operation to get you home. Depends on how long it take for you to drive home, the generator may not have had enough time to recharge the battery with enough juice to re-start your engine on its own. Suggestion: Take the 1-year-old battery back for a check up and possibly a replacement.

If your drive home is sufficiently long (say, 30 minutes or more), and your battery is checked out OK (holding charge), then the next thing to check is your generator. It may not be generating enough AMPS...

 

It's the alternator ... I'm replacing mine on the '01 today. If you have a battery charger, hook it up to the battery. If it's taking a full output charge, then quite likely it's the alternator that is faulty.

 

I would guess a bad battery, if it is 1 year old then it should fall under a replacement warranty. My LS400 had 230K miles on it and was 14 years old with the original alternator. I expect the LS430 alternator to have a similar life span.

I had the same thing happen at ~5:00pm on Saturday. I had returned from a short errand and was replacing the NAV cd with 14.1. In the 5 minutes or so that I had been working on it, the battery discharged enough to not start.
Sadly, it was the Lexus labeled battery which just looked right.

Fortunately, I had purchased a booster/air pump combo from Costco for ~$50 and gave it a quick jump. Costco has the replacement battery (Interstate) for $82.99 - 84 month warranty/ 42 month free replacement.

In my experience, batteries tend to die during cold snaps or extremely hot weather. We have been experiencing freezing temperatures in LA over the last week.

~miser

 

How many miles on your 01? Just wondering at what mileage they tend to fail.

 

I've had a battery newer than a year old go dead on me, so it's not unusual. Go get a new battery then get the alternator looked at.

 

Agree get a new battery - decent deals on well rated batteries at Walmart and Costco. I have an 06 LS and amazingly enough it still starts and runs fine on its original OEM Panasonic battery....9 years and counting : )

 

Any update OP? would certainly agree that it has the potential to be a battery.

 

I have my 2001 OEM Panasonic battery - 14+ years and counting. But I re-purposed it a few years ago ... I use it as a sump pump battery back-up power source. Those batteries are awesome.

 

Thanks Everyone, who reply to my post,It's was the battery. Thanks A LOT!