I purchased a used 2002 LS430 several months ago. The car was in immaculate condition. 1 owner, 70,000 miles, all maintenance done at the dealership since purchase but it had intermittent no crank, no start issues.

While driven by my son, recently, the vehicle was involved in an accident where a semi drove all the way down the LH side of the vehicle. The damaged appeared to be simply superficial except for the mirror that was ripped off.

A couple days later, the car would not start at all. Whereas previously, the car wouldn’t start periodically, it would not start at all. I began trying to troubleshoot the issue this morning.

Long story short, battery OK, cables OK, all fuses OK, All keys inside the vehicle, but I confirmed the starter relay was not getting power. Got in the vehicle and, although the dash shift indicator read P clearly, I “jiggled” the shifter a few times and the car started. I did that 3 or 4 times and same result - the car started normally. I had convinced myself that the neutral safety switch was bad and before exiting the vehicle, I tried to start it one more time, it failed to start again. I turned it off and tried to start for a second time and the entire electrical system went dark. At that point, I stopped and came inside.

Any thoughts or suggestions from anyone as to where I should start now?

 

Don't assume the battery, cables and terminals are okay by looking at them. You could have multiple issues the NSS does sound like it needs to be removed and serviced.

 

Just for clarity. I didn’t confirm Battery, cables and connections visually, I tested them with a multimeter. (I originally thought I was confirming that the starter was going bad so I set out to confirm the battery to the starter, or as close as one can get on these UZ motors without ripping the engine apart). Despite that fact, I took off the battery clamps and cleaned them anyway, before proceeding, since I was there.

Using the multimeter, I was able to confirm that I was getting no power to the starter relay.

I am an obsessive personality and thinking about it, overnight I am almost convinced of an ignition switch issue. That’s not to say I have ruled anything out, including the NSS but, what else would cause a complete loss of power to the vehicle? And given the original intermittent no crank, no start issues, (dependent on the failure mode of the switch) would that not also be possible?

Of course, another potential is that there’s a short somewhere and during the starting attempts, yesterday, something blew. If that was the case, where would one start to check for a total electric outage?

(BTW...after the outage occurred, I did, quickly, confirm the battery, cables and connections I can get to easily and they read the same, around 12.6V and no voltage loss through the connections).

Just seeking advice as to where to start when I get off work this evening????????

 

The "fusible link block", located immediately in front of the battery, distributes power from the battery to various fuse boxes throughout the car. Please take a look at the posting below for some useful diagrams...
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/ls-...ible-link.html