Hey guys, new to Lexus and this forum! Picked up my 1993 SC400 about a month ago and it’s always taken a while to start up, especially in the mornings. I just attributed that to it being a 30 year old car with a potentially failing starter but didn’t think much of it past that as the car kept starting and I’m a busy high school student. Recently it’s taken a few extra cranks to get going but, as I said, it did keep starting. This morning I went to start it, and start it did. Unfortunately it started with the sounds of metal jostling around pretty heavily (more than usual) so I abruptly stopped it. Upon another attempt to get it going, there was a light whirring but nothing more. I am 98% sure it’s the starter but wanted to check here to see if there is even the slightest chance it is something cheaper or less time consuming. Any information is useful, thanks in advance.

 

Hello,

It will be very hard to tell anything without seeing the car in person, or at least hearing the sound in question. If the engine doesn't crank, and when it does, there is a considerable noise that's not present when the car is started, yes, it's only the starter that could be the culprit. It's located under the Intake Manifold and is quite tough to access, here is a good place to get the parts, and below is the video on how to access the starter, the car is different, but the process is very similar.


Hope this helps and best of luck!

 

Starter it is, thank you for the information! Any recommendations on other things to possibly take a look at/replace while I have everything torn apart?

 

Depends on time and budget you have.. You will definitely need the Manifold gasket set, maybe gaskets for the coolant bypass channel, Part Number for both is 16341-50010. Optionally, it would be nice to have Knock Sensor connector housings (P/N 90980-11166) as they do get old and start crumbling apart, here is a thread on how to replace a housing, but it will most likely crumble apart the moment you touch it.

That's about all I can think of that's easy to access when the manifold is off..

Hope this helps and best of luck!