Hi,

Yesterday, I fixed the P1663 (OCV circuit malfunction) fault code on my '01 LS430. Turns out the wires leading into the connector to the OCV came a little loose, so all I had to do was strip the wires back a bit and re-insert the wires.

Now, when I went to start the car, it wouldn't start under battery power alone...which was strange, so I hooked it up to my battery booster pack and the car started right up and ran perfectly for 10+ minutes, no check engine light or anything.

I turned the car off, thinking the alternator would have charged the battery by then, and went to start it again. Same thing, won't start. All of the accessories come on as normal, but as soon as I turn the key to start, everything goes dead. It doesn't crank at all.

I went and got a new battery to see if that was the issue, but even with a new battery, the car still won't start.

The only thing I can think of is when I put the negative terminal back on (I had removed it while working on the wires), I didn't realize that the 10mil socket had stayed on the terminal when I pulled the socket handle away. So I tried to start the car when it had the 10mil socket on the negative terminal. Could this have affected the electrical system?

I should also note that the battery seems to be holding a charge fine, even overnight. But it just won't start the car.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated, I'm at a loss!

Cheers.

 

Did you hook up the positive and negative booster clamps directly onto the connectors on the battery, or did you hook up the ground booster clamp onto some other metal parts on the engine.

You mentioned that "All of the accessories come on as normal, but as soon as I turn the key to start, everything goes dead. It doesn't crank at all." This is indicative of a bad conductor where the path can pass only a small amount of current at the rated voltage, but as soon as you add the load of the starter, the path cannot keep up.

I would start troubleshooting with the negative cable. Follow it from the battery it to where it is grounded to the body of the car.

 

I hooked the booster clamps directly to the positive and negative battery terminals.

What would I be looking for when troubleshooting the negative cable?

 

OK, so if I understood you correctly, you have both position and negative cable connectors installed on the battery terminals. You then installed the positive booster clamp onto the positive cable connector, and the negative booster clamp onto the negative battery cable connector, and the car will start with this arrangement, right?

If so, my first guess would be that one or both of the battery cable connectors are dirty or corroded preventing them to make a good contact with the battery terminals. In essence, very little current flow from the battery terminals into the cable connectors. But when you clamped on the external power, you provided good contacts to the cables to start the car.

 

You are correct, yes. It will start with that arrangement.

I think your guess may be correct! The connectors do have some build up on them that may be presenting a good connection. I can't believe I didn't think of that. I will give them a good cleaning tonight and report back. Thanks a lot for the advice.

 

The ls430 is super touchy if it does not have a good ground, when I was doing my alternator I just put the ground on the negative terminal to see if it would start and it started then died soon as I tightened it it ran like normal.