99 Gs300. Excessive White Smoke Underhood. Car Died

[crxintegralexus]

99 gs 300 is now dead in its tracks.

Wife drove to school for kids. Noticed a whinning noise while driving 3 miles to school. parked in line and turned key off. Car kept running. took key out and kept running. put in back in, put in drive, reverse and still kept running. then excessive smoke from engine compartment puffed out. enough for the other wives in their cars to get fire extinguishers.

I got there and checked oil/coolant/tranny fluid. all okay. extremely bad smell of an elelctrical motor being fried. Towed car home and disconnected battery.

At home, put keys in ignition (w/ extinguisher in hand). put to "on" position and all windows/roof/door locks worked. you could hear the relays clicking as normal as the car would do its self checks. Turned the key to "start". All lights remained as normal, but nothing happened.

Now, a month prior, I notice excessive corrosion on battery terminals (had to put a cheap aftermarket in a few years ago b/c it was the only one we could get to get us on our way). Scrubbed the terminals so I know I've got great battery connection.

The week prior, I noticed when my wife started the car in the driveway, it sounded like the starter shaft stayed engaged on the flywheel for a few seconds (could hear the whinning of the starter). So I'm thinking the starter shaft remained engaged when my wife drove to school and the engige essentially drove the starterto failure and is the root cause of this issue. Just my guess w/o wrenching on the car yet.

I've not yet gone through the enginecompartment to locate what burned up to cause the smoke. Could be alt, starter or wire harness, ground. But days later, the engine compartment still smells bad, so once I get my nose up closeand personal, I'm sure I'll find the source.

Looking for anyone w/ similar problem and help on investigation plan.

Got 7 1980's crxs built in Japan (still have them). Next car was integra, but part began failing around 100K so canned that car (assembled in us). Then moved onto an is300 (my car) and gs300 (wife's car) due to "built in Japan" comfort and reliablilty of Toyota. So very well versed in 80's/90's Base model Honda/Acura's. Not wrenched on lexus beyond maintenance and brakes

We bought this one at 35K in 2001 and is now at 150K. True southern car, so no salt corrosion here. No modifications to car. All stock.

Thnx in advance for your help and expertise. I don't feel like spending $300 on a lExus manual. Anyone know of on-line access to these? I can get them for my CRX

Dave

[crxintegralexus]

Any similarities out there? The local dealer said they've never heard of this before.

Thoughts?

Thnx

[crxintegralexus]

I guess Im' treadin' new territory on this one. Hopin' something would pop up.

Put my engineering hat back on and troubleshoot tomorrow. Keep you posted on what I find.

This car has had enough problems with it over the 150K lifetime (tranny seals replaced 2x, tranny hesitation issue - sounds like a common design issue, sestemic ball joint problem, sestemic front tire wearing problem, locked front calipers, and other electrical isses). Bought into it b/c of high reliability. I don't think its a lemon. I'm just disappointed. Reliability is not what I expected. But If I had began my vehicle progression w/ American cars, my expectations would be different. BUt I began w/ an 87 CRX in college. Running her today as my wife drives my IS. The memories of recless youth are all coming back.. topic for another day. But that old Honda has well over 200K and is all orginal expect for basic maintenance parts, brakes, exhaust. A/C still runs like a champ after 22yrs on R12! I got spoiled.

Anyway, Here we go. Keep you posted.

[crxintegralexus]

Did visual troubleshooting today (about an hour). Check most of the fuses/relays and all are good for now. Visual on wire harnesses show no blow out. Tracked down to undercarriage on driver's side of tranny. There's a blow pile of the insulations used to insulate the windings of motors. Looked over the starter really carefully and found 2 vent ports off the starter. A rubber tube that's about an inch long that's at the very bottom (off the solniod). That one was okay. There's a hole on the bottom end of the cylinder casing of the motor housing. The insulation gooped out of there. So this caused the white smoke.

Tomorrow off the the junkie. Found a Denso starter w/ 45K on it for $65. Slap that on this week. Expect iginition switch issues as well from fact that motor remaining running after key was removed.

More to come

[Matt2828]

Glad to see you found the problem.

You might like to do a write up on the replacement as I know there is a tutorial for replacing the starter on the GS400, but I'm not sure if one exists for the GS300.

Sorry about the bad luck with the starter. So it looks like your original prediction was right, where the motor got fried from being jammed on?

[Matt2828]

Whoops, double post.

[crxintegralexus]

Thnx for the reply Matt, Getting worried that I was just posting to myself.

So I pulled out the old starter and sure enough, it was stuck in the engaged position (shaft was forward by about 1/2 inch). Once I turned it, it popped back. To the root cause was the starter. Wife drove it 3 miles to school and it burnt out. I really don't believe the solnoid kept it jammed. I think it just stuck mechanically. Starter gear was smooth and free of burrs.

Installed the junkyard Toyota Denso and it fired right up. Good news! Drove around town for about 45 min and stop/started 30 times. Every thing works. I was concerned about other problems when she took the key out and the car kept running. So need to wring it out for a while.

I'll post again after a month or so. I'll be driving for at least that long before my wife has confidence.

We pulled it out of an IS300 w/ auto tranny. The junkie guy dropped the 2 bolts for the starter mount first. Then disconnected the pos connector (12mm) and ground clip connector.

I was able to remove and reinstall in about 45 minutes. Found it faster to disconnect the electrical first, then dropped the 2 mounting bolts (14mm). Needed the swivle socket adaptor. Had to use 3/8" drive for the bottom 14mm bolt due to clearance. And used 1/2" drive/swivle for top 14mm bolt. They were on very tight. Needed about 14-16" of extensions to get the correct angle.

I'll look for the GS400 write up. New to the site but this one is very similar to the CRX site (older cars- more to go wrong, so the guys do serveral write ups and tricks of the trade). So I can see about posting some pix if its similar. THis is my first wrenching on a Lexus beyond oil changes and gen maintenance.

For those of you that are somewhat handy w/ tools, it was extremely easy to replace. All from underneath the car though

Anyone know what the dealership charges for a starter installed? Is an OEM starter $200?

Thnx

[crxintegralexus]

So far so good. No additional electrical issues.