vndiisrey

I think I have a bad sensor? I'm not sure because I always keep it filled. I'll have to look into it next. @M.Yasir

I have gotten the starter changed Out and it starts like a charm. It kind of sounds like it's got too many cranks but it's nothing to worry me about. Thank you again all who've helped and has input on where I should look. I appreciate it greatly! 

I have gotten about this far. All that's left is removing the manifold and fuel rails. 

Harness on both ends have been unhooked. 

27 minutes ago, Yamae said:

The sound level of the click is quite low to me and it makes me to think that it may be caused by the neutral safety switch. Have you tried to start at the AT position "N"?  

Yes, i have ran it through the gear selector. I have even tried and put it in N then start, still nothing. I have unfortunately already started on the tear down. But hopefully will be done by tomorrow.

Here's a video of the current situation. Relay will indicate it is working for the starter but I would like to make sure. Before I go about taking on this task. 

here is the link:

5 hours ago, lenore said:

Just looked up your car, and it is a toss up, here is the kit for your car

https://www.amazon.com/Victory-Lap-NDS-01-Starter-Repair/dp/B000CFGRG4/ref=sr_1_3?s=automotive&ie=UTF8&qid=1473946196&sr=1-3&keywords=Lexus+LS400+starter+rebuild+kit

That being said, a new starter (rebuilt) is not a whole lot more for your car on Amazon.

So ive got the new battery in, along with terminals. Now i get no starter click, or any sound for that matter. There is a faint click from the relay but thats about it. Now i am for sure that its something more to do with the starter. Sad day for sure, but i did order the rebuild kit from amazon. I am definitely not looking forward to this task.

4 minutes ago, lenore said:

What happens to the starter contacts is that the solenoid which has a round contactor disk wears the two separate starter contacts.  They are copper and wear, sometimes unevenly.  By the way found the kit for contacts and solenoid on Amazon.  Cost less than $13. 

Oh god, thank you. I was going to go about buying a whole new starter. But if i can get away with replacing just the contacts i would be in less of pinch. I will be picking up a battery and new terminals tomorrow, i will leave an update on the current situation after wards. if that fails i will be leaning towards replacing the contacts as well. Thank you again!

29 minutes ago, lenore said:

Probably the Starter contacts are worn....see this    http://www.nationsautoelectric.com/instructions.html

now the bad news, I believe the starter is real hard to get to on your car...Maybe somebody else will reply.  I thought it was toward the back of the engine under the intake manifold on your car.  By the Way I just did this repair on a Toyota Camry with the denso starter and it fixed the exact problem you are describing....However do have your battery and cables checked.

I did not think about checking the starter contacts, thank you. I will have to get to that this sunday, since it is under the manifold in an awkward position. Would water getting into that area affect it? As ive said before we just recently had some insane rain/flood weather here in ks. Onto the cables, visually my battery cables are in great shape (no gashes or tears and no rusty wires, the terminals however are a little worn down. I will be replacing those as well as the battery. i will keep update.

I am faily new to the club, but we have owned this car for the past 13 years. 

i love the car very much, It has just rolled over to 160k with heavy traveling recently. 

im having an issue with starting the car, especially since we just had some heavy rain the past few days.

Lately its been a struggle to start, put the key in, set the ignition to on, wait for the beeps to stop, and then turn.

Only now it will click and not crank over. I pull the key out, repeat steps, and nothing.

Only a third time try will this actually start up.

Then on some occasions when it does turn over it will start up very roughly, id say it'll crank for about 2 seconds longer than it actually should.

Once the crank starts rolling on, it'll catch it self and slowly start. 

After started, the car runs totally fine, without any hiccups.

At first i thought it might have been a fuel related issue, that wasn't the case. Fuel pump primes and relay is in good working order.

Then i moved onto spark, checked that and spark was good. (coil packs were changed out in 2014) I was at a loss for a moment, and decided to check the battery/alternator. (starter was replaced in 2010, had never given me an issue beforehand)

The alternator was fine, but the battery was "bad" in auto zone terms.

My question's are, would a bad battery be the cause of the bad/spotty starts? Would the drive through low to mid level high rain have caused something to go bad? 

Much appreciation in advance.