imatigerfan

Agree whole heartedly on aligning the starter bolts (including dropping one down on top of the tranny and fishing around for 30 minutes with a magnet trying to find it). Finally discovered that if I didn't seat the starter all the way in its mount, it was much easier to start the bolts than to do otherwise.

Well…the job is definitely doable. Took me about 8 hours, and that’s doing the job twice unfortunately (see notes below about rubber o-ring on the water bypass tube). Otherwise, it would have been a 6 hour job. If you don’t have the service manual, pay the annual subscription to AllDataDIY (http://www.alldatadiy.com/) and download the instructions on how to R/R the starter. Well worth the $24.95/year fee. I purchased a rebuilt Bosch starter from The Parts Bin (http://www.thepartsbin.com/) for $145. Good group of people to work with. The most valuable tools you’ll need: • A Camcorder to record the incredible detail of countless wireless and vacuum lines you’ll need to disconnect. You may need to refer to the tape as you try to put Humpty-Dumpty back together again. • A set of magnetic socket inserts. There are way too many bolts that are impossible to get out/in without them. • A flexible magnetic pickup tool for the countless bolts you’ll drop none-the-less. Some notes that are not in the AllData spec sheets on the starter R/R. • The R/R details for the starter only give you a generalized instruction on “removing the intake manifold”. This is by far the most difficult task. Look up removing the cylinder head and you’ll get a better description of how to remove the intake manifold. • Drop the coolant level to below the water pump line to avoid it spilling all over the engine block. • There is a rather innocent o-ring on an aluminum water bypass tube that runs underneath the intake manifold. You have to remove the tube in order to get at the starter. REPLACE THE O-RING WITH A NEW ONE!!!! Doesn’t matter how good it looks. IT WILL LEAK WHEN YOU START THE CAR AGAIN. A $0.45 part is well worth the expense to avoid doing the job twice like I had to do. I must admit, it only took me 40 minutes to yank the intake manifold the second time. And 30 minutes to put it back in. • Put liquid soap on the O-ring to keep it from binding in the pressure fit hole on the back side of the water pump. • I did not need to replace the manifold gaskets – they were in fine shape. • I did not need to replace the gaskets on the coolant bridge that links the two sides of the block together. Every quote I obtained was between $800 to $950. Most all quoted the book rate of 5.5 hours. However, they all wanted to sell me the rebuilt starter at full list of $450. So I’m sitting here fat and happy with an extra $800 in my pocket now. Life is good.

I have a 98 LS 400, 120K miles, with the VSC sensor (located at the CG of the car roughly under the front dashboard) that has started to go bad. It's seems to be most prone to taking itself offline in stop-n-go traffic. Turning the car on and off resets the problem until the next time it is tripped. I have been in icy conditions since the problem started and can confirm that VSC is still working (when it's not offline). The Lexus dealer says the sensor needs to be replaced. Don't know the cost. -d

RE: 1998 LS400 with 129K miles I've done my research and it appears that I have a classic problem the is not uncommon in Lexus cars -- bad starter contacts. Car went for about two months with the click-click-click before it finally would turn over. Batter has been checked and has plenty of juice. Now the starter won't turn over at all. So my question to the group -- just how hard is it to drop the starter and replace it. I've found rebuilt ones online for about $140. I'm a pretty handy guy -- worked on many cars over my life. Haven't really done anything with the 400 (haven't needed to). Am I safe to launch into this project?