It's not even turning over....

OK here is what I know (it's not much), if someone could please help me so I can get to work Tuesday morning I would greatly appreciate it:

- I've been away for 1 week, but have never had any problems starting my 2003 GS430
- When I returned yesterday, I went to use the car but nothing. All the lights (dash + interior + exterior) work full-on. There are no clicking noises, just dead silence.
- I tried to jump the car, but again nothing
- Today, after reading posts and learning some potential issues, I went back out, but mostly the same results. There were 2 differences: 1) This time the interior lights did not come on. And 2) this time for a brief period when I had the car hooked up to another car i did hear some clicking noises when I turned the key to full-on, but then they stopped and again I don't hear anything at any of the key positions.

The only other thing to mention is about 4 weeks ago I had a LuxLing auto starter installed - but that was working fine. And I believe is working fine as the first time I tried all of this yesterday I did so by remote starting the car and my headlights came on (usually the indicator for me from inside the house that all is working). Then when I went outside I thought it was funny that the motor wasn't running. That's when I discovered this problem.

Please, someone help. It doesn't make any sense to me of how this could happen all of a sudden (again, no problems with this car until now).

Scott

P.S. Happy Holidays!

 

I'm probably stating the obvious here, but is there any way you can bypass or, better yet, completely disconnect/remove the remote starter? It doesn't make sense that this would happen all of a sudden, particularly if it was working fine for the past month, but it also doesn't make sense that your starter would go out after 3-4 years. If your battery was dead, jumping the car would have solved that problem.

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70% of the time, the problem points to a faulty alternator.

 

Sounds like battery is stone dead. Maybe you left a light on or something.

Regardless, I'd try to get a jump start, buy one of those portable battery/starters or just get a new battery.

 

hey,
1. the battery might be stone dead. try getting another battery and using that.(not using it to jump it but actually putting in place of your original.)
2. also the battery might not be dead but the remote starter thingy you installed might have caused a malfunction hindering the starter from kicking in. try resetting the remote starter switch after you put in another battery.
3. if all that does not work or you seem lost, GET a pro to look at it before more damage is done.
good luck.

 

Thanks for all the quick replies. A couple of answers:

1) I've already tried jumping the battery (and yes now, it is stone dead). I've tried it both with one of the portable "jumpers" that works for us all the time and also tried with another car - just to be sure. Both times power is getting into the system (I can tell because lights, etc. come on), but still nothing in terms of starting the engine (again, no noise at all).

2) with the suggestion of bypassing the autostarter that was my 1st thought as well - but I really know nothing about cars and that would be asking for trouble. It seems odd to me that the autostart was working just fine and then all of sudden would cause this problem - which is why I'm leaning towoards something more traditional - but I don't know how to tell.

Bottom line, I'm looking for some advice on what to do next. I've got a call into Steve at LuxorMotorWorks (LuxLink autostarter) and the car is under an extended warranty (towing included I think??) but I'm worried once the Lexus dealer sees the autostarter they'll cry foul, and then the the guys who installed the autostarter will say it's a Lexas car issue?

Thoughts on how to proceed?

Thanks again for all your replies - this 'team' is awesome!

 

Same thing happened to my mom's car this past week. When we try to jump start the dead battery, there isn't enough juice to get the engine started but enough to get light and radio to go on in the car. Took the battery to local Autozone have have them tested...battery voltage was at .39 and good battery should be at 11-14 volt, I believe. Replace battery and everyhting is working fine. Good luck!

 

I'm willing to bet it is your battery as well. If your car is an '03 it may have been built in the summer of '02, potentially making your car battery 4 1/2 years old. You won't be throwing away money if you replace the battery with a new one and see what happens, in the worst case you will be preventing a likely dead battery in the next year or so as your battery nears the end of its standard life cycle. Good Luck.