Robbyh

Yea I pulled the main relay and the efi one. But the auto parts store didnt have any.. So couldnt try it prior to taking it in.. So now its sitting at the dealer, hopefully I'll hear something later today..

JCHO

I have same issue as mentioned. I just call my local Lexus dealer and they quoted me $119 for EFI relay. Does the price seem right? I know others have mentioned 10's to 20's.

**I just checked "advanced autoparts" and they have a fuel inj. relay for $12. I assume this is correct replacement?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

gs400dave

xcelr8:

Man, I'm really sorry I never replied to you in the thread about the starting problem last year. Truth is, I completely forgot about it after I posted it, and just now checked in 1.5 years later and looked it up in my history.

So you fixed yours with the relay change? Wow - I'm going to have to check that out. Since it's been a year later, have you ever experienced the problem again?

I came back to the forum because it has exhibited even stranger behavior lately: This summer, after driving through a car wash, I was going down the freeway with cruise control on. The car started cutting out and coming back on - it's like the engine just stopped running and the dashboard lights all turned off - then it would kick back in and run. It did this about 5-6 times, then it was never a problem again. Funny, but I think I remember that when it would kick back in, the cruise control was still on and it resumed. Again, dash lights went out and it seems like I remember the radio staying on (not sure on that tho...)

Now it gets even stranger: The other night, I came home (driving my truck) and found the Lexus sitting in the garage with the headlights on (?) I opened the door and they shut off. I checked and the switch was in the "auto" position. The car started fine, so I was puzzled. My wife couldn't have left them on because it hadn't been driven for a day prior, so the battery would have been dead. Besides, the lights should shut themselves off anyway...

So then I went out later in the evening, and my wife called and told me that the car was sitting in the garage with the headlights on again - this time, they had been on for a while, enough to drain the battery. She turned the lights to the "off" position.

Sorry for being long-winded, but I was thinking all of these things were related to the starting problem, like it was a computer issue or something - then I find that you solved the starting problem with a relay. I think the relay probably was the cause for the freeway "cut out, start again" incident (especially because of the car wash) but I can't see how it could have anything to do with this headlight issue. Although, it is our first real snowy day here in MI, and it's a very humid, wet snow.

Did you ever have any of these other issues? Maybe I'll start another thread on it (and make sure I remember to check back in this time...)

So a note to all: Sorry I forgot about my post and didn't check back in.

Has anyone ever heard of this headlight problem? Probably unrelated, possibly not...my power adjust on the steering wheel is intermittently not working, or only going half-way to its position. I was thinking this was probably just the motor wearing out, but it is intermittent and sometimes it goes to the proper position, other times it goes half-way, other times it doesn't want to move at all. You try to do it manually with the switch and you just hear a clicking sound.

Are all these problems interrelated electrical / computer issues, or what?

gs400dave

FTR, I subscribed to this thread and added e-mail notification, so I won't be an idiot and forget to come back this time.

xcelr8

iTrader: (2)

Hey:

No problem.

Did you change relay? My car did strange stuff until I did. If you exit your car from passenger side, with auto lites on, your lites will stay on. I thought they'd go out, but they don't. At least not mine.

Try another ignitor too for ther other problem.

gs400dave

I haven't changed the relay yet, as soon as I can get to it I will. With the ignitor, are you referring to the issue where it shut down and restarted several times on the freeway? 'cause I think that's got to be related to the relay as well, especially considering that it just came out of the car wash, and we know how humidity affects this thing...

xcelr8

iTrader: (2)

I'm suggesting POSSIBLY the ignitor...do the relay, see what turns up.

FrankT

The gs400 has 8 ignitors, all 8 would have to go at the same time.
Only if power is cut at the ECU would this happen, via the EFI circuit.

Check the connector the EFI relay plugs into it could be loose in the wire harness.
A simple and quick way to check the EFI circuit, is to turn the key to the "ON" position and verify all dash lights including the ENGINE light are illuminated.

Good luck

Willis460l

i recently had a similar problem with my 99 gs300. mine would make a clicking noise when i tried to start, and it was a bad starter. if yours isn't making any noise i would say there is a problem with your relay.

xcelr8

iTrader: (2)

as I said this applies to my car, which is a 99 sc300.

VipDout

iTrader: (4)

I have a 99 gs400 with alot of similar issues . and as of today car is not holding the start , but i have heavy duty compressors that i thought killed my car , and it has done the die thing on the freeway once and hasnt happened again

I tryed having friends tap on the fuse but i am sure they did the wrong one , it dies after 3 seconds of being on or dies out , any more input for any 98+gs owners will help

gs400dave

Update to my issues: The car has had no problems for a while so I haven't dealt with it at all. Today, we were visiting family 50 miles from home - the car ran fine and no problems, but it got rainy while we were at my dad's house. An hour later, we heard a clicking sound outside. My GS400 was sitting outside and the starter was clicking on and off about twice a second - without even having a key in the ignition!

So remembering this thread, I went and jumped into the relay boxes. I found the starter relay clicking along with it, and pulled it. Everything stopped clicking at that time - so I figured I'd replace the starter relay (I didn't have internet access at my dad's place.)

I put a new starter relay in it, and without even having a key in the ignition, it started turning over the engine just like it would if you were cranking it with the key.

Ultimately, I had to jump start it with my dad's truck, and I put the key in the ignition, turned it to the start position, and plugged in the relay. After several tries, it started, but I had to pull the starter relay to get the starter to disengage. The damn thing kept cranking.

I had another family gathering to attend, so I drove over there with the starter relay pulled. All along, the dashboard lights were out, the brake indicator light was on, the traction control lights were on, and the car ran really funky. It seemed to run OK at moderate speeds, but acceleration was really sluggish.

I got to our next destination and shut it off. Later, I came back out and and plugged in the starter relay with no key in the ignition and it started cranking over. Anothe hour later, and I was able to plug in the relay without it turning over. I was able to then start the car and drive to our next destination. There, I left it running with the heat cranked on high per my brother in laws advice, seems he had a similar problem with a Ford he owns.

After a few hours, I'd check in on it and it was still exhibiting the same problems. It was still rainy out, btw.

By the time we left, she was mostly back to normal. I could turn it off and restart it, and most everything was back to snuff. The only problem I noted was that I couldn't run all of the power windows from the drivers control panel.

Now, getting home and re-reading this thread, I realize that maybe I need to change out the MAIN relay, not the starter relay. I'll give it a try and see what happens.

Frustrating stuff.

everest81

i m having similar problems, couple weeks ago i started having whistling noise coming from engine that would end in a click, whenever i had ignition key inserted but not even started the car. But now, since couple days or so car doesnt start right away, it just clicks when i turn on the key, after few tries it starts up fine though.....
this is on 98gs 300 btw..

gs400dave

I'm not sure I can pick up on your issue from the description everest, however, mind did do the clicking thing.

Here's the wrap-up on my issue, just resolved (so far) in the last week or so...

I had a bad windshield install a few years back, where apparently the installer scratched up the metal around the seal. This caused rust (even surface rust on my roof at the windshield line) that caused water to leak on the main junction box.

This caused corrosion in the box, which (purportedly) caused all of my problems. We replaced the box, and so far, so good. I hope that fixes it!

gs400dave

I never did change out the main relay, by the way. Once the Lexus dealership diagnosed it as the block, we went down that path.