Good day to you all. Just picked up my dream car and it’s quickly turning into a nightmare. I picked this 1992 ls up from the auction yesterday. (The auction site had a video of the car running. When picking the car up they drove it out the lot with a jump box. Once the jump box was disconnected the car would stay running for 3 seconds before shutting off completely, had the car towed in front of my house and here I am. All 3 keys open the door but when putting the key in the ignition and turning nothing turns on. No relay clicking, no lights on the dash no gauges moving. Literally nothing. I go to check underneath the hood and even the cable cord to pop the hood isn’t working so I’m not sure of how I can get under the hood to check the battery and alternator out. What could this possibly be? Please help. I’d like to go the diy route and do the labor myself I just need help diagnosing this issue.

 

Hello and welcome to the club.

Without being able to pop the hood its going to be hard to do anything... if they had to jump it then the battery is most likely dead..

 

I was able to get the hood open with a coat hanger lol. Only to find out the original battery from 1992 is in the car and the terminals are extremely corroded. So I’m going to clean the terminals and see if that helps. If not then a new battery and hopefully that fixes my issue.

 

Nice.
Good luck with the 29 year old battery lol, that would be impressive if its still holding charge...

 

What will help is putting a new battery in it. I was thinking my battery was old, 10 years and second vehicle. (It came from my first LS400) After the battery, make sure you change out all the fluids cuz they're probably just as old.
Nice find with that car. It must have been sitting a while with that low mileage and all that dust. A good detail will do that car wonders. Mind if I ask what you paid at auction?

 

Thanks for that insight. It has an inspection sticker that expired in 2016. The miles are 279,xxx. Lol definitely not low mileage it’s tough to see the last zero with all the dust. I paid $1750 from the auction. I think it’s an okay deal considering people in my area are charging upwards 5k for a heavily modded and beat ls400.

 

Wow I didn't see that last zero. Maybe cuz I'm used to the digital odometer in my 94. Looks like it's time for me to call the eye doctor again. It doesn't look like it has that much. The price sounds good, especially if it runs good when you do get it started. And yes, people are charging way too much for any used vehicles nowadays.