Last week my LC stopped starting out of the blue, and it definitely took me by surprise. Like, it cranked relatively slow compared to the rapid fire cranks I hear from newer cars, but it would still start reliably every time under 3 seconds ever since I bought it a month ago. I thought it sounded just fine anyhow. Then that day it died and I felt like there was no warning, except maybe the start immediately before that which was maybe a little extra sluggish.
At first I tried to jump it, didn't work. Battery measured 12.4V too, so it definitely wasn't the problem. When holding the key in ignition, all I heard was a faint whirring noise, possibly the starter motor, but didn't hear anything else, -- no clicking of solenoid. Was pretty sure the starter was the problem at that point, not fuel, because it didn't even crank.
I, with the help of another monkey, got to work tearing it out. Here's what I found:
The pinion gear was completely stuck. Couldn't rotate it at all. That topmost ball bearing there in the picture was jamming it in place. Littered around the starter under the intake manifold were those ball bearings in my hand. Crazy to think they were just getting spat out by the starter over time.
Replaced it with a Denso reman starter (#2800320), and a few other parts along the way while I was in there. Took us 10 hours and a good deal of frustration. But now, my LC starts like a dream. It cranks strong and fires up fast
Anyone else have this problem before? Definitely was surprised to see this when we opened it up. I was expecting maybe the motor/solenoid/contacts/anything else before this. The gear teeth don't even look particularly worn. Flywheel gear teeth were completely fine too, unlike one starter replacement video I once saw that had a bed of metal shavings in the flywheel cavity. I did notice though, before I replaced it, that if I held the key even a split second too long in the ignition start position after the engine fires up, you would hear the most horrible, painful grinding noise. I assumed it was normal in old cars without a shutoff switch. But now, with the new starter, the grinding from holding the key too long is much, much softer, barely there even. Is it possible that my car led a life of poor key usage for the last 230k miles, causing this over time?
At first I tried to jump it, didn't work. Battery measured 12.4V too, so it definitely wasn't the problem. When holding the key in ignition, all I heard was a faint whirring noise, possibly the starter motor, but didn't hear anything else, -- no clicking of solenoid. Was pretty sure the starter was the problem at that point, not fuel, because it didn't even crank.
I, with the help of another monkey, got to work tearing it out. Here's what I found:
The pinion gear was completely stuck. Couldn't rotate it at all. That topmost ball bearing there in the picture was jamming it in place. Littered around the starter under the intake manifold were those ball bearings in my hand. Crazy to think they were just getting spat out by the starter over time.
Replaced it with a Denso reman starter (#2800320), and a few other parts along the way while I was in there. Took us 10 hours and a good deal of frustration. But now, my LC starts like a dream. It cranks strong and fires up fast
Anyone else have this problem before? Definitely was surprised to see this when we opened it up. I was expecting maybe the motor/solenoid/contacts/anything else before this. The gear teeth don't even look particularly worn. Flywheel gear teeth were completely fine too, unlike one starter replacement video I once saw that had a bed of metal shavings in the flywheel cavity. I did notice though, before I replaced it, that if I held the key even a split second too long in the ignition start position after the engine fires up, you would hear the most horrible, painful grinding noise. I assumed it was normal in old cars without a shutoff switch. But now, with the new starter, the grinding from holding the key too long is much, much softer, barely there even. Is it possible that my car led a life of poor key usage for the last 230k miles, causing this over time?
I am glad it went out now rather than later if it was going to tbh. I was going to drive 3000 miles in 2 weeks across the country! Good luck with yours, 291k is amazing for original starter.
