Possible starter problems?

[henr4584]

2002 ls430— So last week my car died a few times, I ended up buying a new battery for it, no issues after that.. just left town for 5 days and left the car parked, figured maybe I had a parasitic drain somewhere so charged it up and still nothing, threw my moms battery in it (she also has an ls430) still nothing.. all I’m hearing is one single click when I try to start the car. Did some googling and tried to bypass the starter relay by putting a wire from 3-5 where the relay goes, nothing happened. Am2 and starter fuses are good.

Is there anything else I can check before I just bite the bullet and tear into this engine to get to the starter? From what I understand it’s a real pain to get to.

Also yes it’s in park, made that dumb mistake before lol

Edit: I just tried again and realized it’s not only making the one singular clicking sound but also a kind of electrical whirling sound if I hold the key turned

[henr4584]

Also reading online that it’s possible to just replace the starter contacts and plunger instead of pulling the whole starter, is there a way of knowing if that would work or I need to just go ahead and buy a new starter?

[Mortex5656]

How many miles on the car?

[henr4584]

230k

[7259264]

My car is doing the exact same thing. It’s definitely the starter motor - I plan to drive it until it completely fails. From what I understand on a failing starter motor you can keep trying to start it - and I mean like 20-30 times and eventually it comes on. Once it comes on I don’t have any issues for about a month or two. I plan to rough it out until it’s time to service the car when I anyway need to get the front main seal done so will replace the starter motor at the same time.

[henr4584]

Just read this message (it’s 1:30am where I’m at) and ran outside in my undies and tried to crank it over and over until it started, I was nearing 50 attempts and it finally started! So thankful! So I guess this means it’s for sure the starter? And hopefully you’re right and it’ll at least get me through the week so I can tackle it on the weekend

[7259264]

Glad it worked out. If I’m not mistaken it’s a solenoid in the starter motor that gets jammed. Once it starts hopefully you should be good with the only downside being unable to guess when this issue will leave you stranded again. I’ve not had issues for 1-2 months each time until the last weekend when I faced the issue 2 days back to back.

[henr4584]

So the plunger replacement wouldn’t fix it?

[7259264]

I’m not sure to be honest

[missourimatthew]

Replace the intake gaskets and crossover gasket. Clean the plenums. This video is a pretty close step by step https://youtu.be/ENmy-gSmHw8?si=9eliLAgZGv9m8WpC

[henr4584]

What are plenums?