My car was driving fine today until I pulled up at Macdonalds and went inside, I came back out and the car will not start. All the dash lights iluminate as they should, but the car does not make any effort to start, it wont even try and turn over. The battery reading is telling me about 11V - 12V which is normal but it will still not put any effort into starting.

Its a 2000 automatic btw

Any ideas what might be wrong and what to check for?

Thanks.

[quote name='Jonny B' timestamp='1315662271' post='763115']
My car was driving fine today until I pulled up at Macdonalds and went inside, I came back out and the car will not start. All the dash lights iluminate as they should, but the car does not make any effort to start, it wont even try and turn over. The battery reading is telling me about 11V - 12V which is normal but it will still not put any effort into starting.

Its a 2000 automatic btw

Any ideas what might be wrong and what to check for?

Thanks.
[/quote]
hi try moving the gearlever out of park then put it back into park it maybe the switch in the gearbox that stops you starting the car in gear

[quote name='clifton 94' timestamp='1315663442' post='763117']
[quote name='Jonny B' timestamp='1315662271' post='763115']
My car was driving fine today until I pulled up at Macdonalds and went inside, I came back out and the car will not start. All the dash lights iluminate as they should, but the car does not make any effort to start, it wont even try and turn over. The battery reading is telling me about 11V - 12V which is normal but it will still not put any effort into starting.

Its a 2000 automatic btw

Any ideas what might be wrong and what to check for?

Thanks.
[/quote]
hi try moving the gearlever out of park then put it back into park it maybe the switch in the gearbox that stops you starting the car in gear
[/quote]

I have tried and still nothing. It does feel/sound exactly the same as when you try and start the car in gear. Could anyone point out where any sensors are for this?

Oh and where are all the fuses in my IS? Im at work now and will need to check them all quickly when I get home, hopefully its a fuse!

Well we moved the car down the street and started it up the next morning. It fired first time although sounding slightly lumpy at first. I drove the car around for a bit and turned it off and back on a number of times. Seemed very strange, I took it to the shop today came back, parked up took some stuff inside and went back out to start the car again and it is doing exactly the same as before!!!

I can here what I expect to be the starter relay clicking under the bonnet when I turn the key but nothing else, does this sound like a dodgy starter motor/solenoid? Could it suddenly just decide to start working again if it was the starter? I am about 90% sure the battery is fine. My only other thoughts are a dodgy earth or poor connection somewhere.

Could be a dodgy starter/solenoid. A reasonably common issue on most older Lexus models. There is a link in my signature to a tutorial I did for overhauling the starter/solenoid (it was on a mk1 GS300 but they are the same/similar to other models).