Megafast13

Lately my Lexus' trans. will jerk a little more than normal when decelerating, or when slightly accelerating from idle. I don't have any engine lights on, but what could I do to make it smoother?

rlx101

how many miles?
Try resetting it by disconnecting the battery for 15min. See if it gets better after "re-learning" stage. You could try emptying and then refilling tranny fluid, also replace filter if its been a while (do not flush tranny if it has lots of miles) .. just to be safe.

im approaching 160kmiles on my '02 ES with original tranny and getting nervous a bit. lol. i did see '02 LS430 (has similar throttle by wire tranny) with >220kmiles for sale with original tranny in good shape .. so i find it a bit comforting.

Megafast13

Hey Thanks for the response...

It only has about 48,000 Miles on it... So what exactly will disconnecting the batter do? I don't think I have ever flushed the trans. fluid I don't think...

GSteg

iTrader: (15)

Ah the dreaded hesitation issue. I think practically all 02-06 ES have this problem now. It's the damn programming that Toyota can't seem to get right. My friend's 2005 experience the same problem all the time.

rlx101

out of 3 ES's that i test drove before buying mine NONE had tranny hesitation issue. all had around 100kmiles on them. i did read the tranny thread before test driving.

I think what often happens is the car is driven by different people (say wife and husband) and everytime new person gets behind the wheel the software needs time to adjust to driving habbits of a another person. For instance, wife drives a car for a month, she is not a fast driver, slow acceleration, not a very spirited driver in other words. then the husband gets behind the wheel, red light turns green, vroom vroom he goes, but the tranny is used to slow acceleration, so it will go through gears slower, unless you press on gas really hard. etc etc

read about software managing transmission on these cars. by disconnecting the battery you will "erase" tranny memory and it will have to re-learn your driving habbits. look up in the service manual as to how long this process takes (several days, possibly more.. not sure)

GSteg

iTrader: (15)

I drove many ES before picking up this 05 and none of them had the issue either. Low and behold after weeks and hundreds of miles of driving, the car now has that hesitation issue. I can modulate the throttle so it's not as bad anymore, but it's really annoying. It's a hit and miss because sometimes it's there, sometimes it's not. It's the worse in traffic though.

03 ES

Ah the annoying shift jerk....i get it when im going 40-30mph decellerating uphill behind someone going slower...its the transmission computer hesitating an upshift or downshift, causing a delayed and harsh shift...its a common issue with the 2002-2006 ES.
First, id try disconnecting the battery for 10mins and relearning the ES's ECM for your driving style...like stated above the computer adjusts to the driving habits of the driver .(mine is medium acceleration to desiered speed and cruising)
There is a TSB to reflash the ECM for the shift issue...if you have not had it performed take it to the lexus dealer (covered under 8/80,000 warrenty) and have it reflashed, and while youre at it get the transmission fluid flushed...the recalibration helps with the shifts and the throttle hesitation, but requires you to use premium fuel...i had it performed and it made a big difference.

masboy

iTrader: (30)

how did you "modulate the throttle" ?? you gotta show it to me !!

it is hit & miss, but somehow it happened to me quite a lot today, usually it's about once-3times/day...for some reason happened more than usual today, i don't know why. I did transmission flush 10K miles ago.