JazzyQuinn

The other morning I started up my es300 and drove onto the freeway. As I accelerated up the freeway ramp, I noticed a lag or hesitation to shift into 4th gear. I attributed it to the cold, but wasn't sure what it could have been. The transmission usually shifts very smoothly so this came as a surprise, but after that incident the problem went away. My car drove great all day long without experiencing any other symptoms, until later that night.

On my way home I exited the freeway and pulled up to a red light. After a couple of seconds of idling my car died, so I shifted into park and started her back up. The car started up in park like normal, but when I shifted into drive the engine cut off. I repeated this process a couple times, and even tried putting it in reverse, but the same thing kept happening. It wasn't until I shifted into gear while throwing some gas into it that I got her to start moving. Once I started moving, the car was shaking and sputtering so violently that I decided just to park and avoid further damage. Unfortunately at this point I was at a good distance from home and my regular mechanic. I opted to have my car towed to the Toyota dealership, literally around the corner, to avoid paying the outrageous towing fees.

Next day I received a call from the Toyota tech and he seemed to think I needed a new battery. I expressed to him that I didn't think it was the battery and told him my story. He said "It's possible your car was trying to hang on, and the battery was so low it was causing your car to malfunction." I had never heard of that, but I figured he knew more than me, so I proceeded with the battery replacement. A couple hours later I received a call back saying that my car battery had been replaced and was running good! He offered for me to pick up the car, but also reminded me that I was going to need a new radiator. Since were headed into the cold season and he offered a reasonable quote, and I decided to get the work done.

I picked up the car the following afternoon, and the instant I pulled off the lot I noticed the same symptoms I had experienced before bringing it in. I drove up the street and made a u turn straight back to the dealership. As soon as I got there I decided to check under the hood, only to find that they had failed to reattach the hose to the coolant reservoir. This definitely wasn't causing my problem, but how do you forget to do something as simple as that!? I also realized that they obviously hadn't even test drove my car or they would have noticed how messed up it was. What a poor sense of workmanship. They looked over my car again and said that I was going to need a new transmission, at this point I was upset and didn't want them working on my car anymore, so I just left.

I didn't make it far before the problem worsened and my rpms were revving up and down wildly. Then I pushed the gas and it shot up to 7000 rpm but I had a complete loss of power and my car wasn't accelerating at all. I had to push her to the shopping center in neutral and park. When I scan the car I'm getting a code p0765 for a bad solenoid bank D. At this point I'm trying to figure out if its worth trying to replace the solenoid, or does it sound like I will truly need a new transmission. Your help is much appreciated in advance

jltait

Transmission problems do not necessarily preclude the battery from being on its way out.

From what I understand that error code you found can be caused by low or dirty transmission fluid. Try doing a drain and fill and replacing the filter. Hopefully that's all you need. Would be a cheaper experiment than engaging the dealership or an indy shop on transmission work. Good luck and let us know how it goes.