PaJaHa1

I've had similar issues between 20 and 40 mph but then I drove a friend's ES350 over the weekend and tried to re-create the same scenario where I first noticed the issue and the car reacted the same way. Both examples are 06/06 builds. Pat- did the dealer specify what the problem was or the part that needs to be replaced? I was at the dealer on Saturday but did not mention my concern.

Macklin

PaJaHa / Pat, are you experiencing this during normal accelaration, only during hard acceleration or both?

PaJaHa1

mine is at cruising 25-40mph. the car seems to be always changing gears for no reason and the rpm needle goes back and forth. however, like i said, after driving another example i think it's just my paranoia.

twister

Hmm, I have noticed a similar behavior when rpm needle move while I'm cruising. But, I haven't seen/felt any gear changing. Also, when I'm in S-mode, I never see that while cruising. I think its all normal. But definitely, when my 5k service is up, I will be leaving my car overnight for them to check everything out from a cold start. Have to agree, reading everybody else's problems in this forum does make you a little bit paranoid

Macklin

OK, mine doesn't do that. I cruise at those speeds alot and definitely have not experienced that. My concern is the amount of time it takes the car to 'spool up' (a term I previously used) when you mash on the gas.....going to pass or merging onto the highway. It just seems like it takes some time to downshift through the gears instead of going directly into the lowest gear needed.

Has anybody else noticed this lag time in downshifting during hard acceleration?

LexBob2

I've noticed the lag time too. Almost feels like a turbo. Not sure whether this is accurate or not, but a Lexus tech told me the following when I asked about the delay. He said with the new drive by wire throttle, it reads the position of the gas pedal. In normal driving, the change in position is relatively small and the response is immediate. When the pedal is floored, it's a greater movement and takes a second for the system to react to the sudden change in position. I've read a couple of reviews of the the new ES that mentioned this delay.

PatB

When I called my dealer he told me to bring it in right away. I dropped it off in the evening and called him the next day to see if he had test driven the car. He said he had check the car, and there was a problem with the car's transmission. I told him I had hoped that it was only my imagination. Then he said that he had received a Lexus service repair bulletin about this problem, and he would be ordering the parts to fix the car.

This transmission problem occurred during regular driving. I was not accelerating hard---just trying to keep up with traffic on a city street. It got to be very consistent over the last week. It sounds very similar to what you are describing in your vehicle, I'm sorry to say. I was hoping it wasn't happening to me, too. I truly hope you don't have this problem. How many miles do you have on the car now?

Julez

Our ES350 has been experiencing this type of sluggish overresponse in the 20-40 MPH area. I accelerate and see the RPM go up for a slight second and very quickly the car stalls a bit and continues on its way. Wierd to explain. Should I take to the dealer?

PatB

Yes, just tell them what you're experiencing and let them make the decision about checking out your car. Good luck!

coolcow

Ours has similar behaviour. I took it to the dealer and they told me this was normal... Would like to hear what your dealer say about this.