coolcow

Mine is like what you described. This morning I drove with my dealer (around 39F), the shifts were rough but we couldn't reproduce the spike. However, we drove on pretty flat road this morning though, while I noticed the problem when there was some up slope. Wondering whether that contributes to something...
How's your case?

onsknht

I haven't gone to the dealer yet (buncha monkeys with tools)... I am trying to gather as much information as possible before I bring it in. So far it doesn't seem to be anything that will leave me stranded somewhere and I'm hoping the colder weather (around 0 degrees) will exacerbate the issue and it will really "flare-up."

Interestingly enough, I live in an old corn field, so there's not much in the way of hills around me and I've had the same spike you describe.

Try this...

Start your car and drive away without letting the engine warm up and see if you get the spike between 3 & 4. If it does it then continue this for a few days and see if the spike is "consistent."

Next start your car and let it run for 2 minutes, time it if you like, but that's usually how long it takes me to get adjusted before I back out in the AM... Now see if you get the spike (i bet you won't). Then try and alternate the start-up-and-go process for a couple of days to see if you can 100% of the time duplicate the issue... However, before going to the dealer, keep in mind the cold start-up-and-go may be different than your home. For example you may drive a few blocks in a subdivision before hitting a main road whereas the dealer is probably situated right on a main road... Therefore you should emulate the subdivision ride through the parking lot before hitting the main road.

I've found another oddity with the trans that I've never seen mentioned here or anywhere else... While going down a road at a little over 45 MPH, accellerate so that the torque converter first unlocks before downshifting. Basically this will feel almost like two downshifts, the converter will unlock causing the RMP to go up 400 or so and then the gear will change causing the RPM to go another 400 or so higher... As soon as the second "shift" occurs, drop the gas pedal, take your foot completely off of it. Mine will hold the downshifted gear so long as I do not touch the accelerator or the brakes, kinda like I stuck it in that gear... Very weird indeed, but I can duplicate this
time and again and I believe it describes one of those situations where the driver can "fake out" the car.

I'll keep ya'll aprised of my progress.

coolcow

I have my car for three months now, so I know I can reproduce the sympton almost 100% out of my drive way. But I couldn't reproduce that out of the dealership this morning.

I feel uncomfortable with downshifting as well, but around 30-40 mph (4-3 downshift). It is like the tranny consistently tries to decide whether to downshift or upshift when cruising around 30-35 mph, which is the speed of my evening commute...

ES350Bob

cool

If it keeps up do what Twister did and leave it with dealer a couple of days and let them try again.

Here is quote about my other car from 2nd opinion drive test and findings..

"Also noted, transmission down shifts while cruising @ constant 35mph and then upshifts-noted on tach"

wanderer99

You mention that you can duplicate this coming out of your driveway. I'm presuming this is when then vehicle is cold. Was the vehicle in the same cold condition at the dealership?

twister

Are you talking about your brand new ES350 as your "other car"?

ES350Bob

twister,

I was talking about my former car, it had an odd habit of downshifting on me which got just a little more intense as time went on where you could feel it very lightly sling you forward.

At first I thought it was the auto idle or auto throttle doing it until the debate with the Lexus VP who pointed out that was the transmission though later that got lost in all the translating within Lexus corporate and only the upshift issues were discussed and forced on me as supposedly normal, just learning stuff.

There were 2 types of downshifting on my former car, the kind where you thought you were steady at about 35 mph and it would downshift on you and you'd see it in RPM and the other kind like taking foot off gas or applying brakes when it would downshift like a stick shift and spike RPM on tach when doing that and also over time seemed to be more intense at that too slightly slinging you forward. When I say slightly sling, I mean slightly sling not a significant jerk but noticeable enough to wonder what the heck was going on..

toneman

Not exactly related this thread, but your observation above reminded me of a little tidbit about how you can find out if your torque converter is functioning; dunno if this test works the same way on an ES 350 but on my Denali, what I'll do is get up to speed (say around 55 mph or so)...then while cruising (i.e., throttle remains steady) in top gear, blip the brake pedal really quick while looking at the tach. If the TC is functioning, you should see the revs increase about 300 rpm or so as soon as you blip the brake pedal, then drop back to it's previous speed once you take your foot off the brake (which would be almost immediately after you blip it). The outcome of this little test is to make the TC unlock; if the revs increase when you perform this test, then you know that the TC is unlocking. It's a good test to try since a malfunctioning/bad TC will eventually not only cause the TC to go bad, but also possible cause the tranny to fail since a slipping TC increases heat buildup in the tranny (after all, heat is the primary cause of why many trannies don't last as long as one would like them to)...and also a slight drop in fuel economy as well.

ES350Bob

Tony,

Many are having both the TC and trans replaced.