wanderer99

I'd say my driving style is a 4 using the guide above. I don't think I've ever floored the accelerator in my car, and the thing rarely goes above 3000rpm. I'm looking more for quiet and easy transport as we tend to drive long distances. Travel speed on the highway is usually around 80mph.

In my case, I don't see this as a computer problem with the car. I've got the cold 3-4 problem, but also have the hot problem where 1-2 and 2-3 gear shifts occasionally have a big rpm slip and then slam the gear shifts. The hot problem is one that has been associated with the earlier 'dead' trans units for the early builds.

ckon

I wonder if you just drove the hell out of it for a day or two if it would change the shifting behavior either for better or worse. The way these things learn is beyond laymen like us to be able to predict without further info, but I'm wondering if a trans that "learns" a heavier duty cycle will have a different set of problems.

The thing I'm interested in finding out depends on how hard you accelerate, how high the shift points are, etc, not the average speed of travel. I assume that once the trans is in sixth gear, there's not much for it to learn, that the learning occurs with changes in load, rpm, speed, vacuum and throttle position.

ES350Bob

I had no idea you car would slip 2 to 3.....that is what my former most often slipped in and once in a while the 3 to 4.

And it didn't seem to matter whether the car was cold or hot with the 2 to 3, it just did it when it darn well felt like doing it though it got somewhat more frequent as miles progressed and I got told never heard of one slipping 2 to 3, that is what showed up in recordings I did that sounded pitiful for the transmission and that is the gear that slipped with motorsports shop owner when he was riding in order to give his opinion on the diesel knocking of the engine.

onsknht

I just got firewire enabled DV transfer and video editing experience this afternoon, I will post a video of the flair sometime tomorrow...

theredkid

Excellent. That would clear up a lot of paranoid here on the dreadful transmission flare. How many of you will notice a 500rpm spike before shift without watching the tachometer when you have your foot on the gas pedal? Unless there are some safety issues, I am not worried at all.

onsknht

I see nothing safety related about this issue as annoying as it may be.

I Posted Video Here

ES350Bob

The flare is not limited to a 500 RPM spike, if so, if that were it's upper most extreme limit, not too many would be too concerned about it even if it meant a lack of fluid due to a defective part which is what one even at 500 or slightly less is due to.

Sooner or later this fluid absence is going to cause other problems over time.

theredkid

Based on the video of onsknht provided and my own experience, I doubt such flare is due to mechanical malfunctioning of some parts. More likely it is software related, and learning the driving style.

ES350Bob

No way is that software and not according to Lexus either, after all they are replacing parts that control trans fluid flow, the valve body does this and the (bearings) in them, according to techs, get impeded and do not allow proper fluid flow. If it were software it would do it each time the car was run through 3 to 4 or darn near and Lexus would not be spending the money to take apart a transmission, plus at least in my recordings you can hear it slip due to a lack of fluid type sound like the old AAMCO commercials.

theredkid

By the same token, if the mechanical failure is the cause as you described, Lexus could have fixed the problem long time ago. The fact is that blindly replacing parts (valves/transmissions/even the whole new car) did not seem to fix the problem.

ES350Bob

The reason the parts are not working is because they are using the same parts thinking it is an odd circumstance that they fail when it is a far more frequent issue. They are replacing the valve body or the entire transmission with the same exact type of part of transmission or entire transmission that failed in the first place. Also they seem not interested that this happens with other gears too which may partly explain or totally explain why the TSIB fails.

If this were software our own poll on here would have 100 percent voting as having this flare or a good 95 percent voting they do with 5 percent just plain unaware. They are not cherry picking software for 1/4th the vehicles and then intentionally using a different kind of software for 3/4ths of vehicles.

ES350Bob

thered,

The only reason I know this is because I spent a lot of time pondering whether or not I wanted my brand new car to have it's transmission taken apart as any new car owner would likely do and be very reluctant to experience it.

I past posted and said the techs are very patient, or were, they went over with me in exacting detail what was going wrong and why.

I decided that the TSIB would not work on my car because it supposedly only fixed the flow to gear shift 3 to 4 and would do nothing for gear shift 2 to 3 which, at least on my former car, was the most often but also 3 to 4.

If my newer car has this over time, I will wait until they do what they did with the Camry as posted on here, they changed transmission suppliers according to post, if accurate, as of latter part of October. No announcement about that for us yet, and until there is no matter whether it pans out I have this I will not allow the car to be worked on until they change suppliers or come out with another announcement of what THE final fix is for this.

theredkid

Sorry but I have to point out that operator variance is much larger than the product variance. I am more confident that majority of ES350s are made within the specs and tolerances and Lexus will not cherry pick any car to have a bad software. However, software can cherry pick the drivers, which can be very different, in terms their driving styles, not to mention their perceiption and tolerance for perfection. Machine is still far from as smart as we wish, especially when we expect the machine to learn from our driving habit.

theredkid

Bob, if this transmission flare is indeed due to a part malfunctioning or design flaw, nobody could escape. Unless they find out something wrong with their design or off-specs from the parts made by the old supplier, changing suppliers seems like a shooting in the blind to me.

ES350Bob

I would think Lexus is already very aware of as many driving habits as there are people, more or less, and instead of taking apart transmissions or replacing entire transmissions for a 1/4th of their buyers, on here anyway, they'd simply say the transmission is learning your driving skills and send people on their way and not have come out with a specific metering device that monitors this issue nor an initial solution that corrects fluid flow impedance.