ES350Bob

Kaius,

Remember that ons did that as an extreme and note he offered to do another where the RPM spike is lower.

You don't need to drive it as he did to notice the flare, in fact you could granny drive and see and hear it do it to less a degree than the extreme he did on purpose.

onsknht

It did it just this morning under 2,000 rpm... Very subtle, could hardly tell it occurred. Tomorrow morning I'll make a clip of the "baby spike," normally I'm very aware of the engine warming up and I minimize RPM until the temp is up. In the name of experimentation and considering it'd be limited to a couple instances, I did run a little harder than normal to exaggerate the symptoms. Unfortunately I won't be able to post the clip until sometime tomorrow evening.

ES350Bob

ons......,

I already think you have gone above and beyond with the post you did, I was just reminding Kauis you did the video at accel on purpose and that lighter is possible so he and others would not think a flare must appear to that degree....3 days now and no flare for me in my newer so fingers crossed the others were just a fluke, 2 minor and one major.

toneman

Mind you, I'm not disagreeing w/ any of the above; rather, the question to be asked in that regard is this:

If supposedly the flare doesn't not occur again after the initial occurance--is that necessarily because we've just accepted that it doesn't happen twice during an engine cycle (either by not noticing it happen again on a subsequent 3-4 upshift that takes place fairly shortly after the first 3-4, or accepting it as fact based on other people's statements)...or perhaps the flare does happen more than once during the cycle, and we're just not noticing it (especially if it's just a small 500-rpm spike) because we've assumed that it only happens once and we're not closely watching the tach to see if it happens again say, 10-15 minutes later?

onsknht

I think I'm hyper sensitive to the transmission shifting and would notice it at a later point in time... Not only do you see the flair on the tach, but it can be felt by the car pausing during accelleration. The "baby flair" is equally as annoying as the "big mama flair." I have never felt the flair twice in the same day, unless of course I've let the car 'cold soak' again between use, as I did yesterday... I ran the video in the AM and then didn't touch the car until 5-6PM, the car started and then ran as it would on any morning.

The short answer, I agree watching the tach it could be missed, but it can also be felt, so I don't think I've missed it.

ES350Bob

Not only can you see it on tach and feel it to a slight degree but you should be able to hear it every time it does it.

onsknht

No luck today fellas... I take the train into the city and was running late for the last express train this morning, I unfortunately didn't have time to goof with the camera... Maybe tomorrow.

toneman

onsknht--yes the flare would be hard not to notice if one stares at the tach at the right time and/or if the flare is the 1k-1500 rpm one; unless I'm intently trying to see if it occurs, I would probably not notice a 500-rpm flare. Put it another way--the only way I discovered that I had the flare was when I actually tried to watch it happen by staring at the tach...and that was only about a couple of weeks ago or so; I have had my car for a little over two months prior to my actually discovering that I had the flare w/o having seen or otherwise heard any noise that would be associated w/ the flare. Not to say that there were no flares during that time, but in my case they apparently weren't harsh enough to make me go "What the heck just happened?".

FWIW--since I typically don't push my car hard (e.g., similar to what you did in the video you posted) in the beginning after a cold start, odds are that I would probably not see any 1500-rpm flares...at least not in the near future.

ES350Bob

Tony,

Either it is your driving style that keeps you from it as you mentioned, or, you got one of those engines you love to read about on here...quiet...LOL.. and you wouldn't hear it, only be able to see it on tach.

I did hear them even at 500 RPM, but then again I can hear the difference in the engine at idle with a slight steering adjustment spiking the RPM up to 200 though usually about 150 ..<G>

Mlawler

well this is a bit disturbing since I just bought a 07 ES350 UL in Royal Ruby last weekend. However I have tried several times to make this happen and so far so good. That doesnt mean it wont as I only have 400 miles on the car. The other thing is I rarely start and drive, my cars almost always warm up for a few.

Fortunately for me I know the GSM were I bought it. But I am of the mind that some folks are, Lexus and Toyota will find a fix and get it squared away, this is a fairly new tranny as I am told. I also spoke to a friend that is a GM of a Toyota dealer and he said he has sold many Camry's lately but only once seen this problem and he is very close to his service department...thats were he really makes his $'s.

How do I find out when the car was built?

A great example of Toyota service is I had a 2001 Tundra Xcab and the brakes were crap (poorly designed rotors and calipers), at 50K miles there was a TSB, not recall but the Dealers took care of a new front brake system that cost Toyota 2K and me a $35 oil change, no extended warrenty etc. So I am pretty confident if I have a problem it will get fixed.

Oh I do have squeak somewhere, but no different than the one I heard on a brand new E500 or the 525XI I drove. I think they all have them, roads are not that great these days. Problem for all these guys is they try to get the frame and suspension stiff to give the car better handling then put on a console that extends width and length of the car and attaches to itself, your bound to get a squeak, its physics.

1seeker1

To find your build date (month and year), look at the plate attached to the body of the car at the bottom of the car when your driver's side door is open.

Ramon

I took my IS350 to my dealer yesterday for an oil change and spoiler install and a sun roof rattle and they gave me an ES350 for a loaner vehicle. This morning, when I left my house, I expierenced that exact same RPM surge that is in the video. Just like the video, it only happened once. The loaner vehicle has around 9k miles on it.

emas

Thank you. On a test drive last weekend, I noticed it when the car was downshifting. Anyon else experience that?

Mlawler

You all may want to consider something else. This problem IS a potential saftey issue. You may want to consider reporting the issue to the NHTSA. (ref: http://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/ivoq/)! If enough people document their concerns the US Federal Goverment will step in and ask Toyota what they're doing to address this issue.

I took this idea from a Camry forum. But I see a lot less of these complaints form them...www.tundrasolutions.com

ES350Bob

It might be a stretch to call it a safety concern, though when you are not used to it when it first happens pulling into traffic it does cause you to tense up thinking you are going to get hit from behind but it always catches it's gear. Maybe over time it might not though.