BMT22033

I bought my UL at the end of November. It's a 10/06 build. For the first three weeks that I drove it, I didn't really notice any type of transmission flare. In retrospect, it seems like this was probably prevented by the fact that the car rarely shifted into 4th gear during the first 5 - 10 minutes after a cold start. By the time I was driving at speeds high enough to cause a shift into 4th, the car had warmed up. About three weeks ago, I changed my route to and from work and now I'm usually driving ~50MPH within the first three or four minutes after starting the car. Since this change, I've started noticing a small flare when the car shifts between 3rd/4th. It seems like it's in the 300 - 500 RPM range and only happens once. To say that I'm sickened at the thought of having to have the tranmission replaced in a $44,000 car that's 8 weeks old and has ~550 miles on it is an understatement. But I can't blame anyone except myself because I knew some people were having this problem before I made the decision to purchase my car.

I called the dealership where I bought my car and was told (and I quote)...

"We only see one or two cars a week that have that problem so it's not very widespread."

Oh, well...thank God it's not widespread! I feel A LOT better now! Anyway, the service advisor that I spoke to claims that they don't have any information on a TSB that specifies a transmission replacement. Does anyone know if or when the Toyota TSB (TC002-07) that addresses this problem will issued by Lexus?

ES350Bob

BMT,

I'm guessing within a week or two at best the Lexus TSIB will come out, that's only a guess but Camry and ES do share the same transmission so it is coming on that basis.

As for the transmission issue, it is no fun to have but I can tell you to relax for now because as hard as that may be to pull off you don't want to go through something that does not work as a guaranteed fix and that is what it seems, there is no guaranteed fix just yet. Unless you just want to push it now and lead to a buyback, but you will likely go through multiple trips to dealer service and Lexus corporate back and forth if you choose to proceed immediately.

Right now it is probably very frustrating, but believe me trying to relax about it is the best thing you could do for yourself and any of us on here will help you where we can, so just ask if anything makes no sense to you along the way.

"One or two cars a week that have that problem" and it isn't widespread? I wonder what widespread is then.

BobBass

That is a truly MIND BOGGLING statement from the dealer. The only "better" thing would be if he had said, "Well, that usually only happens in the earlier built cars," and you following up with, "Well, mine was built in October."

Wanna know what my Toyota salesguy said when I asked him about alleged Camry transmission problems a few weeks ago? "Oh, Lexus got all of those." EXACT WORDS.

Then, he went on to tell me that these new computer-controlled transmissions have a 1,000 mile "learning curve."

I feel bad because I actually like the guy, have bought a few cars from him, but obviously will not be able to truly trust anything he says from now on.

terryes

TC001-07 has been out for two days now. 1,000 rpm 3/4 flare shift.

Our TSIB moderator is asleep at the wheel.

BMT22033

I like my car a lot aside from this issue and I'm not really interested in fighting with Lexus over a buyback at this point. Sure, my car has some other issues (i.e., the diesel engine sound and the wind noise) but I've pretty much learned to live with those. As I said before, though, the very thought of potentially having to have the transmission replaced in an 8 week old car with 550 miles on it is pretty unsettling. I know very little about the internal workings of an automobile but it seems to me that a transmission replacement is a relatively major job and that makes me worry about what other problems might arise as a result of having that work done. $44k is a LOT of money to me but I spent it on what I really hoped would be a well-built, reliable car that I'd keep for at least 7 years. A transmission replacement is just not something that I really expected to be facing 8 weeks into owning my first Lexus.

ES350Bob

That's why I said try, hard as that may be, to relax as it seems there is no viable fix in yet in case you were not wanting to push it and end up in a buyback.

I totally agree with you about a brand new car needing a transmission replaced and I was of the same mindset, only keep it at least 5 full years rather than the 7 you mentioned. It is NOT something I want to go through either and/or having someone go into my car for this, if I am going to, it had better the FINAL fix, not some might be a fix. So I keep waiting to hear of and see demonstrated a guaranteed fix is finally offered.

wanderer99

Having only 550 miles may work in your a favor. I'd personally be all over this with the dealer and Lexus mentioning this is unacceptable for a new car. You've got wind noise, engine noise and a likely bad trans.... all new from the Dealer.

I'd be looking for a vehicle swap myself on this from the dealer with a later build date. It's not like the dealer didn't know about the trans issue with these cars before they sold you this car. There is only one fix for this - new trans. You are already clearly not happy with the thought of having that replaced and I'd go with those thoughts back to your dealer and Lexus Corp.

Kaius88

wait if it only happens once a day, and during the first few minutes of cold driving, can this be ignored? I mean, is there evidence that the transmission would get worse and eventually be dangerous to drive? I'm guessing if the problem does not get worse, it shouldnt be a big deal since all you need to do is warm up the car a bit and when the weather gets warmer the problem should not be obvious.

wanderer99

In my personal experience with two transmissions now, this definitely gets worse over time. The first trans was more gradual with the flares increasing in size. The second trans is degrading fast and only has 2000 kms on it now.

The first trans lasted 2000 kms before starting to flare. The second one lasted 200 kms.

ES350Bob

Kauis,

What the outside temp is has nothing to do with this in this classic 3 to 4 start of day slip, this happens middle of summer or dead of winter.

NGG

Even if this comment is anecdotal and not research based do the math: Two times 52 by all the dealers in the US and Canada equals a huge number. Even if this was 80% discounted it is still a number large enough for a responsible manufacturer to halt sales until a permanent fix was implemented. Selling known flawed cars is irresponsible and deceptive.

2007es350

From my personal experience, the transmission slipping will only get worse. At 1800 miles it only jumped about 200 rpm between the 3-4 shift. Now at 2400 miles, the car jumps about 800 rpm between shifts. This will eventually lead to complete transmission failure.

I'm still on my original transmission but won't be stuck with this problem when my buyback is completed.

BMT22033

As terryes pointed out above, it seems that Lexus did issue another TSB (TC001-07 dated 1/19/07) for this problem which does specify a transmission replacement. The TSB lists the production change effective VIN as JTHBJ46G#72064871.

Here's the link:
http://www.alldata.com/tsb/Lexus/116...-07/index.html

Edit - just checked my VIN and the last 6 digits are 0615xx and my car was built 10/06. So if the production change occured @ 064871, that must have been pretty recently, yes?

BMT22033

Kaius - When I used the term "cold start" what I actually meant was that this problem occurs after the car hasn't been driven for a while (i.e., it's been in the garage overnight, parked all day at work, etc). If I start the car after it's been sitting for a while and drive for about 5 - 10 minutes without reaching speeds that would cause the transmission to shift into 4th gear, then the problem doesn't seem to occur. In my case, it's generally been happening about 2x a day. When I leave the house in the morning and when I come home from work in the evening.

dunnojack

interesting. you say you only get the flare when gunning it in the morning, whereas you never got one when driving like a grandma.
Maybe that's why I haven't seen one yet. In my area, there's really no place to drive 50mph within the first 5 minutes of cold start. there are stop signs everywhere.