I have an 08 ES350 with 13,500 miles, and have noticed that when I depress the accelerator, the engine races for a few seconds, and the tachometer briefly rises by 200-300 RPM. Interestingly, this only happens when accelerating from a complete stop on a downward incline.

I thought I had avoided transmission flare problems, but now I'm not so sure.

Thanks for any advice.

 

Doesn't sound like the flare that haunted everyone a few years ago. You may want to take it in and have your service dept take it for a spin.

 

It sounded different to me, too. And it really is a strange feeling to step on the pedal and have the transmission act like it's in neutral for a few seconds.

 

ect-i . electronicaly controled transmission with intelligence. these computations can take more than a couple tenths of a second. if the check engine light is not comming on then it is a design characteristic or can be reprogrammed if it is a software issue. check with your dealer. i believe the flare issues were on 2007.

 

I have the flair on my 2008.

 

I had the "flash" done on my 07 ES350 which has almost eliminated the problem. Will still experience it from time to time but it is better than what it was in the past. I had a 08 loaner that had the 2-300 rpm flare. Just because it is above the VIN cut off for the TSB does not mean you are immune to having the problem. I would recommend taking a video of the flare just in case it doesn't do it when the dealer looks at it. It will need to be done on a cold soak overnight with a very cold morning.

 

My flair seems a bit different than what is generally reported. Mine does it from 2nd to 3ed and never when it is cold. It needs to be fully warmed up. Some days it will never flair and other days it will do it with every shift.

 

I'm experiencing something different with my ES350 loaner car.

When cruising at around 30-40mph, I floor it and there is significant lag/slowing before it actually downshifts and accelerates. It's pretty annoying. Other than that the car has been flawless.

 

This is a normal characteristic of the wonderful fly by wire throttle system on this car. It is hands down the biggest complaint I have. It's really annoying and sometimes even dangerous when you need immediate power for an aggressive manuever. It has definitely put a damper on my aggressive driving tendencies...which is a good thing I guess.

 

I've owned and driven plenty of drive-by-wire cars but this is by far the worst. I agree it's dangerous, it not only lags, but it briefly decelerates before kicking down and accelerating. Lag is one thing but slowing down when you need to speed up is another. I guess once you get used to it you learn to anticipate and spool it up like a turbo before making a move. Too bad they don't have a software update or something to fix it.

 

That lag doesn't seem to be as noticeable in car my now than it was when I first got it (fast approaching 3 years). Either I've adapted to it, or along with the trans, it's apapted to my driving style. Initially it really felt wierd though.

 

Check your owners manual, it may have an adaptive ability. My Mercedes C-class has that. I'll try beating on this car a bit more to see if it adapts. I've had this loaner for 7 days so far and I find that transmission trait to be dangerous.



btw - This ES350 with only 17K miles looks like crap. People really don't take care of loaners in my observations. I had the outside washed yesterday so it at least looks better now.

 

On mine, the lag is very minor. Doesn't bother me.

My wife's previous 2004 Sienna had the lag and I could not stand it. It was so bad, that passenger's forward momentum would continue as I would push the gas and the van would lose power. Not a fun ride, everyone would feel a jerk. A flash update under warranty fixed that problem. (Again I bought a car on its first year after a major redesign...why won't I learn my lesson?...HA HA )

 

The transmission in the ES350 is adaptive. I don't know if it syncs up with the drive by wire throttle though. In any case mine seems to have smoothed out.

I'm sure the loaners live a hard life. They see every kind of driving style there is. If I were buying a CPO ES, RX or IS250, I'd want to know about its previous life.

 

Thanks for letting me know about adaptive tranny, I'll try to drive aggressively to train it. The lag combined with de-acceleration up through yesterday was both annoying and dangerous. There might be a TSB (or complaint with NTSB) on this.

Agreed, I would never buy a loaner car. When buying a used car it's very important to know the history.