So... The Infamous 1st Gen Gs Transmission Who Was Supossibly Practicly Bullet Proof ... The Superman Of Transmissions.. Heres The Story Im Driving From St.cloud To Orlando And Im On The Florida Turnpike Street Is Empty Probably Me And 2 Cars For Miles..... Im Doing Maybe 120 No More No Less At A Cruise With My Stereo Up And Out Of Nowere I Noticed The Car Started To Slow Down As If I Accidently Hit It Into Neutral... I Looked Down It Was In Drive Then I Looked At The Dash And The "d" Was Lit Up Tapped The Gas And It Reved Up But Didnt Make Any Moves.... Mind You The Sign I Just Passed While Rooling Down The Highway Said Next Exit 8 Miles............ I Was Pissed! So I **** Into Neutral And Turn The Car Off....and Roll For Like 2 Mins... Started The Car And Shifted Into Drive... And It Worked So I Tried To Make It To The Next Exit Which Was About 5 Or 6 Miles From My House I Exit And Thank Gawd The Ramp Was Nothing But Downhills And Turns So I Rolled All The Way Thru... Car Wouldnt Go Into Drive Anymore And The Worst Thing Happened... A Red Light So My 60 Mph Roll Turned Into A 0 Mph Stuck I Got Helped Into A Gas Station And Bought Some Transmission Fluid But Checked And It Was Full Parked The Car At A Hotel And Called A Friend To Come Get Me And Aaa Is On Their Way As I Type This Message... I Think Im The First Guy With A Dead Tranny On A First Gen What Do You Guys Think?

 

Not much to say but i feel for you man! Its an excuse to put something better now though. I hope you figure something out soon!

 

yea im lookin up on the 5 speed that came on the 95-97 GS i think imma go with that... guess my coilovers are pushed back a few weeks...:-(

 

There was never a 5spd on the 95-97. No matter what anything says...trust me. I have a 96 and I have counted the gears...theres 4 plus and O/D which kicks in at about 110 if youve got you pedal to the metal and the O/D is on. If O/D is off, itll redline at almost 120.
If anything, you should look into getting a boostlogic TH400 built auto. If you plan on doing any turbo mods later, that would be the best choice.

 

My trannsmission went out the same way, it just keeped reving and going nowhere(3 years ago). The guy that replaced my tranny with a new one told me the old tranny need the fluid changed and filter even though it was full. I'm guessing the fluid got to thin and didn't protect anymore, my advisor for my auto technology classes told me that at higher speed the fluid breaks down easier and don't last as long cause of the heat, so you need to change the fluid soon then normal. If i knew that back then i wouldn't have needed to spend 2 grand for another transmission and labor fee.

 

Damn, 2 grand, that sucks.
Thanks for the heads up though...I guess its time to replace my tranny fluid.

 

Sounds like your initial problem didn't stem from your transmission at all. The clutch on your clutch fan went out. Driving 120mph when it is about to go out will go ahead and put it out its misery. Crazy thing is when it goes out the car behaves like it won't shift out of gear. It will rev high, you floor the gas and it will go the same speed but just rev higher, like you are stuck in second gear with a max speed of around 40-50mph. Because the tranny is computer controlled it relies heavily on the clutch on the fan (the radiator looking thing bolted to the fan). When the rpms increase the clutch kicks in telling the car to shift gears on the tranny. when its broke it doesn't tell it anything and it just stays in a low gear. if you drive the car for several more miles like you did instead of stopping you will burn the gears out in the tranny because it is like you are flooring it without shifting gears. This is a hard lesson to learn. I posted a thread warning 1st Gen CL members of this over a year ago. (Also, that 93 Octane gas will kill the tranny too....LOL)

 

Out of curiosity, how many miles were on your two cars?

 

Ok How could that be possible 007, The fan clutch is kind of a mechanical device?
The reason i ask is because my buddy has a electrical fan on his car and the missing fan clutch does not seem to effect the tranny . We both run 115 120 together and he has never had a problem.

 

I am not sure about the engineering involved. I think if you take off the clutch and just use an electric fan you will be okay. I think if the clutch doesn't work correctly it slows the rpm of the the fan causing it to spin slower and causing the tranny not to shift.

The same thing happened to me that happened to Aristo6. I was coming back from Disney World doing about 130mph. All of a sudden high revs and slow speed. I thought the tranny was gone cuz the tranny had about 210K on it then. With that mileage I assumed the tranny was gone, I had just replaced the engine. So I drove it home instead of towing it. About another 150miles The car was maxing out at around 50-60mph. I replaced the tranny and the problem was still there. So I opened the hood and I noticed that the fan was rotating slowly even though I was revving the engine. (Try that Aristo6. Open the hood and rev the engine, does the fan rotate slow?)

I did some checking and found out that the clutch was bad. I had never heard of that before and I grew up very familiar with cars. I replaced the clutch and everything was fine. the new tranny shifted like it should have. Had I known of this ahead of time I would have replaced the clutch as preventive maintenance and/or when I heard the noise I would have pulled over and had the car towed. The tranny didn't fail, I fryed it by continuing to drive the car. If you don't drive fast you may never have this problem or it may take quite a while before it becomes an issue.

FYI. I bought a used tranny with around 45K on it for $550 and I had it installed for around $200. So right now with my new tranny and engine I have around 60K on the car.

 

Well I think the tranny cooler(not sure) is in the bottom of our radiator so if the fan clutch is not working properly it would raise the temperture of the tranny fulid possibly causing the fluid to deteriorate thus tranny go kaboom or maybe not boom but just at a higher temperature the fluid is too thin to to properly operate the tranny

 

Yeah the tranny cooler is at the bottom of the radiator. Your theory makes sense.

 

well actually i was at 120 and even when i reved i didnt get a max speed it wouldnt move at all until i restarted the car. when the car was parked i put it in drive and reved up and i could here gears grinding in a high skreech so something is wrong and its not my clutch fan... that works and i just called the Lexus off Orlando and spoke to somebody in parts and he told me himself *my mistake* the 5 speed transmission started in 96 and 97. 93-95 were 4 gears with O/D but when i asked him if it would fit he told me because its the same engine it would bolt up but he's not sure if the ECU would be able to run it... so since you guys know im in Orlando i need to start pricing... this is my everyday banger, Andrew doesn't do the bus lol oh btw my mileage is 122,034

 

Good Luck. I thought about going with a 5-Speed Tranny too but I couldn't find anyone who could verify that it was plug and play. Also, I found a good deal on the 94 tranny. But everyone I talked to said it was rare for the tranny to go out on this car.

 

everyone i talk to says the same thing.... so why the hell did it happen to me? and I need to find out if the 5speed AT is plug and play also...