I've been monitoring this site now for a few months and hoping someone would address my one and only issue with the GS - its transmission. I've done a few searches on this subject but haven't found much. So here goes...

I bought a friend's 98 GS300 about 6 months ago with only 42,000 miles. I've always liked the GS and couldn't turn down buying such new car with low mileage for such a used car price. It was a no-brainer to me.

My car has the 5 speed tranny but gears 1 to 3 are too low. I feel like I could pull a Mack truck out of the mud because of the low gearing. By about 20 mph, I'm already in third gear. By about 40, I'm already in 5th gear. At 70mph, my engine is at 3000 rpm.

I realize that lower gearing helps in the power department but I just have a hard time with the feel when I pull away from a dead stop. The tranny shifts so often getting up to about 30mph, it's just annoying.

I don't think anything is wrong with my car, I just don't like the feel of the shifting? Has this been discussed in the past? Was this addressed in later models? Does the GS400 of this era shift the same way?

 

the 400/430 has lower gears. sorry but the only thing is to swop out your rear gears for the 400/430 gears. i guess your low end will suffer but your top end will be better. it's all a give and take.

 

Yeah you could switch out to the GS400's 3.2x rear end. The GS3 has like a 3.9x rear end I think. That should help you out a ton in terms of gearing. You should be able to cruise on the highway 80mph while keeping revs at the 2500 mark or so. Only problem is that your acceleration time from 0-60mph would probably suffer. I'd say you'd go from a stock 0-60 of 7 sec up to around 8-9 seconds or so lol. If you don't mind that and rather save gas, then go for the GS400 rear end swap

 

Drive in ect pwr all the time and control how much shifting you want with your right foot. @ 40mph it should hold at 4th gear. My 80mph is just a tad over 3000rpm, so i don't think it's that bad.

Getting the 3.76 rear should help a little bit, i wouldn't recommend 3.2x unless you have FI.

 

You're going to get some lag with the 3.26 gearing, but at least you wont complain about the engine revving. A cure for the low end lag with the 3.26 gearing would be a supercharger

 

just drive with ECT PWR. Gas barely suffers and its quicker.

 

I'm not really wanting quicker acceleration nor do I want the revs to go higher before changing gears. I just wish the gears were more spread out.

I would love to be at about 2500 rpm at 70 vs. 3000 rpm. I'd probably get about 28 mpg on the highway then.

Did the GS300 stay with that gearing until 2005?

 

What would be involved in changing out the rear differential gearing? Has anyone done that to get the lower rpms?

I wouldn't try it myself but it would be an interesting mod.

 

Bump. Anyone?

 

Perhaps an ECU reset may help.

 

Is the 3rd member from a GS400 interchangable with a GS300 3rd member...?

 

they dont make torque converters fior gs300? add a TC is a cheapest easiest way to get little more torque on our cars, i know mine in the gs400 made a huge difference..in the low end pull, the car is just alot more aggresive