VandyLex

How is everyone? Good, I hope!

2001 GS430. Just turned over 70,500 miles. In great shape. Car has been dealer maintained it's whole life. Just bought the car in December 2019.

Love the car. 90% of the time the shifts are buttery smooth. I bought this car as a highway cruiser and around the town car.

Transmission weirdness. Three main issues I would love help on. In order of annoyance/concern

1. Hard shifts. When going slow, the car sometimes has a tough time going from 2nd gear to 1st gear. It bangs into gear. It's like the transmission gets confused then decides 'yep I need to downshift'. This happens around 5-15 mph.

2. Under acceleration -- When I put my foot to the floor at 30 mph, the car sometimes gives me a hard downshift (another slight bang) or really gets confused for a second then accelerates. Upshifts seem to be fine. Downshifts, no good. Tried this upwards of 15 times. My guess is the car is shifting from 4th to 2nd or 3rd.

3. Sporty down shifts from 5th gear to 4th. -- This one low-key might be the most annoying/odd. I will be gliding down a hill at 50-60 mph take my foot off the gas to continue gliding and the car gives me a totally unnecessary shift to 4th gear. Why? I want to stay in 5th! I will then manually shift to 4th then back to Drive and the car will stay in 5th then.

Has anyone experienced this? This is my second Toyota product, first Lexus. These shifts feel unnecessarily harsh and bang-ey.

The transmission fluid is full and clean. Not sure when the last time it has been changed. Last checked by the dealer and given a clean bill of health at 65,000 miles. My dad and I have a full shop. We hope a flush and refill will stop this.

Really just curious to hear if anyone has had any of these issues with their 2GS.

Thank you as always boys!

Aaron

kevin3344

I have a '99 GS400 with 238,000 miles and no transmission issues whatsoever. I think you are fine there. A couple of things to try: disconnect the battery for 15-20 minutes and then reconnect. If you just purchased the car you need to let the transmission learn your driving style. I went through this with our SC430.

Second, check your motor and transmission mounts. If these are worn you'll feel the shifts more trust me. Lastly, and you've covered this is to do a drain and fill (not flush).

Bbgnate

Sounds like you really lucked out with your car and low mileage- congrats! I have a 2000 GS300 with 180k and mine has the first problem you speak of. If I am in a parking lot going particularly slow, the car doesnt want to be in 2nd gear and will bang into first gear. Oftentimes, I would rather prefer it to stay in a higher gear but I have to be at a certain speed for the car to stay in say, 2nd or 3rd. It has done this for a long time now - Id say past 5 years and Ive just gotten used to it. Ive also brought to dealer several times to replace fluid (not flush) and continues to happen. I have also done what Kevin3344 has done with the battery and it made no difference. Just gotten used to it. Hope that helps!