On the way to the gym this evening, driving the same road I drive every day, I was coming down a slight hill when all of a sudden, the engine started to rev faster and louder. It kept getting louder and louder and louder, seriously, it sounded like a 747. It wouldn't come down. I got startled and shouted into the phone "I have to hang up." **I am not ordinarily on the phone while driving.** It finally returned to normal and I didn't really notice anything else for the rest of the drive to the gym and then home. This is odd, no?

 

Yes. Very odd. If you downshift manually or you're in power mode
and hit the brakes hard I've had the engine rev high sometimes in
scary fashion... But nothing like a 747 as you're describing.

 

Just another excuse to avoid the gym.

 

Well, if I'm not going to use the calcified femoral tendonits as an excuse not to go to the gym, I guess unless the car explodes, I'm still going. Seriously, though, I wish I knew more about cars. I'm sure someone else with even a hint of knowledge would have known what it meant for the car to have done that. It was truly bizarre.

 

Mel,

There are over a dozen fed complaints on ES 350 about engine racing, throttle that seem somewhat similar to what you describe. You have to select search complaints in upper left and then fill in form using ES350. Your dealer should be able to help.
http://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/ivoq/

 

i had the same issue twice same day, it wasn't 747 but it looked like i pressed gas pedal... hope nothing major, but will see if that occurs again.

 

It's bascailly a overdrive kicking in. It is very strange but I assure you if you drive down that same hill at the same speed it will do the same thing. I know exactly what your talking about it almost feels like the tranny is confused. It happens ussally on hills because the car knows it's going down a hill and it down shifts into a lower gear. Now the problem is it holds the gears to try to slow you down. That is the noise you hear. It is made to hold the gear to engine break the car. If you want to duplicate the sound drive at about 35mph and then shift the car into 2 second gear and you should get the same rev noise. But if you go down that same hill you will see it happen again. I own a gs but for company cars I have driven all lexus and they all do it at this part of a hill I go over to get home. Even my old 2 gen gs did it.

 

I get the same thing every morning going down this hill by my house at about 60MPH.

It seems to kick out of 6th gear, land in 5th and then the RPM's go up. However, the RPM's remain below 4500RPM, so I don't fear engine damage.

If I'm in a hurry and driving faster (75MPH+), it won't happen - tranny stays in 6th.

Hasn't yet happened on any other hill. However I suspect it will if I adjust my speed to a "sweet spot" which will force it to happen.

 

Thank you for the information, everyone. I certainly appreciate it. I'd say I'll listen for it tomorrow on the same road, but it was so darn loud, I won't be able to miss it. Now, if I could only keep the poor thing clean for more than 3 days. Darn March snow.

 

As with the others, I've experienced the same thing on my GS. It's like the on board computer is programmed to auto downshift whenever the car is going downhill and the brakes are pressed.

I presume what's going on here is the onboard computer is trying to save our brakes by downshifing to help slow the car, which requires less work for the brakes. Although, I have to admit I was startled the first few times it happened and a few times I may have even mistook it for engine flare due to the RPM revving of the engine.

Every other car I've ever owned would not auto downshift until I used my brakes enough to slow the car down to the proper RPM downshift range.

 

I tell you sometimes it gets me so mad I slam on the gas pedal like the car has feelings or something lol. But if you do slam on the gas it takes a second to respond.