Got it - understand. I thought your dad disconnected the battery when he changed the engine oil and filter.

Please let us know what the dealership's service department found was the cause of the poor engine idle and performance. Thanks in advance...

 

The transmission only kicks when you are too aggressive on the throttle (sudden acceleration ie left/right turn to get into or out of a side street), no issues at constant speed or highway speeds and no transmission or other sign on dash. Dad insists that he did not touch transmission pan. I will show him the video of transmission fluid change by DIYDan (Youtube) to confirm. An overfilled engine or having low transmission fluid would trigger a sensor and thereby show some warning light on the dash wouldn't it?
The advisor drove the car on Thursday when he told me to fill the car with Shell gas as he felt the Costco gas was to blame. He and the techs have yet to look at the car today and get back to me.

 

Costco gas is not to blame, I have never had any issues with Costo or any other kind of gas being put in, at most you would just notice a slight difference in acceleration or fuel economy, nothing night and day.

When I disconnected my negative to install my DVDpass, my car still drove the same, when you start it after re connecting the negative it will start and then shut off once due to some kind of security/safety/diagnostic feature but then my car starts and ran fine after that.

Just sounds like something is loose, not connected right, fluids are off. Don't let the dealership try to say your car needs some kind of expensive service or repair and make a lot of money from this, I think it is very simple what is going on if it is doing this after a oil change.

 

It turns out my dad may have drained the wrong pan after all (showed him the transmission fluid change video), so it may be that the transmission fluid is low causing the kicking and then the engine overfilled which is causing the idling issue perhaps. I figured that if there was something to do with fluids of either engine or transmission then the dash would light up. Gonna have to go grab it back from dealership on Monday and replenish transmission fluid and replace engine oil as well. Thanks for the help everyone, will keep you all posted, hopefully issue will be gone after fluid changes.

 

That's interesting, was not aware of this. Why is it that I don't experience this on my car? I have disconnected the battery on many occasions, sometimes for days at a time yet no issues. After reading this, I feel the urge to buy the memory saver OBD device. lol

 

^ You saw it here first folks.

 

I should've just done the oil change myself. My dad has always done maintenance on all the cars he's owned (in addition to doing it for my GS last winter) over 25+ years hence I thought it would not be an issue. I had him watch DIYDan's oil change video before he did it last year (no issues after that oil change), wanted him to watch it again but he watched first 2 minutes and headed straight for the car... He changed the oil filter as well hence I thought he knew which pan was correct given that the filter wouldn't be far away. He didn't remove the transmission pan entirely as DIYDan does in his video so there must be at least some little bit of trans fluid left in there considering the car hasn't had any warning lights.

 

So he drained the transmission, and dumped 7 quarts into the engine or tried too and didn't understand why it won't take 7 quarts or why 7 quarts didnt come out. Or bother to check the fluid levels? Lol sounds like someone who never did an oil change.

Hopefully no damage to your engine or transmission.

 

pryde5abi - If I were you I would let the Lexus dealership's service department know what you 'think' happened ... and have them confirm it 'if' indeed that is the case. It will be a quick and easy check. And then 'if' this is the case I would highly suggest that you let a Lexus technician correct things.

You most definitely do not want to drive the car with 6-7 extra quarts of engine oil in the crankcase - because that can cause some major damage. Also, you do not want to drive the car with the transmission lacking 3-4 quarts of ATF. That [also] can cause some major damage.

Lastly, there is a specialized way that the transmission fluid must be added. There is no transmission dipstick to check the fluid level and add ATF using a funnel ... and the ATF level must be checked based on the fluid's temperature being within a certain range. It is not something I would suggest that you or your dad should attempt to do.

If you want your car fixed and done right - have a Lexus technician do it. And, hope like hell that driving the car to the dealership (I assume that's what you did) did not cause any damage to either the engine or the transmission.

 

Yeah, it's quite common for a car's engine to act really weird after the battery has been disconnected ... and it usually has to do with the engine's ECU refusing to re-adjust to a dirty MAF Sensor/throttle body - thus often the need to clean them before the engine acts normal again. It doesn't always happen, and you never know how a car's engine will react until the situation takes place. That is why you don't want to have a dead battery where the voltage drops to zero trying to engage the starter motor to the flywheel or when cranking-over the engine. And, that is why you don't want to replace a battery yourself if you don't know how to run parallel 12 volts so-as to always keep voltage on the car's electrical system when you disconnect the old dead battery and before you reconnect the new battery.

Qualified battery stores and their technicians/mechanics know this and know how to do it. Rarely does a DIYer know. It is when unknowing auto supply store help or the unknowing DIYer replaces a battery, and the engine immediately starts acting weird, that people learn what 'should' be done - keeping voltage on the system as the old battery is disconnected... And, why I harp about getting your battery 'properly' load tested at a battery store (not with a dinky $100 or less toaster heater load tester) once every year after the battery is two years old so you can replace a dying battery before you get stranded or have to go through the MAF Sensor/throttle body cleaning procedure.

 

Yeah, but if I am working on my car doing work on electronics or dis-assembling parts of the car, it makes no sense to feed voltage into the system. That can cause serious issues and the guy in the video even mentions that. When I disconnect the battery, my purpose is to get rid of any stray voltages that can cause issues. Wouldn't a memory saver do the exact opposite... keep electrical system alive? Also read this, didn't look into their sources but it's worth a read: https://www.searchautoparts.com/abrn...dustry-experts

 

Well, that will do it. Don't get too mad at your dad, the drain bolts do seem located in odd locations on the 4th Gen and they don't label them, your dad is not the first to do this nor will he be the last. When I did my DIY first oil change I went by a video I saw on youtube and the drain bolt location was a little confusing at first, it was a total PIA to get the oil filter canister housing loose, definitely a lot of swearing and blood pressure raised on that.

 

When I disconnected my negative, my GS would start and then shut off right away and then would start with no problem after that, I thought the connection was loose so I tightened the negative terminal more but it did the same thing two other times after disconnecting the negative, read it was some kind of security/safety feature and it does that for some reason but it freaked me out at first.

 

Correct Eddie. In your case things are very different because you are digging deeply into the various systems that in most cases are left in some degree of disassembly for extended periods of time. In your case, if there is an issue with the engine not acting right when you do finally crank it up after extensive work you've done, then it is just something you'll deal with - not to be considered a major consequence for you.

PS - As far as the link about memory savers - ask National Tire and Battery service centers or any battery expert about it... A battery memory saver is not recommended when doing extensive body work or the like that would require many hours or days/weeks to complete. We're talking about saving the engine's ECU memory for the five minutes it takes to pull out a bad battery and replace it with a new one.

 

He did check the fluid levels right after filling the new oil (all 6.5 quarts went in, without overflowing out of the top of the engine). The fluid that was drained was also dark like the color of used oil, not the pink/red color of transmission fluid. The engine oil fluid levels after filling the oil were above the normal range (2nd dot on the dipstick, it was all clean/new oil on the dipstick) which is what he was curious about, in addition to the fact that only 5ish quarts came out. I have seen him do countless oil changes, he knows what he is doing, its just that he drained the wrong pan by mistake.