gth181a

2014 GS F Sport with 53k miles.

Seeing if anyone has had this issue and what the cause may be before I have it towed to dealer tomorrow. Car starts fine and I'm able to put the car into drive. No check engine lights, etc.

The transmission feels like it's slipping (press gas, engine revs, but there is a delay before transmission engages and car moves), and when it does start to move, it stays in that one gear. It feels like it's starting in the 3rd or 4th gear because when I got home from work today, I stopped on my very slight incline drive way, and it had a very difficult time engaging in the gear for me to pull into the garage. Additionally, when I put it into drive, I hear a "clunk" noise. Anyone experience this before?

bclexus

I'm surprised there was no CEL thrown. This is the first time I've heard of such a problem with the 4GS.

I presume the transmission has not been previously messed with in any way, including changing the ATF? Did this problem suddenly happen with no previous warning or symptoms?

gth181a

No issues what so ever before and never had any transmission work done on it, including ATF change. It just happened this evening coming home from work. It drove perfectly fine this morning going to work and this past weekend.

peasodos

iTrader: (1)

Did you own the car since it was new?

bclexus

Hard to say what the problem is - maybe a failed upshift or downshift solenoid.

Please let us know what they find.

gth181a

No, purchased it used with 17k miles on it in 2016.

peasodos

iTrader: (1)

Hopefully not the case, but someone could have beat on it the first 17k miles and maybe an issue that's developed over time. If you feel that gears are actually slipping that's not good. The silly part with our car is you can't easily check the fluid level, I think you need tech stream or a scan tool to do it. Is you car still under warranty?

gth181a

It just ran out of the standard warranty mid last year. But our cars have a 6 year/ 70k mile powertrain warranty I believe... so I think that should cover it. Really hoping so....lol

Cwang

It's a royal PITA. If you have a level surface you can check to see whether it's overfull by opening the correct bolt at a particular temperature....to check for a low level you really need to overfill it and drain it out to the correct level using the correct procedure. Checking it isn't really a DIY job as you almost need a mechanic's lift to guarantee a level car - I couldn't get my level perfect so I got a specialist check it after.

Unfortunately Techstream isn't of much use, apart from monitoring the temperature.


​​​​​

chinee

Did you change the oil recently? Maybe you drained the transmission fluid in error? Don't laugh, it's happened before...

gth181a

I used to change it myself on my previous cars, but this one, the dealer changes it. And it was last done around 50k.

peasodos

iTrader: (1)

If you had no transmission fluid your car would not be drivable and not to mention you would know trying to add oil to a full engine.

praetor

Does this only happen when the car is warm or does it happen on cold starts also? I had this happen once on my old old 1991 Camry. Car would drive fine until it warmed up, then the transmission would start slipping. To make a long story short, all it needed was a new ATF oil filter. May not be related to your issue though.

gth181a

Just went out to test it around the neighborhood.... it can shift into reverse and drive fine, but it's definitely stuck in one of the gears (maybe 3rd or 4th) and doesn't shift. The CEL just came on as well. Getting it towed to dealer later.

mrplesh

I'm very sorry to hear this has happened to you, but hopefully this can be a learning opportunity for our community.
As someone who is at 102k and plans to go more than double that, I'd love to know more about our transmissions and their weak points