Recluse

I was away for 8 days in January, and the shifting was honestly no different when I drove it upon my return. If anything, my car is better when it's cold, because the clutch is quiet.

ssmoked

well i took my IS 250M to the dealer 3 times and the third time the head tech told me Lexus put a Tacoma transmission in the IS thats why there is the "jar of marbles" sound. He also went out to the lot to test out a new 250, and said it is normal. he said we will put Dynamat around your shift *** as a test to see if it will relieve some of the noise. Well............it didn't really work at all. But to relief my tension, I had an awesome time beating the crap out of the rental

Recluse

Yeah, pretty much, which is probably why the clutch and shifter feel so "downmarket" compared to the rest of the car.

Lobuxracer has some great commentary on the 6MT in the IS250 in this thread:

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/sho...ghlight=tacoma

chuckler

i have the notchiness as well..it doesn't happen very often..i kinda have grown use to it. once in a while it grinds but i don't think its that bad. my gf's gsr is the same way so i think its normal.

on another note, for those that drive in the cold, has any noticed their reverse latch get really stiff when its cold out?

06-IS250

So about this synthetic oil business...can anyone enlighten me on this? I do not know anything about oils.

So what does the dealership use on our cars? Cause they have been the only people touching the car so far. And whats the diff between what we already have and a synthetic oil?

Will it actually help this problem we have?

And another thing, this "grinding" everyone refers to..it SOUNDS like a very minor grind, but is it actually grinding the gear, or is it just some noise? Cause I have grinded a gear before, clutch slipping and all, THATS a LOUD noise. Makes me want to crawl into a corner and cry.

And another thing...I forget if this has been mentioned..is this actually causing any damage? Cause if its just a noise and notchiness..I can let it go. Do not get me wrong, I will participate in efforts to get this fixed, but it will ease my mind knowing its not causing any damage.

tidom78

same problem here and I have a sound when I cruise in the 4th gear.
My old 93 civic have better transmission and have about 300 000km

kickin8

iTrader: (1)

The sad truth is, YES, it's a TACOMA transmission with different gear ratio....

rocco16v

I'm in Puerto Rico

But if We decided to wnet to the dealerships in ana specified data, I'm in

it will help if we decided as a group to describe the symphtoms and instead of tell the service person just handed him the letter. I don't think we used the CL name but maybe we could do it as a "IS 250M dissatisfied customers"
or another name. An do it nationwide the same day.

Please send me some feedback! I could prepare the letter. or maybe a facebook group.

Shoafb

I allways loved rowing through the gears on my Mustang.... This car.... NO way, I hated it, felt cheap.

Thats kinda sad to say that a Mustang tranny can be so much fun, but not a Toyat/ Lexus one?

I'm going to sound like a broken record here.... trade it for a AT and don't look back.

Dan SS

I can't even imagine this. Did you noticed this when you test drove the car?Mine is smooth and quiet. Maybe it's defective?

Shoafb

I didn't notice mine. It was summer, AC was cranked so I did not hear all the clutch noise.

As far as the poor shifting I chocked it up to not being used to the clutch and the car. Unfortunatlely it never got any better. If anything it got worse and started to slip and shudder in the morning when getting out of first until till it warmed up real good. Still noisy regardless though. As everyone else has said this tranny just does not meet the standards of the rest of the car.
My concentration on the test drive was mainly how the car felt, handled, drove.... I just assumjed the tranny would be decent....It is a LEXUS after all.

kickin8

iTrader: (1)

I dont think ANY of us would expect them to slap a TACOMA transmission to their LEXUS line.........

Recluse

My car is smooth and quiet for the first half hour, and then the clutch starts getting noisy. Since test drives aren't that long, I never heard it until after I took ownership and started driving it (I first reported the problem at 182 miles). I would have definitely NEVER purchased the car as it is.....

As far as there being a defect goes, both my original clutch assembly and warranty replacement clutch assembly sound EXACTLY the same, so who knows.........

Shoafb

Yea I can see the Tacoma sales guy now.

"This is the same transmission they put in the Lexus IS250!"

lobuxracer

iTrader: (2)

I've never had the RA62 apart, but I've seen the cutaways of it, and it's a crap design. It's not "fixable" from an engineering perspective. It also bears no resemblance to the venerable V-160 Getrag in the Supra in design or execution.

Seriously, this will be the death knell of manual transmissions in Lexus cars. Enough complaints will only remove the option from the line up. Toyota has never built a really solid transmission themselves and this one just adds fuel to the fire for the argument they just can't do it right.

If you do a bit of a search, you'll get all the details for why I suspect this gearbox, clutch, and flywheel are so irritating. I really don't believe there is a practical solution short of replacing the flywheel completely and getting a different gearbox to fit.