SL222

Hi guys. New member here,been reading for a while doing my research.
Bough an 09 is250 rwd MT. Was gonna do an intro post in a week when i recieve all my parts but sadly it had to be this.

Test drove the car 3 times before buying, did an inspection and all went well.
Picked the car up today and it's been jerking in 1st and reverse all day when releasing clutch slowly.
Only difference I can see prior to other test drives is that today it's been raining the whole day.

Car has 50k miles on it and wasnt abused in any way, previous owner wasnt hard on the clutch either.
Anyone else experienced this with their is?

Where to start before opening the tranny?
0 shakes in 2nd or third.
Thanks guys.

es808

iTrader: (32)

This is common with the MT IS250. I have one and it has done this from day 1 that I owned it. I got it used at about 60k miles.

My clutch needed to be replaced since the previous owner was hard on it. After replacing it, the symptoms were the same. According to other posts, it has to do with the design of the 2 piece flywheel design. I believe they took the clutch out of the Tacoma and those owners have the same shuddering issue as well.

The only fix may be to go to a solid flywheel. I think fidanza sells one. Or you can release the clutch quicker in first and reverse. Should have a little shudder but less than if you release it slowly.

SL222

Thanks for the reply, definitly makes me feel a little bit better.
Even before buying I knew these trannys were a weak part, wasnt expecting this however.
Good to know I don have to spend another 1k+ on the clutch since its not slipping one bit.

I've read some post on different cars where the trAnny mount was shot so I'll give it a quick look.
I'll also give a call to rhe previous owner and ask him if it used to drive like that forever.

Everything is so smooth about the car but this is a kick in the nuts I suppose. Nothing perfect out there

es808

iTrader: (32)

Like a kick in the nuts, the pain will go away. It's not so bad. When you drive it and enjoy it, you'll tend to forgive it. I love my MT IS and love the way it drives. I just change the way I release the clutch and it's not so bad.

It could be worse. It could also be present in 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th gears right?

SL222

It could allways be worse I know.

I've searched the forums for quite a while today and the only related problems to MT were noisy transmission, chattering... which I've dealth with in my older caliber srt-4 and just learned to live with.
I don`t mind the chatter as much in this car cause I can hear it way less and the sound system is pretty good so it`s allways on... as said earlier I'm mainly worried about the ridiculous amount of shake trying to slip the clutch slowly in ifrst and reverse.

Can you lead me to any threads or discussions talking about the shake from dead stop? That would be greatly apprecated.

Thanks.

amw896

Unfortunately, there are several posts about this already. Theres a tonne of good info about it on here and my.is

To sum it up .... the manual on the IS is probably one of the worst manuals available. I dont know all the technical stuff but just about everyone that drives one has reported jar of marbles, loud chattering when engaging 1st, rough engagement into second. whirring, the list goes on.

I got mine with 50k and now I'm at about 65k and am getting to the point where I can't take it. Why drive a luxury car that sounds like a piece of garbage. It actually sounds 5times worse outside of the car than inside (and it is pretty bad inside) LOL.

A lot of people just bear with it and some report if you do the manual transmission fluid change to a good synthetic, the noise and engagement problems get significantly better. Mine is booked for this week. I can't wait!!

Good luck though man

juvi22003

iTrader: (2)

^^^^ got mine at 45k now at 70k never had any problems except i wish that i had installed a short shifter, compared to my automatic and the automatic drivers much better. so if ya'll see a thread soon that im parting out dont be surprise.....

SL222

Thing is mine has a slight chatter which I dont mind and I've read about it.

Main concern is the jerking.

2IS

Mine has some jerking sometimes in first only, seems to happen when the car is cold. I got used to it.

diagtime

I apologize, i didn't read every post.
The IS manual has basically a medium duty truck transmission. To attempt to make this less harsh, they coupled it with a 1200 pound dual mass flywheel. that flywheel is why the engine doesn't rev quickly. the springing of the dual mass can cause the bucking. Most drivers get used to it. If you really don't like it that much, look aftermarket. Aftermarket is not my field but I'm sure there's plenty of people here that can enlighten you. a lighter clutch/flywheel rotational mass would also wake up the performance of your car. Of course, there would also be some drawbacks.

amw896

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Just wanted to give an update as I just had the tran and differential fluid changed. WOW, very noticable improvement considering they only dropped the pan and flushed about 2L of the fluid. The jerking, chattering, shuddering, or whatever you want to call it is just about gone now from first. It is considerably better when moving out of first on a hill. The rough engagement into second is still there but it is also considerably better. Haven't noticed any high pitched whining from 3-6 either anymore. I can still hear the chatter coming through my vents when idle and clutch is not pressed in. However, from what I heard this noise is coming from the "pos" flywheel. I would say I've noticed about a 50% improvement with the drivetrain problems that I was having before. This is awesome since they only flushed approx. 25% of the fluid. I will do another flush within 15k to try and get some more improvement.

and just as an FYI .... I used AMSoil 75W-90 GL-5 SVG (Severe Gear® Synthetic Extreme Pressure (EP) Gear Lube 75W-90) -- 2L in the trans and 1L in the diff.

Fantastic Results and I would higly recommend it to anyone driving the manual.

kickin8

iTrader: (1)

did you check the tires????

nastyemu

good to know i'm not the only one who has the 'cold start' bucking and jerking in first gear. only happens when i'm trying to release the clutch slowly. i usually start from 2nd gear to avoid it if i can. it's like the whole vehicle starts shaking and shuddering like a washing machine with a brick in it

SL222

My car is still under 70k powertrain warranty, I'll give a lexus dealer a call and see what they say.
It might be normal but I'll try to let them see if it's appicable for the tranny tsib.

Worth a shot since there is some warranty left.

kickin8

iTrader: (1)

I ahve the "jar of marbles" from time to time but not the "washing machine"......