Protholl

Ok I'm struggling now to figure out if the problem with my new girl in the driveway. Is it the clutch, the transmission (fluid?) or the gear selector? I've had her for over 3 months now and the inspection (Lemon Squad) called the transmission as good with no noted problems. After 250+ miles I'm beginning to beg to differ. The longer I drive her the more I notice that 1/2 is notchy and 2/3 is only a bit smoother. 3/4, 4/5 and 5/6 are butter. I haven't driven a manual car in a few years but I don't remember my Honda Accord being so pensive about shifting. I know I have no recourse from the purchase/inspection but I would like another's opinion if just swapping to a better fluid would work, or maybe the short-shift option... or I should start saving up for a rebuild of the transmission and a new clutch assembly.

Thoughts? Should I just do the manual trans flush and cross my fingers?

AMIRZA786

I've had really good luck with Amsoil MT fluid in smoothing out the trans and shifting in past cars with a manual trans. For the 2nd Gen IS250 with MT, I would drain and fill it with Severe Gear 75W-90. This is the same gear oil that I used in my 2010 IS350 Rear differential, and it works really well (it's also the recommended fluid for IS250 MT). Try it out and see if works for you

Ultra4

So, my views on the implementation of the RA62 in our platform vary from one day to the next, so take this for what it's worth:

We've had no gear selection issues aside from a brief stint I introduced when I was playing with an FR-S short throw shifter, ran out of time, and reassembled the rubber boots going up into the console in such a way that it felt like the synchros were going between some gears. So my first suggestion is free to try: adjust or just plain remove the wiggly stuff all around the gear shift tower. I had one particular rubber box doohickey that wouldn't play the game the way I wanted to, so it's in my pile of OEM parts. But that's not a very likely culprit.

When I dropped the fluid on ours at just over 100k miles, the factory fill looked like it just came out of the bottle. I'm assuming we're still on factory DMF, plate, and disk (as opposed to Honda of Sanford doing the R&R under CarMax, before we bought it in '12, which I doubt), and I know that all of the bushings and mounts on our car are factory, until you get to the '13 BRZ differential, in which case those are from that car. I say this because I'm beginning to suspect--particularly since it's mostly just synchros going on these things, and the shift tower design excludes driver hand resting as a culprit--that the transmission's ability to wiggle about on it's mount is to blame. I don't know about any of you with 6MTs, but neither I nor my wife can induce the type of bucking you see with bad clutching...and yes, some of that is going to be the fact that there's a delay valve in the clutch line that only allows certain apply speeds, but combine the electronic throttle body and the fact that the trans wiggles around between the engine and trans mounts so much (completely ignoring how much the rear subframe wiggles around, or how much slack there is in the driveshaft setup), and you have a car that either moves forward or stalls, instead of bucking between the two. I suspect a lot of the displeasure and damage some community members have experienced after going to a single mass flywheel have to do with the combo of the steep wall of 3.73 factory rear gears and all those rubber bushings putting unwanted feedback through the output shaft, to the intermediate and input shafts, only to reach a solid flywheel being driven by the crank, instead of a dual-mass one that allowed energy going the wrong direction to be dissipated into springs.

That's one working theory, anyway. We'll see how it holds up eventually. In my perfect world, I can buy a Sikky ISF aluminum shaft and it'll bolt right in and confirm my suspicions about how much numbness and movement the driveshaft contributes to the party, but our -250's been creating it's own snow drift mountain these past few weeks, so I can't even measure it right now...

2013FSport

iTrader: (2)

How was it used (if you know) and how many miles on it now?

I suspect the clutch is not fully disengaging making it notchy, so fluid swap into catch to filter through a cloth could lend some insight. Also, bleed the clutch. Those are your two cheap options. Well, assuming it's hydraulic.


Glad you're still hanging around!
That ^^ is a serious laundry list.. Throw some poly in the rear diff before a driveline swap, I bet it cures it. Especially while buried under 4ft of snow! lol

Ultra4

Well, I ain't tryna hijack, but I'm something like a month out from a legit build thread. I've got new bushings, ball joints, and braces on their way this week, and I'll be extensively documenting my entire R&R process. Goal is to stiffen up the chassis with over-the-counter products, then start tearing apart the old worn rubber parts and making Delrin/bronze replacements...NVH is just tire feedback, so I wanna take our Luxury Sports Sedan and convert as much "luxury" into "sport" as I can. I'm probably going to end up ordering a set of Whiteline bushings for the diff, but I want to see how the Megan braces behave (SB-HB-LI06RL-R) before deciding to go with supplementals or solids, since the Megan braces short circuit the rear subframe from the LCA mount to the diff mount bar on the subframe to the floor of the passenger cabin just ahead of the subframe mount that the F-sport brace bolts on top of.

Semi-on-topic, I'll be finishing up my clutch experiments this year. Big speedbump came when I realized my 5/16" spacer for the friction surface needs to be balanced before I cut the center hole out. If we can convince a flywheel maker to produce our flywheels with a friction surface .5mm or .020" (depending on tooling) proud of the pressure plate mounting surface, then we can completely forget about IS250 parts and use Mk4 Supra parts to clutch with.

My first goal with our gearbox is to delete the delay valve, though. Also wanna cut apart our existing MT trans mount, which is like...3 pieces of steel plate held together with 3lbs of rubber....I highly suspect it's dimensionally compatible with mk4 Supra and IS300 R154 mounts, if so, then a ruski on ebay (KEIN) already sells a viable replacement candidate...you slushbox folks might wanna check him out, too.

There I go taking over threads again...my bad...

Protholl

Thant sounds great. I'll give that a go as I wanted to change the trans and the diff fluids. I appreciate the response.

Jeffrey

Protholl

147K miles. I have no idea if it was used/abused - the previous owner was a girl but that really shouldn't mean anything. The car was maintained by her boyfriend and he was good about changing the oil/filter/rotate-tires etc from what he listed in the cars.com entry.

Here is a cut/paste of the Lexus service entries (from drivers.lexus.com)

115393 miles

DATE: 10/2019
Service: INSPECT DOOR PANELSdescription: INSPECT DOOR PANELS ~|~CUSTOMER REQUEST DOOR PANEL INSPECTION ZLD 2 REAR PANELS ~|~STICKY/ SHINNY DOOR PANEL WEAK MATERIL FROM FACTORY ~|~REPLACED BOTH REAR PANELS Service: MULTI POINT INSPECTdescription: MULTI POINT INSPECT ~|~CUSTOMER REQUEST FREE MULTI-POINT SAFETY INSPECTION ~|~PERFORM FREE MULTI-POINT SAFETY INSPECTION ~|~PERFORMED FREE MULTI-POINT SAFETY INSPECTION

104630 miles

DATE: 09/2018
Service: FRONT/REAR BODYdescription: FRONT/REAR BODY ~|~VEHICLE WAS REPAIRED AT A BODY SHOP, NEEDS TO HAVE SYSTEM PROGRAMED, WINDOWS PROGRAMED AND SUNROOF PROGRAMED ~|~VEHICLE LOST ALL MEMORY ~|~RESET AND PROGRAM ALL SYSTEMS Service: MULTI POINT INSPECTdescription: MULTI POINT INSPECT ~|~CUSTOMER REQUEST FREE MULTI-POINT SAFETY INSPECTION ~|~PERFORM FREE MULTI-POINT SAFETY INSPECTION ~|~PERFORMED FREE MULTI-POINT SAFETY INSPECTION

95999 miles

DATE: 11/2017
Service: FRONT/REAR BODYdescription: FRONT/REAR BODY ~|~C/S DASH IS CRACKING AND STICKY RO 242886 05/12/2017 89893 ~|~STICKY,CRACKED MATERIAL AS OUTLINED IN ZLD ~|~REPLACED BOTH FRONT DOOR PANELS

91126 miles

DATE: 06/2017
Service: DLA-FRT WIPER ARMdescription: DLA-FRT WIPER ARM ~|~CUSTOMER REQUEST LEXUS DLA CAMPAIGN TO BE PERFORMED ~|~PERFORM THE LEXUS DLA CAMPAIGN SERVICE ~|~PERFORMED THE LEXUS DLA CAMPAIGN SERVICE Service: ELF-REPL FUEL PRESSURE GASKE T-IS250,IS350,GS300,350,450Hdescription: ELF-REPL FUEL PRESSURE GASKE T-IS250,IS350,GS300,350,450H ~|~CUSTOMER REQUEST THE ELF V6 SAFETY RECALL CAMPAIGN ~|~PERFORM THE LEXUS ELF V6 SAFETY RECALL CAMPAIGN ~|~PERFORMED THE LEXUS ELF V6 SAFETY RECALL CAMPAIGN Service: FRONT/REAR BODYdescription: FRONT/REAR BODY ~|~CLIENT STATES DASH IS CRACKING INSPECTED AND ORDERED 242886 05/12/2017 89893 ~|~WEAK MATERIAL FROM FACTORY ~|~REPLACED DASH Service: IS-GLG AIRBAG INFLATdescription: IS-GLG AIRBAG INFLAT ~|~CUSTOMER REQUESTS THE GLG AIRBAG INFLATOR SAFETY CAMPAIGN ~|~PERFORM THE LEXUS GLG PASSENGER SIDE INFLATOR SAFETY RECALL ~|~PERFORMED THE LEXUS GLG PASSENGER SIDE INFLATOR REPLACEMENT SAFETY RECALL. OP CODE AGGC7X

89893 miles

DATE: 05/2017
Service: INSP DASH / CRACKSdescription: INSP DASH / CRACKS ~|~CUSTOMER REQUEST ZLD DASH INSPECTION AND PARTS ORDER ~|~STICKY / CRACKING/ SHINNY ~|~INSPECT DASH CONFIRM APPLICABLE FOR ZLD CONFIRM AND ORDER PARTS CUSTOMER WILL BE CONTACTED WHEN PARTS ARRIVE. Service: INSPECT DOOR PANELSdescription: INSPECT DOOR PANELS ~|~CUSTOMER REQUEST DOOR PANEL INSPECTION ZLD ~|~STICKY/ SHINNY DOOR PANEL ~|~INSPECT AND CONFIRM APPLICABLE DOOR PANELS FOR ZLD ORDER ALL NEEDED PANELS

32252 miles

DATE: 07/2011
Service: BLA FUEL PRESS SNSRdescription: BLA FUEL PRESS SNSR ~|~SAFETY RECALL BLA - INSPECT VEHICLE FOR FUEL LEAKAGE. IF NO LEAK FOUND, TIGHTEN FUEL PRESSURE SENSOR, REPLACE GASKET IF NECESSARY. IF LEAK FOUND, REPLACE GASKET BETWEEN SENSOR AND FUEL DELIVERY PIPE. ~|~PER SSC FROM LEXUS ~|~PERFORMED RECALL TO LEXUS SPECS. AND INSTRUCTIONS PER SAFETY RECALL BLA.

32203 miles

DATE: 10/2010
Service: 9LA REPLACE FUEL DELIVERY PIPES FOR IS250/350description: 9LA REPLACE FUEL DELIVERY PIPES FOR IS250/350 ~|~9LA LEXUS FUEL DELIVERY PIPE ~|~9LA ~|~32198 REPLACED FUEL PIPES PER 9LA Service: 9LG REPL PEDAL PAD, REFLASH, AWFM - IS MODELS ONLYdescription: 9LG REPL PEDAL PAD, REFLASH, AWFM - IS MODELS ONLY ~|~9LG IS PEDAL MODIFICATION ~|~9LG ~|~32198 REPLACED GAS PEDAL AND REFLASHED ECU Service: COMB: EACH ADDITIONAL WHEELdescription: Service: COMB: FRONT CAMBERdescription: Service: COMB: FRONT TOE-INdescription: Service: MULTI POINT INSPECTIONdescription: MULTI POINT INSPECTION ~|~MULTI POINT INSPECTION Service: TMS LEASE MAINTENANCE MAJOR SERVICEdescription: TMS LEASE MAINTENANCE MAJOR SERVICE ~|~TMS LEASE MAINTENANCE MAJOR SERVICE-----30K SERVICE ~|~MT ~|~32198 30K DONE Service: WHEEL ALIGNMENTdescription: WHEEL ALIGNMENT ~|~FOUR WHEEL ALIGNMENT $129.95....... INCLUDES CHECK AND CORRECT ALIGNMENT ADJUSTMENTS AND ROAD TEST. ADDITIONAL PARTS EXTRA ~|~ALIGNED VEHICLE AFTER TIRE REPLACME ~|~32203 SET ALIGNMENT O SPEC. Service: WHL DISC/TIRE(1 WHL)DISMOUNTdescription: WHL DISC/TIRE(1 WHL)DISMOUNT ~|~TIRES BELOW MINIMUM TREAD DEPTH REPLACE WITH SAME SKU#108163 ~|~REAR TIRES BELOW MIN TREAD REPLACED REAR TIRES ~|~32202 REPLACE 2 REAR TIRES. OLD EL3ADAN2007(2) NEW EL3ADAN1010, 1110

16012 miles

DATE: 04/2009
Service: COMB: EACH ADDITIONAL WHEELdescription: Service: COMB: FRONT TOE-INdescription: Service: MULTI POINT INSPECTIONdescription: MULTI POINT INSPECTION ~|~MULTI POINT INSPECTION Service: RAIR PUNCTURED TIREdescription: RAIR PUNCTURED TIRE ~|~RAIR PUNCTURED TIRE ~|~MT ~|~16012 PATCHED TIRE Service: TMS LEASE MAINTENANCE MINOR SERVICEdescription: TMS LEASE MAINTENANCE MINOR SERVICE ~|~PERFORM 10K SERVICE ~|~MT Service: WHEEL ALIGNMENTdescription: WHEEL ALIGNMENT ~|~FOUR WHEEL ALIGNMENT ~|~ ~|~16012 CK ALIGNMENT SET TO SPEC Service: WHL DISC/TIRE(1 WHL)DISMOUNTdescription: WHL DISC/TIRE(1 WHL)DISMOUNT ~|~C/S THAT THE RIGHT FRONT TIRE HAS BLOWN OUT, TIRE IS IN TRUNK ~|~ ~|~16012 REPALCED BOTH FRONT TIRES OLD DOT ELT7DAN2707 NEW DOT ELT7DAN4108

8299 miles

DATE: 08/2008
Service: 5,000 MILE SERVICEdescription: 5,000 MILE SERVICE ~|~5,000 MILE SERVICE ~|~ ~|~8299 5 K SERVICE COMPLETED Service: I HAVE BEEN GIVEN THE OPPORTUNITY TO REVIEW HENDRICK LEXUS'S LOANER POLICY AND Adescription: I HAVE BEEN GIVEN THE OPPORTUNITY TO REVIEW HENDRICK LEXUS'S LOANER POLICY AND A ~|~I HAVE BEEN GIVEN THE OPPORTUNITY TO REVIEW HENDRICK LEXUS'S LOANER POLICY AND AGREE TO THE TERMS. CUSTOMER'S INITIALS X Service: WE OWE ATTACHED TO ROdescription: WE OWE ATTACHED TO RO ~|~EXT DETAIL W/ BUFF

11 miles

DATE: 10/2007
Service: NEW CAR/TRUCK DETAIL INCLUDES WAXdescription: NEW CAR/TRUCK DETAIL INCLUDES WAX ~|~NEW CAR/TRUCK DETAIL INCLUDES WAX

10 miles

DATE: 10/2007
Service: NORTH CAROLINA STATE INSPECTIONdescription: NORTH CAROLINA STATE INSPECTION ~|~NORTH CAROLINA STATE INSPECTION ~|~ ~|~10 COMPLETED Service: PRE-DELIVERY SERVICE FOR USA ALL ALTITUDES description: PRE-DELIVERY SERVICE FOR USA ALL ALTITUDES ~|~PRE-DELIVERY SERVICE FOR USA ALL ALTITUDES ~|~COMPLETED PDI ~|~10 COMPLETED

2013FSport

iTrader: (2)

If the goal is to stiffen the chassis, drop the rear sub-frame and mount it solid. Then one can use half the braces and go direct from body to sub-frame. Right now you can't as it moves too much. That said, Delrin might be OK but aluminum would be better if custom braces are used to tie the two together. As for Delrin and the diff mount, I'd do it.

On the flywheel, you need a step up just to sit the PP on? You could machine it, dowel it, and bolt it down. Pick a Good material.

2013FSport

iTrader: (2)

OMG, how many tires and alignments can one car have in 10 years! Install some RC-F LCAB's and set the toe to zero. Track tread wear...

Maybe stay in touch w Ultra and delete the delay valve, buy some figs poly diff mounts and with fluid changes, see how it behaves.
If that valve is built into the TOB, I guess it's new clutch time...

Ultra4

So Jeff, the very first thing I'd say you should spend money on to make everything better is a Y38 differential out of a FR-S/BRZ/GT86. What your car has now is a open differential with 3.73 gearing, which is why you can't start in 2nd gear, even while rolling. Exchanging the open diff to the Torsen is the big deal here (completely changes how the car goes through turns in the best way imaginable), but also stepping down to a 4.1:1 or 4.3:1(Y58 differential) ratio makes life significantly easier on the transmission. Now your speedo will read 10% lower than your GPS will show--which is why I dragged my feet on the swap after acquiring a y38 for like 3 years, and even purchased a SpeedoHealer that I still have somewhere--but after doing the swap on a whim after my wife had become exceptionally displeased with how it was driving in Colorado (we're Florida kids), I was kicking myself for hesitating, and she started going for joyrides instead of hating using it for her commute. Now we're about to need a 2nd set of tires in as many years (granite chips are hell on tires, rockfalls are a real thing here, especially on the best driving roads). I'm about 110% positive I'm going to have that same feeling about all these chassis braces I'm about to put on, but I sincerely doubt it'll change the car as much as the Y38. Maybe as much as the IS-F steering ECU and Megan front sway, but the Torsen makes it feel like Player 2 is actually in the game (Player 2 being your left rear tire), and makes you want to attack corners, instead of set yourself up to not lose too much momentum and hope you come out at a speed one of your gears likes. The swap is easy to do with the car just backed up on ramps, and I'll be willing to walk you through the whole process on our car. In, like, a few weeks...there was more than 10' of snow on top of our car from the last big storm because of where I parked it (house and garage funneled the wind right to it), and there's still like a 4' snowhawk on the roof.

Now as for your transmission, I'm curious to know what your fluid looks like coming out. If you're about to lose a synchro or some other kind of physical wear is present inside the box, the fluid should give you a hint. While down there, see if you can grab the transmission by the body and ugga-dugga it around on the mounts. I haven't had a 6MT mount in my hands yet, but I'm getting awfully suspicious of it being a source for undue wear and tear, if not regularly replaced or reinforced somehow. I have a new transmission mount showing up monday, and will be cutting up our old mount to see just what the deal is.

About our flywheels: our pressure plate uses the same bolt pattern as the Mk4 Supra, and we can use their friction disks regardless. Where our pressure plates are different is in the friction surface. Our friction surface is 7.5mm sunken into the fly, while Mk4 Supra friction surfaces are .5mm proud from the factory, meaning our pressure plates want to see a 7.5mm thick disk that's flush with it's mounting surface, while the Mk4 Supra's pressure plate wants a 7.5mm thick disk that's resting on a surface .5mm proud of the PP's mounting surface. I have a Spec SL25A flywheel (IS250) and an ACT T014X clutch kit (supra) that only needs a 5/16" spacer ring under the friction surface to make work, but like I said...when I was transfer drilling the mount holes into my A26 steel spacer, I had that "huh...this thing's gon' be spinning like dummy fast...prolly why everything else has one of them red SFI inspection stickers on 'em...I don't think my Mk1 calibrated eyeball is that good..." thought. I still haven't knocked the center out, so I'm likely to mount it by the center hole I referenced everything from and trim the edge to a uniform distance for a "good enough" proof of concept.

Our throwout hub bearing is shared with Mk4 Supra, as well. Part # 90903-63001. The clutch delay valve is the little box thingy on the side of the trans that the clutch line from the body goes into, it then has a line to the slave cylinder. Inside that box is where fun (and decades of manual transmission experience) goes to die. I will be cutting that thing up just out of spite and displaying it's guts for all the community to see.

I'll get into chassis bracing in my own thread. Eventually. Maybe. I still have a cylinder head in 3 chunks and a cutaway intake manifold to show off, too...

MikeFig82

iTrader: (13)

Ultra,

I wish is was that easy for me removing the rear axles. Had everything going for me until it came to the axles. Car was on ramps. It looked like I had all the clearance needed to make them pop out. Not one side would come out. Pretty much did a Paul Walker, and just raised it back up to bolt it in.

Another question I left the diff out for awhile covered. Now it's sitting on the snout. It seems it stuck. It won't rotate like when I first received it. Rust build up? I need to pop the cover back off to swap out new bolts, and breather. I'm probably going to repaint the cover as well. I just want to check how good was my gasket seal. First time ever opening up a diff to clean and seal it.

Ultra4

If it makes you feel better, I spent 5 hours under the spare tire carrier trying to figure out how to pop the half shaft stubs out until method 2,953 or so worked, I looked at what the mechanism was that I was fighting, and put a grimy handprint on my forehead. Just a piece of spring wire with about a 1mm gap between the ends resting in a recess on the splined stub...best idea is to have 3 hands with prybars lifting the thing out concentrically, but I was able to manage with a flathead and a pry, walking the flathead around at 10 and 2 o'clock from the pry. You have just enough room on the CV's (with those two little brace things removed) to point the diff at the angle you need to get it to pop out. 5 hours to get the 1st one out, 5 minutes for the second. I could do it in 15mins if I had to again, so I'll be doing a walkthrough on that when I do my build thread.

Protholl

So way late I finally am ready to do a fluid replacement for my IS250 6MT. I was very surprised at how hard it was to find the Amsoil 75w90 locally. No parts stores have it anywhere near me (west-central florida). Ebay (omg) and Amazon (omg) had the quart bags somewhere between 2x and 4x MSRP. I'm not sure if this is because of COVID or seasonal demand but umm... no way.

I went to the Amsoil official website just for giggles. I was able to purchase 3 of the 1-quart squeeze bags for less than 2 bags from Amazon and this includes tax and shipping.

I should be set for the transmission and the differential as soon as I can get her on a lift. Hopefully this helps with my 6MT clunkiness in 1st and 2nd gear.

Be safe,
Jeffrey