papachino

Long story, please help. I have a 93 Es300 and when I first got the car around 40 mph it used to jump 500 rpm around the 1,500 rpm line. No biggy, it was only at there and I would drive just a little faster, and I would get a hard throttle response will giving it gas. One time driving to St. Pete it was doing it at 80 mph. To hold that speed my rpms were at 5,000. It seemed like my tranny was slipping. Furhter in St. Pete I lost my tranny, no gear. Pulled over checked fluid, looked fine. Turned on car got reverse, drive and started again. This time it wouldn't shift out of first, and once it redlined it would lose tranny. AAA towed back and I changed fluid. It seemed to improve, but it took 5,000 rpms to shift out of first and shifitng was different. Sometimes it would slip. Went to get a tranny flush at Toyota and it seemed to work better now. But it still shifts hard. Today I was slipping on the way to Walmart and it took 6,000 rpm's to get it past 1st or to change gears. Those are my syptoms, I need a diagnosis please!

VVT-i

Sound like your tranny is gone, sorry to hear about that.

papachino

If any tranny technicians are reading this can they tell me what part, I plan on doing it myself becaues I can't afford the labor of paying someone $2,000+ dollars to fix it. Besides it would be good experience.

clubfoot

First go online and grab yourself the manual for your vehicle and read the transmission trouble shooting section. If the trans has a vacuum operated governor check it for operation, if it has a vacuum line check it for leaks, next the pump, check the pump pressure. The valve body may have sludge build up but the trans flush should have taken care of that. Did you replace the transmission filter?

VVT-i

Lexus don't used vacuum control accumulator transmission like domestic cars. All control by electronic sensors and solenoid.

I don't think DIY is a good idea. First you will need an engine support to support the engine because you will have to drop the sub frame that hold the enging and transmission. The transmission on the ES can be remove from the bottom only. Plus, transmission jack, tools, special tools for certain snap rings and so on. Lexus won't let their dealers rebuild the transmission in house due to a lot cost and time consumtion. The dealer have to swap out the bad transsmission with the remanufacturer one and send out the bad tranny back to Lexus. Then, Lexus will send the bad tranny to their certified rebuilder( I think only one in U.S,but not sure).

FYI, they are more than 1,600 parts inside an automatic tranny. You can't tell which parts are bad until you got it tear down and inspected. You may end up spend more than $2,000.00 plus your times and headache.

papachino

yeah I already figured more than $2,000, for that I would rather buy a used tranny rebuilt and maybe just do a 5 spd. conversion. Whatever is happening this is screwing me over.

clubfoot

Your last suggestion would have been my first suggestion except he wanted to do the repair himself Thanks for the vacuum correction, but the governor would still be a good check if the trans fluid is clean and not smelling burnt. If it were me I would have Lexus replace the trans if you intend on keeping the car, simply because if anything goes wrong with the trans in the near futrue you would have a warranty from Lexus. It's not worth the headache.

papachino

A warranty that will cost me over $2 grand in labor, I will like to do it myself to save money that I don't have, and to gain more experience. I was hoping for a wedding in October and most of my funds were going to that.