Hannaman

I have a 1999 RX-300 with AWD and although it is garaged in NJ, it requires extensive warmup - especially in the wintertime. What I am experiencing is a governor-like effect on the transmission where the car runs in 2nd gear until it finally reaches a certain temperature. At that point it will go to gear 3 and finally warm up enough to engage gear 4. With the exception of gear 4 I always keep the tachometer maxed at 3,000 RPM and once in gear 4, I am fine. In the summer I may only have to drive a quarter mile, but in the winter it may take me a mile to get to gear 4. For years I have never gotten a straight answer from Lexus corporate or a local dealer. I have friends who also tell me they do not experience the warmup procedure (and personally I do not do think they even notice). Can someone confirm that delayed upshifts are normal during warmup? Thanks!

Lexmex

I am pretty sure this is emissions related. I live up above 7,000 feet and it takes me a lot longer than one mile to engage into 4th. I have friends here with Lexuses (not a common sight in Mexico) and they experience similar behavior with their vehicles.

cantsleepnk

I had a 1999 RX that did the same thing.

I believe it's feature Lexus built into the ECM for emission purposes and was removed after 2000 .

VSsc400

iTrader: (1)

my 99 does the same. It's normal according to lexusUSA

HarrierAWD

FWIW, my 2002 RX doesn't do that. I am at about 6,000 feet. So maybe it's a 99 thing.

jcg

The "NOT SHIFTING OUT OF 2ed GEAR" has not been removed by Lexus. In the 2004 model they moved it to 3ed gear as this is now a 5 speed xmission. This is one of my biggest complaints about the car as it irks the hell out of me to drive a car at a high RPM when it is cold. Not a good way to take care of an engine.

By the way, my 1999 Chevy Prism ( which is really a Toyota corolla ) does the same thing.

steevr

My '02 RX does the same thing at temps under 30 degrees. The tranny will not go into 4th until the trans is warmed up. So after I pull out of our subdivision and have to get up to the 45 mph speed limit, the engine is racing at 3,000 rpms. I agree, not a great way to warm an engine. I just try and let it warm up on the driveway for a minute or two now (the car is garaged). I've heard the other owners have the same issue at cold temps and that's the way Lexus designed it.

rxdriver

It's a Toyota thing... way back when I had a 4Runner it did the same thing.
It won't shift into an overdrive gear until the trans fluid (not the engine) has sufficiently warmed up.

parula

Both my '99 and the current '03 did/do this; which has been discussed on other threads here at CL.

Some postulated it is a warm-up feature to reduce air pollution emissions.

RA030724

iTrader: (1)

Heck, I had a 1984 Toyota Cressida that had that "feature". It had a temp sensor in the water that stopped shifting into overdrive until the engine warmed up somewhat. It was explained in the repair manual that this was for emissions purposes as the higher RPM caused the engine to warm to operating temp quicker reducing cold start emissions. My 2001 Tundra V-8 also was setup to do this. Not really noticed it in the '04 RX though.
Oliver

salimshah

All these add ons are done to help various parts of the vehicle reach their optimum operating temprature as quickly as possible. The only draw back is that as users we have to "LIMP" till the vehicle gets to that optimum point.

Warning: Getting on to a soap box... It is not a huge price to pay to label RX as a green suv. Please refrain from idle-warming of your vehicle It will warm-up a lot quicker when you drive it. Just don't stress it.


Salim

Lexusfreak

It's perfectly normal especially in extreme cold temps.

parula

salimshah, good advice I normally try to follow, even though I still feel the urge to warm 'er up before driving.