black330

Hi, just want to warn you this post is a little lengthy...

Well to start I have a 2005 rx330 which I absolutely love! I had the car in for an oil change last week at the dealer and while waiting for my car I was talking to one of the service guys. He asked me how I liked the car and I told him I loved everything except for the poor gas mileage, 20-21 mpg hwy tops from a 6 cyl is pretty bad compared to other 6 cyl cars I have owned, and that the transmission was a bit sluggish...when I am merging or passing on the highway the car seems to not want to downshift/takes a while to do so.

Anyway he told me they could reflash the transmission's computer to make it more "sporty" and he said it should help with the sluggish feeling etc. I am familiar with transmission chips that are available for vw/audi auto transmissions which make them shift quicker so I asked him about it and he said the flash he could do would be along the same lines. Great I thought, so I told him to do it.

Well after a week of driving the transmission shifts horribly! It shifts like a tranny with 150k on it, the shifts are rough and when I'm coasting and give it a little gas the transmission jolts severely. Needless to say this flash the dealer performed really did more harm than good. Well I figured that I could just call up the dealer and have them reflash the stock program back on. Having dealt with vw/audi's in the past I am very familiar with their seemingly constant software flashes lol.

However, when I talk to the same service guy again and tell him my problem and that I just want him to reflash the stock program back on he tells me that I can't go back to stock! I say then well why the hell didn't you tell me this before hand and the service guy tells me he did. He NEVER mentioned he couldn't flash it back to stock or else I would never have gone through with it. He keeps saying he told me and there is nothing he can do. I asked to speak with the service manager but apparently he won't be in for the rest of the week. So for the time being I'm stuck with a transmission that can't shift smoothly to save its life.

The reason for my post is to see if anyone else had a similar problem or knows anything about how the tranny works in this car? Can it really not be reflashed back to stock? I find that very hard to believe seeing as how other manufacturer's dealers have the stock software on tap to reflash troublesome ecu's. If anyone knows or if there are any techs on this board that can chime in I would really appreciate it! Thanks.

CK6Speed

iTrader: (1)

I have no idea of the tranny ECU can't be reflashed back to original. It doesn't really make sense though. Since it is is reprobramable in the first place I don't see why it can't be reprogramed again regardless of what program is going in. Since the dealer performed the flash and your tranny is acting up I would just keep taking it back in to them to get it fixed since you are under warranty. Just tel them it shifts like crap and you don't care what they do just get it fixed.

That said. I have never heard of this so called "Sporty" reflash from the dealer before. I didn't even know the aftermarket had anything like that so I would be shocked if the dealer had this program. They do have the upgraded TSIB tranny update reflash but that is a Lexus fix to a known problem. My bet is that is what the performed on your car. Otherwise where did they get that so called "Sporty" reflash program? Did the guy just make it up as he went along? It sounds like you are getting screwed al the way around.

Good luck with your problem and keep us updated about how your dealership handles this situation.

rxdriver

I've never heard of a dealer promoting the TSIB for the ECU flash for the trans shift problems as "sporty". All I can figure is that they wanted the additional revenue from Lexus for warranty work since they were going to have your car anyway. Others have posted that they've also been told that the trans flash cannot be reversed. Sometimes it's an improvement, and sometimes it's not, but if you weren't having any problems then it was dumb of the dealer to talk you into it.

If the dealer can't make this right and quickly, I'd escalate it to Lexus corporate customer service. Tell them the whole story... the dealer will get in trouble, and they'll be able to tell you for sure if it's really impossible to undo the flash.

X72

black330, we have an 03 ES300 and an 05 ES350. I never did the flash upgrade on the 03. As far as I know, there is no flash upgrade for the 05 ES330. Both transmissions behave similarly, exhibiting the traits decribed in many places. I have read some reports that the new 07 ES350 6 speed transmission performs much better. Some people are sensitive to the behavior of the Lexus/Toyota 5 speed transaxle; my guess is that it is aproximately 3% to 5% that are sensitive which explains the decrease in reported reliability in Consumer Reports in the transmission section starting with the 02 ES300 through the 06 ES330.

I have adapted to the car and overcome the felt hesitation by manual shifting down to 4 or 3 when I need quick acceleration.

What the mechanic did was probably clear the computer and it is re-learning.
Here is what I suggest while you wait to take your car in. Switch to premium fuel if you are using regular. That way they cannot suggest this. I find that this helps in the short term until the computers controlling the engine and transmission adapt.

If you were pretty much ok with the car before, I believe that there is a pretty good chance you will be again after a few hundred miles when the car settles back into whatever its new steady state is.

If you want to read about this, look at the ES boards here and at other websites as well as other Toyota boards and you will find lots of threads regarding the behavior of the Lexus/Toyota V6 and 5 speed front drive transmission (Camry, Avalon, Sienna, ES, RX).

The funny transmission behavior I believe is mainly to optimize fuel economy. When you say you get 20 to 21 mpg on the hwy, that is probably right on if you are travelling over 70 mph. Slow down to the 65 to 70 mph range running premium for at least 2 tankfuls, keep your tires inflated to 34 psi when cold and your fuel economy will increase by 10% or more.

X72

The reason I suspect that you are travelling in the 75 to 80 mph range is that you said that you were used to better fuel economy with a 6 cylinder engine CAR. A car generates much less aerodynamic drag (regardless of whatever the coefficient of friction is) because it simply has less frontal area and has to move less air out of the way. My 03 ES300 gets 27 to 28 mpg on the highway if I keep the speed down to 70. The only way for me to reach the EPA rated hwy mileage of 29 for my car is if I were to slow to the 60 to 65 mph. This of course is on flat land Florida where we also get no Ethanol in our fuel.

black330

Thanks for all the advice guys! I will definitely check out those other boards about the auto tranny. Maybe I can just get them to reflash it again with whatever the current Lexus software is? I tried reasoning with the service guy but unfortunately he is a bit hot-headed and I can't have a logical conversation with him...he just keeps saying I told you it can't be reversed and there's nothing we can do. My service experiences have always been great at the dealer so this has come as quite a surprise to me. I'm waiting to talk with the service manager and hopefully he will be more willing to explain if it can't be reversed and what can be done, maybe they could just replace the tranny's ecu?

Right now I'm running premium fuel for Cali, 91 compared to your 93 or 94 on the east coast, you lucky guys! lol While I do much of my highway driving at 70-80 mph when traffic permits, darn congested highways here, I have done economy runs at 55-60 for an entire tankful on trips to see what the best mpg I could squeeze out of the car would be. Tops was about 21.6 mpg, When I travel 70-80 I usually see 19-20mpg and about 15-18mpg in city traffic. I guess it's just the nature of having a suv. With my old awd 2.8L Audi A4 I would see about 27 mpg on the highway and in my wife's old jetta vr6 I was able to get it up to 31 mpg highway, I realize that being fwd helped. I have a compressor in my garage so I do always keep my tire pressure up to spec. In the past I have noticed that it does play a noticeable difference in mpg.

Thanks again for all your suggestions and I'll definitely let you guys know how it turns out!

black330

Well the service manager at my dealer told me that it could not be reflashed and did not want to have anything to do with it. We had a long heated discussion which pretty much marked the end of my relation with that dealer. I then took the car to another Lexus dealer and told them my transmission was shifting funny and asked if they could flash it with their most current update of the Lexus software. They gladly did it for me and for the past 4 days the car has been shifting fine. Just wanted to let you guys know how it turned out and that if your dealer is giving you the run around just take the car somewhere else. Thanks again for you help!

Larry96815

Question time???????

If you were to disconnect the battery for a few minutes would the transmission ECU have to relearn your driving style? If so could you do this and then drive "aggresively" for a few miles to get that "sporty" feel? Just curious???????

Aloha,
Larry

rxdriver

Yes, if you disconnect it, it will reset the learning program. Some members actually cut the power to the ECU on a regular basis.
But no, it doesn't learn to be sporty for any length of time. That "good side" that's biased toward fuel economy always prevails eventually.

Larry96815

Damn!!

How long does this complete circuit take?


Aloha,
Larry