so...i got my car back and its a 2004 RX330 with about 76K miles. The warranty that covers the transmission reflash is something like 7 years 80K miles. I found out about the warranty about 3 years ago, and i was contemplating on doing it but my service advisor said some people dont like it and its not reversible. so i held out on doing it. Finally, i said to myself, im getting rid of the car soon, so why not just do it and live with it for a little while if it gets worse.

lo and behold, its worse. ill talk about the hesitation problem later, but something new has happened. this happens when going up hill, relatively steep ones, as i live in san francisco. lets say im going up and midway, i let go of the gas...and it starts to slow down by itself. when i press the gas to go again, nothing happens at all. NOTHING. i was freaking out today. right when i begin to freak out, the car goes again. its like the transmission isnt responding, but only on hills.

to make matters worse, the hesitation is still there.

anybody experience this?

 

When I first moved down here with my RX300 about 6 years ago, I had issues going up hills just like you mentioned. I know San Francisco pretty well as my one of my bosses is based out of there (U.S. operation) and have visited there and some of those hills will top what we have here.

The fluid level of the ATF is key when going up those hills and that is one reason I overfill my ATF to avoid precisely the hesitation and other stupid problems that affected my tranny on the hills and mountains here, no problems since other than my recent issue in Nov/Dec with the busted tranny pump after an accident.

However, that transmission reflash is another story and having heard this repeated over the years with the RX330, I know this has been a major issue for a lot of people and I heard as much from a friend of the family who has one who I saw over Christmas in DC. None of the shifts are correct on the vehicle I drove, also a 2004, and he has been driving it for quite a bit. We even tried resetting the battery and eventually the same garbage came up.

This is ultimately something Lexus is going to have to fix in a big way.

 

ive been saying that forever. its not something that can be fixed simply. lexus needs to step up and do something about it. you know its a problem when the techs at the dealers know about it and advise against doing the reflash.

 

If it is the lag which comes BACK after driving a bit, then the transmission is not the problem, but the adaptability is the issue. It just happens to exhibit by transmission not shifting in the right gear.

98Gs had the adaptability issue and one had to reset the ECU quite frequently or drive in "power" mode. My 99Rx has the switch too, but I dont know if Lexus dropped it out in later versions of RX. If the switch is there, maybe that can be used to avoid the adaptability software.

Salim

 

nope, power button is gone. lol

 

even if it did have that button would good would 223hp be? oooh so much power.

 

Sorry to hear about the bad reflash.

Glad I didn't do this myself, the techs also told me that it makes it worse.

Lexus does need to look for other solutions to this problem....

 

Hello all,

Glad to hear I am not the only frustrated one with the hesitation problem. Another annoying thing that has been happening is the rough downshifts. I can feel the car downshift really hard when I am slowing down to a complete stop. So far Lexus Australia has not been able to find a solution.

Eugene

 

Unfortunately the time is running out and I doubt Lexus will find a solution or contuinue tio work on it much longer unless the 3G RX uses the same engine and trans. Once the new generation comes out you can pretty much expect no more fix attempts on this trans. It has already been 5 years already.

 

Yeah I agree. I wish they would but I think times run out too...

 

Sorry to hear about your problems guys, but I have to say the tranny in my RX is faultless, and always has been

 

Keep taking it back in to the service department, get it in writing and then I would think that your warranty won't run out on something that they can't, or aren't able to fix.

Gary

 

They have lost on this tranny shifting issue...this is the only major complaint I have heard from a lot of people. Wish thay had a good solution so people would quit talking about this tranny....!!! Remonds me of the Acura tranny issue they had.....they lost a lot of following on the 2nd Gen TL, big time!

 

even if it is too late for the RX, the problem continues in other toyota models like the camry and avalon, not to mention the current es350. Like i always say its toyota doing what it feels like, since people keep buying them. If this was a problem from an american made car there would be no end to the complaning

 

Unfortunately for the Camry, new 08 Avalon, and ES350, they all use the new 6-Speed tranny, so my bet is they are working hard on getting that tranny fixed since that is the new generation tranny and will be around for a while. The 5-Speed we have is old news already and they already have a replacement out.