nomoon

I had the transmission tweak applied to my car a few weeks ago after complaining about the unpleasant behavior when trying to accelerate when trying to merge into traffic. After the upgrade, the car seems worse. The acceleration from ~40 MPH is still quirky, though there is now a new problem. Engine noise is now noticeable, even when driving like a grampa. During very slow acceleration, it will shift into second gear at ~1900 RPM, though it won't change into 3rd gear until ~3000 RPM. Under moderate acceleration, it may run up to almost 4000 rpm until if finally shifts into third. This is opposite of steviej's observation here where he commented Does anyone have any ideas? Has anyone else had this particular problem? Is there anything else that they can reset or adjust? Thanks in advance!

3000

Tranny fluid may be bad or the transmission filter may need to be changed.

nomoon

Thanks, I'll check into it. The other gears shift at a reasonable RPM. It's only second gear that behaves oddly.

mbrown7248

I have the same problem. Did the fluid and filter change help?

nomoon

I've been swamped at work and haven't had a chance to follow up. It didn't do this before the software tweak. The car had the 60K mile service a few months ago. I'll first check to see if they looked at the transmission during this service.

Wassa786

you know, I have that same problem w/ the revs going up to 4k RPM...it's the TSB update man...fixed the jerking, but man, the revs are eating my MPG!!!

lexusk8

Like steviej has experienced before, the TSB for the 2002 transmission may not fully bring back the perfect driving feeling of the ES. From what I understand, the TSB would highly benefit those who own a '04 or '05 ES since those are the later model years from the '02-'03 ES era and have some engine updates like the 3.3L VVT-i.

nomoon

I just spoke with a Lexus service rep and the situation hasn't changed. Lexus doesn't have any plans to address this problem in existing cars. That stinks, because my Ford truck shifts much better than my Lexus. It's louder and my gas millage has suffered since the tweak (TSB TC004-03) was applied.

nomoon

Can the training period be reset? I wonder if the situation could be improved if it were reset and I either:

1) Drove with lots of aggressive accellerations during the training period
or
2) Drove with no aggressive accellerations during the training period

tuan92129

It takes a while for the tranny computer to 're learn' your driving habits after it has been reset.

Wassa786

56k miles, just got my tranny fluid flushed and ecu reset, seems a bit better but still hangs around in 2nd for a bit...

jakebot88

Sorry for the thread revival but i'm having the exact same issue... only seems to do it when the engine is cold. Sometimes if I have the cruise on and I go up a hill it downshifts to 3rd and wants to stay there. I too have changed my tranny fluid with the oem toyota fluid and the gasket/filter...
SAME ISSUE I wonder if this might be the issue?

http://www.partsgeek.com/catalog/200...ed_sensor.html

Does anybody have any experience with this?

msekanha

This is pretty much normal behavior for our vehicles. Just something you have to get used to.

milirx450h

Have you taken your car to get the software update? About a year after I bought my 2003 ES300 I saw the TSB that mentioned problems with the transmission. I took mine in to the local Lexus dealer, had them flash the computer and shortly thereafter noticed my shifting problem was slightly worse than before the software update. I went back a few months later and they did the update again with what was supposed to be a better update. It didn't completely fix the issue but it was a little better. To this day the car is still a little quirky when shifting from 2nd to 3rd. I've just learned to live with it.

jakebot88

Well i'm glad my transmission isn't going to hell! I was thinking damn, I just bought this car and my transmission isn't going to last much longer.

It does seem slow to shift than my other cars but I have seen how that can be changed even though i don't plan on it.

I have a 2000 es300 so I don't think the tranmission is the same that's in the es330 but I can call my local dealer and ask if there's any updates or anything...

Is there a place I can find this info on the internet?

TIA