tnedator

There are some that have been told that the 1/19/07 TSIB has been eliminated and that now any surging/flairing that occurs is being classified as 'normal' behavior.

To date, nobody has been able to confirm this except by word of mouth.

Swobro

[QUOTE=Argentum;2449687]Read it and cheer...



Argentum:

Some threads have speculated on the rate of occurrence of the transmission slippage. My original and now my replacement transmission slip between 200RPM and 2000RPM from 3rd to 4th gear every time I drive away from a cold start.

Given the fact that you work at a large Lexus dealership, can you shed some light on your experience with the rate of customers reporting the transmission slippage?

ES350Bob

Because we have come to know that a posted TSIB is not the only means of official instruction given dealer service, does not mean it will not be or has not already been yanked.

In this case we have 6 owners from different parts of the country indicating there has been a change in dealer approach since the TSIB was issued.

Also, we have several owners from different parts of the country indicating procedures planned for their car or already done to their car not listed in any TSIB we have been made aware of: e.g., add ATF fluid, which you do not see indicated anwyhere within the TSIB yet somehow this has been communicated to dealers by Lexus and is planned to be done or ahs been done to vehicles.

Grumbles2

I dont know if anyone anwsered this yet but the total faliure tranmissions were caused by a clip being installed backwards during manufacturing.

SW07ES

Is it possible the transmission is actually a very reliable, very durable, well designed and performing unit and the "flare" is merely the symtom of an assembly line goof up that occurred at the transmission assembly plant (e.g. a clip installed backwards or some other minor assembly fault like that) ??

In other words, maybe everyone here is wrongly condeming Toyota for building a defectively DESIGNED transmission. And maybe the reason some transmissionsshift fine and never flare is because they were assembled properly to begin with. If this is the case, I can understand it would take Toyota a good amount of time to track down a minor and elusive transmission assembly line goof up.

ES350Bob

They have had access to quite a few of the transmissions to make a determination like that long ago as to an assembly line error.

That and the number of second trans failing seems to indicate far more than an assembly line issue.

But anything is possible I guess as it is not resolved as yet.

1seeker1

Excellent Post.

1seeker1

I took djr's post to mean that Lexus can't claim this is a "normal" characteristic of the car if they all don't do it. Thats why I thought it was an excellent post. I can see how others would read it the other way around and perhaps its how djr meant it, but Lexus can't claim something is normal if some cars have the issue and some don't.

1seeker1

I was right... but perhaps I should read the entire thread before I start posting . Sorry, been out of town and haven't kept up for 10 days. I guess I got a little anxious after beginning to read this thread. Can't wait to get to the end. I hope there is a happy ending, but somehow I doubt it!

07LexusGuy

This thread has been silent for a while - did someone find the definite answer to this issue? Is Lexus truly claim the flaring a normal thing or are we still speculating on this?

My car is about to go in for the first 5K service, no flare yet and perfect car so far (knock on wood). I'll ask the service guys to see what they say about this.

ES350Bob

I don't think any official answer as in documented, but experiencially, yes there is a significant change, though the more input the better and nice you are willing to ask and let us know even though you do not have the issue.

tnedator

I don't think that it can both officially still be in place, but effectively be removed.

Either the TSIB is in force or it h as been removed or replaced with another. Surely by now if it was actually removed somebody would have confirmation.

ES350Bob

One would not think so, but we have already seen this be the case with the valve body TSIB staying up for more than a month after Wanderer reported to us he was told they knew it was not working as was yanked in favor of replacing the entire transmission. From that we know they do have means to communictae this sort of thing without an actual official notice.

Argentum

Considering I've written up 3 transaxles for ES 350s at my shop in the past week (one was a buy-back). The answer is yes, Lexus is replacing transmissions even on cars that have had them replaced once before, if the concern is able to be duplicated. This possibly indicates the "problems" have been remedied by an updated transaxle assembly. However, the part number is the same, which makes me a bit suspicious...I do think it was a bit of a stall tactic by Lexus until more reliable transmissions were ready.

However, if your car isn't acting up, and again, I've had a comparatively small set of customers complain about it (perhaps some think it's normal, or don't even notice it), then there's no point in bothering with an R&R at this time. Buy the way, the buyback car requires 400-500 miles of testing with the new transmission, to see if this really works.

And if you're still unhappy with this, don't flame the messenger. I can't make a new car appear out of Unicode...

ES350Bob

Thanks for your input, we noticed the part number too, that and the number of 2nd ones failing, and the wait approach, many of us had taken that approach already.