jwagon

Has anyone had problems with the transmission shifting during the cold months ? Last year was my first winter with the car and it would always struggle into 2nd.

This year it is happening again. But in addition to the shifting from 1-2 problem. It is shifting up at stoplights so I have no power when the lights turn green ! Scared the **** out of me the first time it happened.

I am getting it looked at next week. In the meanwhile--anyone else have this problem ?

mlacomb

I had this happen once after a very cold day of my car sitting at work. Wouldn't let go of first gear and was just revving up - almost felt like the torque converter wasn't even trying to push the car, as the revs did not match the output to the wheels. It clunked into place after about 2 minutes of driving and hasn't done it since.... 2008, probably 60-70k on the clock at the time (107k now).

ESh

Low on oil?

jkayca

What's the year and mileage of the car?

jwagon

2007 with only 105,000 KM

jkayca

Some of the 2007s suffered from transmission flare. Search the forum, there are some older posts about it.

ESh

This has nothing to do with transmission flare.

Clutchless

With that many miles/kilometers you should have the transmission fluid changed/flushed and that should resolve your issue.

jkayca

I don't think he has that many miles. If he were at 160,0000 kms then I might think about changing the transmission fluid. Also you should never actually flush an automatic transmission. Drain/refill several times instead.

Clutchless

To clarify, the owners manual states that under severe conditions the transmission fluid should be changed at 60,000 miles. He is at that mileage.
All transmission flush machines actually only do a fluid exchange using the vehicles running motor and transmission to pump out the old fluid and suck in the new fluid. The machine keeps track of the amount of fluid exchanged. The term really refers to changing out all the fluid versus a drain and fill that only gets some of the fluid. My local Lexus dealer charges about $320 to do this.
Finally, I have been doing drain and fills since I had the ES and now on the RX (same transmission). You can only drain about 2 quarts at a time and should do it when the vehicle is cold as fluid expands. It takes me about 20 minutes now to do this process. I initially did 3 drain and fills and now do it annually.

ThumperPup

never flush Trans fluid especially with a power flush machines.

Lexus doesn't recommend Flushes either.
If you go to a Lexus dealer and they only do recommended services that Lexus recommends then they will even inform you when you ask for a lfush that its not recommended but they can do a fluid exchange wich will get enough of your fluid out

The only time i perosnaly recommend a Full Trans Flush is is if you having major transmission issues and you want to try the last minute reprieve on your trans and hope a flush might make it better, so you don't have to put major money into other repairs then try this I have seen this work once in several of my cars that I have had trans issues with. But that's the only time I actually recommend a full trans flush.

I have my trans fluid echanges drained and then refiled but not flushed every 60k

jwagon

I have a service booked for Wednesday @ a local transmission shop. I will update this thread in a few weeks to let everyone know if this solved the problem or not.