VicSWFL

Greeting to my fellow members of this invaluable Lexus resource,

I have owned my gently used 2003 ES300 with 91K miles for 30 days and I'm beginning to understand what the Lexus excitement is about. In that regard I'm trying to understand as much as I can about the workings of my car.

I'm curious about the operation of the transmission in overdrive (5th gear). Is the transmission "locked up" in 5th gear such that there's no slippage and heat production from the torque converter (assuming the term "torque converter" is still in use)?

Thank you,

Vic
Ft. Myers, Florida

Oro

I don't have detailed knowledge of the inner workings of the U151E in your car (and mine), but a torque converter clutch to allow lock-up at cruising speeds and save a little mpg is pretty standard and has been around over 30 years. I would be surprised if it did not.

With maintenance these seem to be pretty robust transmissions and can lost a long while; ours has 234k on it and runs great on synthetic ATF. It had the very common hard downshift on low-speed deceleration; that has been greatly reduced with new motor mounts (the front and top dog-leg shaped "torque strut" are the ones that commonly break) as well as running synthetic ATF.

VicSWFL

Thank you Oro,

I suspected as much and I appreciate your confirmation that the transmission "locks up" in overdrive. I am planning on towing a small U-Haul trailer for 1,300 miles, all at freeway speeds, hence my concern about transmission wear.

While I consider myself a "car guy" having grown up in Detroit in the 1950's and 1960's, I lived on a small Caribbean Island from 1987 until July of 2014, before moving to Florida. While living in the Caribbean I had only two cars in 27 years, a 1973 VW Camper Bus and a 1985 Toyota 4-Runner. Neither of these vehicles taught me much but they were well suited to island life with bad roads and corrosive salt air, Needless to say, when I drive my 2003 ES300 I feel like I'm piloting the Starship Enterprise.

Thank you again,

Vic
Ft. Myers, Florida

rlx101

5th gear is engaged once you hit certain speed/rpm range.

You can select 4 and the tranny will only shift up to 4th gear and stay there. Watch rpms in that case.

Oro

Oh, now I see the issue.

So on flats and steady speed, you can run it in "D" and not worry about it continuously locking/unlocking and heating.

Then in hills, traffic, etc., like rlx101 said, manually put it in 4th.