wanderer99

I think everything is build with certain tolerances. Not all vehicles have the problems listed on the ES350 forum, but many do. Some have multiple problems (me included!), others have only one or two, some none. So obviously the quality control is hit and miss on multiple levels.

Luckily (unluckily) I have a problem trans. Not all trans have problems and I believe that as I've driven 4 ES350 vehicles and they're ALL a little different to each other on trans\engine noise\vibration\wind noise, etc. They should all have behaved the same, but they didn't. Other members have reported similar experiences.

So I believe there are good trans, and this is reflected in the poll that shows that only around 26% of CL voters have the problem. The fact that my first trans was fine until around 2000kms, and the second trans was OK until 200kms shows that 'something' isn't right in the trans. In my case it took some time to surface, others probably had it right from the very beginning. Some flare more than others. Tolerances

Mlawler

Wanderer99, good point. Where are the ES's built? Any geo political or work force related issues there that could tie into this? Probably not, but it has happened before...

LexBob2

Good question. They're all made in Japan. It would be interesting to know if there's any labor or politcal unrest going on over there.

sdbrandon

The ES is made in Japan, however I wonder how the trannys are sourced. Does Toyota in fact make all of the trannys and parts. I suspect the outsource quite a bit. As far as I know, they build cars, not parts.

The reason I say this is because the tranny issue appears random.

amf1932

Highly unlikely! From my understanding about Japanese auto workers they are the happiest, most contented workers in the world.....especially in Lexus Corporation.

Mlawler

AH we have an office over there, I dont think thats the case, it is percieved rather than real...

but interesting comment above, were are all the tranny parts sourced from, most Japanese auto makers do outsource parts manufacturing to other Rim-PAC nations, and I have been told (no proof) that they may have multiple vendors for the same part, could be total BS also...

wanderer99

I think it has been posted in this forum that the trans was from an American supplier, and if I remember correctly this info came from the Camry perspective which is the same as the ES. I believe this was the original trans, and who know what has happened between the apparent a-b-c versions of the trans and where things are now manufactured.

I reserve the right to be completely wrong here though

amf1932

This doesn't sound very logical! A car that was designed and built in Japan, using a transmission that was manufactured in the U.S., and then sent back to Japan to be installed in the ES. I don't think so.

sdbrandon

I am not sure, however it is possible. Ford used to make Nissan dashes. ZF made transmissions for BMW.

osokuko

I believe the American supplier were talking about was located in New York and they were the ones that made those 160 bad trans for the Camry car. As I recall camry was having the there trans supplied here in the US and Lexus was making them in Japan at the same time. After a while all this trans stuff starts to run together.

dunnojack

pardon my ignorance

is this trans spike bad for the engine? dangerous for driving? or just a nuisance?

BillP

Doubtful that its bad for the engine, although it's an unknown if it affects durability of the tranny. To me it's just a minor nuisance so I'm willing to wait awhile and see if Toyota can come up with the final fix, but to others it's a rediculous flaw in the car and I don't blame them. If the flair was deemed a safety issue then this whole thing could turn into a recall.

onsknht

Having one supplier, or putting all you're eggs in one basket so to speak, is asking for angry customers. Especially if you're going to market on a global scale and even more so when you're in direct competition with other manufacturers of the same product.

When Toyota first started making cars in the US, they continued to import the major assemblies, like engines and transmissions... The parts content sticker on my car was 75% USA and 25% JPN. Clearly things like starters, spark plugs, alternators etc. are made and assembled in JPN by Denso... But Toyota also has JOINT control over some manufacturing with companies like GM, the 4.7 V8 is poured at the same plant as the Vortec 5.3. The axles on my Sequoia are made by Dana and I used to have a Toyota Truck (aka HiLux) that actually had GM stampings on some parts.

It's futile to try and determine where exactly everything was built. But I highly doubt parts are being shipped back and forth only to cost more in duties for import/export.

While I can't confirm 100%, I believe my transmission was assembled in JPN. I can't see an American worker going around with conji-QC stamps as I've found on my transmission case... It may be hard to see, but there's a blue stamp clearly of Japanese origin in the pic below.

That's not to say Japanese QC'd parts weren't shipped to the US and then assembled... But I gotta believe something like transmission assembly is going to be a lot more involved for outsourcing than it would be to make part "x" for the transmission. In other words, Toyota probably controls all assembly of the transmissions be it in the US or JPN, but there are probably multiple suppliers for the components of the transmission.

onsknht

I would agree, there should be no effect on the engine as it's no different than revving the engine in nuetral.

However, slipping is not good for transmissions... Problem we all have, nobody can check the quality of their transmission fluid because there's no dipstick!

FWIW - My guy said there will be a long term effect as a result of the flair, he said the long term issue will be noticed around 30K when the trans fluid is due to be replaced... He's expecting to see a lot of gray/brown transmission fluid, the cars that have had replacements (trans/valve body) were cooking the fluid pretty well.

Finally... A week has gone by, my transmission has yet to surface, they called and said it may be a few weeks... Sounds to me like something is coming from Japan.

osokuko

Hmmm - I wonder if it's a delayed Santa-trans?