wanderer99

Picked up my vehicle today from the dealer with the TSIB completed. Vehicle seemed very smooth in changing gears when cold which was a big change. Very, very smooth. Drove it out of the dealership, got up to the 3-4 change and.... nothing. Changed just fine - if anything, maybe it cut the change short and performed it early.

On the way home I drove around a bit in some hilly areas to see how it performed. Worked very well and again very smooth. This was all at my normal driving syle - sedate and I didn't go over 3000rpm at all. Went home and let the car sit for 5 hrs.

Just went out to see if its still good. Trans very smooth in the parkade - which is unusual when its cold. Pulled out and get to the 3-4 change at 2400rpm and bam! Spikes to 3200rpm, then back down again.

ES350Bob

Oh no, well did it help at all to know ahead that it might not work?

At least now you can respond to your own poll.

I cannot think of anything encouraging to say, that you will buy into anyway, though I'm trying here...LOL


Just know that I hope your car is resolved to your satisfaction.

NGG

Wanderer;
Maybe time to bite the bullet and start the car replacement process. If you do so, think hard before considering an 07 ES. If an ES is in your future you might wait for an 08....hopefully all bugs will be worked out. You may want to look at the new Infiniti G35 (yeah, bite my tongue) but it is sure getting raves in the auto press. It is cheaper, more powerful and has AWD...just a thought.

What a sad state of affairs when Lexus' advertised quality and reputation for customer satisfaction becomes tarnished because of delayed defficiency acknowledgement and appropriate remedy.

Let us know how you make out. Good luck!
NGG

ES350Bob

There is the wisdom of the above and there is also the wisdom of what
e-man posted to me when I was in similar circumstances.

You do not have to do anything, you can be patient and wait weeks, months to decide what you want to do.

And there is the wisdom of the MB dealer, who said buying a car at this level is a deeply personal thing and because of this when things go wrong it can be very difficult to make a decision on exactly what to do. So if you are not certain of what to do it is no surprise.

Given the deceit visited on me by several asociated with Lexus corporate, I believe they have no intention of addressing wind noise or diesel engine knocking tapping noise, both of which they are VERY aware of yet they do not warn potential buyers of either, only after purchase are these things stated as normal operation of an ES350.

wanderer99

I was really, really hopeful that the TSIB would magically fix all my trans issues, including the 3-4 gear change issue for what it was designed to fix. I was really hopeful as I love my ES350. I've said that here so many times - we love this car. But the TSIB fix (for me) is a complete and utter failure, and what's worse is that my trans is now worse than before.

Yeh, I still have the 3-4 issue when the vehicle is cold. No change there. But once the car is hot, I'm now seeing regular 2-3, 3-4 and 4-5 flares. Sometimes it will go all the way through 3-4 and you think its fine, then it hits a big flare on 4-5. The trans is very smooth now on its changes, so thats a big improvement. But when you get 2-3, 3-4 and 4-5 all flaring in a row while accelerating away from a stop light it well, sucks.

Thanks everyone for your support and info on this to date. Yes, I'll be talking to my dealership tomorrow about this. No, I won't be accepting a new trans. I'm confused by Lexus even offering this repair TSIB if by all accounts, it doesn't work. My dealer knew it. You all reported it. What is going on here?

onsknht

It's called stalling...

My kids are great at it when they don't want to go to bed. Seeing as how this is so ingrained into the heads of small children, it's no wonder we're all taking it on the chin from Toyota at the present time.

I'm confident there's someone out there who knows the 'exact' cause of these issues... That said, I'm equally confident there's someone out there who hasn't provided the OK yet to release the fix.

ES350Bob

You asked what is going on here and the following is my opinion, as a former manufacturing company owner, of exactly what is going on here. Total BS is what is going on.

In my experiences and those posted on here by others who were deceived about their cars being normal, Lexus is infested with people who can look you or any customer in the eye and lie through their teeth, the net result is exactly what you are experiencing, I have and many others are or will experience.

I assure you that when a privately owned company resorts to lies visited on it's client base it is bad enough, but when a publicly owned one does it, it ends up rampant, quality suffers, and approach to customers at large is deplorable as a result.

Take the several times over professionally diagnosed valve problem on my former car for example, a dealer's employees see lies told to a customer by a Lexus official, they get the idea it is ok to do it themselves on issues or simply ok not to care about the fact a customer was just bold faced lied to or not to care that car after car knocks and taps so it becomes the norm rather than the exception.

Same for transmission, dealer gets to see a customer outright lied to about a TSIB already done in Japan and they get the idea it is ok to do that too or simply not to care that in their presence a customer was lied to or that car after car has slipping transmissions and their approach as a result lacks the logic that would otherwise be present.

The liar is not loyal as to who is lied to, so the company officials behind the lies are themselves lied to on other issues by the same liars they have out there.

In the end it is a cluster you know what of major proportion involving quality issues, timing issues and repeated lack of resolutions.

If not for a dealer it could have been a larger hassle for me, you seem to have a nice dealer and things will work out over time.

You asked and that is exactly what is going on here in my opinion and extreme patience is in order for it to get corrected as correcting it requires much time, years in this case, removing those responsible and from my own experiences it goes all the way to the top with Lexus.

Macklin

wanderer, so sorry to hear about your lack of resolution. But, I'm curious why you will not consider a new tranny. Do you think they will consider a complete replacement for you now given all the miles you have on the car?

ES350Bob

I think this ties into what ons said about stalling him out and similar to my own former car being strung along and stalled out for months.

He has been reporting defects since he first bought the car, thousands of miles ago, or as he likes to post, KM's ago.

Now he has thousands on the car and somebody could say to him with the miles he now has, why would you expect us to just replace it after you have put this many miles on it.

I hope he gets all his money back for having to deal with what he has dealt with on the lemon they sold him, his car has everything my former car did and then some on top of it and to a degree now worse than my former car and he has endured it for thousands of miles.

twister

I had tranny replaced over 2 weeks ago, and guess what? The new tranny (October build), has the same 3rd/4th flare problem. Just got confirmed by my dealership, and tomorrow field-application engineer from Lexus going to arrive to check it again. What does this say? EVERY SINGLE ES350 tranny has this flare problem. And, for those of you who says they don't, you are in denial or need to check that video clip again or just don't know what to look for. From what I have seen and experienced myself, this TSIB gotta be a design flow (either mechanical or programmable/firmware). If you keep your car in a garage or warm it up enough in the morning, you will never see it. Period. But the problem is still there.

e-Mel

Well all I can say is that I have not experienced this issue with my car. I know what to look for but unlike some I don't go out of my way to try and make something happen that maybe never will. It's fine for you to say we who don't, or haven't experienced the issue, are in denial but I think what you are really trying to say is that misery loves company.

twister

"mysery" over here has been driving fully loaded '07 GS350AWD demo car for 2 days while my poor ES350 has been tested at the dealership, and that "mysery" is on a fence to jump the ship

For your info, there is a difference to make something happen and to experience it every morning. I was trying to think its not a big deal while being in denial myself. I'm an engineer, and I know a difference between a design flow versus a production flow related to a specific build or a datecode. All these cars came down from the same manufacturing line. They build to the same spec and follow the same engineering design rules. Occasional production "oops" could be easily found and isolated with enough collected data. What we see here is random, probably triggered by difference in driving habits and temperature due to geographic locations. That is why some experience it, and others don't. To me, all this spells a design flow. I'm also getting more convinced that a fix will be in a new updated firmware. Toyota/Lexus FAEs just collecting more data points to make their final decision. I really don't wish anybody else to experience this and to join our "mysery" club. But, when you gonna receive a letter in the mail about your ES350 "mini-recall", you will

e-Mel

Twister,
All I'm trying to say is that yes it is very possible that I too may very well have this issue arise with my ES but I am not going to go out in my car and purposely see if I can make it flair/spike. It is bad enough that I now sometimes drive with one eye on the road and the other on the tach. If it (the flair) happens I will take it to the dealer and deal with it then. If it is a product of driving habits, then as long as I continue to drive the way I do it hopefully won't happen. I went from an "04 TL to this ES and absolutely love the ride. If it turns out that there is a recall that's fine as that likely will mean that a fix has been found.

twister

I know exactly what you mean by driving with one eye on a tach, I'm used to it by now One thing to keep in mind, don't drive yourself crazy since it only happens (if it ever going in your case, and I hope it wont) in the first 5 min from the cold start.

Funny how you made a switch from TL. TL was my other choice for consideration when choosing ES. I liked ES comfort, luxury, performance, faster acceleration, softer ride, etc. Now, while driving GS350, its a huge step backward to stiff drive, loud acceleration, heavier car, rougher interior details and stiffer seats, but the handling is I have to wait till tomorrow to see what is a resolution with my ES350 problem (new tranny with the same cold start problem), and what choices I will be offered. I would like to stay with Lexus family, and I'm feeling very iffy about ES now so GS is the only logical step in here. The problem is it over my budget...

e-Mel

Have you asked the dealer if they have any '06 GS leftover?