onsknht

Well this settles it for me fellas!!!


While I was povided information that was a little more protective of Toyota's bottom line, it appears to have been (based on this TSB) truthfull.


The TFS rep had early information about the "revision" to TC008-06 (which is now OBSOLETE rather than revised), so they told me about the 07/06 cutoff date before TC002-07 was "approved."


Whatever the case it seems the VIN range on TC002-07 goes deeper into 2006 builds then 07/06.


Transmissions replacements and a flood of OVERHAULED/REBUILT 2007 Camrys on the used market... CAVEAT EMPTOR!

http://toyotanation.com/forum/showpo...1&postcount=22

ES350Bob

I was reading of the guy who had his replaced during last day or two of December and he states his new one slips and it must have been the latest revision and the other link there ONS to the Edmunds site where they are saying the same.....the number of people indicating gear 2 to 3 also slipping is very noteworthy.

onsknht

I'm sure you've been in business... Sometimes it's not always what you know, but who you know, as you probably know.

What I mean by this is my Service Director at my dealership is a great guy. I think he understood that I was smarter than the average customer as I challenged their responses and declined work... He then took this to someone he knows who also happened to be "in the know."

Unfortunately, there's a huge number of dealers for both Toyota and Lexus... Keep in mind this new TSB was just officially released, not everyone got the same "early information."

What I'll do a little later on (maybe after a Starbucks run here in a few minutes) is look to compare the replacement transmission part numbers... Whatever the timing of new builds and recent replacements, you're going to want the one identified on this TSB. Which oddly enough is listed as "same" to a prior part number, but this is the first TSB to call for a replacement transaxle?

ES350Bob

I'm no gearhead either but it seems to me that transaxle replacement is a fancy way of saying...Your transmission is toast...since it is connected to the axle by some means...we are going to call it a Transaxle replacement...to make you feel special while you drive our (at times dirty) loaner and are majorly inconvenienced

wanderer99

onsknht - Is this really solved though with the trans(axle) replacement?

I'm glad Toyota\Lexus finally got around to doing what they told me they'd do back in early December - pulling the TSIB and mandating trans replacement. I mentioned this back here:
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/sho...&postcount=105

So if the new replacement for slipping up to 1000rpm is a trans replacement, this means that I'm potentially up for yet another new transmission in my ES.

ES350Bob

Wanderer,

I forgot that you might have paperwork from your trans replacement. Can you see if the work claimed done is called transaxle replacement on your service receipt?

Because the only major difference between the August TSIB and this one is that for one they go into the existing transmission and pull a part out and put a new one back into the existing transmission in the car and for this one they are directed to replace the whole transmission with another transmission and change out the torque converter at the same time.

I think you already had this done to your car.

onsknht

Your PM with the "inside" information provided combined with mine helped me close the loop... The old TSB is not revised it is OBSOLETED, meaning it isn't even an option anymore, if you flare you need a new transmission.

I would suspect that your replacement transmission was of the "type b" variety when you chould have gotten the "type C" which is undoubtedly called for in the new TSB...

Again, we'll beat ourselves trying to figure out a cutoff between "good" and "bad" because Toyota is HUGE. Think about it, I bet you could walk into any dealership today with a copy of this TSB and I bet they would say they never heard of it... This will take some time to resonate.

onsknht

Remember the "pipeline..." This will take some time to get around. I suspect wanderer's case, like mine is a matter of timing. Yes they said to replace the trans, but did he really get "the replacement" transaxle/torque converter???

The TSB is still very new... My advice if you so choose to own a New/Overhauled/Rebuilt vehicle would be to go in there sometime next month or later this spring to have the work completed.

ES350Bob

I searched transaxle assembly and it appears that because we have front wheel drive that is what they call it on a front wheel drive when the transmission needs replacing in it's entirety.

http://www.procarcare.com/icarumba/r...sp#front-wheel
Front-wheel-drive vehicles are the more common arrangement for most cars and mini-vans these days. These vehicles do not have conventional transmissions, drive axles or driveshafts. Instead, power is transmitted from the engine to a transaxle, or combination of transmission and drive axle, in one unit. Refer to the Automatic or Manual Transmission/Transaxle Section for more information on the transaxle.
A single transaxle accomplishes the same functions as a transmission and drive axle in a front-engine/rear-drive axle design. The difference is in the location of components.
In place of a conventional driveshaft, a front wheel drive design uses two driveshafts, usually called halfshafts, which couple the drive axle portion of the transaxle to the wheels. Universal or constant velocity joints are used just as they would be in a rear wheel drive design.

Macklin

Thanks for the info Bob. I realized the question I posted previously was so ignorant I thought best to delete it. (Hate it when that happens.)

I will be anxiously awaiting reports on this new TSB.

ES350Bob

No way was that question ignorant, I didn't know there was a difference and I am glad you asked it.

This newer TSIB seems is to stop doing the valve body replacement and shove in a whole trans instead as was indicated would in recent threads last few weeks was going to happen--they would pull the valve body one and do this instead.

When I see a bunch of folks saying Eureka this new replacement trans is working and does not slip then I'll get excited..

Macklin

Exactly!

Well, now that I'm clear on the fact the transaxle is the same as transmission, I have another question. Does this new TSB, which calls for a transaxle and torque converter replacement, involve more work than the previous 'transmission' replacements?

As we know, many folks have reported their new 'transmissions' are still flaring.

wanderer99

The first repair attempt was for the Valve Body and O Ring replacement, which was the original TSIB. This work was performed in early Nov 2006. I do have a Lexus invoice for this.

The second repair attempt was entire transaxle replacement and was performed late Nov 2006. I do not have a Lexus invoice for this as they never gave me one. I'm positive they did the whole trans as it did fix the flare problem for the first 200kms. It's been flaring again ever since. I will get a copy of that invoice this week.

wanderer99

Given past history with Lexus TSIB publishing in Canada, we can expect it here 3-4 weeks after the US. This is what the timeline was for the original valve body replacement TSIB.

I'll be calling them Monday to see what they plan to do. They wanted me to drive the vehicle for another 2000kms to see if the replacement trans stopped flaring. They were quite confident this would 'fix' it. It hasn't (flared again every morning\evening) and I've driven more than 2000kms since the trans was replaced. I wonder what their position will be on a second trans replacement, which will potentially be the 3rd trans in my vehicle.

Macklin

wanderer, I'm curious...how hard do you excelerate through the first 3-4 shift? Like some others have mentioned here, I have learned how to drive the car when cold so it doesn't do it. Granted, I have never experienced more than a 500 rpm flare, has been very intermittent since the first occurence almost 6000 miles ago, and have not felt one at all since Xmas break. But I have not had to get into it before making that first gear change either.