ISF350

I have the 08 recently for a month. I have notice something very weird about the transmission. When I'm in sport mode, the trans is in automatic D and I'm engaged in entering freeway with fast acceleration, the transmission just keep holding at lower 3 gear or 4 gear with very high 4k to 6k RPM with speed approximately 80mph. The gear got locked up for some reason and it doesn't want to change to higher gear 7 or 8 to lower the RPM. I quickly switch the gear stick shifter to the M mode and back to D auto mode, then the trans enable to upshift to 7/8 gear to lower the RPM as it supposed to do automatically. Is it something wrong with the transmission that I need to bring the car in for service? In normal mode, automatic or manual paddle shifter the transmission has no problem. Does your car do that ? please let me know with any advices.
Thanks

MileHIFcar

Your transmission fluid is probably low and needs to be filled to the correct level. The ISF transmission is super finicky if it's just a tiny bit low and will hang is gears to long. The car has to sit overnight at the dealership to have the procedure done correctly.

Do a search on here and you'll find some threads about the procedure...

ISF350

^ Thanks man. I got the car from carmax and today is the 30 days warranty deadline if there is any issue with the car. Should I drop the car for them for service and mention to them about the trans fluid? I'm going to drop the car to carmax for service then.

ISF350

I just found some a thread about trans locked up in lower gears as I have encountered same problem with mine.

http://www.lexusfforum.com/forums/ar...hp/t-1177.html

STLblueF

iTrader: (3)

Mine does the same thing if it's not all the way warmed up. The oil temp gauge doesn't mean your trans is up to temp. I think all of these cars exhibit that behavior in sport mode if you aren't up to temp.

ISF350

Some owners have noticed about the temperature is not warmed up, but for me I'm driving for 30 min to an hours stop and go around town. If I drive easy on city streets the trans can upshift automatically, but If I'm in spirit hard acceleration then the gear is just locked up in 3rd or 4th gear. Something like the program control the trans to keep the lower gears for spirit racing or something ! I have to manually switch to M and back to D to cancel the locked-up and upshift the gear to lower the RPM. This is something weird. I need to bring the car for trans oil service as one good advice above.

MileHIFcar

Yea you can, but make sure they know what they're doing and follow the right procedure that Lexus specifies to top off the transmission fluid. It's specific and has to sit over night. If you get the car back and it still exhibits the same symptoms, chances are they didn't do the procedure properly.

ISF350

This sound very technical to fill up the trans oil. I doubt if they know these specific procedure for the F car at any non-Lexus dealer. Even at Lexus dealer, a specific trained technician need to know the specs of this F car to do it right. How much for the trans oil service at Lexus? It maybe better to have Lexus take care the trans oil

nks979

I would not trust a Carmax to do this, even some Lexus dealers don't do it correctly.

jv12

I second this... I've not had the best experience on the repairs at the dealer so far--- let's see-- asked for full synthetic oil on last oil change- and got a blend. And that's just one example. Ugh.

The transmission is a sealed design so yeah it's gonna take someone who knows what they are doing. Maybe find a locally owned shop with an ASE certified mechanic that specializes in Lexus/Toyotas. Good luck!

ISF350

^ Thanks for yours input. I will take to Lexus for better service rather than carmax w/ their 30 days warranty. It's not worth it if they got no clue on the F ! Btw, one more thing I need to drain out that new engine oil from carmax too. Sooner is better !