davyjordi

hello all you fine ladies and gents of clublexus,

i have a 2008 is250 with around 45k miles. the transmission has been shifting harshly at times, particularly when traveling at low to medium speeds - in particular and almost exclusively when accelerating from a low speed or a stop, e.g. from a stop sign or in heavy traffic. i'm not sure what gears of the transmission are involved. second? third? i don't know. at times it sort of feels like the recoil that one feels when shifting a manual transmission. during other instances, there's a more pronounced jerk. in heavy traffic it happens mostly on acceleration and sometimes on deceleration, although when coming from a stop, naturally it occurs only when accelerating, and i haven't noticed it when to a stop.

i've reported it to the dealer twice. the first time the dealer shrugged it off after a basic test showed that the dealer could not replicate the issue. the second time when my car came in with with the 60k service to be performed, the dealer documented it - and probably only so because i was spending quite a bit of money on the 60k service - as they were again unable to reproduce the issue, but also found that my engine was to be partially rebuilt under the lexus carbon build-up csp and said it was a possibility that the transmission problems weren't transmission related at all, but related to the engine problems.

anyhow, i'm absolutely certain that the transmission shifting problems are not related in any way to the engine problems. the engine is stable at the moment, by the way, or stable enough - lexus/toyota has the parts on major back order. anyhow, since the dealer was not able to replicate the issue and it's bugging me as it happens enough for it to be bothersome but not enough for the dealer to replicate, i'm not sure what to do.

advice??? i'm covered under lexus's platinum service warranty agreement until well into late 2015 if that makes any difference so it's not as though they're giving me the run-around as though my warranty is about to expire tomorrow - it's not. i still have a whole lot of time on that warranty agreement.

thanks for all of the advice in advance!

blackgpgt

iTrader: (4)

I have the same issues once in a while.. I have also recieved the service bulletin but when I asked the dealer about it they told me unless my check engine light was on they wouldn't be able to do anything about it

davyjordi

yeah? i never received a service bulletin on the issue. would be interesting to see what that entails.

thanks for your input, by the way, greatly appreciated.

and how serious of an issue do you think this is? apparently they couldn't find any codes that were related to transmission stored - only codes that verified and validated the carbon build-up partial-engine rebuild csp.

i was really annoyed that they couldn't replicate the issue last time around as they had my car for six business days (eight days total) for the 60k service and carbon build-up engine rebuild diagnosis. i was surprised that there was not a single code, according to the dealer, that had been stored and that was related to the transmission.

anyway, again, how serious is this? and of course, again, thanks for your response!

350PsDMeuP

iTrader: (1)

Never had those problems with my trans untill i got up there in the mileage 150k, in which they recommended my shifter seal be replaced, but later discovered there was some corrosion inside the trans.....stay on top of it because it costs upward of 3k+ to fix a trans....

blackgpgt

iTrader: (4)

There is a whole post up on here that explains everything with the letter that was sent out...From what I've seen it's very common and you basically get a whole engine rebuild from Lexus. Now seeing as your main problem would be the transmission I would have them flush the fluid and see if that helps...That was my next step anyway

blackgpgt

iTrader: (4)

Actually found the post... https://www.clublexus.com/forums/is-...ld-up-csp.html

davyjordi

yeah, that has already been approved and is going to be performed on my car, although the parts are back ordered. i'm not worried so much about that because it's already been authorised by lexus corporate.

thank you, though!

i've had them flush the differential fluid, although as the transmission fluid isn't really "flushable" i'm not quite sure what to do.

davyjordi

i'll definitely keep reporting it, although i don't think they will do much as they haven't in the past and i've been dealing with this issue since the car had some 37k-ish miles on it. annoying, to say the least!

thank you for your input - much appreciated!

04WDPTL

I have the exact same issue. On hard acceleration I don't feel it much, but on slow acceleration such as in parking lots and rolling up to a stop sign/red light it's very annoying. I am planning on bringing my car next week for them to look at it. I have a 2007 IS350 w/ 56k miles, with only 4k left on the powertrain warranty.

Please keep us updated with your progress, I will do the same.

davyjordi

i'll be sure to keep all who are interested updated - but i haven't gotten far as of yet.

JohnLX300

iTrader: (2)

I have a 2008 is250 and my transmission has some harsh downshifting when coming to a stop. The car constantly holds the higher rpm's before shifting down. Dealer said they couldn't replicate the issue....figures!

pondmotorz

I also notice this in my 2011 350. I currently have 11k miles on it. Since day 1 when I bought the car brand new, my car would downshift hard when coming to a complete stop. I have the display mode on my gauge cluster showing the current gear. Lets say I'm decelerating to a stop sign or red light, the car would down shift from 6 to 5 to 4, with no problem then it would hold the gear in 4th until I'm almost at a complete stop, then quickly continue to downshift to 2 (skipping 3) then to 1 and stop. What I notice is from 4 to 2, I would hear a loud clap sound (kind of like metal hitting metal) and could feel a slight jerk. I mentioned it to the dealer last time I went in for an oil change, and they told me it could be a brake pad issue making noise.....

nitrotang

iTrader: (2)

Any updates on this? I've been experiencing similar a similar issue on my 250 AWD.