Noahhjones

My 1998 lexus ls400 is having a very strange issue, whenever it is put into gear it wont drive. When i first got the car it would periodically do this and all you had to do was wait for it to warm up, but lately it hasn't wanted to go anywhere. When it does drive it drives absolutely fine, no hard shifts or anything. My first thought was maybe the fluid needs to be changed. So upon checking the fluid i noticed it hadn't been changed i awhile. So i changed the fluid, and put in a new fluid. Yet the problem still accures. Im starting to supect the forward clutch is gone? Also people are telling me it could be electical and that i can try checking the relay and see if its sending the wrong info to the tcm telling it, that its in the a different gear. This i think could be true because the rpm is low when in gear but spikes up high when in neutral. Please give me some feedback, just got the car so i cant really afford a trans swap right now.

Banshee365

Well, it could really be many things. Do you presently have a check engine light? When the car will not go in to a forward gear, will it go in to reverse? I would drain the fluid, drop the pan, remove and clean the strainer then reassemble before spending much money on a diagnosis or other repair. I recently completed a trans overhaul on an LS400 with similar symptoms. Eventually the car wouldn't engage and forward gears, but reverse worked fine. The forward clutch was absolutely smoked. This comes from either low line pressure or a leaking piston o-ring.

Noahhjones

Yea the reverse works fine but no forward gears. Did it fix the issue when you flushed the fluid and cleaned the strainer? Or did you have to swap the trans.

Noahhjones

And yes the check engine light does periodically come on.

dicer

What came out when it was drained? Any dark pieces of stuff or metalish looking stuff?

dicer

This site sure is messed up. Some times you can't go back to edit your post, whats up???????????

And I'm not sure if its a manual valve like older transmissions on the upper gen 2's or a solenoid that does it, if so it could be a solenoid problem.

PureDrifter

iTrader: (10)

Check the cods and report back. We have nothing to go on as things stand.