abbyNormal

She's fixed! It was as much of a pain as I thought it would be, which is why I waited to deal with it.

I ended up taking it to a transmission shop because I decided it was (only slightly) more probable that it was mechanical and not the ECU (I would have done the ECU swap myself). The shop took it for a eval drive and said nothing electrical was the issue so they hooked up a pressure gauge. On downshift (probably 2nd to 1st) pressure was 50 and then went up to 80 something when it should go from 50 to 30 something.

So they said they needed to drop the unit to "check it out". Long story short, I don't think they knew what the issue was. They replaced the converter and (some/all?) of the solenoids. Once that was done, they get it together and then said there was an issue with engagement (like 7 seconds to drop into Drive) and they thought they fried the ECU. Sooooo, they replaced the ECU, but only after much confusion about the smart key. They thought they needed all 3 keys (I only have 2) to reprogram the system. I told them "Please call the dealer, because I believe there is a procedure you can do that doesn't need all of the keys". Next call I get (we are now 9 days into process) is "she's all set, come get her".

I Uber'd myself over there and all was well. She shifts perfectly now. So I'll never know if it was the ECU only or not.

AN

ejthomp

And how much did these geniuses charge you for some unknown fix?

abbyNormal

$3100 (more text cause my message is too short. )

Bocatrip

Glad your issue was resolved even though it was not a cheap fix. Enjoy your car.

Coulter

$3100 to fix it? You could have gone to a Lexus dealership and probably had them install a completely new transmission for close to that amount.

Sorry to hear the shop you took it to was so incompetent.

abbyNormal

I don't think so. The dealer diagnosis would have been $200+, a trans is $2900 plus torque converter, plus whatever labor is (8 hours @$100?), so dealer would have probably been over $4k. Plus I wouldn't be able to get it in for about two weeks from the time I made the appt. Local shop took me same day I called.

I was a bad situation all around. I can fix/diagnose pretty much anything except funky trans issues with no codes.

AN

Coulter

It's close enough in the ballpark that I would have just wanted a transmission replacement at the dealership if that's what I was looking at.


I have to think there was a Lexus dealership in Nevada that could have got you in sooner than 2 weeks. And it took the transmission shop 9 days to do that work?

I don't trust transmission shops in general and I would bet most have never touched one of these transmissions. Good cautionary tale.

abbyNormal

That's the crux, though. If it was the ECU, I'm pretty sure the dealer would have charged for that too (after replacing the trans).

Not sure I would have wanted to drive the car the 30 miles to the other dealer, assuming they weren't just as backed up.

2 of the 9 days was a weekend. You seem to think waiting longer and paying more would have been a better outcome.

AN

Coulter

I think anything would have been a better outcome than what you got from a bumbling shop like that.

I would be pretty upset if after $3,100 a shop couldn't tell me what was actually wrong with the transmission they "repaired".

RRocket

This. X100.

yoitskenn

iTrader: (4)

smh also. $3000!!!! thats crazy. OP must be a baller or something because he sounds happy to be back on the road.

abbyNormal

Well I guess I'm crazy then. What do you guys think the dealer would do if you brought in your LS, not under warranty, with a serious shifting issue but no codes? Do you think they would disassemble and troubleshoot or just replace the trans? My assumption is they would just replace and if that's correct, you'd be out a whole lot more than $3100 and also wouldn't know what was wrong the old trans.

Am I wrong? Does the dealer disassemble and troubleshoot the internals of an auto trans (throwing no codes and with resistances on the solenoids showing in spec)?

AN

RRocket

The dealer may know troubleshooting Lexus specific transmissions better than a generic transmission shop. At my dealer, the head tech has been there for 20 years. He's seen/heard nearly every common Lexus problem under the sun. The only time a good tech is stumped is if it's the first time the problem has every happened. I'm guessing a hard downshift from 1-2 would have occurred at some point with another Lexus...so they'd at least have a clue to go on. Plus the dealer has Lexus specific resources, tools and tests a generic tranny shop may not have. Worst case scenario is you pay them to diagnose the issue, then decide if it's more cost effective to have it repaired elsewhere. IMO, you stand a higher chance of finding out the real problem at the dealer than at a tranny place. I mean, look at the BS with the car AFTER they put the tranny back in. And the ECU. And the Smart Key. They were borderline clueless and guessing. It's unlikely any of this would have happened at the dealer.

What the transmission place did is just throw parts at the problem until it was fixed. This is an unacceptable, unprofessional and unethical way to fix something...and can become costly as you have found out. It disappointing to hear places are still run in this manner.

BradTank

I hate to say it, but the fact you needed over $3,000 worth of transmission work only a thousand miles after you changed the fluid yourself makes me wonder if something went wrong during that process.


An LS430 transmission going out with under 100k miles is unheard of.

abbyNormal

I think that's highly unlikely. I changed the fluid 3 times at 2 quarts per time, getting the level correct at the correct temp, using Toyota WS fluid.

The issue with pressures and hard downshifts was most likely either an ECU problem or a stuck valve in the valve body. It's also possible the converter was not unlocking correctly.

AN