FerrersWay

Hi,
I'm looking for some advice, I recently had a mechanic replace the timing belt on my 2001 LS430, during the process he accidentally knocked a bung out and gearbox oil was spilled, he says less than 0.5L and that it was ok to drive.

Its been a few weeks and a couple of hundred miles since and it has now suddenly started slipping out of gear, not engaging drive or reverse the first time, holding on to gears for too long and generally being pretty un-drivable.

He is coming on Monday to have a look, but he says that there is no way the lost gearbox oil could have caused these issues and that he suspects its an ECU. He says that if the gearbox oil was low it would not be able to engage any gears at all.

Is this true? On one hand its been fine for a few weeks, but I'm worried damage was slowly being done over that time.

Thanks

1WILLY1

iTrader: (9)

Check your tranny fluid level, and top it up.

9 times out of 10 when these cars have a tranny issues its the fluid.

SQuester

So he removed the tranny pan drain plug, lost fluid and decided to not refill the fluid? There is zero reason he should've been anywhere near the tranny, let alone why a wrench would find its way on to the drain plug.

And he suspects an ECU failure(without OBD-II codes no less)?

Jesus.


Low fluid=low line pressures, slipping trans, prolonged/lagging gear changes, and excessive fluid temps. All symptoms end up in prematurely worn clutch packs and a shortened transmission life.


Time for a new "mechanic".

Do not drive it until the fluid capacity is up to spec.

Gene01

SQuester is right - get a new mechanic. Don't even let him look at it to correct his mistake.

FerrersWay

Thanks for the helpful replies everyone, this is what I'm most worried about, would the 300 miles or so I've driven it since have caused permanent damage? I stopped driving it as soon as I noticed the problems, it probably did about 20 miles from the problems starting to me getting home.

If damage has been done I want the mechanic to be paying for it, not me!

airchomper

In all likelihood your gearbox probably fine. The A650e is basically an evolution of a truck transmission, and it's relatively overbuilt to the rest of the car.

I'm guessing your car had around 100k miles (if you're getting a timing belt) and it's probably got the factory filled oil. When I did the drain and refill on my '01 at 75,000 miles, only about half the transmission fluid was bad. I'd recommend draining and refilling the transmission fluid (or paying someone to do it) since your transmission was probably more intensive on the fluid for the past 300 miles and it's simply a prudent thing to do at your milage. Simply topping off the transmission to the correct level would work but it'd be an inappropriate fix at this point.

I've spent a fair amount of time under my 01 LS430 and I don't know how it's possible to remove transmission fluid without touching the drain bolt. I don't know your relationship with your mechanic, but I'd recommend trying to find a new one. Get someone who can make sure that the car is in good working order and ready to go the next 100,000 miles.

Jabberwock

Not sure how a guy that has the skill set to do a TB and water pump job a complex Lexus V8 can 1) accidentally drain the AT and 2) not have the smarts to know he needed to replace the lost AT fluid. Weird. Go have AT fluid replaced at a place you trust.

FerrersWay

An update for anyone who comes across this. Turns out that this was not the original mechanics fault at all, I had a second mechanic come out and replace the radiator and now the car is fixed!

Full story is that the AT fluid loss was from the pipe from the AT to the radiator not being reconnected by mistake briefly, the actual fault was the new water pump causing the original radiator to fail and start mixing AT fluid and engine coolant. Once the radiator was replaced and the AT fluid and engine coolant replaced the car went back to shifting normally.

RA40

iTrader: (6)

Thanks for the update.

Pamperme

Why not just take it to the dealer next time to start with. Likely to have less problems like this.

FerrersWay

I don't see how, the problem would have happened if a dealer had done the water pump and timing belt as well, but would have cost me a lot more money.

So nice to have the car back to normal, really are fantastic cars!

campisi

Sounds like more double-talk bull**** to me. The 'new water pump' didn't cause that radiator to fail. The rad MIGHT have just randomly picked that time to fail but it's not in the realm of believability that the water pump caused it. Likely, the mech just plain damaged the radiator and didn't want to fess up to you and pay for it himself.
Glad you have your car back to normal, though.