Hello all -

I drive a SC400. My mother drives an ES300. Our professions sometimes suggest that we swap cars. She's in real estate and my profession requires hauling a fair amount of miscellaneous boxes, which a SC400 does not get 5 stars for. My mother likes the "I'm better than any car on the road" attitude that the SC carries about itself. So she's more than happy to haul her clients around in the SC with it's chin up high. Lately, when her ES is cold, it doesn't shift into 3rd until after 5 minutes of driving or until the tach registers in the lofty RPM range. Is this just a result of normal wear and tear? Could it need a tranny fluid and filter change? It's a 98 with 80,000 miles. She bought it without me to inspect. I later found that it had been wrecked, and completely repainted, although the redo is of astounding quality. The panels fit nicely and the paint and pinstriping is up to par. Otherwise, the car doesn't seem to have been babied by any means. However, it's still a nice car, I'm just picky. It seems to be getting worse. Any suggestions?

Thanks

 

from my viewpoint, there's good news and bad news.

good news is that i doubt the accident has much to do with the car's shifting problem.
the bad news is that the symptoms sound awfully like the transmission problems i had in my ES....and despite many attempts at trying to fix it, i was never able to pinpoint the problem. check the tranny fluid though. i'm going to guess that its black unless it's been recently flush/filled. my attempts to fix the jolting shifts i had included:
- tranny drain and refill several times w/in 3 months w/ all sorts of different fluids (fluid got black again after 1,000 miles every time)
- replacement of tranny screen (filter)
- changing of driving habits

none of these "fixed" the problem. the most success i had was me starting to drive the car w/ the ECT/PWR on all the time. it remedied the problem but i know the tranny was still messed up somewhere.

edit: oh yeah, forgot to add a few more things.

unfortunately, YES my problem kept getting worse and worse.
and the RX300 guys have been noticing the late shift during cold engine problem too (same engine as ES300).

 

Zoom -

Thanks for the info.

 

personally id go to a professional and get it checked because i started having the same problem a while back and it tuned out my tranny fluid was black. An o ring inside the tranny had broke and was starting to ware down the gears.

i had to get a new tranny $2300

 

My '94 ES had late shifting until the coolant warmed up slightly. After the temp gauge moved to the lowest marking it would shift normally. This happened from the day I purchased it(new). I drove other ES's and they all acted the same way so I assumed that this was purposely built in.

Alan

 

Thanks Alan-

That makes my wallet feel better

Matt