Matt1

I have a 99 ES300 with 150k miles. It's summer and very hot. The car will not shift from 2nd to 3rd until its warm. Normally around 2 minutes. I could understand this in the winter but not in 90 degree weather. Is this normal? Once it goes into 3rd gear, she runs great. Any help would be great. Thanks

PFB

No worries. All is well.

Just make sure your Trans fluid is at the correct level.

nsghtbrwry

You sure it's 2nd to 3rd? Not 3rd to O/D? Because that would be normal

crwys

If you are driving your car immediately after starting then yes that's normal. I'm not sure what the required temp it is from 2nd to 3rd, but from 3rd to 4th / 5th / od it's 140 Fahrenheit . Maybe I'll check today if I remember

Matt1

Thanks to everyone. I said when shifting from "2nd to 3rd". I'm no mechanic as you can tell. I guess I should say 2nd to overdrive. Anyway, thanks again. The only thing I can add is that I recently had a check engine light. I took it to autozone and they told me the codes were P0125, P1133 and P1135. I then drove it to the Lexus dealer and asked a mechanic what part needed to be replaced. He said based on the codes he would replace the Air/Fuel sensor. I watched a YouTube video and ordered a Denso replacement. I changed it out, disconnected the battery and flipped on the light switch for 10 minutes. Put it all back together and no check engine light for 3 weeks so far, knock on wood. I don't remember the car taking that long to go into overdrive before the part replacement. I'm not sure if the two are even related. But if everyone agrees it's no big deal, I will let it go. I will just baby her for the 1st mile or two and keep an eye on the transmission fluid. Thanks again.

LeX2K

A CEL will delay or even prevent O/D from working. But since you took care of the CEL then the only other thing that will affect the transmission shifting into O/D is the coolant temperature. Does the engine warm up normally?

BTW if you plan on keeping your car for awhile you MUST service the transmission on a regular basis. I recommend you replace the fluid every 16,000 miles, less if you drive short trips.

Matt1

It seems to warm up normally. I watch the gauge and ithe temp slowly rises as I drive it and settles just a little bit below the halfway mark. I had no idea of the transmission fluid had to be changed so frequently. I will check the records to see when it was last changed.

LeX2K

Check your door sticker to verify what transmission you have, if the U140E you have the failure prone successor to the A541E which is more robust and reliable. Changing the fluid is cheap insurance.

Matt1

I just looked all over the door stickers and under the hood. I can't find anything about the transmission. Any other ideas on where to look? Also, when you say change the fluid, is that a drain and fill only? Thanks

crwys

Does your engine cover say VVT-I? If so you have the U140E, which is the t-iv fluid.
There are many different opinions on the fluid change, however for me I just do drain and fill every 15k miles, 3.75 quarts. You won't get all the fluid out but it's enough in my opinion. If you want to do extra maintenance to be more safe, every 30k drop the pan, replace the filter, clean the magnets and fill with 4 quarts

Matt1

Should I use the Toyota brand of ATF or do you recommend a better one?

nsghtbrwry

T-IV is a slightly modified Dexron III, and any commonly-available fluid that says it meets the T-IV spec should work just fine. I like Valvoline MaxLife Dex/Merc, use it in several U140E's that I service regularly and it's been working well with 30k drain-and-refills.

My suggestion is also to install an auxiliary transmission cooler and inline magnetic filter - that seems to keep these transmissions going beyond the average 150-175k lifetime they have. Mainly because - no, it has nothing to do with towing - these things tend to overheat and burn up the clutches for O/D and 2nd gear (ask me how many I've rebuilt now). If you do choose to do this, I did a sectional write-up on Toyota Nation on a '99 ES300, it's not hard...magnetic inline filter should be changed with fluid every 30k miles. On all these cars, the fluid that comes out at 30k is red like you would not believe, when it was coming out black before.

Matt1

Thanks, yes I would love to see your wrtie-up. Keep in mind, this is a 99 with 150k on it now. My uncle took it to the dealer for EVERYTHING and kept the records. Is it worth doing the procedure at this point with that many miles? Thanks again.

nsghtbrwry

Well, while there are U140E's that have made it farther (quite a bit farther, in fact - I did the preventative stuff on a friend's car in the thread I mentioned. Original U140E made it 243k), there are a lot more that haven't. Case in point, my own '01 ES: the original owner had a Lexus tech maintain it meticulously, and kept impeccable service records from the dealer and the tech. It was used every day, 20 highway miles back and forth to work, and a few long trips here and there. I got it for $1500 because the fluid pump grenaded out of nowhere.

Trans cooler "write-up" (it's not that thorough since I was pressed for time that day) is here: http://www.toyotanation.com/forum/10...l#post12279962

LeX2K

It's alarming how quickly the U140E darkens the fluid, Magnefine filter is a very good investment.