Guys,
Just got back from driving to boston from NJ. I took my 95 ES300 up there with no problems. Coming back I noticed that the car was hesitating in low gear when accelerating. The RPM's would increase but the car was hesitating forward but eventually when up to speed the car had no problems. Than today when I was about to take it into NYC, the car is not moving in any gears. I put it in reverse, Drive, 2nd gear, low gear but when I step on the gas the RPM's just shoot up. It seems like the transmission is not coming out of Neutral. Not sure why this is happening. Has anyone experienced this problem before and if so how did you resolve it. I will have to get the car towed to the Lexus dealer if I cannot manage to fix it myself. I just might end up trading it in for a RX300 as 2 much money is needed to fix this car up.

Still need to get struts for the car. Someone mentioned toyico stuts how much do they run are they stock like ride and does the ride height drop at all. I plan on using my factory springs that are already on the car.


I am just hoping I do not need a new transmission. I hope not as the car has 112k miles a bit early for a lexus.

 

sounds like tranny to me but i'm no mechanic. my 95 ES has been running fine so far but it has less miles, just about 94,500 and i just got a tranny flush/fill. i am afraid of the tranny blowing out on me because that is very expensive to fix on an "older" model car, considering how much the car would be worth and the other stuff that you will eventually have to fix. have you been getting transmission fluid flushes or fills every once in a while?
i keep hearing about tokico struts as well and i wanna know how they ride on stock height too. good luck for you and your car

 

I think it sounds like your trans as well. Back when I had my accord (5 speed) I was taking a short trip when the car popped out of gear. Then it refused to let me shift. I pulled over cut it off and on again. It worked well enough for me to get it to the shop. The guy automatically said it was the clutch. So I took it home and replaced the clutch. Turned out that wasn't the problem. The car started acting up again. So I took a look at the trans and there was a quarter sized hole in it. This could be the what's causing your car to act up. But that's just my guess.

 

Hmm, interesting thoughts. I opened the hood today to check the transmission fluid and there seem to be none there. I might have leaked it all out. I think the transmission fluid lexus recommends is dextron or something like that. I pulled the dipstick out and there was no fluid on the stick. When I looked at the stick there really is no demarking level that shows low or full points. I will get it towed to the lexus dealer to have it serviced and probably overpay on everthing. I want a expert opinion on what they say. Wish me luck....I will post back once I hear back from them.

 

you may get a better price if you take it to a toyota dealer since it is out of warranty . Good Luck

 

i had this exact problem with my 90 es250 and we had to get it towed and a brandnew rebuilt transmission...it cost us a pretty penny!!!...what it is probabley are the gears didnt have any fluid between them and they had too much friction and caused the gears to strip the teeth off of one another...you will see this in the drop pan....little silver shavings....thats the sure sign of many bad things!!! good luck

 

Slightly off topic...
My local toyota dealer in dayton refuses to touch any Lexus car. It sucks -- when i had my exhaust y-pipe replaced i bet i could have saved a bunch of $ if i didnt have to go to the lex dealer.

 

Drew, hope it's nothing major with your car.

Sean, how's the timing advance working out for you and where do you have it at? I've been considering this, maybe get back a the power I lost with the 18's.

 

I had it towed yesterday into the lexus dealership. It was completely covered as I have AAA. I hitched a ride with the guy to the dealership and let me tell you ....its a very embarrassing feeling coming into a lexus dealership with your car being towed. There were some customers there that kinda just looked down at me. At least that's what I felt
I heard one customer say "you see not all lexus cars are reliable".

Anyway, I had a loaner car available to drive back in...it wasn't a lexus but a brand new red jeep liberty. I originally had an appointment for a 45 k mile service w/loaner car for my GS4, but the ironic timing of my other car conking out on me forced me to swap the appointment and hence my quick loaner car availability.

I sure hope that the transmission does not have to be replaced. If that is the case, I will stongly consider donating it to the national kidney foundation and take a tax write off on it. I have done this recently with my old camry that had 175k miles on it. It was a 93 and the car value was valued at $6,500. You can deduct 30% of the car value toward your taxes. I will find out the results this morning as the dealership has not called yet. I will also start to crunch some numbers as a backup plan.