Greetings all,

I recently bought a 2003 ES 300 with 72k miles and it has been great except for the common transmission problem that these years of the ES seem to have.

In the 20-40mph range I often notice a delay and then a jerk when the car is shifting gears, especially when downshifting. I see that lexus is aware of this transmission problem and have issued patchs for the onboard computer to address the issue. But from the looks of other lexus ES owners the patch hasn't fixed the issue or has even made it worse.

Today I unhooked the negative terminal of the battery to reset the computers memory in hopes that it may help with the problem. After reconnecting the battery i took it for a test drive in my neighborhood. It seemed to handle worse and I would notice the car starting to drag/slow down unnaturally after letting off the accelerator. After about 2 mins of driving I came to a complete stop and the car shut off. It would start up only to turn off completely after 2 seconds over and over.

I let the car sit for an hour and was able start it and get it back to my house, but it drove extremely poorly, like it would turn off if i came to a complete stop. I checked the transmission fluid prior to this drive and the levels seemed fine.

I still like this car and would hope to hang onto it if I can just get these problems fixed. Any advice on what could be causing these problems or how to fix it would be greatly appreciated.

Update: It seems my car has been stalling from a combination of a dirty throttle body and the computer having to relearn from the reset. I'll be cleaning the throttle body and that should take care of this issue.

 

The car shouldn't be stalling right after a computer reset. Usually it defaults to idle higher than normal as it relearns.

Drive the car aggressively throughout the learning process, so it doesn't learn your slow driving habits encouraging the lag.

Once you clean the throttle body, make sure you reset it again so it relearns with a clean TB. Check all the intake hoses to make sure none of them are cracked and leaking, as that could be contributing to your stalling issue as well.

The accelerator lag and drag when coasting is normal, I have that on my ES330 too. Probably the #1 reason I might give up on my ES sooner than later

 

some nissans (read: the march), seem to require a wide open throttle event to set the idle. I know that toyota ecu's after 1991 are learning ecu's, but idle issues aren't usually present during that learning, well ... once it learns how to idle that is :P, you must have reset, and then drove it, didn't even let it idle in the driveway for a while, or run it up and down the rev range a bit (which I would have).

oh well, ... replace the dog bone mount and look over the other engine mounts before you drop to much on this, also, there is a engine mount shock absorber too, .. probably pretty cheap .. if you want it to shift nice ... hint hint...

 

thanks for the replys guys! Ill defiantly check my engine mounts out this weekened.

 

Don't forget the upper "dogbone" mount - aka "torque strut." It runs from the rf upper strut mount to a brace on the engine in front of the rear cylinder bank. It is hard to visualize since the stock one has rubber disks that block a view of the inner bushing until you remove it.

Most of us who have found them broken found that replacing them made a nice difference on that otherwise harsh downshift. Cheap ones are available on ebay vs. dealers or brick storefronts and work fine (e.g., <$20 vs. $100). A broken mount here can allow more drivetrain movement than if any of the lower ones are broken, I believe.

 

I would also do several drain and fills with Type 4 fluid only. These transxles are quite picky on dirty and or wrong fluid. This worked wonders in my 02 ES300.

 

That is a good point - I have mentioned before that alone made a noticeable diff. in shifting in ours. I would use MaxLife or Mag1 Synthetic though, both are a better than T-IV or WS from what I've observed and heard. You can do a flush easily via the radiator cooler vs. just partial drian/fill.

There is a good DIY here somewhere (one on a camry at toyotanation, too), can't locate it this second. Good time to do PS flush and fill, too.

 

Have you used MaxLife in yours?

 

I have stuck with the Type 4 as I had a rather bad experience years back when I decided to use an equivalent. It is really a very good ATF and not all that expensive either.

The change takes a few minutes, as the sump is right under the front bumper on the drivers side. You can actually do it without putting the car in the air.

3.5 qts and you do need a new washer for the drain plug.

 

Yes, it runs VERY smoothly on it at 233k now. This car (02) just runs and looks great still.

I have also used Mag1 in the past and on another vehicle. Also runs great and other than not having the seal-swell addpac like the MaxLife, I can't say one is better than the other.

My neighbor has a late model 4runner that was slipping after 5x,xxx miles on the factory fluid. We put MaxLife in it and it stopped the slipping and smoothed out nicely after a short while. Very mild use on the vehicle so not inspiring on the durability of the WS fluid.

 

Good to know. I'll give it a shot next time I do a D&F.

I've strayed away from MaxLife because its basically a "one size fits all" application if you look at the specs. Many people on BITOG have used it in applications that call for T-IV, but no one in a 4ES has used it. Except recently I found one person who used it, but then his son switched it back to T-IV. I have used it in my Sienna and it works perfectly, can't even feel the shifts. But it has the older A540e transmission.

I tried Castrol Transmax IMV in the 4ES and it hated it. My RX however loves that stuff, it's like gold ; much better than T-IV in that application (been running the Castrol for close to 85k miles in it now).