Bought my 2016 ES 350 used with about 29k miles. I noticed sometimes if I let it sit for a day or 2 or sometimes if I park somewhere with a bit of slope, I have to use a bit of light force to put the car in reverse. The other day when I took my car for its first oil change to the Lexus dealership, I asked the service adviser if they can take a look at it and according to her, this is Normal. I thought that was kind of strange as this is my 3rd Lexus and previously never had any issue like this so thought I would ask here if its the same with the other gen 6 ES owners.

 

This can happen on any car with an automatic transmission. When you put it in park, a pawl locks the output shaft so that the wheels won't turn. Basically think of it as a rod jammed into the teeth of a gear. When you park on a hill, gravity tries to pull the car down hill, and that puts pressure on the pawl as the output shaft tries to turn, which then makes it harder to pull the pawl out of the shaft's teeth.

As an experiment, try engaging your parking brake before you put it in park the next time you're on a hill. Then make sure you're stepping on the brake pedal before you release the parking brake and put it in reverse. I bet it'll shift to reverse without any extra effort because the parking brake will prevent the car from trying to roll down hill and pinning the pawl.

 

Wouldn’t setting the parking brake first, while parking on an incline, also place less stress on that pawl you referred to. I’m reminded of the Edsel that had gear shift buttons in the center of the steering wheel. The car had a little motor on the transmission that actually shifted the transmission, but the car was so heavy that it could burn out the motor if shifting from park to drive on an incline. We were instructed to set the parking brake, curbing the tire if on an incline, and only use neutral as those little shift motors became hard to acquire. No I’m not that old, but my father was a collector and was amused by Edsels.

 

Edsel... memories. We got a ride in a convertible during a 2-week tour of Cuba in 2015. It still had the original motor and transmission (which were definitely showing their age!)

 

Don’t mean to stretch this thread too far off topic. But that looks like a 1958 Edsel Citation. My dad had one that was identical, except it was the black with gold trim. His was restored to near factory showroom condition. My father owned about 6 Edsels when he passed away, but the 58 like shown below was his baby. It was even used in my wedding to take us to our reception. Thanks for the memory!

 

Very true. I usually use the parking brake if I park on a hill, although if it's an older car in a rust state that can cause problems because the cable linkage can rust and then bind, and now you've got a stuck brake. I do it mostly to avoid that unpleasant clunk as the pawl gets pulled out of the teeth - they're pretty strong and it's unlikely that you'd shear it off just from parking on a hill.

There's an Edsel station wagon that shows up to the vintage races in Elkhart Lake. It's always parked in the race paddock, usually near the racing-modified BMW Isetta, which is its own brand of weird. I keep trying to find the owner so I can ask if he's really using it to tow his race car or not, but he's never around.

 

To add further detail to this conversation, it may be worth noting that both my 2016 and 2019 Lexus vehicles have an automatic electronic parking brake. It can certainly be set to manual, but we have left it on automatic. It simply engages automatically when the vehicle is placed in park.

 

When parking on an incline, I do engage the parking brake but I first place the car in Park and then engage the parking brake and then shut off the engine. But like I mentioned, it happens when I leave the car parked for a couple of days too on flat surface. Also, I have been driving other cars not to mentioned I owned an ES 330 and a GS 350 but did not notice any kind of hesitation when placing the car in Reverse.

 

Do you place the parking break on before releasing the brake pedal so that the car actually rests on the brake?

 

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Personally, I like to shift in neutral, put on the parking brake, release the brake pedal, then shift into park. This ensures that the car is completely resting on the brakes and not the pawl at all.

It may seem like a lengthy process, but it really doesn't take all that much longer than just putting it into park once you get used to it.