DonBee1166

I hate to sound stupid, but what is transmission flare exactly? A few months back I noticed my car revs when in neutral to about 1000rpms like I am depressing the accelerator when I'm not- like if you revved the engine. I asked about it at last service but the service guy told me it was normal.

reyrey127

thanks for your reply,

what are your thoughts on the reflash? do you think it will work or not?? i am not not mechanically knowledgeable enought to know what the issue is, but i do not understand why toyota has not FIGURED it out... or Lexus.

my only explanation from a non technical side, is that they know the transmission has some flaws, yet due to the cost of replacing the transmission to a properly operating one is not cost benefiting and incriminating themselves that they have a "flawed" transmission. since most people do not complain or know what to complainabout, they use the cheaper transmission with the flaw as long as they can, until a redesign, in which they throw in a better transmission, hence to mask the current transmission flaw. i wish i was more mechnically savy to know the problem and address it, but i am not.

anyways, thanks to everyone who posted. there are no "guinea pigs" here, just people trying to help one another. thanks.

mrshyvley

This is what a flare looks like.
This is a 3rd to 4th gear shift flare.
Instead of just shifting into 4th gear, the transaxle slips for a moment before 4th gear is engaged.
It's a video with sound of my car before I had the reflash.

http://www.ori.net/edporch/U660Eflare1.wmv

MD350

I am sorry to hear about your tranny. No, you are not stupid. You are exactly correct. This is what angers me so much, that there are idiots working in the service departments telling customers this is normal or it is learning. It is not normal, its not learning, and Lexus is treating their customers very poorly.

Now, the good news is that this FLASH was just released a few weeks ago. But, it was a long time coming.

This is exactly why I will not buy another Lexus vehicle. Hey, no car is perfect. But the way Lexus has handed the situation and lied to their customers and tried to get them to accept the vehicle the way it is. I have steam coming out of my ears, I am so angry!! Very poor P.R.

If they just came out and told the truth up front, I would have respected them 100%.

robob2

I agree with this 100%. WHy do you think they don't do this? They must not feel the majority would appreciated it.

TDS1

I have been following the transmission threads for months now. I have held off buying the ES350 for 2 reasons so far. The first was to wait for prices to come done, which they have clearly done. The second was to wait to see if this transmission problem gets fixed - though it is unclear to me what the prevalence of the problem is. Reading this thread, it is not clear if the firmware flash has accomplished the flare issues. Here is my question - if this new flash is the "latest" and "fixes" the transmission issues, shoudn't Lexus be using this version in ALL the cars they are now building, not just older build cars brought in for the problem? If ALL new ES350s had this version installed, I would be more likely to believe that this is a better/more correct firmware for the transmission. If only problem cars get this version of firmware, I would be more concerned that while it might stop the flare, it may have other (undetected) effects.

mrshyvley

I don't have a copy of the TSIB for Lexus, but I do have the corresponding Toyota TSB TC007-07.
In reading it, they list three previous TCM Calibration IDs before the current one they say to re-flash with.
I infer from looking at this, that the current TCM Calibration ID is what's being used in current production. And the re-flash is simply to bring previously produced vehicles up to the latest TCM firmware.
I could be wrong, but that's how it looks to me.

reyrey127

i am in the same boat as you and the only way to really find out is to see if a flare issue occurs in anyone with a june or very late build camry or es350. i was optimistic that the tsb was the solution, but from reading toyotnation.com for the camry v6 which has the same es350 transmission, the outcome does not look good. sorry.

rlj4246

Had mine reprogrammed today. Picked it up but it was warm so I have not driven it from a cold start. Just drove 100 miles on the freeway to get home. I will know more in the next few days. In the meantime I drove a GS350 while I was there and was very impressed. Wish I had not gotten in such a hurry when my TL was totaled. This time I am reading everything I can find. Requested buy-back as I explained very nicely that I just did not trust this car any more. I think that is the dirrection I am heading and hope that it works out but who knows what will happen. will inform when I drive the ES a few days.

MD350

Has anyone gotten the FLASH update and did not have the 3rd/4th flare issue to begin with? I want to leave well enough alone, but was wondering if anyone stepped up and did it?

onsknht

That's what I want to know too... Cause, it doesn't very well make any sense now does it?

Think of this... AMF has a 350 that's flawless, it has never been in the shop and he has program 1.1 from like well over a year ago. Then someone like you(geez I forgot who "still" owns one) goes in and gets the newest 1.7 program from this last month... Is AMF now missing out on something, because they wouldn't have made 1.7 if there was "nothing wrong" with 1.1????

Right?

Well that got me thinking and then I recalled a little exchange with vette-man last week... Suppose the new program just makes up for chitty tolerances in the components? In other words, some are so off-spec they came up with this reasoning that if you had the flare, you need the TCM/ECU flash, whereas if you have no shift flare, you got one that was built "pre-production." Taking this idea forward, maybe the "pre-production" units weren't full-scale production and as such were tooled under a more labor intensive process that required tighter QC... I say this cause I'm really reaching here to understand the latest round of U660E BS.

reyrey127

this is what i say to LEXUS:

"gimme back the 20% you took out from thr transmission and put it BACK IN PLEASE"

thanks...

damn i was hoping this transmission issue would be solved... for everyone who has contributed, thank you and keep us updated...

static

I did not have the 3/4 flare but did have 1 event with hard acceleration and a downshift where the trans didn't shift.

I reported it at the 15k service and they did the flash because of that event. I was also worried that it would introduce the 3/4 flare or some other problem.

Right after the flash, driving home from the dealer and the first commute, the shifts seemed firmer. But now it seems to be very smooth like before. I've driven about 400 miles so far, freeway miles, back roads, downtown Boston and 1 awful 90 minute stretch of rush hour stop & go. I've also tried to recreate the original event by flooring it at 40mph.

I know it hasn't been long enough, but no problems so far.

mrshyvley

I noticed the same thing.
Maybe part of the reason for these flares is trying to program the TCU of these transaxles to do imperceptibly smooth shifts.
I'd rather have reliability and firmer shifts.

robob2

[QUOTE=static;2673875]
Right after the flash, driving home from the dealer and the first commute, the shifts seemed firmer. But now it seems to be very smooth like before.
QUOTE]

I believe the re-flash involves resetting the TCU and memeory associated with you driving style. Perhaps this has something to do with the shift characteristics changing after driving for a while after a re-flash.