I am sure some of you guys already encountered this but this morning I started up the GS and immediately went to E-shift down to 3rd. By mistake I pressed it one more time, and it should have went down to 2nd. However, the car beeped at me. I scratched my head and went, huh? Well, after the car warmed up and moved a little bit, I eventually was able to shift down to 2nd.

I guess this is a FEATURE where the GS automatically protects the tranny from hard performance (ie, 2nd gear shifts) until it is reasonably warmed up. I thought that was an interesting feature. Anyone have anymore comments or knowledge regarding this? Thanks.

Brent

 

I've had the same experience. Who knows?

 

i havent tested it when the car is cold, but i know it beeps at you if you try to downshift to a gear that would redzone. IMO, the comp on board is an awesome feature. (it even beeps at you if you loose control!)

 

Brent - That's exactly what it's for! The ECU won't let ya drop down into 2nd via E-shift until the car's properly warmed up - usually somewhere's between the first & second marks on the temperature gauge on my GS4.

 

You sorry California guys never have any cold weather out there to need this feature. LOL.

 

And the RX won't upshift into 4th until trans fluid temp hits 186 F, which can take a mile or so when weather is really cold, in order to light off the cat faster.

Interesting cause my GS doesn't delay upshift in the same weather.

 

Brent, as Gene said, that's the way it's designed. Couple of times in cold weather, I started my GS and it would not let me turn on my heat until it warmed up a bit. I have the nav and the display buttons were blanked out. I wasn't too sure what was happening.

Oh, as a bit of info, as you know when we switch from auto to E-shift, it always go into 5th. That's not the way it works with the new Q45. It can switch directly into 4th, etc. I don't know exactly how the Q trans functions, but I liked this feature.

 

I normally warm the car up in the mornings anyway. Man, you got to love e-shift. Im not sure if I would buy the next gen GS if it did not come with it which is why a GS430 does not reside on my garage.

 

it takes my car frigging like 6 min to warm up in the winter

it sounds so bad when its cold i feel so sad for her!!!

in summer the car starts already warm is this right?

 

if you watch closely.. the trans has a delayed 2nd-3rd gear shift until the temp gauge is right even with the first mark. Normally, the 2-3 shift comes at about 14mph under light throttle.

I really don't agree that this is good for engine wear. You don't want to delay engine shift points (and increase rpm) if its stone cold. It will cause it to warm up faster, but with increase wear as the cost.

 

I enjoy that feature....Wish it stayed in second for longer too with the VSC Power switch on.

 

Perhaps it is engineered this way to promote the warming of the fluids and engine to operating temps, more efficiently, than by having the trans shift at normal points, and the rpms staying lower for longer periods.

When its cold, that's why it is better to start your car, wait for a minute of so, then drive gingerly - this will warm the car up faster, more efficiently than letting it idle for 10-15 minutes.

I bet the engineers at Lexus know a thing a two....

 

For my car, it takes 4 minutes from a cold (30degree) start to get to the point that the trans shifts normally. I can't imagine that in the 4 minutes the car is sitting there at 1100 rpm, the wear is higher than it would be going down the road at 1800+ rpm in a lower gear (like second). In case you were not aware ( I imagine lexus is), transmission wear is 400percent higher in any gear other than the 1-1 or overdrive gear.
Lexus probably had larger concerns (like emission before the engine is fully warm) than transmission wear. They would probably like to sell a replacement $2000 transmission after 60K miles.

 

Ah, one of my more favorite debate partners; glad to hear from you tx.

Before you read, I wish there was a resource for more impirical data for these types of situations. Experience goes a long way, and it makes up a majority of the knowledge here, but each of us are prone to do things the way we see fit, and that can cloud what would best make sense for these vehicles, right?

Thanks you for enlightening me about the 400%; I was unaware of that; is that common knowledge in transmission world, or is there a source behind that? I think Lexus has proven their valor when it comes to designing transmissions that can, and in most cases should serve, in stock form, with nary an issue for the useful life of the vehicle. And I'd venture a guess that the transmission, as a aggregate percentage of its lifetime, is rarely in its 1:1 ratio, especially for the more aggressive drivers.

But, I will poke fun at some of your statements :

1. Your car is not representative of all Lexus GSs.
2. Just becasue you can't imagine it, doesn't make it implicitly illogical.
3. If Lexus 'had larger concerns (like emission before the engine is fully warm) than transmission wear, then why does the OM state:

'after the engine has run for about 10 seconds, you are ready to drive'
'if the temp is below freezing, allow the car to warm up for a few minutes before driving' - you state you do this, good
'avoid lenthy warm up idling'

Emissions? For a V8? Maybe, but consider that the GSV8 is, I'm guessing <insert impirical data here> almost as efficient as the 6.

4. If every Lexus, scratch that, if even a moderate % of Lexus owners, GS and others, had to replace their transmissions at 60K, don't you think Lexus would kind of gain a poor reputation? I'd love to see some data of transmission failures for Lexus vehicles.

5. If you follow the OM, you should have no worries - i.e. not changing the ATF until due time; if it fails, you would be covered since you were doing as instructed. I rather err on the side of caution, but I have mods, and am glad to spend a fw extra $ for piece of mind.

In a nutshell, as most of our exchanges before, it's really just a matter of opinion, and applying common sense in different methods;

You got your way - I got mine.

SO, you think what Brent described, and others, is because of emmision concerns by Lexus?

 

Dexter: I'm not Brent but I'll throw in my $0.02. I totally believe that it's due to emissions. I think that they want to get everything up to temp ASAP. There may be some other beneficial side effects but they are beyond my grasp as my logic seems to infer more wear given this type of scenario.

Peter