Hello everyone,

This is my first post on the forum so please bear with me. I wanted to take some time and detail my first two weeks with my new to me 2008 GS350. I found the car on Facebook Marketplace, but it ended up being through a really small dealership out of Rochester.

It's actually my first car that I bought and so far, I am loving it. Having a car in WNY is a game changer if not for anything else the quality-of-life improvement is crazy!

Anyway, let me tell you a bit more about the car. It isn't perfect though it will be soon enough I got the car with 150K miles on it and knew there was an accident a decade ago where a deer hit the car. The Carfax was really promising because the car showed it had been maintained at local Lexus/Toyota dealerships its whole life. So, I pulled the trigger and got the car after a test drive.

The first thing that was apparent to me immediately after getting the car was that there is a transmission issue, at around 1500 RPM near 30-40 MPH there is a rather aggressive shudder (I can see the headlights shake as I drive and feel it in the steering wheel) so I wanted to learn more about that. I registered the car under my Lexus for kicks and giggles and found out that you can view past service history and any notes from the techs that worked on the car. I noticed that about a year ago the previous owner felt the same thing and this was the note left in the service history:

SERVICE: GENERAL CONCERN 1 [ VEHICLE SHUDDERS BETWEEN 30-40 MPH ]
DESCRIPTION:~|~GENERAL CONCERN 1 [ VEHICLE SHUDDERS BETWEEN 30-40 MPH ] ~|~TEST DROVE VEHICLE AND FELT SHUDDER IN DRIVETRAIN- PERFORMED HEALTH CHECK AND THERE ARE NO CODES PRESENT- WATCHED LIVE STREAM DATA ON SCAN TOOL- WHEN TORQUE CONVERTOR LOCKS TRANSMISSION SHUDDERS AND WHEN TORQUE CONVERTOR UNLOCKS THE SHUDDER GOES AWAY- TRA ~|~RECOMMEND REPLACING TRANSMISSION ASSEMBLY AND TORQUE CONVERTOR- $3420+TAX

WELP that's great :/ if anyone else has experienced anything like that please let me know if it is the torque converter or anything else, would really prefer not to have to get a new transmission

Next, I noticed the brakes feel a little crunchy so I ordered some new rotors and pads and will be replacing those this weekend hopefully.

Aside from those 2 things the car is great, and I am excited to be a part of the Lexus fam lol. If anyone has any tips/tricks or anything helpful to share that you found out after your ownership of a 3GS please share, I will be scouring the forums in the meantime lol.

 

You have checked the fluid condition and fill level, correct? That’s step 1.

 

congrats for acquiring a car you love, and it's indeed a great car overall.
As of the transmission shudder at gear change, there has been cases that the problem was resolved by having the ECM module go through a rebuild process. My own GS (2006 GS300 AWD) also had the rough gear engagement when crawling in slow traffic and shift between 1st and 2nd, no codes either. I removed the ECM module from the car, took the circuit board out of the module, reflew all the major soldering joints. And that fixed the issue 100%. That module has all the shifting solenoid driver circuit in it , to me it definitely was the fix. Not saying the ECM is for certain the problem in your car, it might worth trying to have it "rebuilt" before spending big money on other part of the power train.

 

Congrats man, I just picked up a 2008 GS350 as well. It's a luxury machine. It makes car travel pleasant and peaceful.