Its WAY WAY less expensive than going back to stock as well. Give us a call!

 

All PMs Sent!! Bump to the Top!

 

After voicing concerns with my 07 manual on four separate visits, my local dealer finally had a Lexus field rep drive my car. The rep was able to duplicate the rattles, difficulty entering second gear and occasional grind. Lexus has recorded a sound byte of my transmission to determine their next step.

Has anyone had a trans/flywheel/pressure plate/clutch replaced recently? Is there any news of an updated design in the last few years?

 

Here's a great thread on that very subject:

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/is-...the-is250.html

 

I just bought an 09 IS250 MT with 16K miles and this is my first post. I really like the styling, features and overall feel of the car. However, having owned serveral VW, Audi, and Porsche (only one) manual transmission cars, the flywheel chatter, notchiness, and transmission noise of the IS is clearly excessive for this market segment. In the last 1000 miles, I have taught myself to drive around these "annoyances", but am still reaching out to Lexus about this quality issue.

My searches on this subject have not found (m)any total breakdown complaints. Anyone with more than 50K or 75K on a manual IS gearbox/flywheel/clutch?

Thanks is advance.

 

There are several people here with the IS250 MT with over 50K. I'm at 100K myself. If you describe what you hear, there may be some who can help.

I can tell you from experience that the OEM flywheel and clutch don't like being pushed. My flywheel and clutch disc had hot spots from where the friction heat was hardening the material. The flywheel is also at a heavy 60lbs, which I would think is not typical for a MT, but more so for a luxury AT. The resulting weight causes poor rev drop-off, which in turn causes the synchros to work harder. I found from experience that the best driving with the minimal amount of noise is to rev-match as closely as possible when both downshifting AND upshifting. That means slower upshifts because you need to wait for the revs to drop about 1K for 2nd-4th, and about 0.5K for 5th and 6th to get the engine and the transmission to match.

I currently swapped out my flywheel and clutch for a Fidanza aluminum lightweight flywheel (19lbs) and a Spec Stage 2 clutch. I'm waiting for them to break in before I can accurately report on how they feel, but you can look in the performance section for my first impressions. Some people say it made everything better.

 

Thanks for your reply. I agree that slower up/down shifts and rev matching (especially on downshifts), do help. Since the car only has 16K, I do not want to upgrade and feel that the CPO should take care of these issues. If Lexus insists that the noises are normal, I will start with synthetic gearoil, which should quiet down the gearbox. Short of replacement though, there is nothing I can do about the flywheel. It's a shame they did nothing to address these issues in the past few years...

 

It is a shame, but to be honest, it's a lot of money for them to fix these issues when only 1% of the US market is MT. Seems like even in the rest of the world, it's also mostly AT, so we're sadly out of luck.

I use Redline for my transmission fluid and it does make things better. I found that getting the short shifter kit and the F-Sport shift **** (as crazy as it sounds) actually made shifting less notchy. Those are probably the least intrusive. If you want to maintain the warranty, you could get an F-Sport clutch which is covered under warranty and see if that helps.

 

You would think if Lexus knows of these issues, they would either address them or stop offering a MT. I also doubt too much R&D would be involved to take an existing Getrag off the shelf and to install it into the IS.

I wonder how the F-sport clutch differs if you are using the same flywheel, and also doubt it would make the chatter or hot-spot issue diappear. Hopefully the synthetic gearoil reduces the "scratch" into second and third on upshift, and quiets the syncro whine on downshift.

Thanks again for the reply.

 

It would add a ton to the cost though.

Go price the Mk IV supra transmission sometime.

They barely sell any manuals as it is, they'd sell even less if it was 4-5k more money.

 

I'm interested....please let us know!

 

try the f-sport short shifter...it helped somewhat for me....

 

F-Sport Clutch has a little better pressure plate...doesnt help that much....

 

So Lexus offers an F-sport clutch and flywheel? (Why, if neither the IS-F or IS-350 can be had with MT?) Do you have any information on how the F-sport clutch and flywheel differ from stock?

 

can you confirm if this helped the situation? i have an 07 250 6MT and it chatters to all h!@#. has 63k on it and im second owner. car chatters and shakes bad on the take off. will fidanza lightweight flywheel and your clutch set up fix this problem?