I noticed this morning that twice my 2010 IS350 surged forward while making right turns. Both times I was soft on the the throttle and both times the car lunged forward with TC kicking in. Also both times I was gliding into the turn, and it seemed the car was jumping from 2nd gear to first gear, kind of like it was a little confused. Car was fully warmed up. This is the first time this has ever happened in the almost two years of owning it. I am wondering if it could be related to the transmission fluid service I did on Thursday? I doubled checked and no leaks. Any ideas?

 

At what speed are we "gliding in"? Do you know did they disconnect the battery?

I'm a little confused about TC kicking in. That seems pretty odd for no throttle unless you rolled through some diesel or something?

Or how about this - intermittent loss of power steering could trigger a light perhaps? IDK...

 

Speeds were probably 5 to 10 mph at most before hitting the throttle. As far as I know the battery was never disconnected. I was actually giving it throttle while it was surging, but not enough for TC to come on. Also the first time it happened I thought, "OK, little weird", but the second time it happened I can't blame it on coincidence.

Also confirmed with my mechanic that the fluid is full. He made sure the fluid was at the proper temp before opening the overflow and adding additional fluid (2.8 quarts)

 

One other thing I did notice, this morning when I put it in reverse, the engine was revving but the car was barely moving. I thought maybe I put it in N by accident, so I put it back in Park, then in R again and everything was fine. Now I'm thinking it's all connected and it was actually in Reverse...

 

Drove home from work and wouldn't you know it, I couldn't duplicate the surging from this morning. That's a good thing in my book. If it happens again I may pull the battery to reset the ECU and let it relearn

 

How much if any of this involved braking, hills, lean angles or combinations of any / all of above?

I know you trust your guy but the oddities nearly tie back to trans service and/or low fluid.

How old is the battery?

 

Only braking while heading into the turn, no hills, maybe a bit of a lean angle but nothing extraordinary.

Battery is only a few months old from Costco. For fluid check he went through the routine, made sure it was at the correct temperature (104…I think?), opened the overflow and added fluid until it poured out, he said about 2.8 quarts. Haven't had a issue until this morning. As I mentioned, it didn't happen coming home. If it happens again I will have him check the fluid level

 

And the ambient over night temp before the incident? You see why I'm asking, yes? Keep track of the cold morning, lower temps.

When I did the fluid dump on mine, I got out 4.2 quarts, ran it for 10 min. on the stands and dumped 4+ more. Filled it again and felt pretty good about the process. I left it with a high trickle but not a stream at 110 deg. F.

These events seem very odd given the trans service. Hope all is well.

 

Ambient over night temps on Sunday/Monday night were probably upper 40's lower 50's. I'll definitely keep a watch and if it happens again I will have him check the fluid level, as you mentioned, the fluid change would be the most likely culprit

 

This morning drove to work and monitored all the gears. Everything is shifting smoothly and correctly as it should. Occasionally the car will hold 1st gear for a fraction of a second longer before releasing it to 2nd, but I don't think this is an issue because it will then go into the next gear smoothly, and I think that is the surge I felt yesterday morning. No clunks, no hard shifts, goes though all 6 gears. I think we can chalk this down to new fluid making gear transitions more crisp and clean and occasionally holding 1st gear slightly longer because she thinks I'm going to stomp on her. BTW ambient temp was around 52 F this morning

 

Car drove great this morning. Shifting crisp and smooth. I'm going to go ahead and close this out as a nothing burger, which in my case is exactly what I ordered!

 

The fluid temp of the transmission needs to be at least 170. Also there should have been a transmission relearn done which can only be done through tech stream

 

Unfortunately I don't have Tech Stream. Next time I'm in SoCal I'll ask one of the members who calibrated my ISF steering ECU to help me out

 

Not sure what you mean by temperature needs to be at least 170 F? Are you talking about operating temp or transmission fluid temp or you are talking about checking the fluid level?

Also there is no relearn so to speak, Techstream only can do learning value reset and when the car is driven, it will relearn by itself.

 

I Guess that means I don't need Tech Stream, and I don't need to bother you . I do still owe you at least a Starbucks!