I know I know…another thread about is500 transmission but I gotta ask y’all

Have any of you experienced seemingly random (but more often in cold weather/ operating temp) low speed downshift stutter?

under Normal mode, Auto, as the car comes to a stop, the car would downshift in a way that shocks the driveline and jerks the entire car. Pretty much the exact sensation as downshifting without rev matching in a manual car, just throwing the car into lower gear. it only happens to 1 downshifts though, never consecutive.

I can hear the transmission clunk and I wince every time I feel & hear it.. and I’ve owned the 500 for almost 2 years.

Took it to 2 different dealers and they all told me it’s normal for this car.. huh? Is that really the case? To put it frankly I’ve never driven a car with a transmission as clunky as this, and I own a ml63 with the 7 speed mct that everyone crapped on back in the days. honestly I didn’t know it’s possible for a torque converter box to be this unrefined, this clunk is probably on par to those early-mid 00s single clutch automated manual boxes like SMGs.

btw I’ve search the forum before and read this article https://motorfrontier.com/aisin-long...sion-analysis/ , so I knew the aa81e is clunky, but this felt straight up broken.

Anyone else experiencing this?

 

Yup, normal... in one of the mega transmission threads there are a lot of complaints. It does get better as the car warms. It also doesn't ALWAYS do it, but when it does it sure gets your attention.

I go through phases... most of the time it doesn't bother me, sometimes it does. Right now I am semi-annoyed with my car because I think my rotors have deposits and braking sometimes shakes the car, sometimes its perfectly smooth so the transmission is annoying me too.

 

Whenever I take it out I granny drive it for first 10 minutes or so to let the car reach normal operating temps, and then its usually fine after that. As mentioned above, it doesn't always do this lurch, but certainly a bit jarring when it happens. What a difference you see in different 8 speed transmissions. When I take my wife's BMW out immediately after driving the IS500, it feels like I'm driving a CVT compared to the IS500. Ultra silky smooth.

 

My tacoma did the same. So i felt right at home when i got the 500.

 

Has anybody found a way to drive around this that avoids the clunk?

 

Agreed, some are better than others. They all have their quirks though. The DCT in the C8 gets a lot of hate, but I really liked it when I finally drove one.
I haven't

 

my 350's 6spd does the same thing, it's normal

 

Turn the radio up.

 

Believe it or not, if you're in Manual mode and you let the car downshift itself, you won't get the clunk.

 

or just shift it into neutral when you are coming to a stop before it shifts from 2nd and then to 1st

 

Geez, I feel bad for all the bushings but hopefully they engineered extra margins taking in considerations of this behaviour. I guess I was not crazy and the dealerships for once weren't trying to bluff me lol

Just really surprised since I have never experienced anything like this in any of the cars I've owned & driven. I've driven a sixth gen accord in the early 00s with the 4 speed auto and a 06 IS300 (not a North America market) 6 speed auto, never had an issue with driveline shock anywhere close to this. Not even a rental 2010 chevy/ daewoo spark which was quite a memorable drive for other reasons.

Will circle back here if something actually breaks from this, but for now I'll wait and see!

 

My C7 did it too. It wasn't as common, but it would clunk and lurch forward coming to a stop when it would shift into 1st. That 8 speed was bulletproof, but had its drama and converter issues. I feel like this one is very durable, but had its drama too.

 

I ha to get rid of my 2017 Camero because of the gearbox issue.

 

thats how the 8 speed is. normal. when cold may even do it upshifting to 2nd.

 

Have we seen these observations/complaints from ISF/GSF/RCF owners where the same 8-speed is connected to the same V8 for more than a decade now? Or is the tuning of the transmission different in those cars because they're F models? Is the IS500 the first non-F vehicle where this combo has been applied?