the things in my cup holder/center console would always be warm regardless of how i drove.

 

For what it's wroth now, i sent my transmission oil sample in, and here's the report....

I've attached Lobuxracer's report below for easy reference.


You can see my tranny oil has much much greater amount aluminum, iron, and copper as they mentioned...actually quite a bit more than Lobuxracer's. Aluminum is almost 10x more and iron and copper are/almost 3x more.



Perhaps this can now be some sort of a reference. Have your trans fluid tested if you're worried about it's condition. Remember...Lexus says you never have to service it...I've called 6 dealerships and they all say 100k for transmission fluid service.

I'm not an expert so i don't want to say this and that, here's the info that I and Lobuxracer have gotten from Blackstone, and I hope somehow it helps.

 

Sorry to revive this thread, but I've now encountered a similar issue just yesterday. I'm from Brisbane, Australia.

I was driving along in manual mode, quite spiritedly as an ISF driver should. Suddenly, I realised the car felt a bit sluggish and I couldn't get to 4th gear. The car refused to go more than 40km/h. I got worried because it is a public road with 80km/h marked and someone could run into me if I was going that slow. I turned on the hazard lights and went for another kilometre before I found a safe place to pull over.

I then realised I couldn't get reverse gear, and the car got very jerky. I thought it might the transmission overheating due to the crazy hot weather at the moment, so I turned off the engine for 20 minutes. After turning it back on again, the check engine light came on, I couldn't go into reverse and the car refused to go faster than 40km/h. It was then that I realised I was in trouble.

I called Lexus DriveCare and they were brilliant in organising a free tow to the dealership. The dealership only opens tomorrow so I'll have to wait to find out what is going on.

My car is a 2012 ISF with only 11k kms on the clock. I bought it as an ex-demo from Brisbane Lexus with 7k kms on the clock.

It is really strange how I'm getting this problem so early in the car's life. I'll update when I get more information. I hope it is a simple issue that will be covered by warranty.

 

That does not sound good. Well luckily since your warranty is good you should have no problems. I am interested to see what is wrong though. Did you ever try putting the car in regular drive mode and not manual?

 

An update. Apparently I should go and buy the lottery because I have the first ISF in Australia that has ever suffered a gearbox malfunction. I have been told there are multiple error codes being thrown by the TCU, the TCU is requesting for a certain ratio and the transmission is unable to provide it. They are shipping a whole new transmission from Japan to put into the car. They are equally brewildered by the situation as there are many ISF owners out there that drive the car hard and track the car (which is reasonable, no one buys a ISF to not drive hard), and this is the first time they've seen such an issue.

In the meantime, I've been given a IS250 loaner car for as long as it takes to fix. They were quite apologetic about what I went through (as if it were their fault!). Gotta love Lexus. As far as I'm concerned, they have a customer for life as long as they keep building "F" models.

 

They have a customer for life until they change the car and you no longer like it. lol....

Sorry to hear about your problems. When my transmission failed, it didn't throw any codes that I knew of, and the check engine light never came on. I lost reverse completely, but I had all my gears. However, it was a scary event everytime the car shifted.

Luckily, I got my car to 8th gear and cruised it home 600 miles.

My car was out of warranty, so I had to cover most of the costs, however, I do have to say that I am pleased with the outcome because in my situation, it was probably the best that they could do.

Good luck RecursiveL! and welcome to the forum!

 

Thanks mate. We should form the ITPVSG - ISF transmission problems victim support group. "Hi my name is RecursiveL and I have a faulty transmission."

 

^^^That is going to be a sad group because I think it'll just be you and me.

Plus yours is getting fixed and mine is already fixed...so there's no one left in this support group...lol

 

You 2 are the lucky one lolz.

 

That's true, being a Lexus, the faults will be few and far between. I'll just cry myself to sleep.....

Here's a sight you don't see often, a Lexus on a tow truck:



I can only imagine the dealer principal's reaction when the tow truck arrived at the dealership. "Get it off ASAP and into the workshop before anyone sees it!"

Interesting thing to note, I didn't experience any shuddering, clunking or other problems before the transmission died, it just so randomly happened out of the blue. I chalk this one up to someone at the factory having a bad day.

Just F Me, how long did it take for them to get it shipped over and installed from the time you agreed to pay half?

 

Unfortunately, all the problems (i've been following this tread the whole time) seem to be due to over heated trans oil.

Let me first start..

I don't know if any of you have had toyota transmission failure before but I have had 1 and one on the way out. I owned auto 1993 aristo Turbo that I imported as my DD in Canada in 2006.

The short of the story is I drove the car hard, beat up on the torque converter WOT though shifts and the material on the converter clogged up the transmission and filter making it not shift properly, or hard, and missing reverse aka all the symptoms you guys have.

In the end a A341 transmission is 100$ a pop from a used Japanese engine place in Toronto so I was not fearing since I already had 3 anyways form all my 2jz swaps in my mk3 supras. Here's the good news though BOTH transmissions that I had die on me simply needed a transmission flush, new filter and rebuilt torque converter and they ran like new. The great thing about the IS-F is it's not a dual clutch transmission and it's just a standard auto box although 8 speed. I'm sure a service like I had above would have resolved your issue however, I understand you may not be in a position to wrok on the car or even want to. Since moving to SF I have no tools, no garage acces, or desire to do anything that involves me pulling my transmission or engine from my lexus.

on a side note, I'm sure the cracks in your headers where cosmetic and didn't affect anything at all. Dealers just like to replace parts that they can have lexus cover to make money for them self.

 

Thanks for the info zazzn. I plan on changing my transmission fluid (or at least whatever comes out, which i think is like 4 quarts), every 10,000 miles. That way the fluid gets moved around and it somewhat gets mixed in with the dirty stuff....trying to keep the fluids as clean as possible.

 

I know I am revisiting an old thread, but some people were wondering how old Lexus ISF will do after some high mileage. My ISF with 101500 miles on it (bought it brand new), decided to do the same thing as described in this thread. Yesterday, I started the car, placed in on R, and car didn't move and when accelerated it sounded like the brake were lock or something. I thought I was dragging something so I got out and finally realized it was a problem with the R gear. I was able to put it in N, took it for a spin and transmission was shifting great going forward, all 8 gears.

I did some of the recommendation, removing sensors, etc, but not success.

Today, I took it to the Lexus service, where I have done all the services for this car, and I was informed that transmission was the problem....with a quote of 11k! I left the dealership and now the transmission is slipping some gears and not shifting smoothly.

To make this more interesting, back in 2015, my wife RX350 (2007 with 105000 miles - also bought it brand new) left her stuck, car not moving at all after she came to a stop sign. The transmission was rebuilt, but it wasn't shifting smoothly, so she got pissed and we traded it for a 2015 GX 460. Fast forward, 3 years, now it is my Lexus ISF having transmission problem at 101500 miles.

The service advisor talked to service manager and will call Lexus to see if they can help with the cost.

I am a lucky man, 2 Lexus, serviced by the dealer and came with transmission problems around the 100000 miles mark. Lexus/Toyota well known for it reliability, but now I am wondering if soon we will have transmission problems with the GX460.

I just wanted to share my experience about a high mileage Lexus ISF and transmission problem. Not many out there, but I am joining the lucky few!

 

Now I'm kinda happy I renewed my CarChex Warranty for another 2 years, 24k miles, for around 2500$

If I experience this problem, at least I know my costs are capped

 

I just turned over 150k miles this last week, and didn't touch the transmission other than to send in oil samples for testing until well after 125k miles. If your gearboxes are dying at 100k miles across multiple Lexus vehicles, something strange is happening to your cars. Are you sure the dealer isn't doing something they shouldn't? Or maybe they're not checking the level as part of their routine inspections?