Hi, my 1995 LS400 sputters intermitterntly: It shifts fine from 1st up to 3rd and somtimes even into 4th but sometimes it will only stay in 3rd - i´ve had the gearbox flushed but that didn´t help - it has done 350.000 Km.
Is there any good advice - here in Denmark there is minimal interest in helping - workshops can only make cars with computer connectors.

Soeren Krüth

 

Before I give you an idea, I need to ask you. Does your car sometimes want to move forward when you set the AT lever to N position?
The reason why I ask you is based on the shift solenoid chart below. When the shift solenoid S3 works intermittently, the 4th gear is not selected well nor the neutral works as if the 1st gear is selected.


S3 is related to 4th, N and P.

 

No it dods not

 

Then, it's not caused by the solenoid S3. The gear selection is done by the matrix of shift solenoids. In case only the gear 4 is not selected well, it's probably be caused by the pressure line from S3 to the gear 4 selection mechanism. One idea is to clean the line but it's not easy for a DIYer to do it.

 

Can you describe what you mean by, "sputters intermittently"? Under what conditions does the engine do this?

You're also getting intermittent up shift to 4th - perhaps the two are related?

Is the check engine light (CEL) on?

 

Thanks - I´ll try to pass that to my mechanic