My LS400 has recently (since the weather has gotten warmer) begun to have a problem in the mornings after the car has not been driven in a couple days. When you shift into reverse, it takes from 5-10 seconds before the car will move - the engine will rev but the car very slowly moves. Once it does take on off though, you can put it back into park and then reverse again and everything is normal and will continue to be normal for the rest of the day (and even the next day if I drive it every day). But if I let it sit for more than 2 days it exhibits this symptom. It doesn't seem to have this problem going into drive after sitting. I checked the fluid and it looked normal but was about 1/2 qt low. I filled it to the normal range but 2 days later it still had the delayed symptom. Today I took it to the dealer and simply had them change the fluid and clean the filter (or at least they said they would clean the filter screen), but I thought I would just drop the thread and see if anyone else has had this problem and what some possible causes might have been. It is a 94 LS400 with 130K miles on it. It has no detectable problems in forward gears and shifts smoothly at all speeds. It took them about an hour to change the fluid, but since I have read that only a drain plug being opened is required I am wondering if they really did open it to check the filter screen. I once had an oldsmobile exhibit these exact same symptoms (only delayed in reverse) and it was just a partially clogged filter, so hopefully if it was a clogged filter they really did drop the pan and check it. I'll see what happens over the next few days I suppose. Thanks!
Thomas

 

like a leaking o-ring/seal (130k miles !!) in the reverse clutch. If you can live with it this way I wouldn't bother to have anything more done until it developes more serious problems. Repair will likely mean a complete teardown and overhaul. At this mileage only repairing the reverse clutch makes no sense.


Near Tyronza/Marked Tree, Northeast AR?

 

I am in Russellville, Arkansas, 70 miles west of LR which is a ways from Marked Tree. Thanks for the info. Today after posting I drove the car and it was fine. Of course it has only been one day since I drove it last and typically after only one day it has been normal so I guess we will see next week maybe. If this is its only transmission problem I can certainly live with it until something more serious develops. I myself was surprised with only 130K on it that it even developed this problem as I have had really no major problems of any kind with it. It did start having an occasional check engine light come on for a few minutes while driving last month that hasn't repeated itself in a couple weeks. It only came on after refueling and would go away after a couple minutes, but during that time if you stopped at a light with the sunroof open or got out of the car while it was idling you could smell a strong sulphury odor in the exhaust. Once the light went off though the smell also went away. I thought if that starts repeating itself again I might take it to Parker in the next month or so since I am a teacher and am off for the summer and can afford to be without it if need be for a few days.