That's what we like to hear! Enjoy the LS for many years to come!

If anyone is interested in an 04-06 LS430 we recently opened a dealership catered to them: https://taninjdm.com/for-sale/

 

Are you guys still offering this service? I have the rough downshift from 2nd to 1st but also have a little rough upshifts from 3-4 and 4-5. will the ECU repair help these higher gear shifts as well?

 

I did the SIA a couple weeks ago, 1 day turnaround, out of the vehicle for one week exactly due to shipping, and my hard downshifts have been gone for good. There was no way to get around the 2-1 slam/bang. It would have destroyed the trans imho.

In looking back, I think people are so analytical about this repair, because it's the brains of the vehicle. I thought the same thing, what if it comes back and my vehicle is immobilized. What then? I expected no issues, but still, I was no different in anticipation the first time I twisted the key, and the first time I drove. It was as expected. For under $200, well worth it to have the car back and drivable again.

I've owned my car since 2016, so for whatever reason, the instant 2-3 upshift where it never wanted to stay in 2, seems to also be gone.

 

Curious what the appeal is with SIA, or how we can improve our services to everyone.

We are a supporting forum vendor, our pricing is similar, we do more on-board repair work than them, we do free software updating, they have terrible google reviews surrounding their ECU repair work and warranty claims, and our core business is all Lexus so we know the in's and out's of every Lexus electronic item.

Thanks for any input!

 

Yes. Thanks

 

Thanks, @TaninAuto !! I would love to support a forum vendor when I am ready for that. However I don't think it's entirely professional to get on here and slam a competitor. They may have have some bad Google reviews which are subject to being very fickle, but SIA has rave reviews on here, having served many happy customers. Also, @shizzyshanee above asked you a direct question and you replied with "if the link works, it's available". That came off a little discarding, why not say yes or no?

Anyway, tips for customer service, but thank you for supporting the forum and I will absolutely look you up when it's time.

 

We thought if customers know the link is active vs not active then the repair is still live. If we take down a link or remove a repair that's the easiest way to know it's not available anymore.

 

In all honesty, what happened to me is my car failed a state inspection as the inspector claimed my Michelins had dry rot (A/S 4 with only 23k). So that evening I was taking it to Costco to see if that's covered. On the way, the 2-1 downshift problem came out of nowhere.

You can imagine how sick I felt thinking my biggest worries were the tires. I was googling the entire time in the Costco waiting for my car, and I found some old threads here mentioning SIA. Already concerned about how crucial the ECU was/is, that was already a factor. Then I found a vlog (one of few if any) showing a customer getting his ECU back and installing it, and, as he panned to the ECU., it said, SIA. That's really the reason. I did see mixed bag reviews. I can't lie, I called them and they were very polite and helpful on the phone, and ultimately my ECU was turned around in 1 day, and out of the car 6, and back in on day 7.

I think this topic makes people nervous and so if they see lots of people going to one place, they feel it's worth a shot.... my .02 and I'm sure you do excellent work as well....

 

Ok thanks for the input

 

was ready to pull the trigger but that response along with SIA's politeness on the phone had me choose them. Ive got another ECU I need to send out as well. Could possibly try out a forum vendor. waiting on to see how SIA did.

 

Another thing I wanted to say....I did everything in a hurry just after the holidays, and sometimes it's hard to get all the instructions correctly. So I put my paperwork in my shipment showing my order#, and I emailed SIA.

I didn't realize SIA left me two voicemails as we don't always check the land line. The first was can you please call us to let us know what the issue is on your Lexus ECU? Well, they must have in the meantime linked my emails to this order, and left another voicemail, our tech has repaired your TCU and it tests fine, we are shipping it back to you.

That was my bad I didn';t respond, but I think they found my emails for this order. I hadn't put any instructions in the box, just my order paperwork.

If your experience is like mine, you're going to be relieved that your car is back to normal, and think, man why did I worry so much hahahahahahaha

No lie when it first happened I thought there is a 50% chance this car is done, didn't know about the ECU issue....

edit Another thing that worried me after shipping out, was I supposed to remove those brackets that I call ears? They must come off to open the ECU, what if lost, I'll have no way of securing the ECU upon reinstall...I think I over worried, (but car does need it to run) as it did come back with the brackets. Believe me I was super worried when I sent out my BMW ABS pump in 2016, and that was in Idaho basically east to west coast, just the fact that if lost, no way to avoid dealer coding a new one...

 

If it were me I would remove all brackets. Mistakes can happen. Think of it this way your favorite restaurant you like to get take outs from rare but sometimes order is not exactly the way ordered.

 

What I did do was watch a video where a guy just got his back and was holding it, and it had brackets, he didn't reinstall them, so I figured it would be ok, and it was. No idea if those things could even be ordered in 2026, but didn't think of it prior to shipping out...

 

A lot of times repair centers will say to remove all connectors and brackets as they don't want to become responsible for them. More or less precautionary to avoid problems.