Possible Transmission Issue ?
 

My 2007 LS 460 with 150k miles is making a strange noise. I have only come into possession of the vehicle a month ago, and the noise was present from the first time I drove it. Previous owner is of no help, so here I am.

The noise only pops up between 40-50 miles an hour, and only when the car is doing this speed between 1000 - 1300 RPM. I cant count the gears, but I feel like maybe this is 4th or 5th gear when this happens. I only notice it in city driving. I can recreate the issue by finding the sweet spot and if I maintain that general speed, and more importantly the RPM then the sound will be constant. The second I go above 1300 RPM the sound disappears. Otherwise the car shifts gears fine, drives fine, has no check engine lights on, or anything of that nature.

The best way I can describe the sound is, it sounds like a subwoofer. Like a really loud, bass-y humming noise as if you had your radio turned on but all you can hear is the bass. It is honestly kind of hard to tell if the sound is coming from the front or the rear of the car, but since it really seems to be based on the RPM / gear /Speed I feel like it is transmission related.

I took it a Lexus dealer near me, and honestly, I don't think they put forth a very good effort to identify it. I specifically told them what the issue was and asked them to test drive it. They called back and bad front tires were causing the issue. After I pressed them to look deeper because I knew that was not the issue, they called back a couple of hours later and I was told that their senior foreman test drove it, and heard a sound coming from the torque converter, and that I need a new torque converter and transmission !

I took it to a "transmission shop" afterwards. They weren't of much help. Said the transmission is running way too smooth for me to need a replacement, but they could not ID the issue. Suggested some transmission flushes and a re-flash of my transmission.

Wondering if anyone here has heard of this issue before. Any leads or suggestions would be great. I am new to the forums, but I could probably recreate the issue on video and upload it to youtube or something if it is helpful.

Thanks in advance.

There was a similar issue posted not so long ago. That person ended up replacing the transmission. I would start with transfer case and transmission flushes.

Thanks. I found a couple of other threads after doing a lot more digging thanks to you mentioning this. Unfortunately, none of those posters ever came back to say what actually (if anything) fixed their issue. I followed up on a couple so hopefully I hear back. Thanks again for the response.

Although Lexus says that transmission fluid change isn’t a maintenance item... it is a maintenance item. Just change the fluid and see what happens.


ive never heard of an LS460 transmission having negative effects from having its fluid changed.

Hey Man. It's happened to me and a few others here. I did a drain and fill and it never happened again. Do a search for a drain and fill. Easy to do it yourself in less than an hour. Do it.

Transmission fluid drain and fill worked for me. I basically used this guide, eventhough she does not have the same vehicle, the procedure was the same.
The Toyota brand WS AT fluid, the pump, and even the Toyota Software & ODB cable she uses in this video were all available on Amazon. Spent less than $300 for all of it. I did 12 quarts of drain and fills, following the instructions in the video where I drained it into a pitcher, and then filled another pitcher to the same level with new fluid and pumped it back in. I initially posted on here that it did not work, because at first the issue was still there. It took me driving it about 50 miles before the shuttering went away completely. But it did completely go away, so I want to stress this 100% worked for me and now my transmission is running smoothly. I have probably put about 300 miles on the car since I did the service and after the first 50 I have not heard that noise at all anymore or had any issues thus far. If you guys dont hear from me again that means all went well, but if I have more to share I will def come back and post. Thanks !

I did not flush my transfer case fluid, nor checked my differential. Just made the mistake of test driving it up and down my street one time and then coming back to post bad news. Thanks a lot for your suggestion, but thankfully it seems to be fixed.

Have you flushed transfer case fluid too? Did you check your rear differential, flushed fluid?

How would you go about flushing the transfer case fluid ? Very curious.

If I remember correctly, transfer case has easy to access drain and refill plugs. The fluid is the expensive part, but I used Mobil 75w-90 (within Lexus requirements) instead of crazy expensive Lexus recommended.

Start here....
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/ls-...iy-w-pics.html
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/ls-...uid-flush.html
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/ls-...iff-fluid.html

Good reading tips.
Good luck.

Wow I have the exact same sounds at the exact same speed. Just had 8qts of fluid replaced at once in transmission. So far noise is gone. Only driven 50 miles and 1 day. I will come back and let you guys no if it repeats.

how did you manage to get out 8 quarts at one time? Or are you doing back to back drain and fills

that’s awesome. Do you have a part number to the exact Mobil product you used? I’m getting some driveline chatter when doing very sharp (locked wheel) low speed turns.

I used Mobil 1 75w90 LS from a Local Autozone.

Mine just started doing this earlier in the week. Just had transmission fluid flushed at Toyota. Seems a lot better so far. Would recommend doing that.