CL members, I need your opinion. Basically I did not drive my GS430 for about 3 weeks and on top of that I was playing the car stereo for 3-4 hours after the non-driven/started 3 week period. Anyways the car would not crank over so I decided to charge the battery for like 20 minutes on a trickle charger so that it would just be able to crank over which it barely did after 20 minutes (cuz I had to get somewhere). Anyways as I drove outta my garage which is sloped downwards I threw it it park for about 30 seconds. When I decided to take off, I hit the throttle and it rev'd but the car was barely moving. The Rpm's were increasing but the car barely moved. I decided to take off and rolled down the hill and after it warmed up a bit it drove fine. Could it be that the battery was so weak that this happened. I just drove it today and it is fine as well. Was that battery so weak that it cased this problem until the alternator charge it up?? And why would a weak battery car not to move? Drives perfectly fine now. Thanks in advance!

BTW: The car is a 2001 GS430 with 17K miles.

 

I know what you are talking about Jefsmr2. My GS430 did the same thing last Winters. I was late for work and just crank the car up, put it in Reverse, back out the drive way, put in Drive and the car won't move. But after 10 seconds it runs fine.

I alway let the car warm up for at least 30 seconds before driving it.

 

Did you figure out why that happened VVT-i?? Did you have a weak battery and did it happen again??
Thanks!

 

In my experience, rising RPM + lack of vehicle movement = transmission issue. In a standard transmission, this 'slipping; is a good sign that the clutch needs attention or is overheated. In an automatic, I would guess that either the car was not 'totally' in gear, or due to cold termperatures and/or long period of sitting, the transmission fluid needed to warm up to do it's job properly.

I would not be worried about it unless it reoccurs regularly...imports tend to have fewer tranny problems than domestic.

Mike