link13

I seriously doubt that your trans is cooked. I don't know the 1993 ES well, but I am assuming it has an electronically controlled trans. It sounds to me like your ECT is not getting the correct information about engine RPMs, etc. This leads me to believe that you may have a bad sensor in that area. The ECTs are complex. I would not rebuild it. I would take it to the Lexus dealer, describe the symptoms and have them diagnose it. It isn't cheap, but the cost is a lot less than replacing this, that and the other and flushing, etc. The process of elimination gets spendy.

Sabs

Update: I took my ES to a Toyota dealership, and after a test drive the head mechanic agreed it seemed to be an internal problem. It's rare for a failure this early in the car's life, but the fluid became toasted very quickly and the slipping became progressively worse.

The Toyota dealership would've had to open the transmission to diagnose it. I figured once they did that the costs would go up quickly, and I'd be at their mercy. I have a local mechanic i trust, and they gave me a price of $1875 for a rebuilt with install compared to $2800 from the Toyota dealership. It's still a huge chunk of money to spend, but it seems to be an internal problem and I've decided it would be best to get the rebuilt and hopefully not run into problems down the road. Fortunately I set aside money before purchasing the vehicle.

I purchased my '93 ES for $6750 with 100k, total after the maintenence and repairs I'm doing will be $9000 plus, but it does seem to run very well otherwise and has has the entire air conditioning system replaced recently, new tires, and I've replaced the timing belt. I would hope after these repairs it'll make 200k+ miles without major repairs (i don't consider shocks, brake pads, etc major). It's in the shop right now, should have the rebuilt transmission in it by tomorrow night. Unfortunately, the repair shop won't be opening the old transmission to see what exactly the problem was. I'll let you all know whether this solves the problem or not.

Hermosa

Sabs I hope you replaced you water pump at the same time as the timing belt. It is the same labor. If not then you might need to pay again later for the pump. Also bring your mechanic the ATF we talked about earlier. This is so important. And, hopefully they did not redo the tranny yet since the stock torque converter costs as much as a Precision Industries one. You could be getting much better launches with the new torque converter and get better 0-60 and 1/4 mile times by 0.5-1.0 seconds with this and still pay the exact same amount you are for the stock TC. I urge you to contact the shop immediately to hold and then contact Precision Industries to see if the can send you a TC. It is so worht it to make the change and it should not cost you a penny more.

Sabs

Guess I should have posted earlier, as I already have the car back...that's my luck lately.

The transmission was rebuilt by a different company and then sent to my local shop. I would've had to contact them before requesting they rebuild and send a different transmission. Didn't think of it to have the water pump replaced. I told the owner to order Lexus ATF so hopefully that was done.

It's a damn shame I didn't get the upgraded torque converter, as my car is slow off the line. Otherwise the transmission seems to be working out well.