Hello,

My 2016 RX350 with 104,247 miles does a strange RPM jump about three times when shifting into third gear (at least I think it’s third gear) when accelerating from a stop for the first two accelerations from a stop after sitting for several hours. Once the engine/transmission warms, there is no more lurching/jumpiness, everything is smooth. The vehicle speed also increases slightly when it does this. I just had the transmission fluid drained and filled at a local Lexus dealer and had the latest transmission firmware installed and it still does it (it did it before the service as well). I purchased this vehicle around a month ago from a Lexus dealer. Any ideas what is causing this? I didn't notice it during the test drive. It also has the vacuum pump knock when the engine is cold as well.

 

bring it back to the Lexus dealer and see if they will repair it. You may have recourse or some warranty. Something is wrong. My guess is that your transmission is beginning to slip. That is a very costly repair.

 

Unfortunately I purchased this car around a month ago so I don't think they would be willing to do anything for me without me paying for it. It's also a 2016 with 104,247 miles on it so I doubt that it has any warranty left on it.

 

You need to know whether you bought the car "as is" or if the dealer included a type of warranty. If you are not sure, you can look in the "buyers guide" that is required to be with the car. The information should all be spelled out there.

 

Yep it was "as is" when I purchased it. I signed the buyer's guide at purchase. I didn't notice anything like this during the test drive. It only does this when the engine/transmission are cold. Once it warms up, it's very smooth. I would think if it was slipping it would be noticeable when warm.

 

It is still worth going back to the Dealer and asking to speak with the Sales Manager. They have lee way to give you good faith repair or deeply discount it. If as expected, you have transmission issues, a rebuild transmission can be $5k upwards. Call a local transmission shop, given them your make/model/year and ask them for an estimate to rebuild the transmission to start with. Now is not the time to be shy with the Lexus dealer.

 

At 104,000 miles, I think it was too late to do a tranny flush. Might have caused a lot of junk to dislodge. Time to rebuild.

 

You're correct that a trans flush at that mileage would not be good, but he did a drain and refill, not a flush.

 

I would be hesitant to do even a single drain and fill after 100,000 also....and I would never do a flush of all of the fluid at any mileage.

Hope that it is not a transmission failure.

I would ask to see the service records from dealership to see if they ever did a drain and fill prior to purchase.

 

Make 100% sure the overfill drain procedure (at the correct temperature) was done correctly as too much or little can cause this to happen.

 

This sounds like the clutch seals have hardened and leak when cold. As the tranny fluid warms up the seals become more flexible and start sealing correctly. Another possibility is a faulty solenoid, but either way no easy fix.

 

watch at 3:30
At 100k the general risk is some what great, but since the vehicle is only 7 years old the damage that can be done is also some what minimal. The fluid life is 6 years old even though lexus says its life time. The general consensus is 60-100k or 6 years. Note at 100k you are pushing the limits but personally I think a drain and fill may be worth the risk if you plan on keeping the car long term.

Since you removed all the friction material in the fluid during the drain and fill you are experiencing some slippage, which is normal and fine. In X amount of miles the new fluid will be contaminated with friction material once again which will fix this problem. The miles may be 1k, 2k, 5k, 10k, all depending on how long it takes the new fluid to be contaminated with friction material from wear or just friction material in the filter, the bottom of the transmission pan, etc. If your transmission was hot and up to temp, the fill and drain will remove a lot more friction material than if it was done on a cool transmission. Just like an oil change will remove more contamination drained at operating temps. Just baby the car and dont do any harsh acceleration with the transmission slipping, it can cause bearings to go bad in the transmission.

and at 11:50
@11:50 he mentions that cold starts with high mileage fluid changes will effect the car in a horrible way, your symptoms are no where near this and these symptoms will happen on a 150-200k fill and flush. Changing the fluid at 100k miles is not really recommended, but people do it all the time, its just kind of at the point where its not recommended.

The amount of slippage you have will not hurt anything if your daily driving and you just need to wait for more friction material in the fluid which will happen. So dont worry too much and dont go above 4-5k rpm to be safe and your fine IMO.

 

I also have a 2016 and this problem was driving me absolutely insane for years until I found this:
https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/tsbs/20...31772-9999.pdf

I did take the car to the dealer to get this taken care of and it ran me a little over $300. The good news is that it did help a little bit, but didn't completely resolve the issue. There's still the weird hesitation and then lurching. I think after so many years of driving with this problem, there is some permanent damage to the transmission.

the way I deal with it now is that I use the car in 'manual mode' in city driving, which isn't really manual mode, it's just limiting what gear the car will upshift to. it's highly annoying but I still love the car.

 

Thanks for your reply! It’s been months since I posted this and I’ve owned the car for a little longer now so I’m more familiar with it now and its driving characteristics. It does still do this slip/jerk symptom if I get on it too hard while it’s warming up, although I think it may be a little better than it was originally. I try to be gentle with acceleration while the engine and transmission are warming up. I’ve had my RX in for service since then at the Lexus dealer for them to change the oil and I requested they check the trans fluid level as well just to verify it’s at the proper level since it was drained and filled a few months ago. After the oil change I asked them if they checked it and they said they did and it was full. I’m not very concerned at this point. I’ll just be gentle with it while it’s cold. I’ll probably keep this vehicle for a couple years or so, then I may upgrade to something newer.

On a side note - anyone that’s had the issue with the noisy vacuum pump on the 2GR-FKS engine, did replacing it solve the issue or does it require tearing apart the engine to get rid of the noise? If the noise was greatly reduced after replacing the pump, I would be pretty satisfied, but I don’t want to pay for the pump to be replaced if the noise is still there after replacing the pump.

 

Can you share a video of how bad the noise is?