Yes. I searched first.

Facts
1992 SC400 72k miles
last tranny flush and fill around 65k miles

I just put my car up for sale. and the day after I've got a problem.

Scenario
I drove from my house to work (around 40 miles). Everything was fine. No smell, no noise just fine driving. When I was like 10 blocks from my office (driving 20mph) the car all of the sudden made a very muffled but pronounced POP noise and the check engine light flashed for 1 or second and went away. The idle went down to 500rpm and came back to normal. (This almost felt as if I was driving a stick car and the gear popped from "in-gear position" into "neutral" while accelerating)

problem facts
distinct burning smell from the car
exhuast making sound as if I had 4" straight-pipe
1st gear to 2nd gear shifts @ 1100rpm
it took nearly 10 seconds to go from 0-40mph
tried to check tranny fluid but the dipstick is stuck(didn't want to yank it too hard but gave it a good pull)
engine revving is very difficult.
noticeable vibration

My suspects are
tranny fluid low(couldn't verify)
torque converter

What are you opinions on whats going on here?
any suggestion would be much appreciated.

 

Most of my experience is with other makes of cars, but some of it is applicable to the Lexus. I worked with a friend of mine to replace the flexplate on a Cadillac. The only symptom was that it had noise on acceleration. Once we had the bad flexplate out, we were able to shatter it with a single blow from a small hammer. The plate had broken but the parts were kept in place by the torque of the engine. I'm not sure if that's your problem, especially considering the smell you're describing, but I noticed that no one had replied to your post, and I'm sure you're worried about your car.

In case we're using different terminology, the thing I'm calling the flexplate is the interface component between the starter and the drivetrain.

 

torque convertor.

loss of power, smell from contact surfaces, obvious binding from lower rpm's.

 

belive it or not. The problem is not in the tranny. My intank fuel pump is destroyed. I'll be upgrading to walbro 255lph pump.