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I will also guess that you did not stop for fast food ever during the time you got that great gas mileage.
I traded it in on a IS250AWD, and I'm a happy camper. Great car and the drive train works flawlessly and is much more responsive than the ES.
Thanks for all the advice and wish you all the best.
Lexus claimed to have a "fix" for this disaster about a year after I bought it. The "reprogramed" the tranny. Or so they said. Didn't do a darn thing though.
I'm picking up my 2007 ES350 in a few days and I'm really hoping that this sorry chapter in Lexus' history is going to be a very bad memory and nothing else.
Anyone know?
2006 ES330 in April. I am experiencing the same transmission problems...tried to do a quick lane change
in slowing traffic and almost got hit because the car
did not respond..experiencing hesitation and lagging
...taking it to the dealer this friday...hopefully there is a software fix....I had a 1997 ES300 which ran like a dream...expect the same from the 2006 ES330!!!! I will post the results of my visit to the dealer..
At this point it seems that there MUST be a regulatory or serious safety related issue that is forcing Toyota/Lexus to continue to build passenger cars with this "feature".
why then aren't we seeing Honda/Acura complaints of this nature and frequency?
do you think Toyota/Lexus is so MPG and tranny lifing conscious they are doing this on purpose?
wwest - come on - if this is designed in - EVERYONE, EVERY OWNER would have the same story to tell.
they do not.
"This engine delay/hesitation issue, problem, seemingly, has been embedded in almost all Toyota/Lexus FWD V6 DBW models since the 2002 model year. Now I see it's showing up in the new RAV4 with the I4 engine.
At this point it seems that there MUST be a regulatory or serious safety related issue that is forcing Toyota/Lexus to continue to build passenger cars with this "feature". "
Almost all of these engine/transaxle delay/hesitation complaints, if not all of them, involve FWD or front biased AWD vehicles.
When you are coming to a stop, coasting down to a stop, if the roadbed happens to be quite slippery there is a real danger that almost any level of engine compression braking will/can result in complete loss of directional control.
What is, will be, the very first thing you would do, instinctively, if you felt the vehicle was not following the direction set by your stearing inputs?
Lift the accelerator pedal..QUICKLY...!!
If you are very near coming to a full and complete stop and the transaxle has already downshifted into 1st gear the level of engine compression braking could well be high enough to cause the front wheels/tires to completely break traction with the slippery roadbed.
I have been involved in moderately slippery roadbed conditions with a RWD wherein the ABS was so active the vehicle would literally not come to a complete stop. I'm quite sure that had it been a FWD with just a slight level of engine compression braking the ABS would have been ineffective, maybe totally so.
It is in these conditions that the AAA is currently recommending that drivers practice and learn to quickly shift a clutchless FWD vehicle's transaxle into neutral in order to increase the probability of maintaining directional control.
It is hard for me to believe that Toyota would go to these measures to increase the safety factor of their FWD and front biased AWD vehicles and then silently endure the adverse publicity without speaking up with an explanation.
So let's suppose that the insurance industry held a meeting with the automotive industry executives and told them that if they didn't in some way act to reduce or alleviate the number of accidents, injuries and deaths due to FWD engine braking they would go public and start charging a premium for policies involving operation of FWD and/or front biased AWD vehicles.
We all know that BA, Brake Assist, involves monitoring the rate at which the brake pedal is applied and ASSISTING the level of braking if the application rate indicates a PANIC stop.
So what if they are now also monitoring the RATE at which you lift the throttle and then quickly upshifting the transaxle accordingly. A simulation of the AAA recommendation.
And no individual company dare go public absent an agreement amongst all FWD manufacturers.
Look at Honda/Acura, the SH-AWD system specifically, who among us would have ever thought of that marque to the first to break ranks and begin the move away from FWD??
Does the transmission problem yu are having with your Lexus sound like the hesitation problem as described in the following article?
Toyota Transmission Hesitation Problem
So I go back to the dealership (praying I got there without car failing totally) - and talked to the service manager, told him my problem and made VERY clear I was pissed and that I thought Lexus was meant to be reliable and they BETTER sort things for me.
Well, I got them to take that car of my hands, and I got a really good deal on a 2005 ES330 - and only by literally shouting at the sales and service people and telling them I'll report them to every publication I can think of and that Lexus owners expect better service than this. At one point they actually suggested "I leave, I must not like Lexus"....no kidding, at that point I did not. But they did eventually give me a deal, so I'll see how it goes with the ES330.
So far, no hesitation issue, no harsh down shifts, no noticable slipping, it drives beatifully (with the normal very slight delays I've noticed on all drive-by-wire vehicles, not just Lexus). Still I've only had it just over a week now - so we will see!
I will certainly post back if I start getting issues with the new vehicle, and will be checking this board for further updates.
Makes me wonder (I have read many posts on here, but not all, way too many to get through) if it just affects some vehicles, or if it's driving style --- though I have to say, I'm a fairly harsh drive, I do push my vehicles, and this one seems up to the job, at least what I would expect the performance of an ES330. I also drove a 2007 ES350, it didn't seem to suffer the issues either - but didn't want to go new car route, in case I had issues, cause I've lost too much value just getting it off the lot, only to have it break on me!
So Lexus - lets see if you can get a disgruntled customer back to a loyal one, and hope the RX issue was not the norm.
Sorry for the long post everyone! Just thought I'd post my experiences so far.
After careful tests I have determined that on my car there is hesitation only if I gently press the gas pedal. This is fine because it saves gas.
When I stab the pedal, the car takes off briskly.
The hesitation problem for the newest transmission and software combination may also be related to how quickly and how far you press the pedal. The computer can easily determine how fast you are moving the pedal, which makes this different from what we are used to with a non-computerized transmission.
On the other hand if you are somewhat hesitent, release the pedal s..l...o...w.....l.......y, the ECU has every reason to believe that you wish to cruise along at the current speed.
I suspect, sincerely, that the delay/hesitation problem "begins" with an upshift or the beginning of an upshift sequence, at which point the driver re-applies pressure, sinificant pressure, to the accelerator pedal. Now it will be clear to the ECU that the transaxle needs to be in a lower gear than the upshift just commanded.
The problem is that the ECU must now wait for the previously commanded upshift to complete before it can "command" a new shift sequence, down to the more appropriate gear ratio for YOUR newly commanded acceleration requirement.
~1 second to complete the upshift and ~1 second to complete the downshift, 1-2 seconds during which time the DBW system keeps the throttle CLOSED to prevent inordinate wear to the transaxle clutches.
When you foresee that an acceleration may be the next activity then release the gas pedal quickly, fully, and definitively. It may even help if you were to use your left foot to apply the brake lightly during this sequence. Braking, along with a quick lift of the pedal should, without any doubt, indicate to the engine/transaxle ECU firmware that your wish is to COAST DOWN to a lower speed.
I'm not by any means saying that this is something we must adapt our driving styles to, but when it comes to driving the vehicles with this "feature" safely, better to be alive and complaining than......
www.autosafety.org
www.nhtsa.dot.gov
I bought the car in August 2005. It had a MSRP of $35,259, plus transportation. The car now has only about 3000 miles. It's in virtually NEW condition. I've researched values ranging from $26,500 (trade-in) to $29,500 (dealer sale). What do you think that Lexus will offer me for the vehicle? When I receive the offer, I'll post it.
It is now my firm belief that if one can avoid the upshift sequence that seemingly almost always occurs during any "coastdown" situation, then the 1-2 second downshift delay can also be avoided.
To prevent the transaxle from "upshifting" during coastdown:
Release the gas pedal quickly, fully and definitively. The quicker you can apply pressure to the brake pedal as/when you release the accelerator pedal the better. I would even suggest that those of you comfortable doing so practice using left foot braking so as to get the brakes "on" as quickly as possible AFTER the gas pedal is fully release.
Note that I do not believe it to be necessary to actually apply any braking force, just enough pressure to trip the microswitch that turns on the brake lights and thereby "tells" the ECU that the brakes have been applied.
I have no doubt that the use of the ASL, Aggressive Shifting Logic, is done out of the need (necessaty??) to improve FE. On the other hand why upshift, quickly, during coastdowns below ~10 MPH unless it is to prevent loss of control due to engine compression braking?
Even if ASL was adopted only to improve FE why have, seemingly, no other FWD manufacturers adopted the technique?
Or the others taking a wait and see attitude?
When I first noticed that effect in my then new 2001 AWD RX300 shortly after purchasing it I referred to it as a feeling of being bumped slightly from behind.
I suspect the purpose is to moderate the hazardous effects of engine compression braking on the front wheels should the roadbed be fairly slippery.
Mostly, the ES has been great, no noticable hesitation - but I notice the same bump or slip issues myself at times (not every time I drive), and my girlfriends 2006 RAV4 does the same now it has a couple thousand miles on it.
I love the Lexus/Toyota brands, but if I get major issues with my ES, that will be me done. Seems to me this "issue"/feature has been going on for years, I can live with it mostly, and I can see how it might be to moderate compression braking, but I've never experienced this with other vehicles, and now it bothers me how much wear/stress this must put on the transmissions. Maybe I'm paranoid now because of my RX experiences, never had a transmission fail in a vehicle ever before - do I have anything to worry about in that department with the ES 330?