I have a 95 LS400 and my check engine light came on the other day. Shop said the transmission shifting solenoid was bad. They said it could be replaced but sometimes it doesn't work even after they replace it. The other thing they said was that they recommend the transmission to be rebuilt. ( $2800.00 ) Has anyone had their solenoid replaced and did they experience any problems?

Do you notice any driving issues? Poor shifting or failure to engage a certain gear. Its a tad suspicious that only the CEL is lit but you aren't complaining of other problems. Maybe just reset (or ask them to) the light and see if it returns. Also ask them what code was found (the code number) and someone on this forum could comment if it seems a logical error.

A total failure of a LS400 transmission is very, very rare. However, shift solenoids crapping out is not all that rare. I had one die on my '99. I think the part was about $250 (shift solenoid #3 broke), and I changed it myself -- it's an easy job (you don't have to drop the valve body), although it is a little time consuming with clean up and waiting for the gasket to dry. The repair has been a total success. When I had this problem, it would shift normally at times, and sometimes a gear or two was missing. Sounds like they want to gouge you for a $3,000 repair instead of them just changing the solenoid. Did they give you the Check Engine Light code?

The code they got from the CEL is PO770. After I said I would think about it on the $3000.00 rebuild they said they could get me a used transmission (71000 miles) for $1340.00 and with labor comes to $1785.00 total. The reason they didn't want to replace the solenoid was that with a new solenoid it would weaken the other two or three ( didn't even know how many it had ) and cause them to fail. I drove it back home today and did not experence any shifting problems. Never got it past 40mph and shifted smooth and with not hesitation.

Sounds a bit suspicious regarding one solenoid weakening another. Sounds like dealer FUD to justify their more expensive course of action. These valves are independent elements. Basically they are a coil of wire and a steel bead that sits in a valve seat and is pulled away under magnetic field. You should request a quote just to replace solenoid as a comparison. Maybe get a second opinion from an Indy or another dealer in your area. Sounds like these guys are pumping up the service revenue balloon.

What he said. A used transmission is not $1,300, not even close. I very briefly considered going that route, and I found one online with 65k miles for $500 shipped to my door. These guys are just trying to take you for a ride every way they can. Could you imagine their engine diagnostics. Hmm your MAF sensor is bad, it would be silly to replace just that sensor, how about a whole new engine instead?

JWhite,

I agree with curiousB - sounds like they are trying to pad the bill if you were not experiencing any other problems. Sometimes these transmissions do have their inner seals go bad and require replacement, which probably would require an overhaul. However, in your case, changing the solenoid valve is a relatively less labor intensive task.

I called the Lexus dealership today and was told the tramsmission has a total of 7 solenoids and wanted to know which one was bad. I told them I had no idea but said I had the code that said that was the problem. I would assume the code would say which one it is or am I wrong? They said they couldn't tell by the code and the transmission would have to come out for them to know which one was bad. Couldn't they test drive it and tell when thetransmission was not shifting when it should. Blake918, you said your #3 solenoid was bad, had did you know that? I am kind of stuck if I go to the Lexus dealership because that is the only one her in Las Vegas. I will check around with some transmission shops and see what they have to say. By the way, Lexus said the solenoids range from $ 250.00 to $ 500.00 each depending on which one.

You are correct, the code tells you which solenoid might be bad. I had a PO763, and the repair manual tells me that is the #3 solenoid. The repair manual says that a 770 is the Shift Solenoid Valve SLU. The text pretaining to the 770 code says that the SLU deals with clutch lock up, so I think this might be the part number 35280-50010, but have someone verify it for you (not your local dealer. I'll list some links below to reputable dealers that we buy parts from). If I did happen to stumble upon the correct part number, that solenoid is $268 at Park Place.

This is where I got the part number from:
http://www.toyodiy.com/parts/p_U_1995_LEXU...EPGKA_3512.html


I bought my solenoid from Park Place Lexus in Texas. The Assistant Parts Manager (sent him an email through their website) was more than helpful in ordering the correct part for me. It was painless. These are the dealers that I use for parts. Park Place is probably my favorite. I've been buying from them for more than 6 years. Their prices aren't always the lowest, but their customer service via phone or email has always been first rate.

Park Place Lexus: http://www.newlexusparts.com
Sewell Lexus: http://www.sewellpartsonline.com/select.asp?cat=BODY
Thompson Lexus: http://irontoad.com/l_home.htm
Carson Lexus: http://www.trademotion.com/partlocator/ind...m?siteid=214915
(Carson is in Southern California, so they could probably get the part to you the quickest. PP and Sewell are in the Dallas area, and Thompson is in Pennsylvania.)

And here's a picture of my transmission (might be slightly different from yours since I have a 5 speed), but you can see 5 solenoids staring you in the face on the left side, and there are 2 more on the right side that are not really shown in the pic. And the new solenoid (I want to say this one was about $240 out the door.)..
Click to view attachment Click to view attachment


This is for my '99, so the testing procedures may not apply to your '95, but here it is anyway:

Blake, thanks for the helpful information. I knew there was simple explannation to this and an easier way to fix that having a new transmission put in my car. Will be checking some shops Monday for an estimate on the solenoid replacement. I will keep you up to date on my findings. Thanks again, John

To make a long story short, I found a shop that gave great customer service and will be replacing my shift solenoid "E", fresh fluid, gasket etc. $350.00 labor and OEM parts. They did a diagnostic check in the shop and also with the hand held while they drove the car to see exactly what it was or wasn’t doing....no charge.

Did a little research on a rebuilt transmission. Two of the vendors you suggested, Carson Lexus in California and one other would sell me a rebuilt tranny for $1,857.00 plus $185.00 shipping. Not bad compared to Lexus of Las Vegas, they wanted $3500.00 for the same rebuilt transmission. Both said they had to order it from Lexus so I assme they would be the same identical one. Nice mark up these guys have here with the only Lexus dealership in town.

That's great news John! $350 for parts and labor sounds more than fair. I'm glad you won't have to go to those crooks at the dealership.

i got my tranny rebuilt for 1300. also got other work done, timing was off, spark plugs. make sure you go to a reputable person, and yes that stealership will rob you. they wanted 2200 dollars here in jax to fix my teloscopic and my MAF. I replaced the maf for 150, took 5 minutes. went on one of these threads and found somebody who fixed theres with a bottle cap. took it apart b/c the motor would still work if i pushed on it, it just wasnt catching b/c the gear wasnt making contact with the other one. i laughed after i fixed the 2 problems, and couldnt believe how much money i saved. the LOC is the best.

lexfourcam,

who did you have redo your tranny? was it in Jax, FL?

tia
fsuguy

As far as I know it is. How many miles do you have? I wonder how many shavings there were....from an objective standpoint, and not from the eyes of someone trying to sell you a $2,000 rebuild!

Here are my magnets at 180,000 miles. There's a light film of shavings, but considering the mileage (and that most of those are city miles), I'm not at all worried. I used to have a 95 LS, and I pulled the pan (somewhere around 250k miles) to change the tranny filter (what a waste of time), and the magnets had the same amount of shavings. The transmission was still fine even when I sold the car at 315,000 miles.

I have 145,00 miles on it. Shop said they put a new solenoid in and the CEL still was on. They worked on it all day and called me back to say they put a new filter, gasket, and fluid and the CEL went out. Kept it overnight so they could try it in the morning when it was cold. They only charged me $150.00 for the service and said no charge for the solenoid since it wasn't the problem. When I picked it up this morning the CEL was not on. I drove it less than 1 mile and the CEL went on and the ECT power light started to flash off and on then the ECT lightwent out, but the CEL stayed on. Called the shop to tell them what happened and they said since the seloniod wasn't bad and the Valve body was OK that it is probably the torque converter. I asked them how they got the light to go out and they couldn't tell me. This sounds a little fishy to me. I truly don't think they knew what they were doing. They want to charge me $800.00 to do the torque converter but suggested rebuild the transmission for $2200.00. I am afraid to have them do the TC because Ihave a feeling that won't solve the problem. Is there a test that can pinpoint the exact problem or does what they say make sense to you? Any suggestions? Funny thing is when I first took the car in they test drove it and had the computer hooked up while driving and they said the TCC was functioning as it should and now say it is the problem.

Sounds fishy to me too. I'm doubtful that they even installed the solenoid. These solenoids are typically special order, and special order electronic parts usually can't be returned, especially on a part that would be used (since they supposedly installed it). So, there's no way they'd eat the $270 on that solenoid instead of charging you for it. Can you fix this yourself? It's easy to turn the light off either by using an OBDII scanner or simply by unplugging the battery for 20 minutes, and of course, some new fluid and filter won't fix a solenoid problem, so even though they cleared the code to get you out the door, it came right back since what they didn't fix anything. In my case, when I replaced the solenoid, the light turned off by itself a couple seconds after I started the car for the first time after the repair.

The PDF I posted tells you how to check the resistance on the solenoid to see if it's good. If you decide to tackle this yourself, I'd pay the $10 or $15 to Toyota and download the repair manual for your specific year since what I posted is for the '99 model, which has a different transmission, so the parameters might be different on a '95.

Is your car still shifting smoothly and normally?

I didn't think they would eat the cost of the solenoid either. I am going to download the manual and pay the cost for my year. Thanks for the advice. I have an employee who's husband owns a auto repair shop and I think I will take it to him and have the selenoid tested and go from there. I remember seeing the web page to the Toyota download section but can't find it now. I will keep looking, but if you have the link I would appreciate it if you would post it here for me. I will keep you updated, and thanks again.

If you're still looking, here's the link: https://techinfo.toyota.com/techInfoPortal/...o.toyota.com%2F Keep us posted!

THAT CHECK ENGINE LIGHT WOULDNT HAVE MUCH 2 DO WITH YOUR TRANMISSION THAT OVER DRIVE LIGHT IS 4 THA TRANSMISSION AND YES I'VE HAD SHIFT SOLENOID REPLACED CAUSE MY OVER DRIVE LIGHT WAS COMING ON AND YES THAT FIX THA PROBLEM I WAS TOLD THAT I NEEDED A NEW TRANS OR HAVE IT REBUILT ALL U NEED IS A GOOD LEXUS NOT DEALER CUZ THEY R HIGH U NEED SOME WHO SPECIALIZE IN LEXUS.

Decided to have the transmission rebuilt here in town rather getting one that was rebuilt shipped from California. Considering the shipping charge to have it sent and then another charge to send the core back plus $1000.00 core charge (which I would get back) I would actually save around $875.00, (labor and shipping.) I am getting all new OEM parts plus labor for $1700.00. Plus, if something went wrong the shop is right here in town. My first (and last) trip to AAMCO when the shift solenoid came up bad on the test cost me $150.00 just to have them put in a new filter and fresh fluid. They said the new soleonid they replaced didn't get rid of the CEL so they just put my old solenoid back in and did a tranny service. Well, the shop I took it to today questioned what AAMCO did when they droped the pan. I was there today at B&M Treasmission who is doing the job and the fluid was dark and there was metal shavings deep inside the filter, plus metal shavings on the three magnets. AAMCO said they put in a new filter and fluid and cleaned everything out. What did they really do, just give me a new pan gasket for that price? I am going to take the evedence back to them as ask for my money back. Now I am having starter problems...starter will ocassionally whine or souind like it is spinning before it catches and starts, but that is for another post. What a nightmare.

Picked up my car yesterday and was very happy with the rebuild. I was pretty sure it was going to come to a rebuild but want to thank everyone for their advice. This only started out as a shift solenoid malfunction and would of been nice to just replace that one part but it wasn't my lucky day. Feels good to ride with a fresh tranny under you.