jccnita Posted June 1, 2004 Share Posted June 1, 2004 I have a 98 LS400. When I first time start the car every morning, I changed the AT from N to R then to D. If the working Temp has not been at normal level(2/5), it seems that i have to wait for about 5 seconds then the gear will be engaged. When the Temp to be at the normal level, it works perfectly. This happens when the Temp meter is at 1/5 level. However, it takes me about 3 minutes for the Temp to be at that level. If you wnat it to be at 2/5 level, it might take about 5-7 Min. What i don't understand is that we all know that we don't need to warm the car for that long because it's waste time & gas. So, this is a normal situation? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VMF Posted June 1, 2004 Share Posted June 1, 2004 did you check the fluid level in the tranny? it is not normal for the 3 sec period to be there for the rear gear but the hight rpm during warm up is normal and i would recommend you to wait till it fully warms up and then put it in to gear, this will save your tranny and engine some time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wandawoods Posted June 1, 2004 Share Posted June 1, 2004 me and my wife were from Taiwan almost 20-years ago. maybe it's time for a complete tranny fluid flush?! what's mileage (or KM)? I recall Lexus calls for tranny flush (the whole 16qt) at 10,500miles, and it costs US $250 at dealer, or about $100 at regular shop (Firestone or Jeffy Lube), what's the cost to do so in Taiwan? is a new LS still selling close to $US120K in Taiwan? is the gas price still close to $4/gal (or $2.5/l)? VFM, have u ever determimed it's a good idea or not to flush tranny oil? some suggest that it may blow the seals for some high-milleage cars?! my 97 is at 97K, need to decide whether to do it fairly soon... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jccnita Posted June 1, 2004 Author Share Posted June 1, 2004 did you check the fluid level in the tranny? it is not normal for the 3 sec period to be there for the rear gear but the hight rpm during warm up is normal and i would recommend you to wait till it fully warms up and then put it in to gear, this will save your tranny and engine some time. Thanks for your quick reply. Actually the Lexus dealer checked all kinds of oil during the maintance. Everything is o.k.. I also discribed this situation to them but they told me it's normal. I'm just wondering if it is really a normal situation because I never had a car like this. I do love this car very much. But I'm afraid it will have potential danger. Assume if someone wants to drive me car when the Temp is not warm up, won't it be dangerous? Will it be helpful if I replace the whole Tranny oil? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jccnita Posted June 1, 2004 Author Share Posted June 1, 2004 me and my wife were from Taiwan almost 20-years ago.maybe it's time for a complete tranny fluid flush?! what's mileage (or KM)? I recall Lexus calls for tranny flush (the whole 16qt) at 10,500miles, and it costs US $250 at dealer, or about $100 at regular shop (Firestone or Jeffy Lube), what's the cost to do so in Taiwan? is a new LS still selling close to $US120K in Taiwan? is the gas price still close to $4/gal (or $2.5/l)? VFM, have u ever determimed it's a good idea or not to flush tranny oil? some suggest that it may blow the seals for some high-milleage cars?! my 97 is at 97K, need to decide whether to do it fairly soon... Wow! Can't believe I willl see someone from Taiwan for my first post. The mileage is about 90000 km. Lexus dealer said it's about US$200 to replace all tranny oil. The new LS430 is selling at about $95,450. The gas price is at about $0.71 per liter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wandawoods Posted June 1, 2004 Share Posted June 1, 2004 well, greeting from Atlanta, GA! 90000KM is still a young kid for a LS, but I do recall u rarely see cars in Taiwan can last over 120000KM due to the salty, high-moisture climate which is tough on the metal. maybe, lexus quality can make your car last longer. anyway, 5-seconds does seem longer than normal even at cold-start. my 97 is about half a second. it has been said many, many times in this forum that 10-second wait is good enough for LS to drive away at low speed which is a preferred way to 'warm-up' the car than let it idle to normal temp. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jccnita Posted June 1, 2004 Author Share Posted June 1, 2004 well, greeting from Atlanta, GA!90000KM is still a young kid for a LS, but I do recall u rarely see cars in Taiwan can last over 120000KM due to the salty, high-moisture climate which is tough on the metal. maybe, lexus quality can make your car last longer. anyway, 5-seconds does seem longer than normal even at cold-start. my 97 is about half a second. it has been said many, many times in this forum that 10-second wait is good enough for LS to drive away at low speed which is a preferred way to 'warm-up' the car than let it idle to normal temp. Greeting from Taiwan! Well, appreciate you to provide me your experience for your car. I will try to replace the tranny oil first & see how it goes. Thank you very much. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VBdenny Posted June 3, 2004 Share Posted June 3, 2004 I don't think the condition is normal at all. I still have two black burnout marks on my garage floor from when our cat was dying and my wife wanted to rush it to the vets. She fired up the LS and cramed it immeadiatly into reverse. The Lex burned rubber! The marks will probably be there forever! I was glad to see the posi was working though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wandawoods Posted June 3, 2004 Share Posted June 3, 2004 VB, any comment about whole tranny oil flush business on high-miles cars? I've already heard from a few differrent mechanics tell me the same thing: don't do it if mileage is too high! I won't worry about my LS (97K), but I do worry about my SC (168K).... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jccnita Posted June 3, 2004 Author Share Posted June 3, 2004 I don't think the condition is normal at all.I still have two black burnout marks on my garage floor from when our cat was dying and my wife wanted to rush it to the vets. She fired up the LS and cramed it immeadiatly into reverse. The Lex burned rubber! The marks will probably be there forever! I was glad to see the posi was working though. It's strange that i don't have the same problem when I change the AF from P to R. It will be engaged immediately. This problem only happened when I change the AF from R to N to D. FYI, the Lexus agent here said they don't suggest me to change the whole tranny oil. I discribed this condition to one of them. he told me it is normal because the computer protects the tranny until it gets the working Temp. The other one told me it should be the tranny tranny problem. And if it does, the time will be longer & longer. Some people had the experience to wait for bout 30 seconds. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
90LS400Lexus Posted June 3, 2004 Share Posted June 3, 2004 My car almost instantly goes into any gear, no matter the temperature..... <_< Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jccnita Posted June 10, 2004 Author Share Posted June 10, 2004 My car almost instantly goes into any gear, no matter the temperature..... <_< Well, thank you for everyone's help here. This site is very helpful. I learned from here that my Tranny is not normal. Tried to replace the whole fluid in the past. But before that, I drove my care via a street going up to a hill. When it stops & i opened the window. I found a bad smell. The next day I went to the local Lexus dealer & ask them to do close inspection for my tranny. They found out that the tranny has fluid leak & they tested the pressure when it is engaged & they believe it has been damaged & need to be replaced. As I mentioned before, it will not be engaged after 5-10 Sec. when it is cold(actually i warm it up for about 3 minutes every time.). I decided to have it replaced. I did the same test for the cold start this morning & it will be engaged immediately after the warm up for only 15 Sec. So, it's fully fixed now. Although it costs me a lot of money but i think it's worth. I would like to appreciate all of your great help here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UCF3 Posted June 10, 2004 Share Posted June 10, 2004 It sounds like your gears are slipping. You may need to rebuild/replace the gears in the transmission. If you've replaced the fluid completely, I'd go about openning up the case, unless the Toyota Master techs are saying it's something else--after looking at the car. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jccnita Posted June 10, 2004 Author Share Posted June 10, 2004 It sounds like your gears are slipping. You may need to rebuild/replace the gears in the transmission. If you've replaced the fluid completely, I'd go about openning up the case, unless the Toyota Master techs are saying it's something else--after looking at the car. they replaced the Tranny for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wandawoods Posted June 10, 2004 Share Posted June 10, 2004 do u mind telling us how much they charge u? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jccnita Posted June 10, 2004 Author Share Posted June 10, 2004 do u mind telling us how much they charge u? It's Approx. US$2,321.00 for the tranny & $178.00 for the labor. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jccnita Posted June 10, 2004 Author Share Posted June 10, 2004 do u mind telling us how much they charge u? It's Approx. US$2,321.00 for the tranny & $178.00 for the labor. Sorry. I forgot one more thing. The price also included the T-IV fluid. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wandawoods Posted June 10, 2004 Share Posted June 10, 2004 it still seems tragical to me that a 98 LS4 with 56k miles required a new tranny! I hope it was nothing to do with Taipei's notorious stop-no-go traffic!? well, at least labor is still cheap over there! lex dealer here charges at least US$90 per hour here! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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