1995 SC300 Transmission ECM Problems

[LRARSC300]

 

 

My brother-law who owned a 1995 SC300 with 83,433 miles, passed away in Nov. 2022. It had sat unused for past 3 years. I offered to buy it from his estate for $4000 minus any repair costs needed as determined by the Memphis Lexus dealer after inspecting. Since it had sat so long, I specifically asked Memphis Lexus to check the transmission, tires motor, belts, hoses etc. They said everything was OK, but it needed tires & a new battery which totaled about $1500.  I bought it in April 2023 for $2500. I did notice when starting a high-pitched squeal under front part of hood that went away after a minute or 2.

I drove it back to Little Rock, AR with no problems. after about 2 weeks the squeal got worse and after the first heavy rain the sunroof began leaking, I took it in to the Little Rock Lexus Dealer. They found a bad cam or crank shaft pulley (worn rotten belt surface). They thought I needed a new sunroof, but I told them check the drain holes, information I got from this forum.  They changed out the pulley and blew out the drain holes and everything worked fine.

Now for the problem I am posting about:  In June,2023 transmission started acting strange but basically shifting problems.  Problems shifting 1 - 2, D or O/D. I took it to a transmission shop they duplicated the problem and found metal shavings in the oil.  Long story short, they completely rebuilt the transmission for $4500. When the work was completed and put it back together it didn't work. They finally decided it had to be a bad ECM and tried a couple of ECM's bought on Ebay but decided they were bad or not repaired properly. They set up a process with Auto Zone to send the ECM to Blue Streak for repair/rebuild. Blue Streak sent back and said they could not work on it - didn't say why. The car is drivable but has the following symptoms.

It will not shift gears while in "D". Must use 1, 2 & D manually to operate and will not shift into O/D.

1.   Hard down shift manually from 2 to 1 (my have been going too fast since tachometer not working)

2.   O/D Off light on and blinking

3.   Tachometer does not work.

4.   Oil light on intermittently

5.   There was no check engine light

 6.  From this forum used the process to check out DTCs but got the following results:  O/D Off light blinking the codes, 62, 63 ,64.  Check engine light fast blinking.

With the above information, does anyone have any thoughts or suggestions of what's going on.  I'm confused by 6 above and I am considering the following:

1, Sending the ECM to Tanin Electronix to test and repair if bad. I am aware of the capacitor problems with this Type of ECM's (ECM Part # 8966124350, 175000-6291 12V, 2JZ-GE   A/T   45, DENSCO)

2. Start over by taking it to the Lexus dealership or some other Lexus shop and see what they come up with.

3.  Donate to Kars for Kids

4.  Drive it into the Arkansas River.

I have video of the dash driving and O/D Off flashing codes but couldn't figure out how to attach to this post.

[LRARSC300]

It turned out that it was the ECM. Sent mine to Tanin and they couldn't repair mine but had one they had repaired and sold to me. Plugged installed and fixed problems.