Jerky Shifting On Gs300

[Lexus555]

Hey Guys,

It very hard to describe my problem, but I am going to try my best and hopefully someone knows what I am talking about...

Ok so recently over the past 6 weeks or so my 98 gs300 has been progessivley shifting worse and worse. Now its come to the point where when stopped and then accelerating the shifts between 1-2-3-4th (worse in 1-2) is very very rough like its having an extreamly hard time getting to the next gear (almost like is hanging or lagged). Its feels mushy and sometimes I apply more and more gas to try to just get through it quickly and it seems to "snap" hard and take off. any ideas? My assumption is that the tranny is failing I sure hope I am wrong, becuase I can only imagin how expensive it is to fix that...

thanks guy its much appriciated!

L

[stroked4.6]

Hey Guys,

It very hard to describe my problem, but I am going to try my best and hopefully someone knows what I am talking about...

Ok so recently over the past 6 weeks or so my 98 gs300 has been progessivley shifting worse and worse. Now its come to the point where when stopped and then accelerating the shifts between 1-2-3-4th (worse in 1-2) is very very rough like its having an extreamly hard time getting to the next gear (almost like is hanging or lagged). Its feels mushy and sometimes I apply more and more gas to try to just get through it quickly and it seems to "snap" hard and take off. any ideas? My assumption is that the tranny is failing I sure hope I am wrong, becuase I can only imagin how expensive it is to fix that...

thanks guy its much appriciated!

L

How many miles do you have on the car? Have you flushed the trans system at all. Depending on mileage or if you have changed it recently i would change the fluid. When doing this look at the fluid to see if there are any particles or black chunks. You might have worn some of your clutch discs or bands. By doing this you will see if any clutch disc material is floating around. You don’t really want to do this if you have high mileage and have not changed the fluid because it will disturb everything in the transmission. But since yours is going anyway you might not have a choice.

Next question. Are you low on power at all? If this happens in all gears it might be your torque converter. You should do a stall speed test to see if it working correctly.

[Lexus555]

How many miles do you have on the car? Have you flushed the trans system at all. Depending on mileage or if you have changed it recently i would change the fluid. When doing this look at the fluid to see if there are any particles or black chunks. You might have worn some of your clutch discs or bands. By doing this you will see if any clutch disc material is floating around. You don’t really want to do this if you have high mileage and have not changed the fluid because it will disturb everything in the transmission. But since yours is going anyway you might not have a choice.

Next question. Are you low on power at all? If this happens in all gears it might be your torque converter. You should do a stall speed test to see if it working correctly.

um ok, I have 88k miles on it and have never changed the trans fluid, I checked the fluid last night and the fluid seems to be WAY TOO HIGH on the dip stick, like way past hot...and yes when the gears are "trying to shift" it does seem to appear to be low on power. How do I do a stall speed test...thanks so much the help is greatly appriciated...

[dcfish]

Drain the tranny and fill with toyota type 4 ( about 2 quarts ) easy as pie.

[Lexus555]

Drain the tranny and fill with toyota type 4 ( about 2 quarts ) easy as pie.

Is there a tutorial on that somewhere online or maybe you could direct me on how to do it, It would be much appriciated. thanks

[dcfish]

Drain the tranny and fill with toyota type 4 ( about 2 quarts ) easy as pie.

Is there a tutorial on that somewhere online or maybe you could direct me on how to do it, It would be much appriciated. thanks

Look under your car about where the shifter is, There is a 14mm drain plug in the middle of the car, remove it and let it drain into a pan, Replace the drainplug and fill through the tranny dipstick tube. Add only 2 quarts. It is just like changing the oil. You will need a funnel with a flexable hose to fill through the dipstick tube.

[Lexus555]

Look under your car about where the shifter is, There is a 14mm drain plug in the middle of the car, remove it and let it drain into a pan, Replace the drainplug and fill through the tranny dipstick tube. Add only 2 quarts. It is just like changing the oil. You will need a funnel with a flexable hose to fill through the dipstick tube.

thanks a bunch will do it tonight and keep you posted!

[Lexus555]

Ok well I did the transmission oil change, seems to be about 50-60% better from what I see so far, does it usually have like a "break in" time to see if that fixed the problem? thanks in advance

[dcfish]

Ok well I did the transmission oil change, seems to be about 50-60% better from what I see so far, does it usually have like a "break in" time to see if that fixed the problem? thanks in advance

What did the fluid look like? What color was it ?

[Lexus555]

the fluid was a very very dark black red, and didnt seem to have any particles in it, and I measured to see how much was in there before I drained it and it was rought 3.25 qts...your thoughts?

[dcfish]

the fluid was a very very dark black red, and didnt seem to have any particles in it, and I measured to see how much was in there before I drained it and it was rought 3.25 qts...your thoughts?

You had too much fluid in the tranny, A drain and fill is around 2 quarts. The color tells us that it is old. It should be bright red. I advise changing the tranny fluid at every oil change until it is red. Disconnect the neg. battery terminal for a few minutes and reconnect. This will reset the ecu and wipe clean how the tranny was shifting. Then take it out on the highway for a spin. Then check back.

[Lexus555]

Ok so I did the neg term reset and it seems to be about 50-75% better but still has some trouble getting between 1-2nd gear. Also after the reset my car was idleing very weird even acctually stalled once, but I think that part has past. So we will see over the next few weeks how the car acts, hopefully it will settle in and get better, thanks so much for the help it was greatly appriciated!