Vibration When Accelerating?

[The Kid]

the LS i recently purchased, when I am on the highway, or anything like that cruising, and say I want to switch lanes and I press down on the accelerator, I feel a vibration for about a second

it kind of feels like when you are approaching a toll booth and there are the little ripples in the road to slow you down

anyone ever experience this? I have never ever felt it with my brothers LS or my father's LS

what could be the problem? i dont think it is the tires because I had the rims changed and I still feel the vibration

[landar]

the LS i recently purchased, when I am on the highway, or anything like that cruising, and say I want to switch lanes and I press down on the accelerator, I feel a vibration for about a second

it kind of feels like when you are approaching a toll booth and there are the little ripples in the road to slow you down

anyone ever experience this? I have never ever felt it with my brothers LS or my father's LS

what could be the problem? i dont think it is the tires because I had the rims changed and I still feel the vibration

Hmmmm Kid, dont know but it sure smacks of a shudder in the tranny or convertor. Changed the fluid lately?

[wwest]

the LS i recently purchased, when I am on the highway, or anything like that cruising, and say I want to switch lanes and I press down on the accelerator, I feel a vibration for about a second

it kind of feels like when you are approaching a toll booth and there are the little ripples in the road to slow you down

anyone ever experience this? I have never ever felt it with my brothers LS or my father's LS

what could be the problem? i dont think it is the tires because I had the rims changed and I still feel the vibration

Hmmmm Kid, dont know but it sure smacks of a shudder in the tranny or convertor. Changed the fluid lately?

Also sounds to me as if a downshift clutch is not seating at first and you're feeling the resulting shudder.

Model year and mileage would always be of help when you ask questions of this type.

[The Kid]

well i purchased the car with 156XXX. it is a 93

it was well taken care of, a doctor owned it before hand and then a teacher. it was always dealer serviced.

all I know is that when am going like 40 or so, then I wanna speed up, is makes a little vibration it lasts about a half second to a second.

[wwest]

well i purchased the car with 156XXX. it is a 93

it was well taken care of, a doctor owned it before hand and then a teacher. it was always dealer serviced.

all I know is that when am going like 40 or so, then I wanna speed up, is makes a little vibration it lasts about a half second to a second.

Try this.

Next time you're out on the fwy with no traffic nearby simply disable OD, hesitate just long enough, 1001, 1002,,, for the tranny to complete the downshift out of OD and then depress the gas pedal in about the same amount you would when feeling the shudder.

You'll be giving the third gear clutches time to fully and firmly seat before you ask for acceleration toque.

Let us know.

Oh, if it were the torque converter, as is certainly possible, even probable, at 150,000+ miles, it would generally be much worse when cold vs fully warmed up to operational temperature. Your torque converter is "locked out", bypassed, in OD. So when you ask for a downshift out of OD the torque converter's turbine must begin "pumping" fluid.

[nc211]

What does your transmission fluid look like? I'd start there first. If it's black or brownish, or maroon, then you're due for some new fluild. Make sure you don't just buy some off-the-shelf stuff from autoworld. You want the actual toyota type IV stuff from the dealership "toyota dealership is much cheaper".

You can do a "drain and fill" very easily a few times, and will cycle out the old stuff. I'd do it probably once every 200 miles for the next 1,000 miles. That way, you'll know it's all cleaned. It's simple, just one bolt to undo underneath the center of the car. Two quarts drain out...put two quarts back in through the dipstick.

To me, this sounds like a tranny fluid problem. Possibly a tranny mount problem too, which is a cheap repair "$40" for the mount, 30 minuted under the car with a floor jack.

FYI: doesn't really matter who owned it prior, although always nice to know it wasn't in a teenagers hands. But honestly, and not taking a pop-shot at the teaching business, but knowing how much dealerships cost, matched by knowing how much teachers earn, I'd be a little hard pressed to think a teacher was willing to pay the $110/hr rate. And unless you can verify with the Vin# at the dealership that they serviced the tranny fluid...I'd be inclined to think that if it had been serviced, that it was done at a jiffylube type place, and they don't use the correct fluids. Toyota Type IV fluid is crucial for the tranny. Never knew of a tranny having major problems with the Toyota fluids, but have heard of them slipping and such with off-brand fluids.

[CUMan]

When I purchased my 93 LS about nine years ago, it did the same thing. If you do a search, I think you will find numerous threads about this problem.

My car felt like it was running over rumble strips on the highway. The sensation occurred when I was accelerating up an incline at speeds somewhere between 35-50 miles per hour. As the transmission downshifted, I would feel the shudder.

After owning the car for several years, I had the tranmission serviced. A complete flush and fill was not done, just a drain and fill. Toyota Type IV ATF was used.

Since that was done, I have never had another of these "shudder" incidents occur.

Perhaps your transmission has the wrong type fluid in it. Another possibility is that the formulation of the fluid was changed to address this problem when Type IV was introduced as a replacement for the Type II ATF that was the factory fluid in the early LS models.