2002 Gs300 Transmission Weirdness

skitzo · September 8, 2003

After driving for about 1.5 hrs @ 95-100MPH (mostly via cruise control, lightly decelerating/accelerating with it as well)... I had proceeded to decelerate from about 100MPH to ~95 or so. The MOMENT i dropped below 99 the car threw itself into 4th gear out of the blue and STAYED there and refused to let go. I slowed down a bit, and sped back up a bit (still under 100), to no avail - engine was still obviously in 4th as it was 5000RPM++.

The car has e-shift so I figured I would give that a go, I stuck it in M, hit down twice - got it to indicate 4th (which it was already in), hit UP, it indicated 5th - but STILL didn't shift. repeated this several times. same thing.

Went back into auto-drive.. sped back up to 100, wham - back into 5th.

Tap the brakes...... BAM. 4th. Disabled cruise control, blah blah blah - still same thing. Finally I ended up stopping, shutting off.. turning back on. All better. I'm assuming (hoping) this is some kind of over-zealous function from the computer.

Is the car deciding I would like some heavy duty engine braking, more performance by sticking in 4th when it can (and DUMPING gas like no tomorrow..), or is it something I should have looked into?

Thanks!

anewname · September 9, 2003

When I had a BMW I was reading up on the transmissions. Apparently when it senses something is wrong it goes into 3rd gear so you can get to where you need to go to have it fixed. Seeing as the GS has a 5-speed automatic instead of a 4, it's reasonable to assume that it's programmed to go into 4th. In short, get it checked out. It may never happen to you again, but then again, it might.

Good luck.

bbsal · September 10, 2003

yea it shouldnt go into fourth when you just hit the brake and only slow down 10mph.you might have something wrong with it and i would get it checked. ;)

amf1932 · September 10, 2003

It could be just a computer glitch(I'm sure you heard of that :lol: ) I've had that happen with the cruise control, where I couldn't get it to operate properly until I stopped the car, turned off the engine and restarted it.....than everything was back to normal. It seems that the computer resets itself after you shut off the ignition and than restart it, but as said previously, I would get it checked out.

skitzo · September 10, 2003

Well, my thoughts regarding it being an actual 'problem' - in that scenario, wouldn't I at least get some kind of failure light? I *know* those work, I had one not too long ago :angry: , sadly. From what i've seen, the car is pretty good at notifying you when it's had a diagnostic problem with ANY part...

amf1932 · September 11, 2003

In the instance of a computer glitch you probably wouldn't get any kind of notifcation. I didn't when the cruise control stopped working. I pulled onto the off ramp, stopped the engine, than restarted it and everything was back to normal. When I got home from my trip I called Lexus service and he told me the same thing about a glitch and I shouldn't worry about it unless this was constantly happening. It never happened again for at least 8 years of use and than I traded this car in! :rolleyes: