2007 Es350 Transmission Stuck In Forward Gear

[hughes369]

A friend of mine has a 2007 ES350, black with black leather interior. She states her car is stuck in forward gear only, even when car is off, will not go into neutral for the wrecker driver to roll it backwards out of her basement parking spot. She has a huge incline driveway to her house, and she said she barely got it up that to park it in the basement. She states that the car has 112,000 miles on it. While driving on the road she says it started to only work in forward gears, then would not back up at all, then would stop driving all together, but would drive again after it cooled off for a while.

She is not happy and her dealer says it needs a transmission. The price she was quoted was for the part only about 3000 plus dollars.

My question is , does anyone have any experience diagnosing the transmission computer to get the codes for the solenoids and or know the values for the various solenoids resistance? If i can narrow down the exact problem, can i just tear down the transmission at a transmission shop and buy the specific part it needs to keep driving without buying an entire transmission from Lexus?

I have heard about TECHSTREAM LITE, a pc-based version of the scan tool used by Toyota for diagnosing these transmissions. Any thoughts on what I should do besides going to the dealer would be helpful. I have read an article about the U660E in the August 2010 "Gears" magazine while i was at my local transmission shop. Please help, my first front wheel drive to work on, im more familiar with the LS400 and GS300 rear wheel drive cars.

Thanks again.

[hughes369]

Took the car to Billy's Toyota Parts, in Calera, Alabama. He sold me a used transmission with low miles, very low miles, and installed it. The owner picked up the car and I followed her home about 40 miles away. Now she says her check engine light is on and VSC light is on also. What or how do i check codes. Is it possible to check codes like on OB2 cars like an LS400? Thanks for any advice. She said she never uses low grade gas, and the gas cap was on tight.