So it seems that I have some sort of magical transmission in the es300. Now what what puzzles me is the events that have transpired over the past year.
#1
Just about a lil more than a year ago the car had work done to replace a seal that was leaking fluid. Got fixed but sometime afterwards the transmission would completely disengage and wouldn't turn the wheels at all unless you turned the car off and back on in neutral while driving. Obviously the highway was out of the question, so the car sat for sometime while waiting till the weather got warmer to swap the tranny. Except for the occasional wifi excursion that I would take to get a signal from my neighbors (gotta love un-secured). So the weather gets warm weathers warm start the car up to go off to the garage problem has vanished completely with no reasonable explanation.
Problem #1 solved by who knows what.
#2
Now a few days ago it started to slip and not engage again but this time kinda like when a clutch plate is worn down and you high rev. I thought I was just losing traction since the roads were wet, reasonable conclusion since I do have baldish tires. Now Tuesday night I went out to see some friends it was dry the same problem was there so I concluded it wasn't the tires slipping. So I check my other gears, they all slip except for reverse it runs like perfect, so I also inspect my Dextron III ATF, yea burnt to the color of engine oil. So Wednesday I went and cycled about 7 quarts of fluid, it didn't fix the problem it I got *BLEEP*ed off, so I scrapped my oil change plans drove home, took a turn a lil hard and sharp. Accelerated through it and like wtf? all my forward gears are back to normal. Yay Highway!
Everything's awesome right? Wrong. The mystical solution to #2 caused #3!
#3
Upon coming home I investigated the miraculous self repair of my tranny and ran it through all the gears. It would seem that to get consistent forward motion, my reverse has been disabled. So I have no reverse(it also trys to go forward and stops), and my neutral is like drive. But park works just dandy(but instead of lurching back in park it lurches forward and locks).
So frankly I'm stumped after searching the forums, I've found a few possible problem causing areas, Kick-Down cable, Solenoids, Shift Linkage, something in the internals. But I myself cant really conclude what it might be as it keeps fixing itself and the problems are never the same.
I already have a spare trans from when the problem #1 was occurring so thats been waiting for something to happen so it could be put to use. So the current plan is that the tranny is gonna be swapped on Sunday or Monday unless it doesn't have to be.
Any of you guru's have any idea? Also if It helps the check engine light would occasionally come on prior to #2 and #3 and then yesterday it was on for like 10min, I haven't been able to check the code myself as the plug is different for the ODB scanner my dad has. I personally would rather not have to swap the tranny.