Lexus RX 2004-09 :: Transmission Response Takes Forever To Realize First Gear
Apr 17, 2016
I have a 98 GS4 and a 04 RX330 and one major issue I have with the RX, is the poor downshift response when slowing down, to say 5-10 mph and give it gas, the transmission takes FOREVER to realize I want first gear. If I am giving it 50% throttle at 5-10 mph after slowing and needing to get a move on, the throttle seems like it is there, but the transmission takes an eternity to realize "oh, you want first? hang on while I think about it", then it grabs first and LURCHES forward, giving everyone a very uncomfortable jerk.
My GS however, when down to those speeds is always spot on the right gear. Yeah, I know its comparing a GS to a RX, but wouldn't you think that Lexus would figure that one out?
Is the 04 worse than 05 or 06? Can I use an 05 or 06 trans controller and get some improved transmission response?
You can tell by the lurch, the throttle is responding to the driver's throttle pedal input, but the transmission isn't figuring it out till way too late. I don't get the lurch like at slower speeds and higher throttle input, but it sure makes for a poorly driving car.
I see the same problem when taking slower corners, get it down to 10-20 mph for a corner and the transmission won't downshift till AFTER the apex of the corner, despite what throttle pedal is pressed.
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I drive an '04 Passat and I've recently noticed that my AC is not functioning properly. It takes forever to get somewhat cold and the air flow seems diminished. I used to get freezing cold within minutes after setting it to an air flow of "1" and putting it at the coldest setting. Now, I can drive home and sweat for the whole 30 minute trip with it set to an air flow setting of "4" at the coldest setting. It's not as bad in the morning because it's much cooler, but it's killing me in the afternoon/evening.
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I came off the turnpike the other day stopped at a light and my car, 2006 Hyundai Elantra 175000 miles, started rolling backwards. I put my foot on the gas and there was no movement. Put the car and park and it wouldn't start. I pushed it into a gas station and the attendant (attendant, not mechanic there was no service station) changed the oil and added some coolant. The car then started up fine and I was able to drive a quarter mile to work. When I was driving home I immediately noticed that there was a change in acceleration. It takes forever for the car to speed up... Pedal to the floor and it is lagging greatly. It seems to be going up to 4500 rpms just to reach 40 mphs at a slow pace. Once the car gets up to 60 mph the rpms drop to normal. I haven't gone faster than 60 mph in it since this happened, but it seems to handle fine at that speed. The issue is getting up to that speed. I don't know if it is related, but the air conditioning is very weak since all this happened. I have to turn it off when I'm accelerating now. I've been planning on buying a new car soon, but I want this one to last just a little while longer.
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I bought a new Honda Accord v6. I drove it off the lot with 40 miles on it. The acceleration was fine when I bought it.
It now has over 500 miles on it, and the acceleration is terrible. When I'm at a stop light and the light turns green, it takes forever to get to 40mph unless I floor it. Honda Civics pass me at every light.
What could be the problem? I'm very concerned.
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I just got this new truck with work and when I started in the mornings and let it run for 10 to 15 minutes like I used to with the 6.2 f250 I had it's still cold in the truck. Need making this thing warm up faster?
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I have a 2008 RX350 AWD with only 500 miles on it so far and I am starting to get concerned about what seems to be excessive slipping or a delay in response in the trans. Under normal forward driving the trans seems to shift very smooth. The problem occurs under situations where I am coming to a near stop, basically coasting, and then have to accelerate again to continue forward. This could be in a slow moving traffic type situation or when maneuvering through a parking lot. When I try to execute a small increase in speed the engine revs but the trans doesn't respond.
It's as though it's in neutral and unable to decide which gear it should be in. After a 2 to as long as a 5 second delay it finally engages and moves forward. The condition is even worse if I am heading into a slight incline. Once it is engaged everything is fine and the subsequent shifts are very smooth. When starting from a complete stop it works perfectly. I've never had a transmission slip this much in any vehicle. There was one situation where I was almost broadsided because the RX delayed in moving forward.
I realize this is a subjective call but I am trying to determine what level of slipping in the trans is considered normal under the conditions I've described. I have searched and read past threads about issues with the earlier model years but I thought they were resolved by now. I haven't taken the RX in for service yet but I fear I will get the standard - everything is working as designed - answer from my dealership.
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I've had my 2013 Prius since new. Basically it feels like my car is over-exhausting itself. When I go to take off, the car jerks like I slammed my pedal to the floor. If I'm on the highway and need to speed up, it sounds like it's reving really high and really long, and when I take my foot off the gas, there's about a 5 second delay before the car actually starts to decelerate. I don't even feel comfortable on the highway when it's acting up because my car kinda just accelerates suddenly and then takes forever to stop even when my foot isn't on the gas anymore.
This problem happened last summer, and when I took it to the dealership it stopped before I could show them. It started getting cold outside not long after so this didn't happen again. Now that it's hot out, my car is doing it again. And it's fine as long as the sun has gone down for the night. I thought it was because my a/c was on, but I can turn it off and it doesn't make a difference on the way the car is driving. I get regular maintenance done, all my filters are clean, and there's nothing I can really think could be wrong.
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So the first issue is, if the vehicle is cold (regardless of temp outside) it takes forever to start it. It cranks and cranks and cranks and after a couple seconds of cranking I stop, wait a second, then try again. Usually it takes two sometimes three tries to start it. The guy who I bought it off of said it has newer glow plugs (last year I believe) and also I have replaced the batteries. Once its warmed up it does not do this at all.
Secondly and also something that just recently started happening, my water in fuel light keeps kicking in. I drained the water out of the water catcher reservoir under the truck multiple times and the first time water actually came out but every time after that simply diesel fuel comes out. I added a bottle of water remover to the fuel as well and ran it down to a quarter tank. Then filled the truck up completely, added two more bottles of water remover. The light still comes on. I noticed it only comes on when I am going up or down a fill. When I am driving on flat ground it does not kick on.
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Auto tranny takes a half second to go into gear. It doesn't slip just slight hesitation going into gear. This rig has 173000 miles on it and I don't know its maintenance history and don't want to stick much money in it.
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My transmission up shifts fine for the first couple of gears, but as I get to the last gear (I think it is the last gear), my transmission takes a while to up-shift. I am at 3000 RPM before it up-shifts then goes down to 2000 RPM on the next gear. Is there any fix that will not require a new tranny?
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I've got a 92 star with a 4.0 liter engine and I think a 4ald auto trans. When I 1st start the motor it takes 3-4 minuted before it will go into gear. after that it's fine. I've tightened the 2 bolts under the dash tightening up the shifter and my fluid level is fine.
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A month ago I had the Lexus dealer do a 50k mile service (although I have 68k). I work from home and rarely go anywhere. The miles are highway miles to North Carolina Mtns. I have a 2007 GX470 that I bought new. Tried going out last night to dinner and the car would not go into gear. The shifter would move freely but would not engage. When I tried putting it back into Park, there was a grinding noise, not bad but it was there. The car is UN-drivable. Before I have it towed to Lexus, is there anything simple I could check? The car drove perfectly the day before.
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I have a 2004 RX 330 and the transmission kicked out of 3rd gear going around a turn. It felt like something gave way and broke. Now the transmission only works when the selector is in 1 or 2. It will not shift above 2nd gear reverse works fine. I have not experienced any transmission issues with this vehicle till now. The car has 215k miles so its higher mileage. The transmission doesn't make any strange noises while running in this limp mode. There was no check engine code flashed when the incident happened. I read a couple of message threads and saw some mention of limp home mode from the knock sensor. I think that this should have generated a dash code at least. I tried resetting the any codes that were generated with disconnecting the battery for 30 minutes. This made the problem worse and the car will barely idle now. The resetting of the codes did not fix the shift issue.
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I just bought my 2007 GX470 last Friday. Last night I drove it home in the season's first snowstorm. I've got plenty of experience with winter driving and Toyotas, so I thought I knew what to expect.
I dropped down to 3rd gear for a long hill and the transmission or engine started surging. It would hold at 1100 rpm, then suddenly jump to 1400rpm when my foot was not even on the gas. Then it would drop back to 1100 again.
The car has 78000 miles on it.
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I have 142k miles on my 2005 RX330 AWD. This week I can feel the transmission slip/shudder when shifting from 2nd to 3rd gear.
My local transmission guy is pretty reasonable but like most salesmen he's going to say rebuild it the entire transmission in lou of something less invasive.
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Like the title says, I sometimes experience a long shift from 1st to 2nd. When the transmission is cold, it seems to shift fine from 1st to 2nd. It isn't until it is warmed up that I get a looong shift. It winds up,,,,, then it shifts. I have no problems in other gears.
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My car is 7k short of its drive train warranty expiring. I noticed a rumbling vibration when the transmission shifted between 3-4 gear at approximately 20-25 mph. Took it into the dealer, and their expert rode with me and verified that it indeed was vibrating, but that he had never seen this issue on the 2007 GS350 AWD. He said he would have to check around the country to see if others had this problem. Four days later, he advised me that he was told to flush the transmission 2-3 times and for me to drive it about 1k miles to see if that fixed it. Well, it doesn't do it anymore, but I'm not sure why, or that it won't do it again just after the warranty expires at 70k miles. I certainly don't want to look at a 4-6,000.00 transmission replacement after the warranty expires. The dealer obviously doesn't want to incur the expense either, under warranty. Even though the transmission does not rumble or vibrate anymore, should I ask for the replacement anyway?
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I have a 2000 Lexus RX300 with 210,000 miles on it. We recently started to have some transmission issues. It sporadically drops into 1st gear while driving. We had the transmission fluid changed, and it did work for a short time, but it has recently started again. Is my transmission going to completely fail or is this something that is serviceable? We are trying to decide whether it's worth it to keep the car and fix it and drive it for another 100,000 miles or sell it. It looks great and drives great, otherwise.
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My GX and I are in the south and I sometimes have to leave it parked outside all day in 100F+ temperatures during the summer. Needless to say it gets extremely hot inside and sometimes takes a while to cool down. I started using my rear AC on full in conjunction with my main AC to facilitate cooling off the interior of the vehicle. I do this even when I'm by myself because... if I'm not mistaken... the rear AC uses a completely separate unit including a separate compressor. So it seems that it would cool things down faster running both systems. Can verify that the rear unit is completely independent of the main AC system?
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I love my 2005 GX 470, but the A/C takes a few minutes of driving to get cold. It eventually performs like it should, but it shouldn't take 5+ minutes for the output to be cold I wouldn't think ...
IS THIS NORMAL for this vehicle or is there an issue? what is YOUR experience? My MDX will freeze you out after about 20 seconds of operation ...
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Over the last week my GX has developed a strange issue. It sometimes takes 3 or 4 tries of turning the key before the engine fires up. It turns over strongly and quickly but it isn't "catching". The weird thing is, it doesn't happen every time. Here is what I have noticed:
1) Leave the vehicle parked overnight - no issues starting. It starts right up.
2) Crank the vehicle after having only been off a few minutes (like after you run in to pick something up at the grocery store) it cranks right up.
3) Let the vehicle sit for between 1 and 4 or 5 hours and the problem appears. It turns over and over and over but won't actually start. Anywhere between the 3rd and 5th turn of the key it will finally catch and actually crank.
In all cases, once it cranks it runs smoothly and normally with no issues.
I have replaced the battery thinking that was the issue but that did not fix the problem. Also strange is the fact that this problem occurred after I replaced both front door speakers, an operation that required me to have one or more doors open for an hour or so at a time (hence why I thought it might be a weak battery).
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