3rd Gear Problem

[Lalo]

Hello everyone,

I have a 3 months old IS250, with a bit over 5000 km on the odometre. My car seems to dislike engaging the 3rd gear, whether I am accelerating or decelerating, and changes quickly from 2nd to 4th, or vice versa. The changes occur smoothly though, but it just does not make sense to me that a car would just skip a gear on Auto mode. Did anyone else have a similar problem? What did you do about it?

Thanx

[Sapphire Cam]

Lalo

I have noticed this only very very rarely on mine (2006, 45k), and never thought twice about it. The transmission is quite intelligent and will skip gears if it thinks it can. The Lexus philosophy on transmissions is to find the highest gear available (economy, quietness etc.), so if your vehicle is ready to come out of 2nd and thinks it can go straight to 4th then it will. More frequently I notice on deceleration (60kmh slowing to a red light etc.) that it may jump down from 5th to 2nd, and is beautifully smooth in doing so. This auto doesnt have to go through the gears in order - and by not doing so is assisting economy and over time putting less wear on the transmission. This is not a problem. If you do have a concern, ring your Lexus dealer and ask to chat a technician, but he'll probably tell you the same thing.

Incidentally, do you have it set on ECON or PWR? Set it to PWR and see what happens - it should hold in gear a little longer, and may engage 3rd more often. As a minimum you shouldnt be having the slightest transmission issue until at least 100-150k kms, if not double that, especially with this Aisin transmission, who amongst others supply Porsche with some of their transmissions!

[ldc]

I notice my czar downshifts alot from 4th - 2nd as well. I think the tranny knows what is best for each gear and do things accordingly.

Should not not be any issues.

Quad Cam V6 with 6 sp isn't your ave engine.

[pygothian]

If you have the mode of pwr and not ecn it will hold the gears a little longer. Also put more foot down on the accelerator and it will rev higher before gear changes. Alternatively click to M mode and paddle shift at 6000rpm and you will not have any problems except exceeding 100km/h before hitting 3rd gear ;)

I've noticed now I've hit 6000km in my car it seems to hold gears longer and the torque/acceleration seems more intense. I have been pushing it pretty hard the last few thousand km and my fuel econonmy is quite poor (12-14L/100km) since I've been thrashing it. However it hold 3rd gear no probs till I hit 5000-6000pm now.

Still no where near the C63 amg which hits 8000rpm before hitting 3rd in sports with all saftey off and 9000rpm in sports manual with paddleshift but cant really compare that with the IS250 - wonder how it compares with the IS-F however.

[Lalo]

Thanks for the replies everyone.

Pygothian, I don't really see a problem in exceeding 100km/h before hitting 3rd gear, until you notice a right lane hog in front of you of course.

Cheers