IS250 Buying Question/Problem

[Lexus One]

Hi all,

Hoping someone can help with a pre-purchase technical issue.

Went to see an IS250 Advance Auto (2011) for sale today, to give it a test drive.

Was in the drivers seat for the first time, had just released the foot parking brake, had the brake pedal depressed, and moved the gear shifter from P down to D.  At that moment, I heard what I can only describe as a bit of a clunk or thud noise coming from the area of the gear shifter.  It wasn't particularly loud, but it was definitely noticeable, and occurred within a fraction of a second of selecting D.

It left me with a bit of concern about the transmission.  I normally drive manual cars, so am not sure if this is usual for an automatic or for a Lexus automatic, or a sign of a potential fault that I should be worried about before buying the car?

Hope someone can help.

Many thanks.

PS. Just to add, on the test drive itself, the car drove beautifully and gear changes were very smooth/imperceptible.

[Lexus One]

I guess I should have posted this into the IS 250 Forum.

Can any admins move it for me, please?  Thanks.

[Mihanicos]

The cv joints may be worn. To test  follow the same procedure you described,  keep the brakes on all the time and select D. Wait for the gear to engage and note the nose going up. Then select N, wait for the nose to return to its original state and then select R.  Note the nose loweing itself, the indication the the gear has engaged. Repeat the procedure going from R to D and then to N.

If the cv joints are worn  then you should hear the noise you described at each gear engagement, disengagement.

Worn cv joints indicate a high mileage.

Chris.

[Lexus One]

Thanks, Chris.

I went for a 2nd viewing today and did not experience the same issue.  Tried everything you mentioned above, and the noise just wasn't there at all.  Perhaps yesterday the car was started from cold, which may have caused the issue.

Anyway, I am now the owner of a lovely Lexus IS 250!

😀

 

[Mihanicos]

When a  car has been parked for some time, especially out in the open air, the handbrake shoes stick to the drum and when the car moves for the first time, they are forced to move with the rear drums until they break free. The noise like a metal hitting another metal.

Happy motoring, every year, independent consumer associations rank Lexus and Toyota top on their lists. In 2019,  out of the 10 most reliable cars 7 were Lexus and Toyota, one Mazda, one Honda and one Kia. ( See Youtube ) .

Chris.

[Lexus One]

That makes a lot of sense, and have experienced that on other cars in the past.

However, the noise I mentioned specifically came from the area of the gear lever, not from the periphery of the car, and wasn't really metallic sounding.  'Clunk' might have been the wrong choice of word in my original post.

I will keep an eye on it from here on.  Hopefully it was a one-off. 

Great news on the regular high rankings for Toyota and Lexus.  Japanese motor manufacturers are definitely doing something right!

[Texas]

Best of luck ( not that you'll needs it's!) with your new wheels, just as a point I do not use the foot handbrake when my car is parked on level ground, just the P option, shoot me down and explain the disastrous consequences that I may encounter.

 

[Thackeray]

On 8/2/2020 at 10:51 PM, Lexus One said:

Was in the drivers seat for the first time, had just released the foot parking brake, had the brake pedal depressed, and moved the gear shifter from P down to D.  At that moment, I heard what I can only describe as a bit of a clunk or thud noise coming from the area of the gear shifter.  It wasn't particularly loud, but it was definitely noticeable, and occurred within a fraction of a second of selecting D.

It left me with a bit of concern about the transmission.  I normally drive manual cars, so am not sure if this is usual for an automatic or for a Lexus automatic, or a sign of a potential fault that I should be worried about before buying the car?

It could just have been the sound of the parking pawl being released in the transmission. If you don't often drive automatics you may not have come across this. You may already know all this but when you put the car in Park, a hook (the parking pawl) engages in the widely spaced teeth of a ring in the tranmission

As you can see from the picture the pawl will slide to slot into a recess and there may well be some play when it's slotted in. This locks the transmission so that the car cannot move. If you've parked on level ground, it's easy enough to slide the pawl out of the recess when you select Drive and the car will be free to move. But if you've parked on a hill, the whole weight of the car may be resting solely on this parking pawl, especially if you haven't engaged the parking brake or (as in your example) you've already disengaged the parking brake. On a steep hill it may even take some effort to release the parking pawl and you'll almost certainly feel a clunk as it slides out. Maybe this is what you felt when you first drove the car.

Here's a video that suggests how you can avoid the clunk. I don't suppose it's vital to follow the tips in the video but I imagine if you routinely put a lot of weight on the parkinig pawl it will wear out sooner than it might without the routine stress.

 

 

[Lexus One]

Thank you Thakeray, for the in-depth post, and the super-useful picture!

I wasn't aware of of the parking pawl, and that may very well have been what I heard.  The only comment I would make, which I didn't say, was that the car was on flat ground at the time, but I guess there may still have been some tension on the pawl at the time it was moved to Drive.

I have since been driving the car today, and haven't heard the noise again.  I have been getting used to the normal 'operational' sounds of an automatic transmission.

 

Separately, I did notice that the first couple of minutes of driving the car today, the engine sounded a little 'rough'.  Then, after a few minutes of driving, it had returned to being quiet and refined sounding, and was then fine for the rest of the day.  Will see if similar tomorrow.

Reverse parking on a fairly steep hill was also an experience!  Seemed like there wasn't much torque available at first, and then with only gentle pressure on the throttle, the car speeded backwards!  Luckily I had a lot of space behind me to brake in time, but it was a little disconcerting.

Still figuring out what is normal in this car...