Never do this to your automatic transmission

[Razor61]

https://youtu.be/ULcSauSJrsY

[Las Palmas]

Good advice in the video. Several here in the forum think that putting transmission in park is enough to keep the car as long as not in hills, but this is not correct. This video show the little thing that help holding the car in park.

Here Lexus automatic change oil in transmission when around 80K km (calling it 90K service for whichever reason). No lubricant last forever, no matter who say so.

[Razor61]

7 minutes ago, Las Palmas said:

Good advice in the video

It is, the parking pawl bit I knew about and most of the rest but the bit about ‘do not put in neutral when waiting at traffic lights’ I didn’t know about and the reasons why not to do it. I did do that exact thing, thinking it would reduce the strain on the transmission, I won’t do it in future though.

[Las Palmas]

30 minutes ago, Razor61 said:

It is, the parking pawl bit I knew about and most of the rest but the bit about ‘do not put in neutral when waiting at traffic lights’ I didn’t know about and the reasons why not to do it. I did do that exact thing, thinking it would reduce the strain on the transmission, I won’t do it in future though.

Just really surprised that many here in the forum are using the park function as only parking brake when it is the same more or less in all automatic transmissions. Cannot understand why they do not want to use parking brake for parking, when that is why it is there.

[NemesisUK]

40 minutes ago, Las Palmas said:

Cannot understand why they do not want to use parking brake for parking, when that is why it is there.

Except in freezing temperatures, when the handbook recommends one doesn't use it ...

[royoftherovers]

1 hour ago, Razor61 said:

It is, the parking pawl bit I knew about and most of the rest but the bit about ‘do not put in neutral when waiting at traffic lights’ I didn’t know about and the reasons why not to do it. I did do that exact thing, thinking it would reduce the strain on the transmission, I won’t do it in future though.

That advice is in the Handbook though.

[Las Palmas]

47 minutes ago, NemesisUK said:

Except in freezing temperatures, when the handbook recommends one doesn't use it ...

 

16 minutes ago, royoftherovers said:

That advice is in the Handbook though.

I believe the extreme low temperatures mentioned must be for people living in Siberia with minus 50 or more Celsius. Was in Denmark when having minus 20 and had no problems with handbrake in a Nissan 300ZX

[NemesisUK]

4 minutes ago, Las Palmas said:

 

I believe the extreme low temperatures mentioned must be for people living in Siberia with minus 50 or more Celsius. Was in Denmark when having minus 20 and had no problems with handbrake in a Nissan 300ZX

My neighbour's Peugeot froze solid in the cold snap just before Christmas, obviously depends on the levels of moisture

[Las Palmas]

1 hour ago, NemesisUK said:

My neighbour's Peugeot froze solid in the cold snap just before Christmas, obviously depends on the levels of moisture

and the hideous London dust rain goes through my core and bones and into the parking brake. (from a song I heard long ago, do not remember much more)

Except of course the parking brake was not in the song.

[Razor61]

13 hours ago, NemesisUK said:

My neighbour's Peugeot froze solid in the cold snap just before Christmas, obviously depends on the levels of moisture

Yes and the condition of the handbrake mechanism, they can stop working properly due to lack of use as well.
I had an Audi A4 and the handbrake froze solid during a -5 cold snap because the cables had let in moisture/water. The handbrake cable sheathing ends/seals were knackered on the end which allowed the moisture/water in. If the cables had been in good condition I don’t think they would have frozen solid.

[runsgrateasanut]

I have found that at most times of the year if I reverse out of my Driveway, stop the Car whilst putting the chain across that if I put the Car back into Park even with the handbrake on, that upon putting the Car into Drive I get a rather unpleasant clunk.  I therefore have for several years after stopping to put the Chain across,with the Handrake depressed, I put the Car into Neutral and upon selecting Drive I have no noise, release HandBrake and go.  This I figure is to down to cold Trannie Oil.  Once the oil has warmed up - no problem with selecting Drive from Park after reversing or whatever. 

 

ps How many Films of American Cars have I seen where the driver gets out and the Car lurches forward! Common practice there not to use the Hand/Foot Hand brake it would seem.

[Malc1]

I seem to invariably park on the flat and very rarely put the hand/foot brake on .......  just using  P 

If I'm parked on a slope / gradient I will usually put the hand/foot brake on and into P too

Stopped at traffic lights or a Q of traffic it's either in  N  or occasionally in   P 

Whenever I collect the car from the service garage or the like I do find the hand/foot brake engaged too

Touch wood I've NEVER had an MOT Fail nor Advisory for the hand/foot brake pads .........  243 k miles now with 120k of those mine and over 11.5 years 

Nor in all my Ls400 driving years have I had the same issues arising at MOT times ..........  maybe 23 years now and 250k miles or so 

I'm thinking I'm maybe doing it  " just right  "  ...  or just been lucky !

Malc

[Toyoda]

The gearbox oil change is a headache in UK, I ask my dealership to service my box when I imported my car and they told me that they don't do it until there is a problem with it...

[Cotswold Pete]

13 hours ago, Toyoda said:

The gearbox oil change is a headache in UK, I ask my dealership to service my box when I imported my car and they told me that they don't do it until there is a problem with it...

I use a company that specialises in rebuilding Auto-boxes, they just quoted £350 to completely drain the system (including the torque convertor) and then refill.  Must be someone local to you that does such work

[Malc1]

17 hours ago, Toyoda said:

they told me that they don't do it until there is a problem with it...

at that stage I'm thinking it's all toooooo late ...  you have a problem .......     If Peter Sallis was alive and well we know there'd be an answer from Wallace  ....  or  Grommit and he'd be just around the corner from you tooooo

Malc 

[BigBoomer]

I rarely use the Parking Brake unless she is on a slope. The trick is to treat the gearbox with mechanical sympathy.
I mostly park on the flat and where I park at home there is a shallow trough in the tarmac where the front wheels sit, so when I park I drive into the trough, stop on the foot brake, change to Neutral and let go of the foot brake to let her roll to the centre of the trough, then foot brake again and change to Park.

I hate sitting behind incompetents who feel that they have to brake ALL the way down a hill rather than select a lower gear and even worse are those who coast for a bit, and then brake hard. Your automatic gearbox has a manual override for a reason. Learn to use it! Too many manual drivers out there who never bothered to learn how to drive an auto.

As for the fluid, well I have never had mine changed and at 137k I'll probably leave it until it has a problem.
I've seen where several of those on the ClubLexus forum have changed theirs at higher mileages and the change has caused problems, possibly due to dislodging crud that was firmly held until it got fresh fluid.

I never put her into Neutral at traffic lights or in stationary traffic. She is either in Drive with my foot on the brake, or in Park if we are not going to be moving for a while.
Better still, on an uphill I use the throttle to hold her stationary. On my Honda Legend it had an anti-roll back or hill-start control feature which seems to be missing on the LS.

[Toyoda]

On 1/17/2023 at 12:35 PM, Malc1 said:

at that stage I'm thinking it's all toooooo late ...  you have a problem .......     If Peter Sallis was alive and well we know there'd be an answer from Wallace  ....  or  Grommit and he'd be just around the corner from you tooooo

Malc 

Thanks for calming me down Malcolm!😅 
My box feels ok, the car is just past the 50k mark so I don't feel an urgency to do it, I just wanted fresh oil in the box.

[shanra]

In relation to the parking brake, I remember the previous owner telling me he never used the parking brake and I had to replace the shoes etc. as it had all frozen up so ....

[Brian R]

On 1/16/2023 at 6:48 PM, Toyoda said:

The gearbox oil change is a headache in UK, I ask my dealership to service my box when I imported my car and they told me that they don't do it until there is a problem with it...

Take it somewhere else, yours doesn't sound like a dealer I would wish to trust!

[Malc1]

Just looking at my own Gearbox oil records and it was simply part drained and topped up at 193k miles in 2017  .....  there was no need to at the time if i remember and we were in two minds whether too or not so just went for the simple part drain and refill / top-up .No affects before nor since .  everything sems simple, ok and quite satisfactory  ......  fingers xd all still is eh !

Malc

[donkmeister]

On 1/20/2023 at 7:18 AM, Brian R said:

Take it somewhere else, yours doesn't sound like a dealer I would wish to trust!

It seems to be a common recommendation - I went to MK Lexus to quote on a new rad and asked for them to do an ATF change (I didn't realise that you only lose a tiny amount of fluid when doing the rad, I had visions of a litre in the tranny cooler and then loads gushing out of the pipes)... They said they wouldn't do it due to tales of transmissions breaking after a fluid change.

I think it stems from people having a transmission problem, trying a fluid change "just in case it fixes it" then amazingly, the new fluid doesn't repair the worn bands or blocked valves. So it gets remembered as "new ATF broke my gearbox" rather than the more accurate "new ATF didn't fix my broken gearbox".

[Malc1]

On 1/20/2023 at 12:27 PM, Malc1 said:

simply part drained and topped up at 193k miles

9 minutes ago, donkmeister said:

They said they wouldn't do it due to tales of transmissions breaking after a fluid change.

That's exactly why prudence reigned when we decided to check it all out and only did the part change in simply draining what was simple to do and a simple top-up refill

and fingers xd it's still all ok !

Malc

[DJT]

There is a theory that a full change of fluid is actually bad for auto boxes. On previous cars with auto boxes I use to drain what ever came out through drain plug. Then refilled to correct level. This usually gives 50% new transmission fluid. This then acts a cleaner then a further change a few thousand miles later. So i would end up with approx 75% fresh oil. 

[Cotswold Pete]

9 hours ago, DJT said:

There is a theory that a full change of fluid is actually bad for auto boxes.  

With my LS had full change at 148K, and had no problems with gear box until the car passed away at 230K.

[Malc1]

30 minutes ago, Cotswold Pete said:

until the car passed away at 230K.

..... delayed catastrophic reaction . ..... be warned, don't follow this fella's advice 🤣

Malc