Winter Issues With Ls

[itarumaa]

Hi,

does anyone have a clue why my Lexus LS does not move easily in the mornings, for instance this morning it was -14 and the car starts and runs fine, but when I put it in D then it hesitates a lot. It feels bit like a traction control that kiks back all the time, maybe the gearbox is slipping? Then after 50 meters and when I raise the revs over 1500 rpm the problem goes away.

[Malc]

personally, sounds a bit like me ........... how old is the car ?

Malc

[itarumaa]

1998 Ls, 170k miles. Maybe it is just too cold for the car:) I do drive it everyday and recently temperature have been around -14 to -22.

[ROYT]

If the trans fluid level is correct, I would put it down to the cold.

Let it idle a few minutes, then put the selector through all positions before setting off.

[steve2006]

Mine does this also when the car is started from cold and I reversed out of the garage, it feels like the drive engages then lets go for a second before re-engaging.

No other problems once going forward, fluid is fairly new and at the correct level.

[ROYT]

Possibly something to do with fluid pressure needing to build up from cold, do you think?

[steve2006]

That's my theory reinforced by the fact mine is often stood for weeks without use so I guess the fluid will drain from upper areas and require building up again on start up.

[Scribe]

Yes, sometimes mine seems reluctant to 'creep' backwards out of the garage even though it's idling at the normal speed. I wondered whether a brake was slightly stuck on, but probably not...

[Adam Evans]

Mine did this once in Europe

After a long 6 hour run at an average of 95mph I parked it up over night and when I came to it in the morning it would go in to drive but not reverse.

Left it ticking over for 5 minutes and still no difference.

Walked away from it effing and jeffing.

Came back to it about 6 hours later and tried it again and after 1 minute of ticking over went straight into reverse and its been perfect ever since

[itarumaa]

Ok, this morning I did what Royt adviced and no problems. I started the car and went from P->2 and then D, no problems today. it was -14 degrees.

[Cotswold Pete]

Not had this with the LS, but I recall many years ago in a Renault I owned similar issues with very very cold temperatures, I even found with the Renault that driving caused so much cold air to chill down the engine and transmission that I would have to stand and idle about every 60 miles. It never made sense really, but I know it was related to oil circulation issues caused by oil at top of engine being okay, but then in the sump etc, it was too cold. Too long ago now to remember all the details, other than I only had the Renault for a year, before moving onto a companycar Ford Escort (which had even more problems than the ancient Renault)

Strangely enough having driven in the USA in -30, never had any issues with autoboxes, I wonder if our American LS owners have noticed problems.

[mikeyv]

A common fault on old Granada autos.

An auto box specialist told me it was due to seals hardening, in the cold especially.

Mine got worse and worse, till eventually it wouldn't reverse at all, and wouldn't go in to 3rd(top) either.

Faced with an expensive rebuild, and as it was my taxi at the time, off it went to auction.

Hopefully, Lexus being of much better quality than 70s Fords, your problem will stay manageable.

[Titch LS]

This has been discussed on the U.S. sites. The conclusion seems to be that Lexus say any gear change hesitation in cold weather is a 'built- in' feature of the gearbox and is perfectly normal. This is so that the engine revs remain a bit higher and are held longer for a short time to facilitate a quicker warm up of the catalytic converters. I think it's designed as an emmissions thing for the U.S. market. The same thing happens to Merc gearboxes too apparently. Obviously, it affects our cars here as well. Nothing to worry about.