ikaruga24

Not disputing that mate, in my country the Germans have a nasty reputation for reliability. However, i am not in my country and each country has a certain way of having their own quirks on those things. Believe me when i say that i would love to get the Japanese car but after the ordeal i went through trying to find someone to properly be able to fix the issue (even though in the end i chose against it due to cost) i am torn to have to go to the German side just so i can have a choice.

And it's finished, the mechanic who can actually work on the problem quoted me a price 1200 quid for a new car computer and labor plus anything that might come across for parts during the gearbox work as well so the actual cost could well go double that. From his overall experience he would say that problems like this come out from excessive neglect due to being immobile for more than 12 months and this is a killer for any car no matter what and especially so for automatic cars. In light of that i have decided to give my vehicle for part exchange for something else and i haven't made this decision lightly. Second, and this is even more bothersome for me, i have been talking with a lot of people all this time and everyone tells me to never look anything else but the German brands for the UK market. Anything else and you risk bad support network, lack of knowledge on how to work on a car and other types of inconvenient crap you don't want to get caught in. I have no idea how true that is of course but as most said, get a BMW, audi, VW and you are all set with peace of mind even if something does go wrong.

Yes with the machine. Manual changes don't happen past 3rd gear.

Sorry to quote you all the time Lina but i feel like we are friends now 😂. Update on the issue, i got it to some recommended auto gearbox specialists that also have very good general testimonials. From what they have found is that my cars fault codes should not be there as the car is flawless when it comes to the metrics and health checks they performed. One thing that seems peculiar that makes them think it's the cars computer at fault is the fact that the gear changes don't happen because there is no command from the computer to do so. It's not that the gears are stuck or anything, it's because the computer gives the command up until the third and back but then it just doesn't give any commands for upwards of the third gear. Their advice on the matter is to ask for a new computer from Lexus which now comes a question. What computer? Main computer? Specific ECU? The entire thing? What costs are we talking about if that's the case because it doesn't sound cheap though to be fair i was waiting to hear about a faulty gearbox and a piercing cost to replace it but thank God no. Still this does sound like another costly fix from the other direction, am i wrong?

After all this time i got myself into bull**** territory. Over three weeks in the shops only to be called today and come to collect it with the issue as they can't fix it. I am quoting "the car is exactly the same as you first brought it in". The electrician tried to fix it but it seems the gear problem persists after the oil change. I am now certain they did nothing but the bare minimum for it. Didn't pay anything other than 30 quid for the electrician, time wasted, no work done, still in square one. Second garage that has no clue... I have a few more options but i am angry...

One more update on the matter. The car is still in the mechanic. That's 3 weeks now fully closed in the shop. After trying stuff they came to one maybe possible solution, that the car needs a full Rebalancing as they can't seem to pinpoint what can possibly be the issue. Mechanically is sound, the solenoid valve issue is no more, battery is fine though not at 100% health (it's at 85% according to them which is vastly different than what Halfords said being at 40%), measurements from the sensors seem to read correctly and the car seems to work fine for those five minutes without the check VSC comes on again. They asked me if i had done anything to the car to which i replied i literally bought it some weeks ago and it was fine for the first ten days or so, then we changed tyres and 20 minutes after the change the check VSC came on and that's the story. Now the good news is that i don't owe anything for the work so far but i am starting to get both worried and desperate as i have spent a small fortune moving around with commute not to mention time wasted. How long would you allow a garage to keep your car for checks before you decided it is time to try another one here in the UK?

Quick update on the matter. One week in the shop now. Apparently the issue is not mechanical but electronic in nature. Some little computer, one of the ecus or other little electronic/electric maggafin. I am starting to suspect that it's something really easy to fix/replace but obviously they won't do it for that stupid little amount and will throw in labor hours. Again i can't be sure but here comes next week and see when i get a phone call.

😭😭 Then i already know that i paid for things i shouldn't have and just needed to go straight to Lexus because even if i paid 150 for the check (ridiculous price for an inspection) it would still be at least accurate and no fiddling about to find out what might be wrong with it. Obviously i wouldn't go with "get new gearbox" but i would immediately go for the gear work to some mechanic that can do this from the beginning. Instead i went through all stupid hoops (and paid for them) for a grand total of nothing. Time wasted, money wasted, no results and still not resolved. Hopefully this garage will be able to sort things out and not just beat about the bush trying to extract money for no existent or speculated issues.

OK, i guess i have a lot to learn in this country on who to trust on things. Dealership-stealership, Halfords - Halfrauds...why do i think this is not the extent of it? It's so hard, especially when you are new to that country and try to wade through the bull****. Now you give me things to think about everyone i have visited so far and whether the money i paid were unneeded...

The funny thing is that the codes regarding the solenoids cleared after the fluid change. Technical said he drove it for a while with no issues and parked it all fine. Then I went, turned the engine on to leave the place and there was the lights back on and into limp mode. Now as i said it feels a bit more powerful on the pull than before but it's still having traction control off, engine and triangle orange lights on and of course the Check VSC message on the dash. This Monday i have an appointment for this but i won't forget to tell them that Halfords found out that the battery itself is at 40% health and any work to be done needs to be done with a healthy battery. Maybe this is the only thing really needed or has needed since the start.

Hmmm, then that means this is my next stop. If that is the case then 40% battery health pretty much means no need to go forward.

Update: I took it to the technicians today for the work. I just collected it and the lights came back on as i was leaving the garage. I can feel a change to the car, first it feels like limp mode is is no longer engaged though as it has much more pull (same as before it went limp mode the first time) but with the lights on it still refuses to go over the third gear. The diagnostic this time had the solenoids cleared but has something completely crazy... Something about EV power. I know for a fact that my car is NOT a hybrid. Could this have to do with the battery and its 40% health we discovered with the other garage? I forgot to tell this one about the battery. On Monday i have another appointment with them to check this more thoughtfully. Should we just put on a new battery for tests sake before we even begin to get to grips with anything else?

Privately. Car dealer would have had a warranty and i would talk to him directly. I did ask for the seller to be sincere and he told me apart from new tyres and the big service coming the car is absolutely fine. It's been sitting there for a while as he has now bought his mom the new version of the same car. That's about it. Now you might say that this was foolish to take his word for it but i had driven it for about half hour before purchase and nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Smooth gear box changes, turned on like a champ, sharp steering, electronics and other things worked fine. It looked and felt proper and since i really needed the car i thought it to be a safe gamble to buy it with no further checks.

Right, no further need for trying anything with the puddles then. Now i am just waiting on the oil and items set (the one you showed me Lina) to be delivered to me and take the car to the workshop to perform the flushing and the solenoid check. Fingers crossed there is no excessive metal residues on the magnets and it will end the problem right there and then otherwise i will be stricken to have spent almost 5K total because i was an idiot to not have checked it with the dealer prior.

Limp mode is as explained by Lexus a system that works in conjunction with one another. One problem, whatever that may be, affects the whole system and because the car can't know anything specific it puts the car into limp mode for safety purposes. Now as i see my car is stuck up to 3rd gear and i have seen it go into 6th a few times so it has problems engaging the 4th and 5th which is where the underperforming or stuck solenoid codes come from to my understanding. Now I have ordered a full set of transmission fluid, filter and gasket and i will take it to someone local to do the flushing and check them both solenoids and hopefully this will give the car what it needs to function proper again.