Received the new transmission programming last week. Results are mixed.
Seems responsive on the road, but I have a serious lag issue that's worse
than it was before. I'm hoping it works itself out as the transmission
adapts itself to my driving habits. The lag only seems to happen when doing
a rolling stop, also known as a California roll, then trying to accelerate.
I press the gas, the engine does absolutely nothing for 1-2 seconds, then
finally kicks in. By the time it kicks in, it causes the wheels to spin.
On my commute home today, I passed on an opportunity to change lanes in
traffic at a point where I just knew it wasn't going to respond. I can not
drive a car that performs like this. I'm going to give it until my next oil
change, which will give it 5000 miles to adjust, and hopefully it will
adjust itself. If not, I'm not sure what my next steps are.

Errr, by 'adaptable trasmissions' they mean that it will pick one of a set
number of pre-programmed gear change programs according to car weight,
terrain, driver style etc.

It's not sitting there re-programing itself. Just making different decisions
based on what you do. It also adjusts over the millisecond, not over the
month.

Don't know what you mean by a california roll. During rolling you're in the
highest gear, if you then try to accellerate hard, particularly when moving
slowly, the transmission needs to change down to 1st or 2nd which does take
some time.

R.
LiFe.



"Steve Larson" <r (AT) NOSPAM (DOT) com> wrote

Nope, California Roll is an expression given to a rolling stop. The car
doesn't come to a complete stop at a stop sign, then you give it gas to go
around a corner. It takes it about a second or two to kick in the gas. The
transmission is not in the highest gear in this case. Lexus made it very
clear that one of the new enhancements was that the tranny will downshift
sooner so it will not get to that point. I think you may have misunderstood
my entire email, or you're just not aware of the facts about the 02-03 ES300
transmission issues that customers have reported. The adaptable
transmission, at least according to Lexus, will adjust itself based on your
driving habits. The last time I had the computer reset, it actually started
driving better after a couple thousand miles. After the firmware upgrade,
it has reverted back to driving crappy. I'm hoping it will adjust itself
again over the next couple of thousand "break in" miles.



"LiFe" <mqdomnospam (AT) hotmail (DOT) com> wrote

Steve,

FYI, I just bought a 2004 ES330, and it has exactly the same transmission
idiosyncrasies that you describe. It's quite a disappointment -- my wife's
10 year old 4 cylinder Camry downshifts more quickly and accelerates more
quickly when you hit the gas than my new 225 HP Lexus. Since the problem,
from what I see in the archives of this group, has been around a few years,
it's probably a mechanical limitation of the transmission that causes it.
If it had been firmware, they surely would have been able to fix it by now.

-Doug

"Steve Larson" <r (AT) NOSPAM (DOT) com> wrote

Interesting. There are some who have posted on this newsgroup in the past
who have a difficult time believing that the ES300 has this problem. My
take on the problem with the transmission is as follows. I think Lexus had
a balancing act with this design. First, they needed to hit a minimum MPG,
so they needed a way to prevent the driver from sucking down the gas.
Second, they wanted to produce a car that had smooth and relaxed behavior,
which in turn isolates the driver from the chaos of the road. To that end,
the decision is simple, they chose a drive by wire transmission and throttle
control. They could easily program the computer to behave like a mechanical
throttle, but that would lower the ES300's fuel economy. Considering most
of your fuel is lost when you stomp on the gas, they have effectively
eliminated that by introducing lag. I know I've changed my driving habits
after I had to adjust my driving habits to compensate for the lack of thrust
when it was needed. I am disappointed with their design decision. I firmly
believe the car's response behavior is by design and not not just a defect
or a product of an electronic throttle/transmission system. I would prefer
that Lexus provided the driver a more immediate control of the vehicle, I
don't really want them making my decisions for me when I hit the gas and
need to move.


"Doug" <no-spam (AT) no (DOT) spam.com> wrote

Here's another description of the problem. When I'm rolling through a
parking lot slowly, in 1st gear, just getting to the point of entering the
roadway, I press the throttle about 1/3 of the way down to accelerate into
traffic. The engine does not rev up or kick in for about 1-1.5 seconds.
Now, if there is traffic coming from behind, that is a very frustrating
thing to have happen. We all grew up driving cars that actually moved when
you pressed the gas. It is the most amazing thing to me, whether by design
or not, that my 2002 ES300 makes a decision for me that it does not need to
go when I press the pedal. I'll have the car into service another 3 times
for this same problem, then lemon law will apply.


"LiFe" <mqdomnospam (AT) hotmail (DOT) com> wrote

I know exactly what you mean. I am scared to get the tranny update, because
of fear it will be worse. There should be a note that hesitation exists
when you get almost ready to stop, but need to move it (press on accelerator
again.). In Houston traffic, it is downright unsafe on this 2003 ES300.
"Steve Larson" <r (AT) NOSPAM (DOT) com> wrote

Same here in Atlanta on I-285, I-75, and I-85. It's a harrowing experience
when you don't know if your car will move when you need it to. Like I said,
I don't know if this is by design or not, but if this is indicative of the
computer-controlled throttle/tranny control, then I say it was a failed
experiment. I'm giving it some break in, probably about 1000 miles, on the
new computer program, then I'm going to look at my options. It actually
wasn't this bad in this particular driving situation prior to the
reprogramming. I really think Lexus programmed it like this to smooth out
the ride and to get fuel economy up. I'll gladly give up a mile per gallon
to get back the acceleration when I need it. I'll keep posting updates, as
I'm sure others are interested in this topic.


"Stephen Keown" <skeown (AT) houston (DOT) rr.com> wrote

Whether by design or not, I can say that, in my case, the rolling stop
acceleration pause is MUCH more severe after the fix was applied.

In fact, and to be honest, neither my wife nor I, even recall having that
particular problem prior to having the fix applied. (We only had the 40 MPH
hard acceleration lag, with racing engine. The fix helped that, but now we
have to deal with this slow roll thing.)

I'm sorry I had the fix done.

I'm told the new Acura TL has drive-by-wire. I'd like to try their system to
compare......

I'd actually like to try out the new ES330 to see if it behaves the same.
I'm actually considering test driving an Infiniti G35 to see how it handles.
I recall reading something about a similar lag in the G35, could be another
computer-controlled tranny. Computers are great, but they're only as good
as the people who write the programs.


"njbok" <ayonnebay (AT) NOSPAMhotmail (DOT) com> wrote