Very frustrated at the moment because I'm dealing with the owner of a big garage. He's a great guy, but he doesn't speak a word of English and my tiny vocabulary of Polish words doesn't include autoboxes. The wife is translating but... well, it's not easy.
The Lexus has 5 gears, all is normal until 2nd changes into 3rd. It just takes a split second longer and the engine revs an extra 500 rpms then it engages. Hardly noticable but it's not right. It's been like that for a couple of years. I asked another garage at the time to change the fluid and they said they had and nothing improved. Six months ago my current garage man sorted out a brake problem and as a lambda light had been on there for a few months he just cleared it with his laptop and I drove home. The gear change was like a different car - utterly perfect. It felt like all the changes were instantaneous. I took a long route home because it was such a pleasure to drive it. Next morning, the lambda light popped on of course and that lazy gear change 2 to 3 occurred again. So in my mind, it's a computer problem, maybe a sensor. It can't be a mechanical problem that suddenly coincides with a lambda light.
Anyway, this morning I took it to him again to sort out an unrelated niggle but I wanted to ask about the autobox, would it be a sensor or whatever. I drove it home with him so he could drive it back and I wouldn't need the bus. I showed him the 2-3 change, the rev up and then everything normal again. All this time wifey in the back is translating and of course I'm saying one thing and he's hearing another. Later back when he's driven off and I'm at home I finally get through to what he said - a slipping clutch - he'll check ATF and hope that sorts it. But I tried to show him exactly what happens and I don't think it is a clutch problem (or a 'band' as my old man says when I asked him why autoboxes have cluthes). It releases 2nd then moves to 3rd a split second slower than normal THEN engages and there is no slipping. No revving once it's in third. It's a lazy change. A dirty sensor. A computer glitch. Lambda-relative. These damned things are complex.
Anyway. I need to get the lambda fixed (oxygen sensor maybe) but can't get it done at the moment as I need to drive out of town on Friday but I think when it is fixed, the 2-3 gearbox change will rectify too. But when I pick it up later about something else I want him to clear the lambda so I can see if it works beautifully like it did that time.
99% don't care about the lazy shift, or even notice, but guys like us on a motoring forum will find it extremely noticable and when it doesn't deliver perfection, it ruins the pleasure.
Any engineers out there with any ideas? Over to you. Number Cruncher.
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