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Hi All,
Ok, so a very specific error occurred on my dad’s 2003 Lexus LS430.
1. Symptom
At very high highway speeds (above 110 mph) and during heavy traffic on congested roads in Germany, a plastic like burning smell started to occur from underneath the car. Especially after stopping at gas stops after very high speed travel, the smell was also accompanied by quite a lot of white smoke from right underneath the middle console.2. Diagnosis
Went to a rental shop, put the car on a lift, and saw quite a lot of liquid around the rear of the transmission housing. A typical problem for rear wheel drive cars, and particularly the A340E and A650E transmissions is a bad rear housing seal. However, these usually occur in very old cars with at least a good 200k miles on them and/or 15 years plus.
Additionally, I noticed the previous garage had overfilled the transmission by about half a quart. I learned later that due to the rather similar design to a Mercedes S Class, the mechanic may have measured the ATF level in reverse gear as opposed to Park.
So I cleaned out the undercarriage with brake cleaner and took the car for a two day ride around the autobahn and downtown area. After that, I put it back up on our lift, and found a bit of leakage around the engine oil pan and the AT oil pan, but only a drop or two.
I retorqued all screws by less than 1/8th of a turn, and that solved our problem.I will add a shot of the tricky engine oil pan screw which seemed to be the main cause of our problem.
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I’m curious-did you adjust the ATF level after discovering the overfull condition? I’ve seen automatic transmissions push fluid through a breather which is really a relief valve in disguise. I’m not familiar with your application, does your vehicle have such a device?
Hi Sunset,
As far as I know, the A650E does not have an open overflow valve, at least I didn’t see any. There are two valves just above the A/T, however, those are the rear coolant flush valves for exchanging the coolant on the car.
I am fairly certain the overfill was going on for at least 6mths to a year, as I had checked the fluid levels on this car before and it constantly was too high. I told my parents repeatedly to at least drain or better flush out the system but they kept forgetting.
In any case, the gaskets look to hold up, the symptom hasn’t reoccurred in a few weeks now.
Cheers
How odd, usually you guys are so business savvy 😉
Rental garages are usually former chain garages or dealerships that went into chapter 11. A lot of times a couple of guys will take them over and rent out a lift with air tools and so forth usually for well below 10 bucks per hour. Very nice. I just spent the better part of the afternoon servicing a 1983 Jeep CJ5 258, got 2 cans of brake cleaner, wd40, anti rust, and lots of additional tools and such. Paid 25 bucks for the tools and materials and 35 bucks for 4 hours of lift time. Loved it 😉
Yes, I saw those when we were in former Yugoslavia last year. My thought is that there is too high a of a liability risk for those facilities here in the states. Politicians stifle new businesses and attorneys bankrupt the existing successful ones through lawsuits. Yes I’m bitter about it!
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