been having some problem with the transmission in my aurion
has anyone had any probs with the auto slipping when changing gears?

getting the ocassional slip when changing from 2nd to 3rd and also give a rather abrupt thump sometimes when kicking down from 3rd or 4th to 2nd or 3 rd respectivly.had toyota check it out but nothing found .woulnd play up while they had it.

FAT

I've had transmission flare from 2nd to 3rd as well, but this only occurs when the engine is cold in the morning (such as when the temperature gauge is around the 1/8th mark or less). Never ever experienced any hard shifts. It's sometime hard to recreate any issues you may have, so I wish you luck with Toyota because that sounds like it should be checked out if it is happening on a warm engine.

I just got back from a driving holiday up the coast and did find that some times when changing down if your pushing it hard You will get a thump.. I think it's the norm with sequentials cause my mate who was with me has the same thing happen to him in his Mitsibishi's sequential.. When i am driving sensibly though it is smooth as.. Taking mine for a service and am mates witht he service manager will ask him if knows for sure what it is!!

I think you will find the tranny flare when the engine is cold is due to the transmisson oil also being cold.............

Normal thing between 2nd and 3rd... not sure why it is only these gears, but guess it has something to do with the internal design.

If you try to accelerate fast, does yours also have a really noticeable gear change lag between 1st and 2nd? I have yet to determine if it is just my trans or a common thing... gets really annoying because you get thrown forward, then back again during the change - which doesn't seem right to me...

for me its different
its like I notice the gear changes if I drive too softly

throttle pressed softly from 0km/h
I feel softly thrown forward when it changes gear about 45km/h

I recall someone said when he drove softly his transmission seems to "learn" and skip gears to go straight to cruise

now thinking out loud...
I press throttle soft
the AI holds gear for longer so it can skip gear smoother
while it holds gear we are not at optimal ratio and driver feeling softens
once into the new gear we are at a more optimal ratio and driver feel softly thrown forward

after some research on the net it appears very common fault in u.s camrys with the same drivetrain,2grfe with u660e,some people even noting theyd had their tranny replaced up to two times under warranty and still had the problem return after about 5,000 "miles".some noting that theyde got away with a reflash with a new firmware of the tranny ecu.
i will contact my dealer tommorrow to ask more about the reflashing.the "flaring " is not really bothering me that much,but i'm scared its not doing the gearbox much good and dont want more trouble after its out of warranty.

Sure does!! I think the fact that in essence the gear box is still a automatic that can be controlled somewhat by the driver has a lot to do with it. Only baseing that assumption on a previous thread I have seen here though!! It will be interesting to see how Fatsatman gets on with the dealer reflashing the ECU though!!

No its not a normal thing, its a fault, albeit a common one. I had my tranny changed under warranty after months of complaining about it.

http://au.toyotaownersclub.com/forums/inde...p;hl=trufflepig

For those wondering about the surge/lag between gear changes, I've been told that Toyota has recognised this as a fault and are working on a fix for it. The word is that there is a problem with the ECU/TCU code that causes some dodgy calculations in the lower gears.

Can't wait for this fix, as the flaring is getting worse and I can't imagine does good for the transmission!

I think my transmission is not exactly really fast or really smooth
but if anything its still quite gentle
don't really know if there is a problem
can't compare, none of my friends have Aurion

Dave,

Any idea who "told you"

My Aurion suffered this problem, and after much denial from the service department of Cannon Toyota ("we can't fault the car," they kept telling us), agreed to send it to Gary McMillan Toyota, who apparently do transmission for Toyota, to investigate.
Before it even left Cannon Toyota, I received a phone call telling me that Gary McMillan were just going to replace the transmission outright!!

I kid you not!

That smacks of a "known issue" for sure, no way they would just replace a trannie just because I rang up and asked nicely!

...interesting

Well the problem is known by Toyota USA in regards to their V6 Camry which uses the same gearbox. They even have a TSB in regards to it. It's not specifically Australia, but the problem does exist on the U660E gearbox.

Well, as it turns out, Gary McMillan just played around with the valves, result, no difference, car still surges and farts about.
Really REALLY don't like this,. at the very least Toyota should have told us what was wrong, and what work was done, we received no repoty detailing what work was done at all.

Time to take this to Toyota Australia...anyone here got an idea what the best way to go about that is?

The Aurion has been out for quite a while with still no fix. I get the feeling that it is not going to change any time soon as well. All I can imagine is a lengthy ordeal with no beneficial outcome.

i feel for you. a known problem with the camry v6's is a clunk on downshift from 3rd to 2nd, which my dealer recognised as a fault. several years after the launch of my camry, there's still no fix. the only thing that can be done to slightly alleviate the problem is to keep the tranny fluid extremely clean. there's been absolutely no damage whatsoever to my transmission, just an annoying clunk

but ive read somewhere that its not an option on the aurion as the tranny is a sealed unit?

That is correct. Apparently it can run for 160,000 kms without ever requiring a top up or change. Provided that it is not abused, there should be no reason why they wouldn't be able to stand up to that claim.

With respect to the transmission flare, I don't think that it creates any issues while driving which is why Toyota may not be so fussed as to fixing it. It doesn't make the shifts any rougher and probably does not put any extra strain on the gearbox.

Guys,

I took my SX6 into Lander Toyota today with a long list of complaints, Among them was the vehicle pulling to the left (which, they claim to have found the problem and are repairing today) and also the problem described here which is the Transmission flare when cold... I had a lengthy discussion with the service manager there in regards to it and received the impression he already knew about the problem. He rang me at 12pm today to let me know that they have 'rectified' the problem with a software update. The problem has been rather chronic this last week and a half so I'll definitely have to test it to know for sure.

What were your results from this software fix?

With the sudden cold in Melb, the flaring has also become significantly worse for me too to the point where it feels like accelerating in neutral (it doesn't accelerate!). Might have to go and get the software update done too.

Wulfkind - Lander motors are sharks they ripped my old man off and few mates that bought from them one of them even went to the extent to place signage on back of his windows saying there rip offs unless you see it in black and white it all lies.

For your sake I hope there attitude in ripping customers off has changed. - anyone buying watch out for young salesman called carlos unless u see it in writing on the contract then it means nothing specially verbal as in verbal direahea

keep us posted

AUR30N

unfortunately there is no such thing as an honest salesman in the car industry.

and unfortunately if you do not have it down in writing you don't stand a chance. word mean nothing unless its down on paper (and signed)

i'd be careful with the slander... it could backfire.

this is the stupid world we live in.

Sorry for the delay in getting these details to you all... I have very little faith in the Lander sales department after they tried to rip me off on a Presara when I was first looking at Aurions... Ended up with an SX6 from elsewhere... My mate (who owns a rolla) had a lot to rave about with their service department and after my disappointment at Terry Shields I thought I'd give them a go.

Sadly, the reputation of their sales department extends to their service department.

When I picked up the car the following day, I checked the service sheet and found that all that was noted was "Added oil, All OK" along with notes on my steering issue "reset alignment, all OK" - All this despite being told by the 'service manager' that he had performed a computer update on the transmission and that should fix the problem and that they were replacing bushes to fix the car pulling left.

I also found it interesting that the car had covered 15km on that day... After I got the car back with the 'added oil and wheel alignment' I found it was behaving exactly the same way, the flare occurs mostly in the mornings but I have noted it on warmer days when the car wasn't so cold. I've booked it back in with them on thursday to see what they have to say, I have very little faith that the issue will be resolved then, also.

Have to wait for dash clips too.

Side question: Does your vehicles dash 'creak' when your knee rubs against the centre console? I find this REALLY annoying being a bigger bloke, but I can't seem to get anyone to recognise it as an issue.

My old commodore never did this (1995 VS)

Pretty much anything around the centre console and dash in my Aurion creaks when I push my hand or anything else against it. Doesn't bother me too much though. That's what music is for

Mine creaks and squeeks when knee leans against it


AUR30N

Well, the Aurion is back in at Lander today - thought I'd do the right thing and give them another chance at fixing it before I do my stack... I understand nobody has had any success in getting this problem fixed but a thought occured to me... Perhaps we should get together and book in our cars at one dealership on the same day? Might be away of waking them up and showing them a pattern exists.

Wondering if this problem has been rectified in the 2009 line up.

Any one driving a 2009 with this transmission problem or with the dash rattle?

Hey guys thought i would post up my experience with this same issue of the engine flaring when changing between 3rd and 4th,
i took my Zr6 to toyota here in bundaberg a couple weeks back to get them to have a look at the issue which they recognised as a problem and would need to contact Toyota Australia as to what would fix it. They told me that they would try to fix it by putting a new transmission ECU in it which i had fitted today. Unfortunately this hasnt fixed the problem.
So they have told me now they need to contact the Toyota Warranty people to get approval for a new transmission, which will hopefully fix they problem.
Very glad i still have the car under warranty for this

Has anyone else had any recent success in solving this problem?
Cheers

Sure have...

... driving it to redline on each gear

.

Thought i would let everyone know how ive gone with fixing the tranmission problem,
Toyota replaced my first transmission ecu and unfortunately didnt solve the problem, they then went back to toyota australia and found there was more recent transmission ecu updates so they fitted one and so far a week later i still have not had any issues! i have been very happy with the help from toyota although they are slow they still have got it sorted
Lil Bird

what build date is your car?

did they replace it under warranty or did it cost you ? I have the same problem especially 2nd to 3rd manually shifting, have to leave the foot off the throttle for 2 seconds before planting it again, i've got less than 5k of warranty left be good to get an upgrade.

Build date is 10/06,
Mine also had the flare between 2nd and 3rd, had to lift my foot the same as you, was very annoying,
I only had about a month left of warranty left when i first took my car to toyota with the problem, so for the last month or so its been out of warranty but they still fixed all under warranty free of charge.

thank you lilbird, I think I will get cracking on it tomorrow, only got less than 3k warranty ( thats only 2 weeks ) travelling for me.

thanks to your help lilbird, rang tuesday took it in this morning (fri ) head of diagnostics came for a run and as soon as we got back they are ordering the the latest ecu they also found that my car had a recall for an oil line replacement, so I will get that done too. once again thank you.

Flare between 2nd & 3rd. Thats strange my flare on the 10/06 build is between 3rd & 4th.

Sorry your right mine was between 3rd and 4th also not 2nd and 3rd, so good not having it anymore

Hi guys been reading up on here about your Aurions for a few weeks now.
I have always had manual cars apart from my last car, and Audi A4 with an auto cvt gearbox. I had to replace the gearbox tcu at a cost of $4500

Now I know that the Aurion does not have a cvt but it is auto.

I have since sold the Audi and test drove a couple of Aurions and I am seriously considering buying one. An SX6 probably.
How bad is this gearbox ?

Would you guys buy another Aurion after the problems you have had?

I would really value some feedback on this, from Aurion owners rather than used car salesmen!

thanks in advance.

I'd buy 10 more Aurions mate, they are a golden car..

Since my last posting, I've learned to live with the Transmission flare issue, it's only ever occurs on the first shift on a COLD morning and after 70,000km I've noticed no performance degradation in the transmission at all other than that issue.

in regards to the aurion, yes I would buy another. like any new car on production you will get minor issues. the transmision is only a software glitch and can be fixed under warranty. any built this year onwards should have the new software installed.

OK thanks for that.
I wont be buying new, budget of around 20 grand so possible no warrenty left on car I buy which is main reason of concern.

Won't highjack thread any more

cheers

you should still find one with some warranty in that price limit, so you can get issues fixed, depends if you want base model or sx6 ctc.

FYI

I got my 60k service done today and I told them I have gear flare 2nd and 3rd. I really don't know if I actually do have gear flare, I just said it so they could check the gear box outside of the scheduled service for it.

When I picked the car up they said they have ordered a new Trans ECU for me and will contact me when I can come in to fit it.

Specifically the sheet says:

Check for gear flare
Requires trans ecu - part on order

This is at Lander Toyota Blacktown. They wer really good at custoemr service!!!

When I take it in I'll ask them to check for steering wobbles when going slow. Even though I cant feel anything, I will see what they say. I hope they dont read this forum because my Aurion is easily distinguishable.

well done HT Ive been using mine in s mode because the flareing has gotten worse ( I think my SRI might be addding to it ) getting new ECU fitted wednesday, will post results.

I hope the Trans ECU dosnt make the car slower.......

transmission ecu has been replaced and is responding much better than the old ecu especially in the lower gears changing back going downhill, still a little flaring going up but the unit still learning. oil line fixed too, only rubber pipe and clips, not olid one.

after a week of replacing ECU changing smoothly, the only down side is it is reluctant to go into 6th on a steady incline and sometimes is slow to change from 4th to 5th (holds) must be a sensor thing or its my MAF on the intake sending bad messages to the system.