H. Dindi

2000 RX300 AWD at 100,400 miles. No Transmission fluid change ever done. Over the years, we changed MAF, A/F Ratio, Knock sensors. Changed spark ignition coils, etc. All relatively expensive repairs. Checked tranny fluid before the latest knock sensor replacement job (3 weeks ago). Looked brown/dark red, thin but not fresh cheery color. 2 days ago all of a sudden, the car does not want go while pressing the gas pedal. When the engine is cool, I get some power that lasts for 5-10 minutes then gradually gets worse, the RPM goes through the roof (4000-5000), while the car is at 20-30 MPH, with little to no power. Exactly the same as what "roanokebarry" described earlier in this thread on Mar 7 2006 as "neutralizing". After a while, the car does not even move. All of the gears are the same. D/R/2/1 all behave as if you are in neutral, the gas does not make it to the gears. Then you cool down the car, you get power until you drive another 10 minutes. Towed the car into a chain transmision shop. The manager described back to me the above behavior which I already knew. Said that they charge $525 to open up the tranny housing, diagnose and figure out what is wrong. They will then give me a price which he says will be around $2600-$3000, total, including the initial tranny open up fee, but no guarentees as to what the total cost will be. We have not heard of any any noise while driving or gear shifting, no CEL came up either. Going from one gear to another feels smooth, with no noise from the transmission. Could this be the clogged tranny filter in the pan ? It really hurts me to even talk about a $3,000 expense out of the blue ? What to do?

Were you able to solve your CEL 0171 code? If so could you tell us what have you done? I also have a 2000 Lexus RX300 at 80K miles and having problems with the same 0171 code... I cleared it several times and within 5-10 miles of driving it comes back... It causes the car to switch into the safe (fuel rich) mode which is causing power loss (slow acceleration), some (burnt!) fuel smell when the car is parked in the garage after a drive. I have cleaned the MAF once with an electronics spray cleaner which did not solve the code 0171 problem... I had also replaced the A/F ratio sensor (Bank 1 sensor 1) with an original Denso sensor about a year ago which had then solved a different CEL code... I would like to learn from your experience if you don't mind sharing...

Go to the Car openers. they are great. they cut my master key and my wallet key for me. You have to take a photgraph of your key or give your key code. it takes like 5 days. mind you i live in canada. prolly fasteri f you live in usa. Terence Can someone give me the name of an ebay seller who has these blank keys with transmitter , that you'v delt with before.. This isn't the ebay seller you asked for but they do have a decent deal. You can get a replacement shell and blade cut to your key code for $40. You just need to put your electronics into it and you are good to go. Or if you need the new electronics also it's $145 complete. http://www.toy-lex.com/store/index.php?act...at&catId=24 www.toy-lex.com seems to be no longer active. I filled out their form from the above website for cutting 2 RX300 keys and mailed my uncut keys via USPS with my car key code on April 29, 2008. After more than 1 month, the USPS mail with my keys came back today, May 31, 2008. The post office could not deliver the envelope to the address.... They did not respose to my multiple e-mails, nor did they respond to my repeated phone calls. FYI.