Rx300 Awd Transaxle Failures

[lenore]

Quality of a shade tree mechanic.......!!!

I'm insulted, VERY!

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Sorry, I use the term shade tree mechanic which generally meant not high quality. I too have wrenched most of my time at home. However my quality of work has far surpassed that of my local Lexus dealership. At least I put all the parts back, and in the proper installation. I suppose if I had taken that trade years ago I would probably have been considered a master mechanic, because I was always taught if you are not going to do it right don't do it at all. As for my addition of a filter, I purchased a Puralotor spin on filter setup. I have located a spot for it near the left side under the body, and with the addition of a bracket which I will weld up will be very serviceable with the shortest splice into the main lines of the Transmission cooling. I enjoy your input, and again apoligize, but do not infur that you are a substandard mechanic.

[wwest]

ATF cooling but with sustained temperature...

A cooler with no "natural flow", say mounted sideways to forward motion, but with an electric fan controlled by a 150F thermostatic switch.

[mckellyb]

I too have worked on cars most my life, and would never have believed the failure of a transmission at 60 to 100k on a automatic.  Chrysler, yes, but a luxuary car come on. 

Hey, now...watch it with the Chrysler cracks!!!

:P

Plus, Chryslers are luxury cars. Plymouth was the entry-level, Dodge is for workin' folk, Chryslers are for the executive set who didn't like Cadillac or Lincoln.

I have a '95 Dodge Intrepid ES w/the 3.5L motor which was well known for premature transmission failures, yet even with me abusing it, I'm still on the original at 120K miles. In this car's case, regular transmission oil changing seems to be the key, as do having a cooler on it. Mine has one OEM, which means Mopar was figuring it out on-the-fly. Shockingly, there are some of these rolling around with 200K on their admittedly underbuilt transaxles.

I inherited the 'Trep from my wife when she got the '02 AWD RX. I'm happy, though periodically driving her car spoils the hell outta me. I'm going to have to keep a very close eye on the transmission fluid on the RX, as I don't want to have any transmission problems, ever, if possible. As it is, I went with Mobil 1 gear oil in both the PTO and rear diff at 30K miles, which is shortly after she bought it. Insurance is cheap, sometimes. I dislike the idea the front diff shares common fluid with the transmission, but hey, that's the way it is.