Rx300 Transmission Failure Poll

[rlin78]

Ok, a lot of discussion on the failure of RX300 transmission. I am here to find out if it is just a few people having transmission problem or a large number of RX300 owners. I have a Rx300 AWD with about 97k Miles and have not experienced any problems.

Please specify if you have performed ATF fluid change as well, pick (Not sure) if you don't know you have a 2WD or AWD RX300.

[LexKid630]

Not too sure if this will give you acurate results since pretty much the only peole on LOC joined because they HAD problems LOL

What we need is a survey to be sent out to everyone who owns an rx300.

[rlin78]

Good job people, as of right now, over 70% of the owners have trouble-free, at least for the transmission. I know this poll is not going to be very accurate because like Lexkid630 mention, owners here at usually here because of problems. But so far it shows that transmission problems are not that common

[lenore]

Dont forget, my car is on its third transmisson. I will conduct a survey randomly with owners in my area.

[bluestu]

Let's count them. 5 out of 17 with transmission failures and 2 of those are 2WD. What's up with that? I'm sorry that a few people have had transmission failures, but it isn't fair for the same people to repeatedly paint a Doomsday scenario for the rest of the owners who haven't experienced transmission problems and may never experience them. We're supposed to be able to enjoy our cars that we love and paid a small fortune for. Nobody wants to think they bought a defective car and that any day catastrophe may strike. All I can suggest to other owners is to change their fluid every 15k and hopefully their transmission will live a long life.

[LexKid630]

Dont forget, my car is on its third transmisson.  I will conduct a survey randomly with owners in my area.

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It's THIRD??? How many miles do you have? LOL

[bluestu]

I've posted many times that I have over 90k on both of my RX300s without any sign of transmission failure. I've always made sure the fluid is kept clean and I drive normal. I've owned other cars that had transmission failures and I take the blame for all of them. I either never changed the fluid, hauled heavy loads, or tore them up racing around town. I learned my lesson the hard way.

[lexus411]

2 RX 300's one had 45k the other had 78k miles and now {owned by someone else} has 135k and no problems. To many Lexus owners think that its a Lexus and is bullet proof and requires no maintenance.

[rlin78]

Just like I thought, only a very small number of people are actually having problems with their transmission. I am posting a new message to push this poll to the top again. Currently 80% of people voted have trouble free transmission.

[monarch]

Yes only 20% have had problems with under 100,000 miles , but if there had been a poll of LS400 owners probably 0% with under 100,000 miles would have reported problems. Therefore this evidence suggests the RX transmission is more sensitive to the consequences of transmission maintenance neglect as compared to the LS400 transmission. Therefore, savvy RX owners should be extra careful about periodically monitoring the condition of their transmission fluid and changing it BEFORE it gets seriously brown or black.

Wear occurs very, very slowly if the internal parts of a Toyota automatic transmission are always kept bathed in good fluid and occurs comparatively rapidly if the parts are bathed in badly deteriorated fluid.

[ArnoldsLex]

I just lost mine at 99300. I am the second owner. If Lexus would not have stated that it had a lifetime fluid maybe those 20% would not have had this problem. I cannot believe that any manufacture would do this. That is just arrogance or stupidity on their part. the car I had was a leased vehicle so I believe under those pretenses would it not have to be serviced by the book?

I do not know what planet some of you live on but a World class car should not have a failure rate of 20% under 100k. Mine was so chewed when it came apart they could not get the clutches out and cannot rebuild it. It is a boat anchor now. Used they are 2100.00+ for 75k units. I am telling you that what I have learned is that you cannot find cores because as one source said that most of them are destroyed like mine. I think also it may be due to most of them are going before the warrranty is out and Lexus is snatching the rebuildable ones up and sending them to their reman shops and making the money on the backend with their 4800.00 deals.

[rlin78]

I am sorry about those that have had transmission problems, and I am sure I would be upset if it happens to me before 150k Miles. It's a Lexus so it should last. But the reason for the poll was trying to figure out how many people are actually having problems with their transmission. As previous post suggested, this poll is not going to be very accurate because happy owners don't complain, only owners that have problems would most likely post. So all things consider, I would say the Rx300 transmission is not too bad. If you tow things and never change your fluid, that's too bad for you, it is not considerred under normal service condition.

I am sure I will change my opinion real quick if my transmission starts to give me problems, so it better last until over 200k Miles.

[lexdog]

Just like I thought, only a very small number of people are actually having problems with their transmission.  I am posting a new message to push this poll to the top again.  Currently 80% of people voted have trouble free transmission.

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I completely agree I have 70K miles on my rx300 and no signs of trouble

No vehicle is 100% trouble free especially over time but with proper maintenance and I think you can keep the worries to a minimum.

[2000lexusrx300owner]

Here is my experience regarding this manner. I am the original owner of my 2000 RX300 AWD. I had 105,000 when the tranny went to hell. I had litteraly just made my last payment on the RX when I had the biggest dissapointment with Lexus. I put on approximately 20,000 miles a year with about 90% of those miles being freeway. I commutes to work with my wife. We rarely carry any passengers. I babied my RX from the very beginning. I have taken my RX to the dealer for every scheduled maintenace since the day I bought it. I approved every mechanical recommendation suggested by the Lexus Service department. And still, the tranny goes to hell. In retrospect, the only sign that I notice of the tranny having any problems was the harder 'shifts' between gears the day before the tranny failed. The pause between shifts was just a little longer than usual, causing the actual 'shift' to jerk the vehicle more.

I had the RX taken in for service on a Flat-Bed to prevent further damage( because I was not sure what the problem was). Basically, the service rep had told me that the tranny was the problem and that they would not cover it because I had passed the 70,000 mile Power-Train warranty. I asked the service rep for more info on the transmission problem and if other RX's were having the same problem. He danced around the question for a while and would only admit that the tranny worked the way that it was designed to. He did let it slip that he's seen other RX owners had their transmissions covered by Lexus when they were brought in. But seeing that I had put on 35k miles past the warranty I would not get the same treatment. My bill to fix the problem was going to be around $3000.00. They were only going to replace the tranny with a re-built one. I spoke to the Service manager regarding my situation and the best that I could get out of him was for Lexus to pick up half the tab on the transmission. They wouldn't give a break on the labor( $750.00) I got away from this ordeal having to pay around 2 grand.

I don't expect that the transmission to last forever but this was my first luxury car. I did my research and decided that the RX300 was the one to buy. I made the mistake of thinking that Lexus, being Toyota's luxury line, would and should surpass the bulletproof reliability of it's regular Toyotas. I had owned a 1984 Celica GT, a 1986 1/2 Supra, and a 1988 Celica GT, all of which achieved 150 thousand miles without a transmission problem. Please don't make the mistake that I did...that's assuming that paying more money for a luxury brand that it would be more reliable. It's was only more luxurious and technologically up-to-date but definitely not more reliable. Having this problem has opened my eyes in regards to owning a luxury car. Save your money. Ultimately, it's just a car. And there is nothing better than having a reliable car.

[bluestu]

I had my transmission flushed the other day and I talked to the service manager concerning this issue. Apparently, I had been misinformed about how much fluid the RX300 tranaxle actually holds. He looked it up on the computer and it said it hold 9.5qts. They actually use a total of 16 qts. of fluid in the flush procedure plus a quart of special additive that is recommended. I called another shop to verify this info..

9 qts. is still more than twice the fluid that Lexus and Toyota service depts. replaces in their 30k drain and fill. This in my opinion is a serious maintenance flaw that needs to be addressed by the owners because Lexus and Toyota are probably not going to change their procedures. Most people aren't even aware that a transmission needs to be serviced.

[lenore]

20 percent failure on a luxury car is rediculous. I did service at 30k intervals, with filter screen and gasket and drain. I do not tow, My wife commutes down a busy road everyday about 13 miles. The fluid from day one change at 30k, 60k, 90k was black and burnt. Completely rediculous. I have not had time to set up my survey locally but I will. Monarch says my changes are not good service, I say bull@#$. I serviced my Lexus meticulously since the day I bought it in November of 1998. Funny any detroit car tranny doesn"t get burnt, black fluid, even when they fail. So what gives, Lexus is trying to hide this crap, and sneaking 15k service in now which is not even mentioned for severe service. What a crock. I am happy every one is not experiencing the failure, I would never wish that on anyone, I work hard for my money and $4300 dollars for a fly by night rebuild is rediculous. Then I had to have that one changed, because it didn"t work right. To top it off the Roseville Lexus dealership nearly jeopardized my wife's safety by doing substandard work, for instance leaving three of the bolts that hold the tranny to the engine out. Then the next transmission leaving the sway bar ends unhooked and rubbing against the drive shafts and brake lines. What a wonderful customer experience. I have worked on cars all my life, raced them, and maintained them and never made mistakes like that. And all Lexus said was s o r r y. Big deal. I told the shop steward, service manager, and general manager they were complete idiots. Went out to the shop and inspected my vehicle the last time and still found crap not right. Two weeks later the axle shaft fell out because they broke the retaining clip after removing it twice. What a bunch of shade tree mechanics. Send them back to high school auto shop. So yes, angry is not the word, but I continue to try to assist my fellow Lexus owners with my expertise when I can. Good night.

[bluestu]

I haven't ever seen black or burnt fluid in either one of my RX300s. The fluid has always looked and smelled OK. Maybe you just had a defective transmission from the start. Something was messed up for sure. I will agree with you about the repair job. That's rediculous!!! You have a good reason to be angry.

[monarch]

I did service at 30k intervals, with filter screen  The fluid from day one change at 30k, 60k, 90k was black and burnt.  Monarch says my changes are not good service, I say bull@#$. 

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I've said that I'm not aware of any RX AWD transmission failures when the transmission was always keep lubricated by good, undeteriorated fluid. In other words, no failures when the transmission fluid was always replaced BEFORE it got seriously brown or black.

Brown or black fluid = deteriorated fluid that is no longer functionally capable of preventing excessive transmission wear. Therefore in my view, owners who continue to drive with fluid that is brown or black are physically torturing their transmissions. I am not aware of any carmaker in the world that builds a transmission that can survive for long when lubricated with brown or black fluid.

In your car's case, it appears that 30K transmission oil pan drain and refills were not frequent enough to mitigate the severe driving conditions your RX was subjected to (slow moving, stop & go, bumper to bumper Sacramento city traffic in 90-110 degree summer heat with the air conditioner on).

[bluestu]

I agree. It's comparable to not changing your motor oil until it turns into black sludge. A drain and fill transmission service is comparable to draining 2qts. of engine oil and refilling with 2 fresh qts.. How long would an engine last doing that???

[lenore]

It would just have been nice if the Lexus had at least sent a correction to their owners book,, recommending 15k changes. I don't know about you, but I have never had a car that you had to constantly check the tranny fluid for burnt, black, or even level. I was doing preventitive maintenance on the engine and the rest of the car way above and beyond, never suspecting tranny fluid problems. I also have lost a great deal of my sense of smell ( too many toxics I guess) and the fluid always looked ok until it was too late. Heck, every American car I drove for my company was under the same abuse as my wifes Lexus, as I drove commute and day in day out stop and go as a service rep for a major company in Sacramento, and they would not allow you to service the transmissions and the fluid looks great on all the vehicles even after 100k miles. And all of those vehicles had a heavy load of service parts. None were designed for those requirements. Chrysler K car, Chevy S10, three chrsyler mini vans, one ford windstar. So how come they hold up and my $43K Lexus doesn't? Thats is where I come from, and incedentaly I seriously doubt most Lexus owners check there fluid very often, A very different clientale in a different wage bracket and lifestyle.

I always checked my fluids, I came from that background, ie Bristish cars, racing, etc. So be it the RX300 tranny is weak in design and Lexus is not a good enough company to back it. Honda/Accura does. How sad.