1993 Es 300 Transmission Problem 'sigh'

[LEX88]

Hey whatsup guys I love my car, i purchased it for 8,000.00 in 2003 with 55,000 miles on it it was mint, no cracks in the leather, and put another 4,000 + in the car putting in real xenons, had both front axles replaced, rear shocks and struts, timing belt done, water pump, battery, radiator, spark plugs tranny flush and engine coolant flush done at 60,000 miles. The car was never in any accidents, regular maintenance done, all 4 tires replaced in december of last year. My question is, at this point should I pay to have a rebuilt tranny put in and keep the car, put a new tranny in and sell the car, or sell the car as is, and get a NEW IS250 all wheel driver?

By the way the transmission fluid looks like oil, and is not shifting AT ALL? Anyone else ever experienced this?

[Lexusfreak]

What is the maintenance history for the tranny? Have all fluid changes been performed thus far over the life of the car?

[Toysrme]

By the way the transmission fluid looks like oil, and is not shifting AT ALL? Anyone else ever experienced this?

Yes that's what happens when you don't flush the transmission fluid even remotely as much as it needs to be.

Quit driving the car, if it moves at all - until the transmission fluid is flushed. If that means you can't do it yourself & you have to drive it somewhere, forget it. Tow it. Driving with extremely bad, and/or low fluid will burn clutch material in a few miles.

Flush the fluid until it's pretty red & try again. If you didn't drive it much under the poor conditions it's in now - the transmission should be fine when the correct level of good fluid is in it. If you drove it into the ground - it's shot.

It'll need to be rebuilt with new clutches.

Flush flush flush flush flush.

Good luck with it! ;)

[bob95603]

Hey whatsup guys I love my car, i purchased it for 8,000.00 in 2003 with 55,000 miles on it it was mint, no cracks in the leather, and put another 4,000 + in the car putting in real xenons, had both front axles replaced, rear shocks and struts, timing belt done, water pump, battery, radiator, spark plugs tranny flush and engine coolant flush done at 60,000 miles.  The car was never in any accidents, regular maintenance done, all 4 tires replaced in december of last year.  My question is, at this point should I pay to have a rebuilt tranny put in and keep the car, put a new tranny in and sell the car, or sell the car as is, and get a NEW IS250 all wheel driver? 

By the way the transmission fluid looks like oil, and is not shifting AT ALL?  Anyone else ever experienced this?

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I agree with Toysrme.

If your fluid looks like oil, there's a chance the transmission has possibly crapped out. Not knowing what's wrong and driving it could create additional problems or make the current problem worse. Drop and clean the pan and manually flush the transmission (don't do a power flush as you don't know what's wrong). Examine the crap that comes out and see if you have metal in it. Flush it until the fluid that comes out is red. Then take it for a ride and see how she feels. The problem may be as simple as you have so much crud in there that the fluid is fatigued and you have vents that are clogged. I'd spend $50 on ATF first to solve the problem rather that $2000-3000 on a rebuilt tranny. If the problem doesn't go away after the flush, then decide whether you want to sell it or not.

I bought a Honda CRV at a great price because the guy knocked $3000 off the price (already below blue book) because he was told he need his tranny overhauled for $3000. I drained what was in there, put in Amsoil and have never had a problem with it.

[Toysrme]

Exactly. 4quarts of ATF is about $5. You can buy $20 worth of fluid & easily have enough to:

Flush transmission

Flush powersteering

Change differential

Cool beans!

[camlex]

Hello,

How you flush power steering fluid?

Thanks,

[Toysrme]

Jack the front of the car up & secure it on jackstands.

1) Suck the old fluid out of the res so you don't make a total mess.

2) Pull one 10mm (big hose) off the powersteering res. Use a hose barb to connect this hose into a fresh quantity of ATF. (Best to just drop it in a big jug, not a single quart).

3) Pull the other big hose off & shove something in it to cap it.

4) The two open barbs on the res, connect hoses to them & run them to a bucket for oil fluid.

Turn the steering wheel from one stop, and it will syphon new fluid from the fresh container & pump old fluid to the res -> where it drops to your old fluid bucket.

It takes a few min & about a quart of fluid, but you won't suck air into the system. Quit turning when you're dropping pretty red fluid out the return line.

Take the discharge lines off, put the big hoses back on, fill the res to the FULL mark & you're done.

DO NOT do this while the car is running. A lot of people try to let the pump do it by itself & most of them wind up with lots of air in the system. It takes a lot of finesse to pull that move off.

[camlex]

Thank You.

[LEX88]

Hey guys as I stated before I had the transmission fluid flushed at 60k miles at the glencove ny lexus, I am just going to bite the bullet pay for the transmission rebuild which will come with a 1 year warranty, after I receive the car back I will be putting it up for sale 6500.00 with all records, second ownership, clear title, perfectly maintained is this a fair price for a vehicle that has had over 6,000.00 worth of work put into it in the past 2 years?

[Toysrme]

Eh, I just skimmed your repair list (i.e. I'm not adding it up), but If you've spent $6,000usd in repairs, I wuold say you've overpaid atleast $3,000. :(

That's a hell of a lot of money for minor work done. (By minor - nothing on that list takes a loooooong time to do to run up labor charges.).

There are websites that give car values. Like kbb & edmunds etc. Sell it private party in the paper (Always - you get so much more money than trade ins).

$6,000-$6,500 sounds like a good starting price to me. I would expect it to fall down to a more normal 4500-5000 if every buyer get's online & checks values first, but you never know. A lot of epople are impulse buyers & will see it & snatch it.

In our defense, you said it was flushed @ 60,000 miles, but we don't know the current mileage. Most places don't flush fluid regardless of what you tell them. They just drain all 3-4 quarts out of the pan & do no good.

By the way the transmission fluid looks like oil, and is not shifting AT ALL?

The fluid should be a bright red color. You 100% need to flush it. It doesn't matter if it was flushed last week. Even people that have no idea about cars don't describe "good" transmission fluid as "looking like oil".

I still think you need to flush it. What's the worse thing that happens eh? You're out $10-15 of fluid, an hour, or two of time. What's that compaired to a $500 used transmission that's not always in local supply + labor charges to swap 'em?

You seem like the kinda guy that'll buy a new transmision too. 100% Nothing wrong from that. But let's just say the transmission is fixed, or atleast becomes driveable for a couple hours work + tens of dollars of goodies.

VS spending a few thousand at a lexus dealer VS spending a couple thousand at a toyota dealer.

If you don't wanna get your hands a little drity, drive to whatever local INDY shops you have & just have them flush it. (It oughta take atleast 10 quarts to flush it)

If your ATF is "oil looking" It's worth your time & money to flush it out before putting a new, used, or building that transmission.

[LEX88]

Hey heres the list of repairs and or upgrades and what i paid

592.41 Polarion xenon hid kit 6000k installed myself

712.47 Flushed cooling system, tranny fluid flush and spark plug change (Labor killed me on that one had it done at the dealer.)

657.29 New left and right rear struts and boot and break pads and labor.

390.00 remanufactured axel shaft and assembly left and right axels front and labor.

504.77 4 new continental conti extreme contacts v rated all weather

100.93 New megatron interstate heavy duty battery

314.99 new fuel filter, new ignition rotor, new distributor cap, new ignition wire set, new pcv valve, new alternator belt, and labor.

455.00 New water pump, timing belt, power steering belt, a/c belt and labor.

557.48 new valve cover set, new upper torque mount , new plenum gasket plus labor

TOTAL=4285.34 + amount paying for rebuilt trannsmission with 1 year warranty. 6500.00 I feel is pretty fair all records, everything with the car

[Toysrme]

Flush the ATF & get back to us ;)

[bob95603]

Flush the ATF & get back to us ;)

Better still, drain the fluid, drop the pan and see what's in there. Clean out all the sludge and see if there's metal clinging to the magnets. Put in a new transmission filter. Scrape off the old gasket (use a putty knife; don't use a screwdriver; don't gouge the aluminum), put on a new gasket, put the pan back on and fill the fluid to the cold line on the transmission stick. Drive it gently for about 15 minutes to let the tranny fluid heat up, check the dipstick again and top off the fluid. You could be presently surprised how the problem went away. The whole process will take about an hour and cost less than $25 including fluid, gasket and filter. It's a real easy job to do.

BTW, you state you had the flush done at 60K. How many miles are on the car now?