New Owner Today With Question

kris01 · January 11, 2006

Hi to all, I just bought a 2001 RX 300 today. Used with 59k for 18k. Appeared to be in new condition. prevoius owner bought last year from lexus dealership, car was certified. he just traded for a new mercedes. I looked over the vehicle prior to purchase and noticed the tranny fluid being black. Hmm I called the prevoius owner and he said that it was changed at times. The tranny shifts fine and I just drove back 300 miles with no problems. I have read on hear that there is a problem with trannys, should I be worried? I will change the fluid and filter tommorow. From what I have read this seems to be a normal issue ? Has anybody els had this and there tranny survived? We bought this because we have owned toyotas for some time and never had a bit of problems. I hope this is not bad. Thanks

Rx330driver · January 11, 2006

im pretty sure thats a bad sign! lol sorry. Before i switched to an rx330, i have a 2000 rx300 lease, which was AWD. You might hear that they have tranny problems and stuff, but i got my milage up to almost 100K in those four years. I didnt have a single problem...i just kept going back to the lexus dealerships for oil changed in 5K intervals. My advice is to change it...as fast as possible...and just keep it clean. If your lucky, the tranny problems will not affect you

Edited January 11, 2006 by Rx330driver

kris01 · January 11, 2006

When I had looked at it yesterday I had fluid on a paper towel. It looked black but with no burnt smell. I looked at it when I got home again and found a little of pink/red in it. I wil change it out today and every 5k after for a while to see if it gets any better. I spoke with the ower prior, and he stated that he never had any problems with it and it was serviced as rquired by Lexus. What else does everbody think of this? Thanks Oh yeah I forgot it's a 2 wheel drive, if that helps any.

RX in NC · January 11, 2006

There's a lot of information on this forum concerning premature transmission failure in the RX300 all-wheel-drive version. A number of us have suffered from it. Search this forum using "transmission failure" as your key words and you'll learn more than you'll ever want to know.

In a nutshell, you should change your transmission fluid immediately. No telling what kind of fluid has been put in there to this point, and that's something that is now beyond your control and may wind up biting you big-time. If I were you, I'd spend some time reading about how to change the fluid here on the forum, and then go to my closest Toyota dealer and purchase five quarts of Toyota Type T-IV transmission fluid and then go home and change it. Be sure to pull both drain plugs on your transaxle pan in order to drain as much as whatever fluid is in there now as you can. You'll need a 10-millimeter Allen wrench (hex wrench) in order to pull both plugs. Close to five quarts should drain out of your pan. Be sure to clean the magnet on the tip of the drain plug with a clean rag before you reset it. Look for metal filings or shavings on the magnet tip - if you see quite a bit of that, you may be faced with a transmission that has been running around with incorrect fluid and may therefore be preparing to give up the ghost.

I change the transmission fluid in my wife's 2000 RX300 AWD every 30,000 miles, but it's never run anything but Toyota Type T-IV fluid. In your case, not knowing what's been poured into your transmission case over the years, I would change your fluid every 15,000 miles as some folks on this forum do.

Good luck to you. Let us know how your situation turns out. These RX transmissions are the weakest component in the vehicle, and you really have to baby them to keep them in as decent a shape as possible.

lenore · January 11, 2006

Note: I would not suggest a tranny flush other than the means of flushing by hand through the cooler. You may dislodge particles into your valve body assembly otherwise. Drain and fill every 5k for three changes and hopefully you will have bright red fluid.

kris01 · January 11, 2006

Thanks guys so far. I did go to Toyota this AM and purchased the tranny oil after reading last night how to do it. I drained it all out, to my suprise it is not black yet, instead it looks like redish/purple. I did speak to the service rep at toyota. He has seen -0- transmissions fail at this point. He himself is looking for a used RX 300. There are plenty of them around here so mabey they drive 300 miles to the nearest Lexus dealer I dont know. I then spoke with the Lexus qualified mechanic on duty. He advised me to change it regulary unlike what the book states. He has heard of failures but none he has seen at this point. He stated that Lexus should have all work on this car, so I will call them today later. So thus far everything seems good, the last owner stated that he had it serviced so we'll find out. Thanks