Transmission Problems/failures with RX300 awd/fwd

[TunedRX300]

Well folks I have received two more emails from unfortunate victims of the tranny failures that did not post on this site. They read the posts and emailed me directly. How sad that every week I now get at least one email of another failure. Please everyone File a complaint with the NHTS board online and register your displeasure. We are growing in numbers and Lexus is still not standing behind their crappy product. Soon there may be a class action if enough people get together to voice their displeasure. Hey I have repeated it over and over and I know it gets old, but I did the changes and maintained my vehicle. It sucks to eat $4300 for a rebuilt tranny when Other Toyota products are lasting much longer with less maintenance. I took my ford on vacation, because I didnt feel confident enough to go on a multi state travel with my wifes Lexus. how sad, a Luxuary car that makes you loose all confidence.

Good work lenore.

Not to execuse Lexus' unwillingness to extend powertrain warranty on the transmssion, but Toyota most likely did not design RX's transmission. Aisin Warner designs most Toyota's trannies. Toyota owns a 30% controlling interest in Aisin Seiki, which is a parent company of Aisin Warner.

Take a look at Aisin Warner's transmission product portfolio

http://www.aisin.com/product/auto/drive/index.html

Aisin Warner's customer list, with Toyota as the #1 buyer

http://www.aisin.com/profile/customer/index.html

I found an interesting TSB from Mazda, which officially recommends Toyota T-IV for Mazda's new 6 sedan. Not only does Mazda recommends a Japanese competitor's ATF, it further lists two domestic (Ford, GM), one european (Volvo), and one aftermarket's ATF (Mobil 3309) as officially approved ATF - because they all comply to Aisin Warner's spec.

http://www.mazda6tech.com/tsb/aisinwarner.pdf

The more I dig, the more I found out that Toyota's OEM T-IV is more likely a re-branded Mobil 3309, which 100% complies with Aisin Warner JWS3309 spec. Otherwise, why would Mazda recommends ATF from 4 competitors and Mobil? Remember Mazda is liable for warranty claim if any of these ATF cause shift problem or failure on Mazda's 6 sedans.

Off the topic: The item that cracks me up is the last statement from Mazda TSB: "when the new ATF is avaliable through Mazda, you will be notified as soon as possible and a Service Bulletin will be issued"

Which to me translates to - "When Mazda negotiates a favorable term and pricing from an ATF supplier, from either Mobil or Idemitsu, we will 1)issue a TSB that states only Mazda branded ATF will be used 2) sell a Mazda branded Mobil/Idemitsu ATF at a considerable higher price"

Now, just replace "Mazda" with "Toyota", let's see what we got here? Nay, Toyota won't do that to us...Really???

[tmastres]

As we all already know the earliest inceptions of this ASL technique, the 1999 RX300 for instance, is resulting in premature transaxle failures. Pretty rough on transaxle clutch frictional surfaces to have the vehicle be almost stopped and have the engine output torque level start rising rapidly while in 3rd gear and have to downshift into first quickly.

Burn baby, BURN!!

.

But how often does that really happen in normal driving, once in a while maybe but enough to cause failure??

[lenore]

If the failures continue to roll in pretty soon it will be lawsuit time for false claims of maintenance and reliability. Lexus and Toyota better step up to the plate, At least Honda/Accura did on the MDX. For cry in out loud, There is room to pick up the tab or fix the problem. One or the other. When I received my lousy response from Lexus of America after giving 26 pages of documentation to support my case, I promised them I would not give in and would make sure that as many people as I possibly can will not buy their product. Good business means treat the customer right, they failed. I just came back from a multi state vacation and sadly drove my Ford F150 because I didn't have any trust in my RX300 and didnt want to ruin my vacation like last time when I lost my transmission. How sad, I hate American products, but Lexus ruined my faith in Toyota products. Good luck fellow RX300 owners, you will need it.

[carquestman]

ATF is not the only place that holds metal debris, there are three magnets in the tranny pan in addition to those on drain plugs. Without dropping the pan, one can not check the condition of the filter and clean those magnets. One can DIY with a few hand tools with this link RX300 Transmission Photo DIY Instructions

There are dangers of using flush, as described in this Tranny Filter Clogged by Flush

ATF function as a coolant, synthetic fluid will absorb and dissipate heat faster than mineral based fluid, in addition to having higher flash point and same color as OEM. In another word, a work around for higher amount of heat generated w/o having to deal with Lexus' "OEM fluid only" to honor warranty (which is against Federal law).

I am not interested to debate about synthetic vs mineral ATF or Flush vs Dropping the Pan. Just trying to help members to deal with problem at hand instead of pointing fingers.

I didn't mean to suggest that you do just a flush. I highly recommend a flush along with dropping the pan and changing the filter. Most machines allow you to drain the pan of fluid thus making it a much easier and cleaner job to drop the pan and change the filter and clean the magnets. Once the pan is replaced, the machine then finishes the job of replacing the fluid. The whoe process takes about 25 minutes. Bob

[TimAndRobin]

It's not just the 99's. Our 2001 Rx300 transmision failed at 97K miles while going down an interstate. $3500 repair at trans shop (lexus dealer quoted $5000). Mechanic said the transmission was 'complete mush'. Lexus 'customer support' listened to our complaint then said 'sorry, have a nice day'. DO NOT BUY AN RX300 UNLESS YOU KNOW THE TRANSMISSION HAS BEEN REPLACED ALREADY!!! And to whoever says this is a 'maintenance issue'- I've owned some crappy cars in my life (including a 74 fiat for goodness sakes!) all of which have had well over 100K miles on them and none have had transmission problems until our rx300. Lexus is not the 'relentless pursuit of perfection' but rather the 'relentless pursuit of covering up defects'.

I know what you mean lenore. I trust our 2001 rx300 about as far as I can push it (literally). I trust my 96 nissan pickup (who spent most of it's 108K miles towing a trailer and has never had transmission service, by the way) more than our lexus.

[wwest]

As we all already know the earliest inceptions of this ASL technique, the 1999 RX300 for instance, is resulting in premature transaxle failures. Pretty rough on transaxle clutch frictional surfaces to have the vehicle be almost stopped and have the engine output torque level start rising rapidly while in 3rd gear and have to downshift into first quickly.

Burn baby, BURN!!

.

But how often does that really happen in normal driving, once in a while maybe but enough to cause failure??

Agreed, absolutely.

But.

Assuming the transaxle is designed to survive for ~150,000 miles of non-rough service then certainly could be enough of these instances over say, 70-80,000, miles to shorten the clutch life by half. And keep in mind that in all this time, for most of the owners with faith in Toyota to not mislead them via the owners manual scheduled maintainance recommendations, the ATF is continuing to degrade a little for each instance.

[perk]

HELP!

I'm not sure what to do with this situation. I have very little experience with cars so I'm really feeling vulnerable to taking my car in. I'm a college student and was looking for a Honda CRV when I came across a 2001 Lexus AWD RX300 for a good price. It has a lot of miles on it (113,000) but its in pristine condition and everything added up. The previous owner was an older woman who drove it in between Prescott and Phoenix alot. She said she had it serviced at Bell Lexus religiously. She said the oil changes were done every 3000 miles instead of the recommended 5000 and that all of the necessary repairs were made that were recommended by the Lexus Dealer. She drove the vehicle the life of the car...and it showed.... It was in beautiful condition. Anyway, she traded it in for a RX330 to the Dealer and then a small time auto dealer got the vehicle for himself and sold it on his car lot to me. I got a great deal on it (bought it last week) and believed the guys pitch about Lexus being the most reliable cars and lasting forever. I researched it on Consumer reports and it had great reviews. (Too bad I didn't read this website) I got it looked at by our family mechanic and he did a regular oil service and checked it out - said everything looked great. I thought I finally found a car that was reliable. So I drove it yesterday from Phoenix to Provo, Utah to get ready for the Fall semester and 575 miles into the 600 mile trip, I was driving at 83 miles per hour in overdrive - when my rpms would soar and then fall and the transmission would catch. I slowed down to 70 mph and it was fine as long as I didn't gas it above that. Then I turned overdrive off and it drove fine - I could accelerate and the rpms wouldn't jump - but each time I put it in overdrive and sped up to normal speeds it would jump like it was shifting into neutral and then drop quickly and catch in another gear. I tried to make it the last 20 miles with overdrive off, but it revved up finally like when it was in overdrive but didn't catch... so I had to coast my new car off of the highway into a parking lot. The car idled just fine - no check engine light - no problems parked there. Anyway, I checked the tranny fluid and it was an inch above the top hot notch. I let it cool down for 20 minutes and the fluid was still above hot. I began to wonder if our family mechanic had topped it off to high (after reading this forum I wonder if he used the right fluid in the first place). Anyway, after letting it cool for a little while, I started it again to see if it would shift. It shifted fine into reverse and then just fine into 1st. From first to second it has a harsh shift - but it will do it; then from second to drive it will not go into drive - rather it will jump in rpms like going into neutral and fall back down into 2nd. I drove home in low and came inside to start searching the internet for solutions. Your forum seems to have the most competent and realistic discussions on the subject and I would appreciate advice and recommendations before I let a shop I don't know much about charge 5000 dollars of my school and tuition money. Do you think that my whole transmission is lost? Could it be a cellenoid (sp?) problem? Any help at the next steps of action would be helpful?

Thanks,

Another Lexus transmission story....

[bluestu]

If your mechanic mixed regular transmission fluid in with the synthetic Toyota fluid, it will ruin the transmission in a very short time. I think that's what happens with a lot of these transmissions. The fluid will start to gel, overheat, and then burn up. It's clearly marked on the distick to use type T1V fluid only. Overfilling can also cause problems.

[TunedRX300]

Toyota T-IV is not synthetic, just highly friction modified minerial based fluid for Aisin Warner transmissions.

Perk,

Double check what ATF you mechanic put in, if wrong fluid, make sure to flush the old fluid out.

[wwest]

Sorry to give you such bad news but at those miles you most likely have one or two clutch frictional surfaces that are worn down to the metal backing plate.

The Engine/transaxle ECU control firmware in the 2001 models, and possibly (most likely actually) earlier ones, use an ASL, Aggressive Shift Logic, technique wherein the transaxle is always kept in the highest gear ratio possible. That often results in the transaxle being in the wrong gear ratio for acceleration or startup if the driver for some reason doesn't coastdown to a full stop before accelerating.

The 2004 RX330 uses a DBW throttle control system to prevent the inordinant level of clutch surface wear incurred by the previous models.

With DBW the engine is prevented from increasing the RPM, torque delivery level until the transaxle can complete the necessary downshift and the downshift clutches can become firmly and fully seated.

[perk]

Thanks for the advice so far. I talked to the mechanic and he said he never messed with it, which surprises me because I checked the fluid the yesterday morning after the car had been sitting all night and the transmission fluid was still a half an inch above the top "hot" notch. So thats been overfilled. I took it in to a recommended transmission shop and he hooked it up to a machine and found no error codes or anything - so its a mechanical failure where Drive and Overdrive are gone. So there charging me $275 to pull it apart to find out what the problem. Once they have a better idea he said he'll call to authorize repairs. He estimated $1500 to $2500 in repairs which doesn't sound so bad as to others charged on this forum.

Any other suggestions?

[TunedRX300]

Thanks for the advice so far. I talked to the mechanic and he said he never messed with it, which surprises me because I checked the fluid the yesterday morning after the car had been sitting all night and the transmission fluid was still a half an inch above the top "hot" notch. So thats been overfilled. I took it in to a recommended transmission shop and he hooked it up to a machine and found no error codes or anything - so its a mechanical failure where Drive and Overdrive are gone. So there charging me $275 to pull it apart to find out what the problem. Once they have a better idea he said he'll call to authorize repairs. He estimated $1500 to $2500 in repairs which doesn't sound so bad as to others charged on this forum.

Any other suggestions?

I would take the car to the Lexus dealer that service the car for the original owner and ask for a diagnostic and verification of transmission service records. If the transmission is blown, ask for Lexus to pay for it under goodwill. Practice your negotiation skills. Good luck.

[bluestu]

Lexus would charge two or three times as much as a qualified transmission shop. It sounds like you're doing the right thing. Sorry to hear about your misfortune, and good luck to you!!!

[lenore]

Please file a complaint with the NHTS board online, you will need the vin # of the car and explain the failure and how you feel it could endanger your safety while traveling down the freeway. Sorry for your missfortune. I am on my third transmission in my car. good luck

[biorjin]

I am SO disappointed with RX300. Three months ago, I bought my wife a 2001 RX300 with 83k miles on it.

This so-called reliable car DIED on the highway due to transmission failure 3 days ago. Yesterday I got a quote of 3200 for rebuilding the auto trans. This is my first and also LAST lexus car. Don't tell me lexus is reliable, that is a JOKE!!!

[Ericok]

If I look at all of the people who have posted issues with their RX300 transmission, I'm wondering if we have a class action case against Lexus/Toyota? Is anyone who has posted a lawyer?

The only thing I've EVER gotten as a result of a "class action" is a discount coupon. The class action lawyers take all the cash and leave the victims with nothing. If you want redress from Lexus/Toyota, you'll have to sue them yourself.

[SKperformance]

I am making all the multiple transmission threads one.

This should be the only one about the RX and its tranny issue from now on , thanks

[jgr7]

So how many bad transmissions is that now 25-30? Out of 5-600,000 copies?

[lenore]

This site may not be accessed by many whom have had a tranny failure. Statistically you can not call that shot. I however will keep everyone posted as to failures that contact me.

[jgr7]

I guess you could also say that the hundreds of thousands of RX owners with high mileage also don't access this site to say how great there RX's are. I do feel your pain but no one has even figured out just what is going wrong with these failures, so one could just call them random.

Jeff

[kimsky]

HI...

I have 2000 rx 300, has 51,000 miles...driven very lightly, my engine light, yellow light, recently started to go on sporatically, my mechanic ( not lexus, but came highly recemmended), says there's a problem with a transmission computer chip, and my transmission will need to be replaced eventually, but not for now.

I dont notice the difference when I drive...and I have read lot of the posts on this board, sounds like its very expensive for any transmission work.

My mechanic also says, cars now really dont need to be service until 100,000 miles other than oil and air filter needs to be maintained. dealers wanting you to come in every 5000 miles is rip off.

any thoughts?

[stapes]

I'm new to this forum,and I can't believe what I'm reading re RX300 trans. failures.

Before buying my 2000 Rx300 AWD I owned a 1995 Ford Windstar. That Minivan had major engine and trans. problems.Ford ignored the complaints of customers;with the end result that the Windstar went from

a top rated Minivan to dropping off the charts. Ford probably lost hundreds of millions of dollars in sales because of all the negative publicity on the Internet. It seems like Lexus is making the same mistake;I know I'll think twice before buying another Lexus.

[bluestu]

I'm new to this forum,and I can't believe what I'm reading re RX300 trans. failures.

Before buying my 2000 Rx300 AWD I owned a 1995 Ford Windstar. That Minivan had major engine and trans. problems.Ford ignored the complaints of customers;with the end result that the Windstar went from

a top rated Minivan to dropping off the charts. Ford probably lost hundreds of millions of dollars in sales because of all the negative publicity on the Internet. It seems like Lexus is making the same mistake;I know I'll think twice before buying another Lexus.

Most of the owners on this forum including myself haven't had any major problems with their RXs. It's actually about 5 or 6 people that post their complaints and concerns repeatedly, making it appear like there are hundreds of owners with transmission failures.

[lenore]

Hey bluestu, I am gaining on the 5 or six people, I have received about 19 different emails from people with tranny failures. so dont bet on it. How many dont read or think of this site and have failed trannys?

[bakalaj]

I am in Canada and I am considering a purchase of a Canadian 1999 RX300 with about 132k km (82k miles) on it. This thread on transmission problem of course concerns me and so I am curious; how many 'problem' RX300s are there in Canada and is it the same vehicle - or are the problems possibly only occuring in the US version? The reason why I am wondering about that is that I found a UK RX300 discussion list and there was no mention of any transmission problems at all.

Thank you.