Transmission Problems/failures with RX300 awd/fwd

[halman]

I RECENTLY TOOK MY CAR IN AND FOUND OUT THAT MY TRANSMISSION HAD GONE OUT ONLY AFTER 89,000 MILES AND WOULD BE $5,000-$6,000 TO REPLACE NEW AND $3,500 FOR USED. AFTER RESEARCHING ABOUT THE LEXUS RX300 1999 MODEL I AM FINDING OUT THERE ARE SEVERAL PROBLEMS WITH THIS VEHICLES TRANSMISSION AND DRIVE TRAIN. I AM JUST WONDERING IF THIS PROBLEM OCCURS MORE THAN IT SHOULD WITH OTHERS WITH THIS PARTICULAR MODEL?

Common problem. Do a search on "transmission" here and over at Club Lexus for info. Your transmission is not your only problem, your caps lock button is stuck.

My 2000 RX300 went for 151k miles before the tranmission died. The only service that I did was change the fluid 10k miles ago. Maybe if I had stayed with the old fluid it would have gone another 100k miles. I went to my Lexus dealer that had performed all of the service on the car and explained about all the failure that I read on this forum. They replace the transmission and only charged me for the labor. So now my car has a Lexus rebuilt tranny that should last another 200k miles for $1700 plus tax. If you were loyal to a Lexus dealer you can make your case and save over $2k in parts.

[lenore]

that is the one thing that has happened with customers at GOOD lexus stealerships, is many have gotten customer loyalty replacements with varying degrees of assistance....I guess that is great for those mechanically challenged that pay a lot for their service....I am happy they treated you that way...For the rest of us that love working on our cars for all reasons, we have to pay out the nose for that same tranny replacement....

[junichi]

Hello,

I have a 2001 RX300 AWD with about 140k (220 thousand KM). The transmission was shifting slowly a few months ago, then was fine. Then one day, driving about 50mph, there was a big clunk and then the engine revved up. My wife quickly took her foot off the gas and coasted to a stop. She tried but was not able to drive in any gears, including reverse. We towed it to the shop, where they said it needed a transmission rebuild or replacement.

It's at home now, and after reading hundreds of threads on this and other forums, i pulled the drain pan and filter off the trans. There are two clumps of metal shavings on the pan, the filter looks pretty clean with very minor sediment.

When i started it (before draining!) it would seem to shift into reverse with a clunk, like a crappy old 80's car (not too loud, but certainly not quiet). All the forward gears only make a whirring noise, no clunks, and the gears don't engage.

The question is, should i bother with a filter clean and fluid replacement? It seems to work for many people, but i am wondering if the big clunk was a sure sign of a catastrophic mechanical failure? Is it worth a try or should i pull the trans and check the planetary gears?

Thanks.

[lenore]

Doesnt sound good. look for an independent tranny shop

[junichi]

Found these in the trans sump... Not good.

Fliter clean and refill did nothing, just sounds like a whirring electric motor when put in gear. Is there anything else to try or is that it for the trans? (And my lexus!)

[lenore]

I RECENTLY TOOK MY CAR IN AND FOUND OUT THAT MY TRANSMISSION HAD GONE OUT ONLY AFTER 89,000 MILES AND WOULD BE $5,000-$6,000 TO REPLACE NEW AND $3,500 FOR USED. AFTER RESEARCHING ABOUT THE LEXUS RX300 1999 MODEL I AM FINDING OUT THERE ARE SEVERAL PROBLEMS WITH THIS VEHICLES TRANSMISSION AND DRIVE TRAIN. I AM JUST WONDERING IF THIS PROBLEM OCCURS MORE THAN IT SHOULD WITH OTHERS WITH THIS PARTICULAR MODEL?

4/1/2010

103,000 Total failure!!! It had both planitary housing's cracked, full on wear on the case. I did get it done for $2400. I fell like this car is too weak for my driving??? I wonder what else I can do to prevent this?

hopefully they replaced the planetary gears with the newer design....and do your drain and fills fluid every 15k miles....

[junichi]

So you are saying i need a new transmission?

[lenore]

I would say i would look for a good (possibly recommended by a friend) tranny shop...THat in the long run will save you money. Also if the Planetary gears have to be replaced ask them if they know about the upgraded version....

[junichi]

Thanks, i hear ya. The problem at this point is it may not be worth putting in another 3-5k. Even 500 for a teardown would be good money after bad, potentially. If i can be reasonably sure it' s not going to be less than 2g's or so, i will part it out or sell as is. The thing is, the estimate i got was from a shop that never even opened up the car!

[solfbreesteiz]

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[r14rowederek]

I have a 2002 RX 300, Just four months ago my transmission went out at 116,000 miles, now, at 125,000 miles, (after having it rebuilt) I am having problems AGAIN. Recently when I first start out, after letting it warm up for at least 5 minutes, my vehicle wont shift for the first mile or so of driving. Just today I was driving to work and it would NOT accelerate past 50 MPH. I surely hope that my rebuilt transmission wouldn't go out after only driving on it for 4 months! I've had nothing but problems with the tranny in this vehicle. Other than that, I absolutely love it.

[lenore]

Hey they may have done a bad job...that happens. Should be covered under warranty.....Are you getting a check engine light? You may have something else going bad.

[Rezman]

I'm the latest member of the early transmission failure club. 2002 RX300 FWD, 94,884 miles, showing code P0770 at the dealership, Shift Solenoid "E" malfunction. Of course I just dropped $1000 on timing belt/water pump replacement which was recommended at 90k miles. I also had the transmission flushed at the same time, because the shifting was getting a little rough and it was hesitating about a second when shifting into drive first thing in the morning. That was the first time the transmission was flushed.

The Lexus dealership wants $4431.17 to replace it.

The Toyota dealership wants $4209.68 to replace it.

Local AAMCO (been there 20+ years) wants between $2200 and $3100 to rebuild mine.

I've opened a case with Lexus Customer care at 800-255-3987 and am waiting to hear back from a case manager. The CSR asked what I expected, best case scenario, from Lexus. I said I expected them to live up to the Lexus name and legendary Toyota quality. I said if we had any expectation of the transmission not lasting nearly forever, my father would have never bought the car at the end of his lease, and he certainly wouldn't have sold it to me.

I'm being polite and friendly and not angry. I would be satisfied if they would split the cost and maybe throw in a 3yr/36k mile warranty. I don't think that's too much to ask. Heck, if they'd do that, I'd even consider bringing it to them for service at the regular 7500 mile intervals. Good coffee and snacks, and comfy chairs.

[lenore]

good luck, if you havent been a loyal Lexus customer for every service you are looking at getting nothing....sorry.

[Rezman]

Being polite but firm pays off!

They initially said they had no obligation to help. I pressed the issue. If I expected to lose a transmission before 100,000 miles, I would have bought a Ford. They offered $1000. I countered with $2200. They just came back with a final offer of $1500. I'll take it!

I'm sure she looked up the Lexus history of my family (I bought the car from my parents.) In the past 22 years our family has bought or leased at least 11 Lexus vehicles that I can think of. Right now my folks, my brother and sister and I all drive various RX models.

Next I'll just have to sweet-talk the dealer into upping the warranty from 12mo/12k to 36mo/36k. My parents always taught me, they can't say yes if you don't ask!

[Rezman]

Got my Rx300 back from the dealership shop today after 6 days. Total price was actually $280 less than the original estimate, minus the $1500 from Lexus, so I was out the door for $2651.

The only bad part of the deal was that after six days driving a 2013 RX350 loaner car with 400 miles on the odo, getting back into the RX300 felt like driving a jalopy. But the engine was quiet again and shifting smooth as silk, in fact smoother than the RX350. (Sure did enjoy the XMRadio, the heated/cooled seats, the push-button ignition, and the backup camera though.)

[lenore]

Glad to hear about your results....Your very fortunate.

[TulsaAv8r]

I have owned 1999 RX300 for several years now and have noticed if start up and begin driving immediately the transmission does not easily shift until AFTER THE ENGINE WARMS UP. I began the practice of letting the temp come up to the "C" on the engine temp gage. This gives not only the engine time to warm up but the fluid in the transmission a chance to warm up as well. I have had absolutely no trouble with the transmission and it shifts very smoothly once the transmission has had a CHANCE TO WARM UP.

[papayadialog]

i just wanted to share my experience with you guys because i got so much useful info from here when i conquered this problem.

i have an 01 with about 185k miles now, at about 160k i had the same p0770 and whirring like a power steering pump coming from the trans and i couldn't shift out of second gear. did a bunch of research, seems that the aluminum planetary breaks up because the car is too big and heavy for that little camry transmission. oh well. the car was given to me as a hand-me-down with a bunch of miles so i wasn't too upset about it. but i wanted the car to work. i did the fluid change/sensor swap which didn't really help. the car still bucked when shifting, etc. but there was quite a bit of debris in the trans pan when i dropped it... so i went one more step, and addressed the solenoid that was giving me the code in the computer. dropped the valve body, disassembled it, cleaned thoroughly inside and out and reassembled it. new fluid, and voila. truck works again. over 20k miles tested and true. truck has kicked every morning on the first 2nd to 3rd up shift now for about 5k miles. after that it is fine... not sure how long this will last, but i will certainly do it again if need be.

my guess is aluminum chunks from the planetary are getting stuck in the labyrinth that is the valve body, keeping the solenoids from doing their job. i bench tested the solenoids and they all seemed up to par.

there are companies that rebuild and strengthen valve bodies online, not to mention local trans shops as well. also online there is a lot of data online with fiches and what not to help. spent less than $200 bucks to have a working car again. changed the fluid and filter again after about 5k miles to make sure the fluid was mostly fresh.

if you wouldn't change a valve cover gasket or something like that, this job may be a little much for you, but i had no experience with automatic transmissions at all before this. a nice clean bench and space to work and it only took me like a weekend after my parts were in.

if i can help anyone save a few grand i'd be glad! i think i still have the .pdf files i used as info for the u140 in this thing. i can probably upload them somewhere all together to cut down on research time if anyone is interested.

if for whatever reason this happens again i will certainly take pictures or the process, and if that fails you will probably see a later model highlander/camry trans swap.

anyways, thanks guys because you guys made this thing work again! hopefully i can give back a little.

[lenore]

Thanks for your post, good luck, but if you can nurse more miles that is good. I suspect that eventually the tranny will fail...Hopefully a long time from now.

[uspilot]

David, good post! I was wondering if you could post the PDFs and outline your procedure in this thread?

My story:

I just bought a 2001 RX300 w/155K for my daughter (Looking for safety and AWD here in Minnesota). Didn't know about the transmission issues and after we bought it. We noticed what seemed like a downshift or wrong gear issue during certain times. When traveling about 40-45MPH and taking your foot off the gas, seemed like the car was slowing quicker than one would expect (like it was put into a lower gear, but not quite at the extreme of actually changing to L2 or L1, maybe never came out of it's current gear at 40-45?)

I then began to research on-line what it might be and found the many issues with the RX300 transmissions. I went ahead and preformed the fluid drain/fill and filter change as outlined in another post (removed about 8 old quarts and replaced with T-IV at $6.20 a quart and after-market filter). After that, seemed like the transmission was running a lot better. Fluid is now clear and the correct color, but might have a light burned smell beginning...? As we've driven about 200 miles now, it seems like this might be happening again. The color of the fluid is still clear and red, but I'm not 100% sure about the smell and it's making me nervous.

Based on other post and your comments above, I'm thinking there's not enough ATF flowing as you mention. I'm hoping if I can get to early enough, I might be able to save this thing! (or at least prolong failure.) Would the after-market filter have anything to do with reduced flow? When I researched the replacement, I read that the original from Lexus was only a screen and not a paper filter. When I took my pan off, it had a paper filter an not the OEM screen, so at least I know it was changed but not sure if the screen is required for better flow?

Any thoughts or feedback would be great!

[lenore]

I would like you to know that alternatives to Toyota Type IV are available. Mobil 1 full synthetic tranny fluid works well, and of course Amsoil. I added an external oil filter on my old RX300 but the canister was huge (Old PH8) size which added nearly a quart to the system...Never had any issues with the additional filter.

[papayadialog]

here are a handful of pdf's. if there are anymore i find on my computer i will upload them as well.

the steps were pretty easy:

1) drain

2) pull front plastic shroud and pan

3) remove filter

4) CAREFULLY remove electric connections to solenoids (i cracked the clip on one and had to replace that harness for like 40 bucks, they are old and pretty brittle)

5) remove bolts all along the valve body which sits directly behind the filter (which bolts are pointed out in one of the pdf's)

there are 3 pistons of some sort right above the valve body that are spring loaded so there will be some tension pushing it down, be careful and support the valve body when you get to the last bolt or two.

6) you can pull the valve body down, and don't forget about those pistons. two of the 3 came out. the bores are different so you will know which ones go back where.

7) follow the pdf's on disassembly. there are like 14 or 15 little check balls in there. while disassembling make sure you keep track of those. they will all fall out at once. use a tray with edges, and maybe some shop towels underneath so they can't bounce or roll away. i lost one and had to order a new one via lexus.

8) once totally disassembled i sprayed everything down with carb cleaner, cleaned my work station so everything was immaculate, and started reassembly.

the trickiest part was getting the spring loaded pistons back in above the valve body while holding the 15-20lb valve body against the springs tension and threading the bolts by hand. the trick i used was to put the pistons in their holes with the springs in and i use a piece of electrical tape to hold them lightly in. wrapped the tape all the way up trans and tied it loosely to something. then i pushed the valve body up and lined up the bolt holes. finally i pulled the tape before i tightened the bolts after threading two of them a turn and a half or so.

also when installing the valve body don't forget to align the shift linkage. you'll have to pull it back down again.

toss on a new filter, torque down the pan, and refill...

that was about it! changed the fluid a few thousand miles after and threw in a bottle of lucas. i went from a car that wouldn't shift past second to a fully functional car.

cip0770.pdf

cip2769.pdf

TASC-TIP-08-06.pdf

TASC-TIP-10-08.pdf

U-140.pdf

U140E-U241E-ZIP-Booklet.pdf

[uspilot]

Thank you David. I'm reviewing the process and might wait until the trans shows failure.

[Bullhusky]

David: Fantastic! I am giving this to a family member to try this on my 2002 RX 300( purchased new, babied for the first 150K and now has 254K) which is beginning to have the whurring and bucking you described in the original post. Lexus just offered me the $4600 rebuilt solution but if this works fantastic.