Sc400 Transmission Flush

[VigorousBrando]

I don't know how much help I can be here, because this was one of the first things I addressed with my car and the memory is hazy on how I took care of it.

When I did flush was done back in 2007, I decided to do a full flush instead of the progressive approach at the advice of my father. We did this to get it running on T-IV only. I also took the trans pan out to clean out the magnets inside thoroughly. I think I replaced the pan because we wanted to get rid of as many contaminants as possible. I don't recall there being any additional filters beyond those magnets I worked with...

In any case, my tranny has been fine since that flush. I've driven ~32K (now at 223k on the car) with no noticeable slip-ups or problems.

[bigange9012]

I have 173k on my car and my tranny seems to be going from 1st to 3rd , I getting lack of power after that gear change. When I downshift it into 2nd it powers up again. Sometimes I will floor it at 65mph and it won't even downshift. These symptoms don't happen all the time , only sometimes. When the car is cold it runs fine until I drive for a half hour or so. My tranny oil seems to be redish brown. Any suggestions?

[VigorousBrando]

Hey everyone, another update.

My SC400 now has ~232k and it has been almost 4 years since we did the transmission flush. This original transmission Lexus thought was dying is still in the car! On a routine inspection today though I found the T4 ATF fluid needs to be replaced again. It's not red, rust brown, brown...it's black. My dad took a look at it and we've decided to do something about it this week. Looks like some of my college graduation money is going toward preventive maintenance on what has been a pretty good college car. :)

Results: Flushed 10 quarts OEM T-IV ATF through the entire system, 2 at a time. I thought it would still be somewhat black when we were all done, but the fluid now is still a clear red after driving it around a couple of weeks. Transmission shifts smoothly and I haven't had any problems with it so far.

So, for me at least, the full T-II to T-IV replacement we did back in '07 (all at once rather than 2 quarts at a time) has led to no repercussions. For all I know though, it may have originally had T-IV in it when I bought it...