2000 Rx300- Another Transmission Bites The Dust

[KillerAttorney]

Driving to Chicago from Louisville Friday when the transmission goes out. The car has 108,000 miles on it.

Had to have it towed to a Lexus dealer in Merrillville Indiana, where I was quoted $4700 to replace the transmission.

The Louisville dealer offered 10 percent off the repair price but it would cost nearly a thousand dollars to have the vehicle towed back to Louisville.

And now I find out this a common problem with this model Lexus.

And to think I bought the car because of its dependability.

Any history of Lexus standing behind these transmissions?

[mikey00]

You may want to check this link. It looks like some are getting the price down to $1700 by calling Lexus 800 #. Let us know how you make out. This problem seems to be slowly reaching more and more of us, whether you maintained your transmission or not.

http://www.clublexus.com/forums/showthread.php?t=349012

[tmastres]

Driving to Chicago from Louisville Friday when the transmission goes out. The car has 108,000 miles on it.

Had to have it towed to a Lexus dealer in Merrillville Indiana, where I was quoted $4700 to replace the transmission.

The Louisville dealer offered 10 percent off the repair price but it would cost nearly a thousand dollars to have the vehicle towed back to Louisville.

And now I find out this a common problem with this model Lexus.

And to think I bought the car because of its dependability.

Any history of Lexus standing behind these transmissions?

Hey, a "killerattorney" would just sue them, No? :D

Ok seriously, I only have the west coast # but I'm sure it will work , give it a shot (1-800-255-3987), Lexus corporate, Torrance, Ca.

[KBRX330]

What maintenence was done on your transmission?

[ZAPP]

good question as to 'what maintenance SHOULD be done, given the history"...

I bought mine used, and so asked the dealer to research the records and we went through the pile for all maintenance. so far, no evidence of the tranny being serviced [it has 79,000 miles]. So I asked him what it needs, and he [the Lexus Svc writer] said "DONT let anyone flush the transmission fluid, given the history of this model" [very comforting, eh?]. He said he would do regular drain/refill, like every 15,000 miles or so.

But that's not what the book calls for.......

What maintenence was done on your transmission?

[tmastres]

good question as to 'what maintenance SHOULD be done, given the history"...

I bought mine used, and so asked the dealer to research the records and we went through the pile for all maintenance. so far, no evidence of the tranny being serviced [it has 79,000 miles]. So I asked him what it needs, and he [the Lexus Svc writer] said "DONT let anyone flush the transmission fluid, given the history of this model" [very comforting, eh?]. He said he would do regular drain/refill, like every 15,000 miles or so.

But that's not what the book calls for.......

What maintenence was done on your transmission?

Ok then, the dealer didn't service the tranny and I'm guessing the "little old lady" didn't either so a simple drain and fill isn't going to do much for a tranny that hasn't been serviced in 80 thousand miles. A d and f doesn't get all the fluid out only a portion, maybe a third. you'll need to do a series of d and f's to get a decent amount of new fluid in there. I've had fine luck (knock wood) flushing my 00 but if you're going to stick to the d and f, you'd better stock up on Toyota type IV.

[lenore]

79k no maintenance, definetly do drain and fills. do three in the next 5k miles and it should start looking real clean.

[ZAPP]

interesting.

I just got off the phone with Lexus of Melbourne, which did nearly all service on the vehicle in its life. They did the 30, the 60K, the 75K. He said no transmission service is called for on the vehicle prior to 100,000 miles. Just to be sure he looked up the 'typical' items that are checked at each service interval, and basically said unless there is reason, they do not mess with it. I asked if he thought it would be a "good idea given the history" and he said kina like "sure, why not".... and did advise pulling the filter basket, clean it, put it back in.

I didn't think to ask this... maybe you guys would know. Does Lexus sell any extended warranty that would cover the whole train? The motor is already under the "sludge" warranty.....

Who knows if he's smoking me.. seeemed honest and I was not complaining at all about anything, but the guy says he has worked first Toyota, then Lexus, for almost 20 years and he has seen maybe 3 transmssions fail, only one of them on a lexus.

do I need a lift to do the transmission job?

79k no maintenance, definetly do drain and fills. do three in the next 5k miles and it should start looking real clean.

[KBRX330]

79k no maintenance, definetly do drain and fills. do three in the next 5k miles and it should start looking real clean.

I agree. If yours doesn't have a serviceable filter. (mine has a screen) go buy a case of T-IV and do 3 drain fills which will get you to about 75% new fluid. OR you can do a cooler line fluid exchange by disconnecting the cooler line that returns to the trans and starting the engine and allowing the trans pump to pump out the old fluid while you pour in the new. (beter use a 5gal bucket to catch the old stuff). Me I just did 4 drain fills and the fluid is clean and that gets me to 88% new fluid. I use a fluid extractor and suck the fluid hot out of the dipstick tube. 4 drian/fills costs me $60.

[KBRX330]

interesting.

I just got off the phone with Lexus of Melbourne, which did nearly all service on the vehicle in its life. They did the 30, the 60K, the 75K. He said no transmission service is called for on the vehicle prior to 100,000 miles.

Changing fluid is very cheap insurance. If yours has been serviced just do a few drain fills. That guy wont' be whipping out his mastercard if you need a new trans which will hit you for $3,000+. He will just say."gee I guess that is two Lexus transmissions I have seen fail". BTW, the first 3000 customers who came in with a sludged engine were told the same thing.

[KillerAttorney]

An update on my transmission problem.

Lexus has agreed to replace the transmission for half the quoted $4700 cost.

Yes, the reason I bought the car to begin with is to avoid costly repairs like this, but I do have 108,000 miles on the car, so I was okay with the compromise.

I'll have to say Lexus was very pleasant to deal with. I even had to go through an out of town dealer for the negotiation. So I had no history with this dealer and other than the repair will have no future but still they were very helpful and accommodating. Lexus of Merrillville, Indiana was top notch, as was my hometown dealer in Louisville.

I also want to thank the people on this forum for all your input on this problem and suggestions for resolving it.

[KillerAttorney]

What maintenence was done on your transmission?

The trans was serviced at 60K miles but I'm not sure what exactly was done. The car has 108,000 miles on it now.

[Lexusfreak]

What maintenence was done on your transmission?

The trans was serviced at 60K miles but I'm not sure what exactly was done. The car has 108,000 miles on it now.

Do a drain & fill every 2 years or 30k miles moving forward & you should be good to go for many more miles. :) Glad Lexus met you half way at least.

[KBRX330]

An update on my transmission problem.

Lexus has agreed to replace the transmission for half the quoted $4700 cost.

Yes, the reason I bought the car to begin with is to avoid costly repairs like this, but I do have 108,000 miles on the car, so I was okay with the compromise.

I'll have to say Lexus was very pleasant to deal with. I even had to go through an out of town dealer for the negotiation. So I had no history with this dealer and other than the repair will have no future but still they were very helpful and accommodating. Lexus of Merrillville, Indiana was top notch, as was my hometown dealer in Louisville.

I also want to thank the people on this forum for all your input on this problem and suggestions for resolving it.

FYI You can buy that transmission from Lexus on line for about $1800. So the $4700 quote is highway robbery. I'm sure they pay about $1,100 for one so they still are charging you about $1,000 for labor. Which is about a 4-5 hour job for an experienced trans mechanic.

[lenore]

He is very fortunate, I would love to pay half of my $4300 dollar bill. And the saga goes on. I know many of you feel this is do to poor maintenance, but it is not....it is a *BLEEP* poor design. good for him at half price...Have a great day everyone.

[ZAPP]

in the spirit of "Misery loves Company", this saga will make ALL of you feel all warm and fuzzy:

Bought the "utterly bulletproof" Toyota Corolla, 2003 model, had about 50K on it when I bought it. I did not know that the previous owner had bought the car 'certified' thus with extended warranty: he did not mention it and I would have never thought to inquire. so no transfer.

Let my son drive it to College for first semester. Hindsight reports from his brother was that he was prone to "peel out of the parking lots" - Though I warned him again and again about staying on top of maintenance, and forced him to do an oil change [i watched and assisted] at about 63K miles, at about 67K the motor "spun a rod bearing". Being that it was in another town where I had no connections, and would have cost a small fortune to flatbed back to my town, I heard the Toy dealer there say he could get it done for 3K+ something..... But it turns out that isn't what he meant. He meant he could get the short block, new in a crate, for that price. The bill came in at just shy of $6,000.

So we now have the world's most expensive Corolla.

I never put an engine in a GM car and I have had many.

I put a short block in a Toyota 4Runner at 97K miles.

I never put an engine in ANY other auto I have had [except a VW dune buggy project that we built from virtual scratch.....].

I could never get wheels balanced on the 4Runner - it rolled rough from day one to day N no matter what tires I bought: I had 4-wheel alignments, re-alignments, re-balances til the Tire store was scared to see me pull in. I never got good MPG from the 4Runner either - about the same as my V8 GMC truck.

I put 116K miles on my GMC Sierra and it was still running the original brakes - smooth as silk. It was ultra-quiet riding - like magic. I spent a total of about 900 buck on parts on that truck: a switch, one wheel bearing assembly, and some otehr thing I can't remember .... oh and the emergency brake release cable wore out..... That was it. That and tires.

I will say the world's most expensive corolla does get good MPG.... 30 to 36 consistently and we're still breaking in the world's most expensive engine.....

He is very fortunate, I would love to pay half of my $4300 dollar bill. And the saga goes on. I know many of you feel this is do to poor maintenance, but it is not....it is a *BLEEP* poor design. good for him at half price...Have a great day everyone.

[KBRX330]

He is very fortunate, I would love to pay half of my $4300 dollar bill. And the saga goes on. I know many of you feel this is do to poor maintenance, but it is not....it is a *BLEEP* poor design. good for him at half price...Have a great day everyone.

It is not a poor design but a very poor maintenance spec on that transaxle. Telling people they don't need fluid chenges until 100k is ridiculous. T-IV fluid is simply not robust enough to go past 30-50,000 miles before it starts breaking down and causing accelerated wear on the clutches and TC. If you simply did one complete fluid exchange at 30,000 to get all the break-in debris out of the unit and then simple drains every 30k you most likely will get full service life out of the transaxle. That is the schedule I use for mine and it is at 140,000 and still shifts like new. Shame on Toyota for that service schedule or not developing a synthetic ATF that will go the distance with a real filtration system versus a screen.

[wwest]

interesting.

I just got off the phone with Lexus of Melbourne, which did nearly all service on the vehicle in its life. They did the 30, the 60K, the 75K. He said no transmission service is called for on the vehicle prior to 100,000 miles. Just to be sure he looked up the 'typical' items that are checked at each service interval, and basically said unless there is reason, they do not mess with it. I asked if he thought it would be a "good idea given the history" and he said kina like "sure, why not".... and did advise pulling the filter basket, clean it, put it back in.

I didn't think to ask this... maybe you guys would know. Does Lexus sell any extended warranty that would cover the whole train? The motor is already under the "sludge" warranty.....

Who knows if he's smoking me.. seeemed honest and I was not complaining at all about anything, but the guy says he has worked first Toyota, then Lexus, for almost 20 years and he has seen maybe 3 transmssions fail, only one of them on a lexus.

do I need a lift to do the transmission job?

79k no maintenance, definetly do drain and fills. do three in the next 5k miles and it should start looking real clean.

When I discovered, at only ~40,000 miles, that my 2001 AWD RX300 had ATF that smelled and looked burned I immediately contacted Lexus corporate. Corporate told me to contact my selling dealer and the dealer said I needed to have the ATF flushed every 15,000 miles.

What, WHAT...???!!!

My RX has the trailer towing package, EXTRA ATF cooling radiator, and the hitch was removed the week I bought the RX, NEW. 98% of the time my wife and I are the sole occupants, "load".

The owners manual does not require any transaxle service for the life of the vehicle...

In short, I had no faith in and did not believe the dealer.

Corporate was able to convince me, finally, that the dealer was being truthful.

I did two drain and refills in short sequence and my ATF ended up looking "prestine".

I'm now at ~70,000 miles and the ATF is beginning to look as if I will soon need another drain and fill sequence.

There is NO QUESTION in my mind that my 2001 AWD RX300's transaxle has an embedded design flaw. And from all the posts I see on the internet the design flaw is likely fleetwide for all Toyota and Lexus FWD and F/AWD vehicles.

So yes, he's "smoking" you...

Failures of these '01-03 RX300 transaxles seem to be occuring at about 70,000 to 80,000 miles...

[KBRX330]

The flaw is T-IV fluid & the maintanance interval spec. They need a synthetic fluid in that transaxle because of it's capacity. GM had the same issues using DexronII and III and now have finally developed a synthetic DexVI. Lexus 300/330/350 transaxles cook fluid pretty quickly but if you keep up with fluid changes they will last a long time. That is their achilles heel.

Most people just want to buy a vehicle and drive it forever and never change the transmission fluid and think it is odd when they have to. If they are diong lots of stop and go then they are putting the transaxle through very severe service but since they are not towing anything they don't believe that they are tough on the drivetrain. Then they are steamed when their trans craps out at 80-100k and the fluid looks like molasses. A GM 4l60e trans will cook fluid in 30,000 miles of stop and go severe service as well.

It is not a design flaw with the mechanical aspect of the trans. It is a maintenance flaw.

[tmastres]

It is not a design flaw with the mechanical aspect of the trans. It is a maintenance flaw.

Oh No, Not Again!!!! :cries:

[wwest]

The flaw is T-IV fluid & the maintanance interval spec. They need a synthetic fluid in that transaxle because of it's capacity. GM had the same issues using DexronII and III and now have finally developed a synthetic DexVI. Lexus 300/330/350 transaxles cook fluid pretty quickly but if you keep up with fluid changes they will last a long time. That is their achilles heel.

Most people just want to buy a vehicle and drive it forever and never change the transmission fluid and think it is odd when they have to. If they are diong lots of stop and go then they are putting the transaxle through very severe service but since they are not towing anything they don't believe that they are tough on the drivetrain. Then they are steamed when their trans craps out at 80-100k and the fluid looks like molasses. A GM 4l60e trans will cook fluid in 30,000 miles of stop and go severe service as well.

It is not a design flaw with the mechanical aspect of the trans. It is a maintenance flaw.

Speaking as someone who has owned and driven passenger vehicles, mostly Fords, since 1956 with automatic transmisisons and before NEVER had issues with any of them and also NEVER changed/flushed refilled the ATF except at overhaul time, only two of those, and both beyond 125,000 miles I cannot buy into your statement as this being a maintainance issue.

My best guess is that in order to overcome the problem that led to so many premature transaxle failures for the '99 & '00 the '01-03 RX series has an "over-sized" gear type ATF pump. The over-sized pump results in too much localized, localized to the pump itself, ATF heating.

[fcadams]

What signs did you have before the failure? I am having problems with my 2000 RX300 shifting from 2nd to 3rd. My lexus has 101K and I am taking a trip this summer.

[lenore]

He is very fortunate, I would love to pay half of my $4300 dollar bill. And the saga goes on. I know many of you feel this is do to poor maintenance, but it is not....it is a *BLEEP* poor design. good for him at half price...Have a great day everyone.

It is not a poor design but a very poor maintenance spec on that transaxle. Telling people they don't need fluid chenges until 100k is ridiculous. T-IV fluid is simply not robust enough to go past 30-50,000 miles before it starts breaking down and causing accelerated wear on the clutches and TC. If you simply did one complete fluid exchange at 30,000 to get all the break-in debris out of the unit and then simple drains every 30k you most likely will get full service life out of the transaxle. That is the schedule I use for mine and it is at 140,000 and still shifts like new. Shame on Toyota for that service schedule or not developing a synthetic ATF that will go the distance with a real filtration system versus a screen.

When mine failed the tranny fluid had been changed three times, every 30k miles. So your implication of poor maintenance doesnt fly. It has more to do with a bad design and the type of driving you do. My wife has a terrible commute going through city streets no more than 50 mph and less. The tranny is constantly searching for overdrive (by design) and I would consider city driving as severe condition when it comes to this crappy design with a cooler that is mounted in the wheel well with no access to good air flow. I agree totally that the fluid is substandard, and plan a change to AMsoil when I get my hands on some. I have already added a transmission filter (PH8) size andthat adds about 3/4 qts to the total capacity. I have 50k miles on my second/third tranny with no issues. I change the fluid every 10k miles. As for filtration none of the Japanese trannys have it. The burnt smell in my fluid at 30k miles tells me that the fluid is not keeping cool, another of my future projects is to add a fan or move the stupid cooler to the front of the radiator area so it gets some air. As it is now the air flow is blocked by the windshield washer bottle. I have probably spent more time maintaining this car than most people do and the failure of the tranny is my most irritating thing, and then Lexus of Roseville screwed it up when I took it in for the repair.

I have a friend that has the exact same car same year and AWD and their tranny went 176k before the failure with minimum maintenance. However her commute was all highway with speeds above 50 mph the whole distance. I attribute the longevity to the lack of the tranny constantly in overdrive and not searching. I have instructed my wife to turn overdrive off while commuting to stop this rediculous design. Toyota in their search for fuel economy did a bad job by design. This is also basically a Camry tranny stuck in a vehicle that weights a whole lot more and add AWD and the load on it is tremendous.

Lexus Sucks big time for not doing a recall or fix. At least Honda/Accura did on their MDX and Oddessy. I am going to monitor the tranny temp soon when I get my Scanguage and see what it really is doing. I will post with results.

[lenore]

What signs did you have before the failure? I am having problems with my 2000 RX300 shifting from 2nd to 3rd. My lexus has 101K and I am taking a trip this summer.

When mine failed their was a very slight wine sound and I lost overdrive. The engine rpms went up to indicate this and then I got a CEL light. I cant remember the code that was present with the failure but I believe it was something with the shift solenoids. If you have that many miles do not do a flush, Only do a drain and fill and repeat it with a two week period. It is real easy to do. Here is a great post with pictures. Make sure you use Toyota Type IV fluid, no substitute.

http://www.clublexus.com/forums/showthread.php?t=220061

[mikey00]

What signs did you have before the failure? I am having problems with my 2000 RX300 shifting from 2nd to 3rd. My lexus has 101K and I am taking a trip this summer.

Something to consider: Others have reported fixing the 2nd to 3rd shift issue by either replacing or just cleaning and swapping the counter gear speed sensor, and the turbine input sensor. The dealer told one of these posters he needed a new trans before he discovered the repair. Read through the currently active transmission threads for some of their input on this. These sensors have been reported to cause the 2nd to 3rd shift issue and the reverse issue. I can only confirm my own experience with this. I had the reverse issue, which is when put into reverse it acts like it is in neutral then finally reverse engages with a clunk. After getting some information from their posts I pulled both of these sensors, cleaned and swapped their position. My thought was that if a sensor was bad and cleaning didn't fix it, at least by swapping it I should have a different symptom. My reverse problem is now fixed. I am convinced that if I continued to operate my trans in this condition it would eventually self-distruct and then I would need a new one. Is it possible that these sensors are playing a bigger role than we realize in these failing transmissions?

Both sensors were dirty and I just used a q-tip to clean. It is a fairly easy job that is no more diffucult than a oil and filter change. Both sensors are located on top of the trans under the air filter box. The air filter box must be removed to gain access to the sensors.