2000 Rx300- Another Transmission Bites The Dust

[ZAPP]

that link has a really good... GREAT writeup.

I wonder how many miles Lexmex has gotten on his '99 tranny?

I note he uses Amsoil ATF. knowledgable chap.....

I can't imagine racing one of these but he does and has no gripes.

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

[lenore]

LexMex is an alwsome guy. He has pictures of just about everything you want to see on this car. He is now back in the United States in Florida and continues with his input. I really enjoy his post, because I never dreamed of 1/4 miles racing this vehicle and he does it all the time. Great forum Club Lexus.... I am on both sites all the time. Knowledge is power to control my time and costs.

[lenore]

Oh by the way his tranny did fail, (probably from the racing) the torque converter mounting plate broke loose and caused a bunch of damage in his tranny. He has full pictures of everything about that too.

[wwest]

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.

I'm not altogether sure that additional ATF cooling capability is a solution. It is my belief that the ATF overheating is somewhat localized, specifically the ATF gear type oil pump is overheating, and by the time the heated volume remixes with the "mass" in the sump the overall average is within the norm. Does anyone know if a thermostat is involved in controlling the flow to the external cooling system..??

And I have not enough information to make such a judgment call, viscosity, etc, I would NEVER substitute a third party ATF brand/type for whatever the manufacturer recommends.

[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.

I'm not altogether sure that additional ATF cooling capability is a solution. It is my belief that the ATF overheating is somewhat localized, specifically the ATF gear type oil pump is overheating, and by the time the heated volume remixes with the "mass" in the sump the overall average is within the norm. Does anyone know if a thermostat is involved in controlling the flow to the external cooling system..??

And I have not enough information to make such a judgment call, viscosity, etc, I would NEVER substitute a third party ATF brand/type for whatever the manufacturer recommends.

I was just saying the filter being very large added some fluid, not intentially. West I am going to monitor the tranny temp when I get my Scan guage. As for the third party AMSOIL, it has been used by many with great success. The only other fluid is the Mobil 3309 which I believe they are the manufacturer of the Toyota Type IV from what I understand. Same fluid.

[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.

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.

Well, that would definitely be considered severe service. My wifes driving is a 50-50 mix of city & highway daily. I still say it is the fluid spec that is the culprit. You might want to add a magnefine filter to your system. I am considering that.

[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.

Well, that would definitely be considered severe service. My wifes driving is a 50-50 mix of city & highway daily. I still say it is the fluid spec that is the culprit. You might want to add a magnefine filter to your system. I am considering that.

I already added a external filter to my system... made by perma cool....

[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.

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.

Well, that would definitely be considered severe service. My wifes driving is a 50-50 mix of city & highway daily. I still say it is the fluid spec that is the culprit. You might want to add a magnefine filter to your system. I am considering that.

I already added a external filter to my system... made by perma cool....

Where did you place it? Did you put it in the line to or from the cooler?

[wwest]

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.

I'm not altogether sure that additional ATF cooling capability is a solution. It is my belief that the ATF overheating is somewhat localized, specifically the ATF gear type oil pump is overheating, and by the time the heated volume remixes with the "mass" in the sump the overall average is within the norm. Does anyone know if a thermostat is involved in controlling the flow to the external cooling system..??

And I have not enough information to make such a judgment call, viscosity, etc, I would NEVER substitute a third party ATF brand/type for whatever the manufacturer recommends.

I was just saying the filter being very large added some fluid, not intentially. West I am going to monitor the tranny temp when I get my Scan guage. As for the third party AMSOIL, it has been used by many with great success. The only other fluid is the Mobil 3309 which I believe they are the manufacturer of the Toyota Type IV from what I understand. Same fluid.

Just because the manufacturer is the same doesn't mean the same formulation/"recipe" is used.

I'm willing to bet that if I went to Mobil with a big enough order and a surety bond they would "manufacture" oil for me any damn way I wanted.

[Lexusfreak]

I curious as to why many hesitate to use Amsoil ATF on a drain & fill? It's fully compatible with Toyota Type IV (which is average fluid at best....and based on the number of tranny problems especially in the RX category even when the tranny's are maintained at regular intervals problems stil occur.....I'd be looking for something much better & longer lasting personally) which is stated right on the bottle, not to mention it's synthetic.

I've used it on my last 4 vehicles (including 2 Lexi that recommended only Type IV fluid), not a stitch of tranny troubles & in fact, much smoother shifting....especially during the cold winter months. No slippage either.

Any members here experience a tranny failure or major problems after switching to Amsoil ATF on a mechanically sound transmission? :whistles:

[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.

Well, that would definitely be considered severe service. My wifes driving is a 50-50 mix of city & highway daily. I still say it is the fluid spec that is the culprit. You might want to add a magnefine filter to your system. I am considering that.

I already added a external filter to my system... made by perma cool....

Where did you place it? Did you put it in the line to or from the cooler?

I believe it is to the cooler...That way no contaminants get into the cooler. I mounted it on the left frame below the battery very close to all the coolant lines. Made my own bracket to space it of the frame about 1/2 inch. access is by removing the plastic undershield on the vehicle, Huge filter (ph8 size) so it takes quite a bit space, but probably provides plenty of flow so their are no problems with pressure changes. Have been running it for over 50k miles so far.

[lenore]

I curious as to why many hesitate to use Amsoil ATF on a drain & fill? It's fully compatible with Toyota Type IV (which is average fluid at best....and based on the number of tranny problems especially in the RX category even when the tranny's are maintained at regular intervals problems stil occur.....I'd be looking for something much better & longer lasting personally) which is stated right on the bottle, not to mention it's synthetic.

I've used it on my last 4 vehicles (including 2 Lexi that recommended only Type IV fluid), not a stitch of tranny troubles & in fact, much smoother shifting....especially during the cold winter months. No slippage either.

Any members here experience a tranny failure or major problems after switching to Amsoil ATF on a mechanically sound transmission? :whistles:

I am checking for a AMsoil dealer today, So did you do several drain and fills or use the manual fluid exchange method that Amsoil has on their site??? I am still thinking of moving the external tranny cooler to the front of the vehicle so it gets better air flow. and yes I agree with you, Amsoil is available, so why not use it, It is still cheaper than the stealership for a tranny fluid change if you diy.

[wwest]

I curious as to why many hesitate to use Amsoil ATF on a drain & fill? It's fully compatible with Toyota Type IV (which is average fluid at best....and based on the number of tranny problems especially in the RX category even when the tranny's are maintained at regular intervals problems stil occur.....I'd be looking for something much better & longer lasting personally) which is stated right on the bottle, not to mention it's synthetic.

I've used it on my last 4 vehicles (including 2 Lexi that recommended only Type IV fluid), not a stitch of tranny troubles & in fact, much smoother shifting....especially during the cold winter months. No slippage either.

Any members here experience a tranny failure or major problems after switching to Amsoil ATF on a mechanically sound transmission? :whistles:

Key words...mechanically sound.. how would go about knowing...??

For me, using Amsoil would be like adding another UNKNOWN to the overall transaxle failure equation. And I don't doubt that any resulting failures, in the normal sense, would be so far out in mileage as to not be worthy of note.

But this is not the "normal" sense/case, there is already something wrong with these transaxles.....

[Lexusfreak]

I am checking for a AMsoil dealer today, So did you do several drain and fills or use the manual fluid exchange method that Amsoil has on their site??? I am still thinking of moving the external tranny cooler to the front of the vehicle so it gets better air flow. and yes I agree with you, Amsoil is available, so why not use it, It is still cheaper than the stealership for a tranny fluid change if you diy.

All I do is take 5 qt's (they drain & fill a little over 4 qt's total & give me the rest back....which I use to change the PS fluid myself) to my dealer and a drain plug gasket.....my Lexus dealer charges me $20. I do this every 2 years or 30k miles religiously.

[lenore]

I am checking for a AMsoil dealer today, So did you do several drain and fills or use the manual fluid exchange method that Amsoil has on their site??? I am still thinking of moving the external tranny cooler to the front of the vehicle so it gets better air flow. and yes I agree with you, Amsoil is available, so why not use it, It is still cheaper than the stealership for a tranny fluid change if you diy.

All I do is take 5 qt's (they drain & fill a little over 4 qt's total & give me the rest back....which I use to change the PS fluid myself) to my dealer and a drain plug gasket.....my Lexus dealer charges me $20. I do this every 2 years or 30k miles religiously.

Ok just the standard 4.3 qts drain and fill. Thanks

[LexusMBF]

I just bought 1999 RX300 2 weeks ago, from a friend. It has 161000 on the odometer. Today, I have it checked by my trusted mechanic, he told me that it has problem with the tranny. Well, I already suspected it when I drove it to work. It kind a slip, and often it shifted to a lower gear for no good reason.

He told me it might cost me between 2K to 3K to replace with a rebuild. For now I can drive it until it completely failed. He can't tell when will it happen. So, of course this is not very comforting, I wouldn't dare to drive it out of town.

What should I do? Is there anything that can be done before the expensive replacement?

Any suggestion from you folks will be appreciated.

[Lesley1020]

I just bought 1999 RX300 2 weeks ago, from a friend. It has 161000 on the odometer. Today, I have it checked by my trusted mechanic, he told me that it has problem with the tranny. Well, I already suspected it when I drove it to work. It kind a slip, and often it shifted to a lower gear for no good reason.

He told me it might cost me between 2K to 3K to replace with a rebuild. For now I can drive it until it completely failed. He can't tell when will it happen. So, of course this is not very comforting, I wouldn't dare to drive it out of town.

What should I do? Is there anything that can be done before the expensive replacement?

Any suggestion from you folks will be appreciated.

Check out these two threads:

http://us.lexusownersclub.com/forums/index...showtopic=47717

http://us.lexusownersclub.com/forums/index...showtopic=45951

We are still having a slight problem between 2nd and 3rd but it's overall a great improvement after doing what the folks on here suggested. We are replacing the speed sensors this week are hopeful it may work. If it doesn't I would much rather spend such a low $$$ amount on ruling it out before the worst case scenario. It seems that doing several drain and fills and either cleaning or replacing the speed sensors has helped many people. It's worth a try!

Good luck.

[LexusMBF]

I just bought 1999 RX300 2 weeks ago, from a friend. It has 161000 on the odometer. Today, I have it checked by my trusted mechanic, he told me that it has problem with the tranny. Well, I already suspected it when I drove it to work. It kind a slip, and often it shifted to a lower gear for no good reason.

He told me it might cost me between 2K to 3K to replace with a rebuild. For now I can drive it until it completely failed. He can't tell when will it happen. So, of course this is not very comforting, I wouldn't dare to drive it out of town.

What should I do? Is there anything that can be done before the expensive replacement?

Any suggestion from you folks will be appreciated.

Check out these two threads:

http://us.lexusownersclub.com/forums/index...showtopic=47717

http://us.lexusownersclub.com/forums/index...showtopic=45951

We are still having a slight problem between 2nd and 3rd but it's overall a great improvement after doing what the folks on here suggested. We are replacing the speed sensors this week are hopeful it may work. If it doesn't I would much rather spend such a low $$$ amount on ruling it out before the worst case scenario. It seems that doing several drain and fills and either cleaning or replacing the speed sensors has helped many people. It's worth a try!

Good luck.

Thank you!

I'll try the speed sensors this weekend, and I'll update with the result.

The oil looks clean and fresh to me and doesn't smell burned. I don't know if I should do the drain and refill. May be I'll ask the previous owner if he have done it before.

[Lesley1020]

I would definitely do it! That was the first step we took and it eliminated the noise, the reverse shifting problem and there was also an overall improvement. We're doing another one this weekend after replacing the sensors this week We ordered those from Rock Auto yesterday and they will be here tomorrow. After you clean them, be sure and identify which ones you have. There are Aisian and Toyota ones. You can get the Aisian ones for $30 a piece - $70 for the Toyota each. We unfortunately had the Toyota but it's still worth a try if it fixes the problem. They will also refund if you need to.

I have a coupon code for 5% discount at Rock Auto if anyone is interested.

Thank you!

I'll try the speed sensors this weekend, and I'll update with the result.

The oil looks clean and fresh to me and doesn't smell burned. I don't know if I should do the drain and refill. May be I'll ask the previous owner if he have done it before.

[LexusMBF]

I tried to clean the speed sensor and did a swap.

I tested both sensors following the procedure described by lenore.

But it didn't give any improvement.

The grinding sound is still noticeable (loud), especially when the engine is still cold.

It sounds softer when it reach operating temp.

I guess the problem is inside the tranny, not the sensor.

So probably I'll decide just to rebuild it. (For peace of mind)

Thanks for your help

[Lesley1020]

I tried to clean the speed sensor and did a swap.

I tested both sensors following the procedure described by lenore.

But it didn't give any improvement.

The grinding sound is still noticeable (loud), especially when the engine is still cold.

It sounds softer when it reach operating temp.

I guess the problem is inside the tranny, not the sensor.

So probably I'll decide just to rebuild it. (For peace of mind)

Thanks for your help

Did you drain the fluid, drop the pan and clean it? Although we changed the speed sensors, the drain and fill (dropping the pan to clean) was what got rid fo the noise. The speed sensors gave us smoother shifting. I think the hesitation is gone between 2nd and 3rd also. But if you havent already, do the drain and fill before a rebuild!

[Lesley1020]

I tried to clean the speed sensor and did a swap.

I tested both sensors following the procedure described by lenore.

But it didn't give any improvement.

The grinding sound is still noticeable (loud), especially when the engine is still cold.

It sounds softer when it reach operating temp.

I guess the problem is inside the tranny, not the sensor.

So probably I'll decide just to rebuild it. (For peace of mind)

Thanks for your help

Did you drain the fluid, drop the pan and clean it? Although we changed the speed sensors, the drain and fill (dropping the pan to clean) was what got rid fo the noise. The speed sensors gave us smoother shifting. I think the hesitation is gone between 2nd and 3rd also. But if you havent already, do the drain and fill before a rebuild!

[blk_on_blk]

I just bought 1999 RX300 2 weeks ago, from a friend. It has 161000 on the odometer. Today, I have it checked by my trusted mechanic, he told me that it has problem with the tranny. Well, I already suspected it when I drove it to work. It kind a slip, and often it shifted to a lower gear for no good reason.

He told me it might cost me between 2K to 3K to replace with a rebuild. For now I can drive it until it completely failed. He can't tell when will it happen. So, of course this is not very comforting, I wouldn't dare to drive it out of town.

What should I do? Is there anything that can be done before the expensive replacement?

Any suggestion from you folks will be appreciated.

So, I have a 99 RX300 FWD that I've owned for a little over a year... and my tranny recently went out. I bought the car out of Phoenix, and it had about 114K on it. It ran and drove perfectly over this past year, and I've racked up a ton of miles (now at 136K) with a long commute and driving my life away in it. About a month ago I noticed a slight whine upon start up, but then it went away when it was warmed up. I changed the fluid and kept an eye on it. Over weeks the whine got louder, and it was pretty obvious I was loosing a bearing or the pump in the tranny. It still drove great, but I added in some Lucas fluid to see if that would quiet it down. It did... a little. But a week or so later it started to slip and lurch between gears. So, I brought it to my trusted shop here in the Portland, OR area: Todd's Import Automotive. These guys run a clean shop and have always been fair. So, they did some inspecting, and sure enough, the tranny is on it's way out. Now these guys don't do tranny rebuilds in-house, but rather they work with Howard Engineering http://www.hecreman.com/quality_control.html for their rebuilt transmissions. They said they've never had one come back that they installed. I would rather buy a tranny from a remanufacturing business where rebuilding key transmissions are their core and specialized buisness, rather than going to some local shop and having them do a one-off rebuild. I'd almost trust a specialty shop over a Lexus rebuilt tranny, too. Anyhow, the total for the new tranny and swap is coming in at $3800. It's a chunk, but with a new tranny and a nice warranty on it, I think I should be set for some time to come.

On another note, I've read all about the tranny failures in the 99-00 RX300's and I've read where people say it's because of the design and that it's essentially a Camry drive train in a much heavier vehicle (possibly from excessive heat build up). But what about the Sienna... they use basically the same powertrain (the 1MZ-FE engine), and an XLE Sienna is 3825 pounds (according to Edmunds.com), where my FWD RX300 is only 3692 pounds. I haven't read about any significant number of failures on the Sienna, and it's a heavier vehicle running similar powertrain (transverse mounted 1MZ-FE engine with a transaxle). Hmm. I've also read that a lot of the failures are because of the upshift programing in the tranny telling it to shift too soon, leaving a lot of torque load cranking through the tranny. This I could see, so I always drive with my tranny in the PWR setting... that leaves the tranny nice and responsive and shifts right where it 'feels' like it should.

Anyhow, add me to the list of tranny failures, and this one in a FWD model. It'd be nice if Lexus helped paid for the repair, but since I'm getting the tranny from somewhere else, and because the vehicle is 9 years old with 136K on the odo, I think I'm on my own to cover this repair.

[wwest]

I just bought 1999 RX300 2 weeks ago, from a friend. It has 161000 on the odometer. Today, I have it checked by my trusted mechanic, he told me that it has problem with the tranny. Well, I already suspected it when I drove it to work. It kind a slip, and often it shifted to a lower gear for no good reason.

He told me it might cost me between 2K to 3K to replace with a rebuild. For now I can drive it until it completely failed. He can't tell when will it happen. So, of course this is not very comforting, I wouldn't dare to drive it out of town.

What should I do? Is there anything that can be done before the expensive replacement?

Any suggestion from you folks will be appreciated.

So, I have a 99 RX300 FWD that I've owned for a little over a year... and my tranny recently went out. I bought the car out of Phoenix, and it had about 114K on it. It ran and drove perfectly over this past year, and I've racked up a ton of miles (now at 136K) with a long commute and driving my life away in it. About a month ago I noticed a slight whine upon start up, but then it went away when it was warmed up. I changed the fluid and kept an eye on it. Over weeks the whine got louder, and it was pretty obvious I was loosing a bearing or the pump in the tranny. It still drove great, but I added in some Lucas fluid to see if that would quiet it down. It did... a little. But a week or so later it started to slip and lurch between gears. So, I brought it to my trusted shop here in the Portland, OR area: Todd's Import Automotive. These guys run a clean shop and have always been fair. So, they did some inspecting, and sure enough, the tranny is on it's way out. Now these guys don't do tranny rebuilds in-house, but rather they work with Howard Engineering http://www.hecreman.com/quality_control.html for their rebuilt transmissions. They said they've never had one come back that they installed. I would rather buy a tranny from a remanufacturing business where rebuilding key transmissions are their core and specialized buisness, rather than going to some local shop and having them do a one-off rebuild. I'd almost trust a specialty shop over a Lexus rebuilt tranny, too. Anyhow, the total for the new tranny and swap is coming in at $3800. It's a chunk, but with a new tranny and a nice warranty on it, I think I should be set for some time to come.

On another note, I've read all about the tranny failures in the 99-00 RX300's and I've read where people say it's because of the design and that it's essentially a Camry drive train in a much heavier vehicle (possibly from excessive heat build up). But what about the Sienna... they use basically the same powertrain (the 1MZ-FE engine), and an XLE Sienna is 3825 pounds (according to Edmunds.com), where my FWD RX300 is only 3692 pounds. I haven't read about any significant number of failures on the Sienna, and it's a heavier vehicle running similar powertrain (transverse mounted 1MZ-FE engine with a transaxle). Hmm. I've also read that a lot of the failures are because of the upshift programing in the tranny telling it to shift too soon, leaving a lot of torque load cranking through the tranny. This I could see, so I always drive with my tranny in the PWR setting... that leaves the tranny nice and responsive and shifts right where it 'feels' like it should.

Anyhow, add me to the list of tranny failures, and this one in a FWD model. It'd be nice if Lexus helped paid for the repair, but since I'm getting the tranny from somewhere else, and because the vehicle is 9 years old with 136K on the odo, I think I'm on my own to cover this repair.

" a Camry drive train in a much heavier vehicle.."

Well, not really..

It appears that the design engineers, when designing the RX drive train, started out with the Camry's engine and transaxle. Apparently it soon became clear to them that the transaxle needed to be more robust, "beefed up" as it were, for the extra duty, weight, power, and AWD to boot. And then there was the issue of not very much room for more robustness in a vehicle with a sideways mounted engine and transaxle.

So something had to go..GIVE.

The engineers decided that with a minor level of reprogramming of the firmware the ATF pressure holding, "sustaining" accumulator could be abandoned from the design, obviously leaving more room for more robust gearsets and clutches.

The fly in the ointment was that driver's don't always follow the "rules", especially rules that the manufacturer is extremely reluctant to publish.

As a result of the "abolition" of the accumulator the newly designed transaxle could not support two gear changes in quick sequence with the engine nearly at, or actually at, idle.

There is a TSB issued for the Camry in the spring of 2003 that very adequately describes the three most common instances wherein this has become a problem.

Basically the situation occurs when you lift the gas pedal slightly, the transaxle upshifts, and now you quickly re-apply pressure to the gas pedal to return to acceleration mode. The WORSE case is if you begin by accelerating moderately, then completely lift the gas pedal, close the throttle, the transaxle upshifts accordingly (or for really worse case the transaxle only "begins" the upshift) but now you wish to quickly accelerate again and aggressively depress the gas pedal.

For the 99-03 models the engine RPM begins rising immediately in response to the throttle position, but the newly REQUIRED downshift may not complete for another few hundred milliseconds.

For the 99-00 model years the result, OBVIOUS result, is premature transaxle failure.

"..excessive hest buildup.."

By the time the '01 was to enter production the engineers had realized their initial mistake and made a QUICK fix, a MISTAKEN quick fix.

They increased the pumping capacity of the gear type ATF pump so more volume/pressure could be supplied even with the engine at idle.

That, of course, again, OBVIOUSLY (in hindsight) resulted in localized overheating of the ATF and that in turn resulted in the factory recommendation of a change in the ATF drain/fill interval from infinity to eveny 15,000 miles.

But the inordinately high premature failure rate continued.

Also obviously, it was about at this point that someone (beancounters, no doubt) decided that building a less expensive transaxle absent the accumulator could be spread across the entire FWD and F/AWD product line.

It was also about this time that the "protect the drive train" solution, FIX, was arrived at. By the time the RX330 and Sienna AWD arrived on the scene DBW, E-throttle, had been adopted to prevent the engine RPM from rising in response to gas pedal pressure if a transaxle gear change, or two, was in process or upcoming, in the "que".

Oh, not sure if this really relates, but also by the time the RX330 and Sienna AWD rolled out the VC, Viscous Coupling, previously used in the RX300 series to provide "full-time" AWD capability, had also been abandoned in favor of TC, Traction Control, braking to provide AWD capability only on an "as needed" basis via a "virtual" center (and rear??) LSD.

[blk_on_blk]

Hmm... interesting, and it all sounds very plausible. It seems strange though that it took them that long to find issues with the transmission, for the RX300 had already been out in the form of the AWD Toyota Harrier since 1997. You'd think it would have shown up in the two years prior to U.S. release. Hmm, it also doesn't explain how in the same time frame Toyota knew how to make a transverse 3.0L engine mated to a transaxle that was reliable in a vehicle that was several hundred pounds heavier than the RX300 (namely the Sienna) without any major problems. It also seems strange they would choose the Camry engine and drivetrain to start with, and not the Sienna, something using the same engine and that was originally designed for a heavier/larger vehicle... especially considering the RX300 was going to be touted as an "SUV" type vehicle. Maybe the transmission failures are partially due to the fact that the RX300 engine is 20hp stronger with more torque than any of the others, and that's enough to affect reliablity? We all know the inverse relationship of power and reliablity.

I guess we could ponder all day about how/why Toytota chose the path they did, but it still ends in the same result of unreliablity. Although, other than the transmission failures, I have to say my RX is one of the nicest, most solid all-around daily-driver vehicles I've ever driven... once I get the new tranny in, it should be good for many miles to come.