Replacing Transmission 03 Es300

[Lopezrme]

Hello everyone the name is Reggie and i am new to the forum because of a certain issue about the transmission on my 03 ES300.

I've done some searching to see if anyone has had a similar issue. I have found that there are a number of transmission related problems with this car but no one seems to have the issue i am having.

First off the car has had a couple of owners within the family my mom, my brother, and myself. No of whom perform maintenance on the car it may have been taken in a couple of times but i am the only one who has kept up with regular service and performed it myself. So the car has exactly been treated very nicely.

So lets go back some time ago in about '07 i would do a lot of long distance driving. I live in south florida and would make frequent trips from palm beach to orlando thats about a 3 hour drive one way and i would speed a bit pushing close to the 90 mph range. So on one of these trips i am coming back from orlando and i arrive at my exit and the car falls out of gear. I am cruising at city speeds (45) and the cars rpm's climb to about 4 grand and i realize that the power is not reaching wheels. I shut the car off and turned the car back on after about 30 seconds the car would drive about an 8th of a mile and fall out of gear again no reverse no drive no nothing just neutral. So i repeated this process enough times to make it to my house. We take the car to lexus and they replace the tranny after a bit of bickering over who would pay for it.

So now its 2009 and once again i am on the highway going to school a 30 min commute one way 4 days a week and the same thing happens. This time the car only makes it 30 feet before transmission failure. Instead of taking back to lexus i take it to a local repair shop where the owner convinces me to do a tranny service first. So i pay about 200 bux and pick the car up on a friday. The car makes it to Tuesday when i am on my way to school again and the same thing happens. I take it back to the shop where they say i need a new tranny and its about 3 grand.

I have come to the conclusion that i am going to do this myself. Except on this forum i have not found a write-up on the same issue or on anyone removing there transmission for another reason. I am looking for any tips or advice from someone who has replaced the tranny on this model before or who may have some sort of suspicion as to what exactly is going on with my car. Time is a bit of a factor because i need the car to get to and from school. As of now i have not had any check engine lights. The car can drive itself a couple of feet enough to get on a tow truck. I plan on bringing it to my moms house where my tools are and in her garage where i can avoid some of the Florida heat today.

I am welcoming any helpful information with my particular issue

Thanks for reading.

[rlx101]

man thats sucks. did you get a quote how much would it cost to put a tranny in if you buy tranny yourself from salvage yard?

whats the mileage on the car and how many miles were on 1st and 2nd transmissions before they failed?

also, im curious, are our cars supposed to downshift when we brake to slow down to stop? first situation where you were exiting looks like it downshifted (hence high rpm) and then shtf.

[Lopezrme]

I did not but i am assuming 1500 to 1800 dollars... since they want a little more than a grand for the tranny. luckily south florida is riddled with junkyards especialy in miami ive gotten quotes for trannys for about 600 bux.

right now the car is at 105,000 miles it was purchased used at 34,000 and the first tranny failed if i had to guess at 70,000 to 75,000 miles

as far as what happened when i was driving it was literally as if driving on the highway and someone slapped the shifter into neutral precisely the same effect.

If this is uncharted ground for the folks on this forum i was thinking of doing a qrite-up on the repair.... depends i may just be too lazy to photgraph everything as i do it...

thanks for the reply though.

[rlx101]

very strange .. the mileage is too low for a tranny to go .. but you know, as they say, !Removed! happens..

i think noone here did a DIY tranny replacement on the 4th gen. correct me if im wrong people.

as far as 1500-1800 for labor -- seems a bit too much. out of curiousity i called a few trany shops for a diferent make car last year it would cost 600-800$ for labor with me providing the parts. this is in north east though.

[homemechanic]

changing tranny at home is almost not recommended.

need a lot of extension tools

need a tranny jack/stand

need an engine support bracket (w/o that the engine will fall out and not safe)

plus u need 2 guys on this job for lifting heavy stuff.

if you going to change the tranny, you might want to replace the rear main seal as well.

also put in a few torque converter for the tranny. . old converters are nightmares

[SW03ES]

Yeah that is going to be an impossible job without the proper tools.

I can say you are definitely the first I have ever seen. Might be too early for a tranny to go...but it sounds like this particular car has had a pretty hard life...

Let us know how it goes...

[lenore]

Make sure you change the front seal on the tranny, would be a bummer to swap it out and have it leak, like my neighbor did on his highlander. By the way we did a engine rebuild, same crap of removing the engine and unhooking tranny. Good luck

[Lopezrme]

Make sure you change the front seal on the tranny, would be a bummer to swap it out and have it leak, like my neighbor did on his highlander. By the way we did a engine rebuild, same crap of removing the engine and unhooking tranny. Good luck

Thanks for the feed back everyone, and definitely thanks for the quote on the labor soomething to think about... but being a student doesnt leave me with many options i am pretty broke... right now its in my garage i have 4 jack stands and a 3 ton floor jack a pretty good set of ratchets and sockets, also the guys i have working on this with me. one was a heavy mechanic and the other is a tech from bmw.

I know they are the very best of help but between the 3 of us i hope we have the strength, tools, and know-how to tackle any problem that may arise.

if i am taking the advice correctly i should replace rear main seal, torque converter, and be sure to have equipment to manage the weight and difficulty of a transmission swap..