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I recently took our 2008 RX350 to a jiffy Lube for service. It has 98,000 miles on it. I had asked that the Transmission and transaxle fluid be changed. After a while the service guy told me that it was a dealer only job. He said something about having to drop the exhaust system to replace the Transaxle fluid. Does this make sense or was he just blowing smoke (pun intended). Could it be that Lexus/Toyota uses lubricants that are unique to their brand? We bought our RX 350 with $70, 000 miles on it and are unaware of its previous service history. We want to maintain it, but don't want to spend money needlessly. Any suggestions? BTW, we have found that if you take your Lexus to a Toyota dealer, repair/maintenance costs are about 30% less that the Lexus Dealership.

I dont even know where I got this photo, but thought I would post it here... it is neat

My 2002 RX has 157k as well. When it's below freezing if I don't let the vehicle warm up for 2-3 minutes it doesn't want to shift into 3rd gear. Although once warmed up even a little, it shifts solidly and smoothly. I have personally seen several instances of 200k without a tranny rebuild. But, if you tow anything that is a different ball game. Have you kept up with replacing the fluid? That makes a difference too. Good luck to you.

Our '99 has 188K -- no problems so far with tranny.

What does your owner's maintenance manual list for transmission fluid change intervals? If 90,000 miles is listed, then a simple drain and fill is all you need. Regarding brake fluid changes: The mechanic should have testing strips that detect the amount of copper in the fluid. Brake lines are lined with copper, which will leach into the fluid if excessive moisture is present. Have the fluid checked to determine if a flush is necessary, but at a minimum, fluid should be flushed when pads are replaced. Hybrid pads typically last more than twice as long as non-hybrid pads, so it looks like you are easy on your brakes.

Followed "Crystal White's" instructions & it worked! Trip odometer was on ODO. Thank you!!

I have done 311,000 km on my RX330 (2004) without any additives or Injector cleaning. Even the spark plugs were not replaced. It is still running like brand new.

Another comment: Spending a a few pennies more for a top tier gas with extra proprietary additives is a good investment IMO. A scam: Had my Subaru in for service and a service writer showed me a piece of blotter paper with oil on it and said it was my power steering fluid and I needed a flush. I asked to see what fresh fluid looked like on the blotter, and can you believe it looked exactly the same? I told him nice try, and he apologized. I felt that this stuff was coming from the top, and would love to be a fly on the wall at one of their meetings where they are instructed to push bogus services.

Put a bottle of Techron in your next full tank if you are worried.

And....there is nothing wrong with the fuel you are using. Whether it is Sam's Club, ARCO, Chevron, there is virtually no diff at all between quality of fuels, though there is a diff in the octane, which is stated on the pump. The only real quality issue for fuel is if you fill up at a station well out of the beaten path, and the fuel is very aged, or at the bottom of the tank being sucked through a poor filtering system. There is a gas station in the middle of highway 95 here in NV that I have never once seen a customer gassing up at...I would hesitate to put that in my car. Jim

You've been scammed and the service writer got a cut of your $250. Their job is to sell, sell, sell service. I've had dealer service writers try to sell me needless and sometimes ridiculous services many times. Some have even told me that these services are required by the car maker. Showing them the car's maintenance schedule usually shuts them up. The most common scam I've seen is early brake jobs - which is why I measure the remaining pad thickness myself each time I rotate the tires which is every 5,000 miles.