RX in NC

If it is truly the case that a paid subscription is the only viable way that this site can survive, then you should be honest and explain it that way. But you may need to re-think your $50 annual fee. That could be a bit high for most folks.

The idea may appeal to die-hard Lexus lovers, but most folks who are primarily in need of advice concerning how to fix their vehicle's inherent problems simply aren't going to be interested in paying for a membership that basically offers a few logo-embossed trinkets and a "lounge" forum area. Sorry to say, but it's just not a priority for most of us out here dealing with our individual vehicle problems.

Neither. Get a Jeep Grand Cherokee. Better performance, much more 4x4 capability, and no transmission failures, oil seal leaks, premature oxygen sensor failures, and cracking exhaust manifold chronic problems to worry about....

The Bank 1 Sensor is underneath the vehicle before the catalytic converter. You cannot see it from above - you must get underneath your vehicle to access it. Go to www.oxygensensors.com to learn more and possibly obtain your needed part. Good luck and let us know if this fixes your problem.

Either your tires need substantial air or you need to seriously think about slowing down. Have you checked your tire pressure this decade?

One of the best ice-scraping tools is an old credit card. That's because it is very flexible, conforms to the exact curvature of the glass, and is small enough so that you can place it exactly where you want it. And it's free. Just don't be tempted to use one of your valid credit cards. Be aware that this technique works better if you're wearing gloves at the time.

The most trusted Lexus transmission mechanic I know (he has worked for our local Lexus dealership for about six years and just last week he dropped our transmission in order to replace our leaking rear oil seal under the widely-used Lexus "goodwill" customer warranty) tells me that the front differential runs Toyota Type T-IV fluid, just like your automatic transmission does. Both the transmission pan and the front differential are filled with Type T-IV through your transmission dipstick tube. All the fluid then runs together into both components. This is not rocket science, folks. If you're not afraid to crawl under your vehicle and you own a 10 mm Allen wrench (which you can buy at Sears or any reputable hardware store), you can maintain both of these components yourself and therefore ensure that NOTHING ELSE besides Type T-IV fluid ever enters your transmission.

Your situation unfortunately sounds very similar to ours. We've had two wonderful Grand Cherokees that my wife was happy with, but she caught "Lexus fever" and after all the major service issues we've suffered through over the past year, she realizes that I was right and we should have stayed with Jeep. It's a far superior product in most every way, particularly from a reliability standpoint. Sorry to learn of your circumstances. Stay on top of your Lexus dealership and continue to require them to bring your vehicle up to the supposed Lexus standards. That approach has worked well for me, but you must be firm and relentless. Good luck.

My wife's RX300 had its leaking rear oil seal replaced under the Lexus "goodwill" customer warranty this past Thursday and Friday, and the vehicle is now back in our hands leak-free at this point. The General Manager of our local Lexus dealership strongly agrees with me that we've sufferered through an inordinate amount of problems with this vehicle over the past year, understands my concerns about the vehicle's overall quality (or lack thereof), and will be meeting with me next week to address my concerns. This is responsive and customer-oriented management, and I very much appreciate it. For those of you who may find yourselves in similar circumstances, I'll keep you posted on the results of this upcoming meeting.

"Agreed. But how to change differential fluid?" The differential drain plug is located directly behind the automatic transmission fluid pan. Just like the automatic transmission fluid pan's drain plug, it is removed with a 10 mm Allen wrench. Pull the plug and approximately one quart of fluid will drain from the differential. Clean the debris that you'll see collected on the magnet located on the inside tip of the plug. Drain the automatic transmission fluid pan first, then the differential. Replace both drain plugs and refill your vehicle with ONLY Toyota Type T-IV transmission fluid, using a small funnel through the transmission dipstick tube. Check your fluid level frequently over the next several days to ensure that you've gotten it right in both hot and cold conditions. This is so easy that anyone not afraid to crawl underneath their vehicle can do it.

Brakes and tires are the two most variable components from vehicle-to-vehicle and driver-to-driver. If you drive hard, brake heavily and often, and drive mostly in town, you'll wear out your brakes very quickly. If you drive gently, coast before braking which allows the gears to help slow you down, and drive mostly on the highway, your original brakes may last 100,000 miles or more. My wife drives carefully and rationally. As a result I'll be replacing the brake pads (both axles) on her 2000 RX300 at about 80,000 miles, probably before the pads even begin to chirp. There should be no need to turn the rotors at that time.

I doubt very seriously if Toyota would feed their service history to the Lexus database. And I also doubt very seriously if Lexus would even accept it. More and more Toyota dealerships are attempting to get Lexus service business, much of which they can do. Toyota charges less and touts that they can provide the same or better quality of service than Lexus can, and on a dealership-to-dealership comparison around the country, there's some truth in that depending upon where you live. But in the cut-throat automotive industry, competing manufacturers are not going to share data feeds of service records. They may TELL you that they will, but if you believe that, make sure you keep hard copies of your service records, too. Because if you go looking at a Lexus service department for a service visit that you had performed by a Toyota service department, you simply ain't gonna find it....

I believe that your P1133 trouble code is associated with your Air/Fuel Ratio Sensor (also called the Bank 1 Sensor). This particular sensor is located on the back side of your exhaust manifold. I'm not familiar with your P0446 trouble code, but perhaps someone else on this forum is and will step up to the plate here. It sounds as if you've been cleaning the Mass Air Flow Sensor, which is located on the back of the air filter housing. I don't think that approach is going to permanently turn off your "check engine" light associated with a P1133 trouble code. You're probably going to have to replace your Air/Fuel Ratio Sensor - I don't know that you can successfully clean it the way you can clean a Mass Air Flow Sensor. Go to www.oxygensensors.com for more information and to obtain parts for considerably less than you'll have to pay a Lexus parts department. Your local NAPA store can also order the appropriate oxygen sensors for your vehicle (most of them will be made by Bosch). There were some very good threads on this RX forum back in August and September in reference to oxygen sensor problems on the RX series. If you haven't seen them, it would be worth your time to go back and review them. At 110,000 miles on your vehicle, you are well past the typical mileage when these multiple sensors begin to fail and must be dealt with. Good luck to you.

bluestu, I'm not ready to take the depreciation hit by selling my wife's RX300 at this stage of what we planned to be about a six-year lifespan for us. If I could unload it for even money I would jump at the chance, but given its problematic history, that just isn't going to happen because I believe in being totally honest with anyone who rings my doorbell to consider a vehicle that I've listed for sale. That means full disclosure and all service records. I demand no less when I purchase a pre-owned vehicle myself. Like you, I maintain our vehicles meticulously and compulsively. I do the routine maintenance myself because I believe that no one else will take care of our vehicles as well as I will. I've done this since the mid-1970s, comprising approximately 20 vehicles, most of which have provided us with at least 130,000 miles of service apiece. Do the math and that comes to more than two-and-a-half million miles between my wife, our daughter, and myself. None of our other vehicles have ever saddled us with anything even close to the severity of problems that this RX300 has presented us with over the past thirteen months. I very much appreciate the willingness of our local Lexus service manager to step up to the plate for us, and I realize that many of you out there do not receive the same type of support from the Lexus folks you deal with in your particular area. But in my eyes, a well-maintained, carefully-driven Lexus vehicle having to spend almost thirty days in the shop over a thirteen-month period due to a myriad of major (and very expensive) service breakdowns is, in a word, inexcusable. And finally, I agree with your comment concerning the value of this forum and that's why I continue to come here for information. Without this forum and similar ones elsewhere on the net, it would have been far more difficult to discover the widespread existence of the RX transmission problems as well as most of the other issues we've had to deal with pertaining to this vehicle. And that's the true value here - to learn from other folks' experiences and recommendations, come up with a solution for your particular issue, and then share it here for those who have not yet experienced the problem but are likely to at some point down the road.

Like a number of RX owners have reported here previously, my wife's 2000 RX300 has developed a slow oil leak from its rear seal. The vehicle began losing 10 to 15 drops of oil per day at some point during this past weekend, and I've been monitoring it by placing a piece of cardboard between the engine oil pan and transmission fluid pan which is where the oil dripping occurs. Our RX currently sits at approximately 73,400 miles, and a number of RX owners have reported that this problem seems to develop between 65,000 and 75,000 miles. Based upon our negative experiences with the RX, I was actually expecting this problem to occur and I've been looking for it over the past couple of months. Sure enough, the evidence is now there. Be aware that in order to replace this particular rear seal, the vehicle's transmission must be dropped. So putting in a new $25 seal requires a couple of days and over $1,000 in labor costs from your friendly Lexus dealership. The good news for us is that I spoke with our Lexus service manager this morning and she agreed to cover these repairs under the 70,000 mile drivetrain warranty even though we've technically exceeded that mileage figure. The bad news is that this vehicle continues to plague us with problems, all of which are documented as common flaws in the RX series. I'll list these problems below so other RX owners can be aware of them if you're not already: August 2003 - cracked exhaust manifold, faulty mass air flow sensor. November 2003 - automatic transmission failure. August 2004 - faulty fuel/air ratio (bank 1) sensor. October 2004 - rear oil seal failure. However, I will give our local Lexus service manager credit (and a nod of thanks) for handling ALL of these problems under the regular Lexus warranty. Our August 2003 and November 2003 issues were legitimately handled under the 4 year/50,000 mile warranty, while the August 2004 and October 2004 issues were and are being handled under a selective "customer goodwill" policy even though we've exceeded the regular warranty period for both of those problems. All issues EXCEPT the transmission failure were handled quickly, relatively conveniently, and without too much foot-stomping on my part. I really had to battle for the new transmission last October and November and it required more than a month of effort on my part to make it happen, but my effort was worth it because it brought my wife some much-needed piece of mind and re-established at least some measure of trust in her vehicle. That being said, from an inherent problems standpoint this RX300 is still the most disappointing vehicle we've owned during the past 25 years. The famed perception of Lexus quality and "relentless pursuit of perfection" is simply not present in so many components that comprise the overall vehicle. Toyota's quality control has taken a number of well-publicized hits lately, and Lexus is certainly playing a part in that.

Years ago I had similar electrical symptoms in a Datsun Z. After a lot of troubleshooting and running down a few leads that didn't work, the problem was finally fixed with a new ignition switch. I'll never forget it - it took awhile to diagnose and was very frustrating.

Your symptoms seem to be indicative of a worn-out or faulty ignition switch. Don't spend any money on ordering parts yet without having your ignition switch checked out first. A service facility specializing in electrical repairs will check this problem out for far less than your Lexus dealership will charge you. And if it's a worn-out wire or relay, they may be able to solder a fix rather than sell you an entirely new $1,200 ignition switch (I'm guessing at the Lexus price but I'll bet that I'm pretty close). Good luck. Keep us posted on what you learn.

We'll probably be seeing your bashed and blood-spattered vehicle on the evening news when you eventually pull this stunt on a beefy, hot-tempered blue-collar guy who's just trying to get home after pulling a tough shift on the assembly line. He'll probably beat you to a pulp with a tire iron....

You'll never achieve the deep-down lustre on a white finish that is possible on dark-colored cars. That's because white reflects more light than any other color in the spectrum, and a darker color's ability to seemingly absorb light is the primary component in creating the illusion of a deep lustre. But white is the only exterior color I've bought for at least the past ten years. That's because it fights the effects of the sun far better than any other color, hides fade and swirls far better than any other color, and is always in demand for resale purposes. Stick with white exteriors. Your vehicle will simply hold up better as the years go by.

My primary vehicle is a Dodge Ram 1500 series with a 5.9 litre V8 that will absolutely fly. I've always preferred "Big Iron", but I'm 6'7" and 245 pounds so I need every bit of headroom and legroom I can get. Our RX300 is my wife's primary vehicle and I've always perceived it as a woman's car. In our neck of the woods, more than 90% of the RXs you see on the road are being driven by women. On the rare occasions I drive my wife's RX, I look like a clown getting out of those tiny little cars that run around the three-ring circus at the Ringling Brothers shows....

You're a fool if you use anything other than Toyota Type T-IV transmission fluid - period. But don't buy it from Lexus - buy it from Toyota. It will be significantly less expensive. With all the RX transmission problems out there, why risk using anything else particularly when the documentation warns you against doing so??

My rule of thumb is if the vehicle has been in ANY accident, it is always an extreme case of buyer beware. I wouldn't buy it. Good luck if you decide to.

My opinion is well-known on this forum. Based on our experiences with the transmission in my wife's 2000 RX300, we'll never buy another one. This has been the most disappointing vehicle we've owned during the past 25 years. She'll probably go back to the upscale model of the Jeep Grand Cherokee when she's done with her RX. It's faster, has more cargo room, has much better 4x4 capabilities, and it just isn't susceptible to the transmission, exhaust manifold, and oxygen sensor problems that seem to plague the RX series. We've had three of them and should have gotten another one rather than her Lexus. If your mind is made up for a small Japanese "luxury" SUV, I think the best bang-for-the-buck right now is the Infiniti FX series. This vehicle will run circles around the RX, and I believe it's engineered better. Check it out for yourself.

OEM strut life is very dependent upon how the vehicle is driven and serviced. Well-maintained roads, a lot of highway driving, easy acceleration and braking, no towing, and taking care of your tires and wheels can cause OEM struts to occasionally last the lifetime of the vehicle. On the other hand, rough roads, off-roading, jackrabbit starts and stops, potholes and speed bumps, heavy towing, and neglect can wear out a set of struts in a relatively short period of time. You may want to obtain several other opinions before you decide that you do in fact need new struts. If your ride quality has declined, if your chassis bounces more harshly over speed bumps and takes longer to recover from them, and if your tire wear has accelerated or become greatly uneven, your mechanic may indeed be correct. All of these occurences can be signs that your struts are shot.

Smart decision, robrick88. The inferior transmission design of the RX series that we've experienced in my wife's 2000 RX300 has caused us to come to the same conclusion. There are many better small SUVs out there. Best wishes in finding one that meets your criteria.