tomfleck

hi I just joined the club - we have a 2001 RX300 with 132,000 miles. Bought in 2005 with 57,000 miles and only had to replace timing belt and water pump at 90,000, then oil pan leak onto exhaust at 110,000. We are just experiencing a shudder from stop to first gear - could this be the famous engine or tranny mount issue? Original tranny, etc. We started looking at Pilots and Jeep Commanders but would like to keep our "best driving vehicle" another year or two.

I just drove our Lexus RX300. I appears to me that the engine is shaking upon starting about 10% of the time. Has anyone else had this occur? Could it be a loose engine mount?

List your model, year : 2001 RX 300 AWD # of owners : we are the second owner Price when bought and from where $21k from Union Park Honda in Wilmington, DE Had 57,000 miles Now has 133,000 miles Length of ownership and attributed problems and repair costs: Bought vehicle in May 2005 No major issues until about 2 months ago. The vehicle stutters when going from a complete stop to first gear. I repeats a sound like kuh kuh kuh about 10 times. During that time the car hesitates. After the sound ceases the car moves forward flawlessly through all remaining gears. The problem is getting worse each day, with frequency changing from 5% to 20%. Also mention where you had it fixed ( lexus, independent, midas or diy). Local mechanic, ex toyota mechanic About two weeks ago I had my mechanic test drive the vehicle for about 20 minutes. THey could not get the problem to occur, ended up doing transmission service. (Interesting comment on this forum about need to frequently inspect and change transmission fluid). Did not help. Last weekend we dined next to another couple that own 2 RX 300s with over 100,000 miles each. They had similar issue and had to replace an ignition coil. However we have not had the check engine light come on at all, so no code to check. They use the local Lexus dealer for all maintenance. We are now at a decision point, do we get the standard auction trade in of $4,500 or attempt to fix this problem? We also need 4 new tires at over $1,000 estimated cost. We test drove 2007-2008 Pilots and Odysseys and must decide what to do this week. Thanks all!

My wife's 2000 RX300 started making a slipping noise with hesitation when starting from a dead stop, usually when going uphill. Once she starts moving there is no slippage. We had our mechanic drain and replace tranny fluid and filter. Still slipping when starting up. Have any of you had a similar problem? Is this the tranny slipping at first gear? Car has 140k miles.