lenore

The 1/4 inch debris is not what I would consider normal. But hopefully you got the bad debris out. Maybe another fluid change in 3k would give you some insurance to see if more big stuff is there. Good luck. Oh by the way was there magnets in the bottom of the pan. If not they could be a good addition.

Toyota generally does fine, you just got the idiot of the week, Sorry to hear about engine. Make sure they fix it right, and have them give you a guarentee as you requested, You will know if anything is wrong in a year, but if you can stretch 4 years more power to you. And make sure it has a new timing belt, etc.

Yes I agree, and Bluestu is incorrect also, there is diffinetly as design weakness, and if Lexus knew this and did not prescribe 15k tranny fluid changes then they should be held liable. I would surely have liked to know that I would have to service the tranny at 15k intervals when I bought my Lexus in November of 1998. That might have made me think twice. But the book indeed does not require that. I will get the book out of my wifes car tonight and give the exact requirements. HAVE YOU FILED A COMPLAINT WITH THE NHTS BOARD ON THE INTERNET TODAY?????????????

Probably a good idea to replace the solenoids as they may have been contaminated in the plunger bore with metal debris and scratched the surfaces which could make them hang up. I am so sorry to hear that you have joined the ranks of tranny failure customers.

So goes another happy dealership with $4200 in their pockets, and another satisfied customer. So the saga goes on and someday consumers organizations will recognize the rediculous failure rates for a Luxuary auto with a crappy tranny. HAVE YOU FILED YOUR COMPLAINT WITH THE NHTS BOARD ON THE INTERNET TODAY ABOUT THE RX300 TRANMISSION???????????????????????????????????????????

Maybe they unplugged the window harness on the window when replacing the glass. To remove the door panel you would have to do that.

Some fluid would rush out even if you changed your brand new filter. That's normal and not proof the filter was clogged. If the filter was clogged there would be a fluid pressure drop that would cause a delay in gear engagement when you shift from Park to Reverse or Park to Drive. The filter element is made of metal so it never wears out. The element can be cleaned up using brake cleaner and reused. Toyota has been using metal element filters since the 1960's including some of its transmissions that have a reputation of lasting over 400,000 miles. There is a replacement filter from Lexus that is not metal, and has a toyota # sorry Monarch you are not completely correct. My original filter was as you say, but the filters since have been the filter medium paper type filters. Hi there, How many miles were there on the RX when you got it and do you know when/if the trans fluid had ever been changed? I agree that a regular change of the fluid is a good thing but I'd say every 15k is a bit excessive. I've been on this list for a while now and even with the many stories of trans failure no-one has been able link the failures with any one particular thing, proceedure or lack thereof. I distinctly remember one story of a failure shortly after the fluid was changed so go figure? I'm really hoping that one of these days someone can make a solid conection to whats causing this. I agree, I wish A tranny shop or Lexus (ha , ha, ha don't bet on it) would tell us why they are failing prematurely. And dont listen to Monarch about proper service would have prevented this. Mine and many others were properly serviced and still failed. Quite frankly serviced more than most other transmission out there. Lexus is not willing to buckle or stand by their product. HAVE YOU FILED YOUR COMPLAINT WITH THE NHTS BOARD ON THE INTERNET TODAY????????????

I am so sorry for you tranny experience, join the ranks of unsatisfied RX300 owners with this failure. And yes Lexus will not stand behind their product, they continue to bury their head in the sand and ignore the customers. So with that have you filed a complaint with the NHTS board online? YOU will need the Vin # on the vehicle and write up a short paragraph of the failure and how you feel. The more entries added to this government agency will give LEXUS the bad rap they deserve on the RX300 and maybe someday they will get off the dime. By the way how much did your tranny job cost?

I'd be curious to see those results as well. lenore, which brand of the Synthetic you used. I am considering Lucas, Red Line or Mobil one? Guys, thank you for the answer, but the question was about front and rear differentials, so it was about gear oil. Which brand did you use for that? I knew that Amsoil has a compatible ATF to meet Toyota Type IV fluids specs.....was not aware of M1 having one now however. I thought this was a question on conventional vs. Synthetic diff fluids? I installed Castrol Syntec 75w90 (meets GL-5 classification) in my wife's 2003 Subaru Forester for both the F & R diffs.......never had a problem before on conventional, but it's even slightly quieter now that I put the synthetic in. What does your owners manual say to use? B) I used Castrol OIl synthetic sold at Walmart for about $8 per quart, YOU will need two bottles to due both from and back.

I have replaced the front and rear differentials with 75-90 w Synthetic and swear the car is quieter, dont know why, or maybe it is one of the placebo effects.

You are also very close to Annopolis and the Naval Academy. I went there one trip back east and was astounded with the history and museum as well as the campus. I had no idea that John Paul Jones was buried there and that he was also an admiral of the Russian Navy as well as buried originally in France. He is entombed in the Chapel on base which is truely beautiful. The whole campus is just very interesting. IN the town, there are some great touristy restaurants around the harbor. Very pretty and the kind of thing the wife would like.

Hey I was driving across the railyard here in Rosevile, Just remembered that the Diesel locomotive was the first true hybrid, using generators, electric motors and diesel engine, so how new is that for technology? Boy we sure are smart aren't we.

Hey welcome aboard and thanks for the well written procedure.

Ok Monarch, I kind of agree with you on the shift solenoids, When I dropped the Valve body assembly on my tranny, there was metal debris, which in turn could clogg the shift solenoid plungers. The real problem is gear or bearing failure caused by poor design which contaminates the rest of the tranny and causes a slow or rapid death. I agree wholeheartedly that the maintenance position is not the failure of these trannys but a poor design, whether it be computer controlled or hardware or both. Have you filed your complaint with the NHTS board today Lexus RX300 owners???? This is the new band wagon if you want LExus to stand behind their product. Because as far as they are concerned it is a dead product and not worth their bother to support you the customer unless you want to pay $4300 to $5400 to fix it yourself. Yea Ha......

too funny, thanks for the morning laugh here on the west coast. have a great day.

Hey RXin NC my wifes car is at 124.5k and my neighbors is at 152k. You know my story, but my neighbor who commutes mostly highway is on the original tranny. They also do not maintane their vehicle like you and I do. Must be the driving at freeway speeds being the blessing. I am on all original items of alternator, pumps (except water pump which I had changed with the timing belt) and starter. I was going to get a set of bearings and brushes for the alternator and do a pre failure change, but have procrastenated. All axle boots and drive line look good. The Oxygen sensors are original, but from the posts make me nervous. In california the emissions test are tough, but on the October one the car sailed thru with very low numbers. Anyway that is my feed back .....Tom

Please read the posts under the RX300 for transmission failures. It can be very expensive and very aggravating. Personally I would buy a used Toyota forerunner. You will have better reliabilty. The other choice would be a used Accura MDX. At least honda stands behind their product.

My 1999 Lexus RX300 with 124.5k unfortunately with two tranny's Otherwise is a nice car.

I dont know about everybody else but the computer miles per gallon is always been way off from my hand calculations on my RX300. It has always averaged about 15-17 in town, but please remember I am in California where we have the formulated gasoline. When I go to Nevada the mileage has jumped 2 to 3 miles per gallon with their gas. Fill your tank and next time you fill divide the miles by the gallons that you add to the tank, super easy and very accurate.

Yes there is a flaw in the design, otherwise a normally maintained vehicle like mine, (Every 30k fluid tranny change) would or should not have failed. Now I do them every 10k. Monarch doesn't have a clue because he owns a LS400 with a normal transmisson with rear wheel drive that does hold up. As for blue stu I dont know, but we RX300 owners are on the clock for failure no matter what kind of maintenance we do. It is in the stars for failure because of design failure or software/hardware design. Its is as simple as that. I took care of my car with frequent fluid (type IV) changes and it still failed. Until you are in our shoes you will not understand what we as RX owners expected and what we got as for the Toyota reliability. Monarch you are driving a vehicle with a old rear drive proven technology that the RX does not have. You do not, and have not experienced the weak design that is in the Very Heavy and under design Camry based Transaxle in the RX300. So to all have you reported your complaint to the NHTS board. It is internet available.

So have you reported your failure to the NHTS board? The more of us that do this the more data against the design flaw will be registered. Please do this and add to the growing list.

If you have children probably the only cure is either huge parent participation or private school.

I dont blame you for not liking the test, however what has happened is our society has been dumbed down by the constant barrage of dont let anyones feelings be hurt and pass everybody. Because of this we as a nation can no longer compete scholastically with many other countries in the world. I blame the generation of idiot educators (my generation) that could not stand to hurt anybody. So now the pendulum has swung against them and they are using this technique to motivate students. When we as a nation demand that children be treated as different individuals, and yes some will fail, then we can move on. There are so many problems that this forum could not have enough time to discuss. The other major failing is allowing the education system to teach in fifteen different languages. Boy when I went to Europe and the far east you either learned in there language or you were sol.... The time and money spent teaching bilingual just eats the learning curve up for our kids and destroys the foundation of this country. Hey America is made up of immigrants that learned to speak English and support our new nation. We have a sick, broken, education system ran by a bunch of left over hippies from my generation. Sorry but that is how it is, maybe we should teach English, Math, And History instead of all these feel good classes and social programs which tear down our society. Funny, I took a American History class at a local college and was astounded how bad Americans are in the light of these revisionalist instructors and text book writers. I spent the whole summester defending our nation, by the way the instructor backed down everytime, showing what he was really made of, a coward and unAmerican idiot suckered in by the teachings at Berkeley or whatever. This could go on forever, but Study hard and pass that test, and demand more for your children in the future.

If you have proof of normal service, their is a 8 year unilimited mileage warranty for sludge on that engine. But you would have to prove the service was done on a timely basis.

You need to get some codes, Take it to a autozone where they will check for codes for free.