lenore

Hey, thats great, you will probably do better than the professionals, they are on the clock and tend to rush. Happy Thanks giving.

sorry partner,

bearings can still fail from breakdown of the lubricant without outside contamination. I saw no sign of antifreeze leakage, only a rough bearing. So beware of this kind of failure.

Check and see if the allternator is measuriing 13.5 to 14.5 volts DC when the car is running. If it is at 12v or less the alternator is toast.

Bless you and happy Thanks giving.

Hey RX and I think you are safe to do that, I inspected the timing belt that was removed at 100k and it looked great, the teeth were perfectly square with very little wear indicated, no cracks or heat fatigue, I could still read the part # and manufacturer label. However the water pump was OK too, but I felt a rough spot in the bearing when I rolled pulley. Changing it was a excellent choice. PS how is the tile job going.

It would just have been nice if the Lexus had at least sent a correction to their owners book,, recommending 15k changes. I don't know about you, but I have never had a car that you had to constantly check the tranny fluid for burnt, black, or even level. I was doing preventitive maintenance on the engine and the rest of the car way above and beyond, never suspecting tranny fluid problems. I also have lost a great deal of my sense of smell ( too many toxics I guess) and the fluid always looked ok until it was too late. Heck, every American car I drove for my company was under the same abuse as my wifes Lexus, as I drove commute and day in day out stop and go as a service rep for a major company in Sacramento, and they would not allow you to service the transmissions and the fluid looks great on all the vehicles even after 100k miles. And all of those vehicles had a heavy load of service parts. None were designed for those requirements. Chrysler K car, Chevy S10, three chrsyler mini vans, one ford windstar. So how come they hold up and my $43K Lexus doesn't? Thats is where I come from, and incedentaly I seriously doubt most Lexus owners check there fluid very often, A very different clientale in a different wage bracket and lifestyle. I always checked my fluids, I came from that background, ie Bristish cars, racing, etc. So be it the RX300 tranny is weak in design and Lexus is not a good enough company to back it. Honda/Accura does. How sad.

20 percent failure on a luxury car is rediculous. I did service at 30k intervals, with filter screen and gasket and drain. I do not tow, My wife commutes down a busy road everyday about 13 miles. The fluid from day one change at 30k, 60k, 90k was black and burnt. Completely rediculous. I have not had time to set up my survey locally but I will. Monarch says my changes are not good service, I say bull@#$. I serviced my Lexus meticulously since the day I bought it in November of 1998. Funny any detroit car tranny doesn"t get burnt, black fluid, even when they fail. So what gives, Lexus is trying to hide this crap, and sneaking 15k service in now which is not even mentioned for severe service. What a crock. I am happy every one is not experiencing the failure, I would never wish that on anyone, I work hard for my money and $4300 dollars for a fly by night rebuild is rediculous. Then I had to have that one changed, because it didn"t work right. To top it off the Roseville Lexus dealership nearly jeopardized my wife's safety by doing substandard work, for instance leaving three of the bolts that hold the tranny to the engine out. Then the next transmission leaving the sway bar ends unhooked and rubbing against the drive shafts and brake lines. What a wonderful customer experience. I have worked on cars all my life, raced them, and maintained them and never made mistakes like that. And all Lexus said was s o r r y. Big deal. I told the shop steward, service manager, and general manager they were complete idiots. Went out to the shop and inspected my vehicle the last time and still found crap not right. Two weeks later the axle shaft fell out because they broke the retaining clip after removing it twice. What a bunch of shade tree mechanics. Send them back to high school auto shop. So yes, angry is not the word, but I continue to try to assist my fellow Lexus owners with my expertise when I can. Good night.

If the timing belt drives the waterpump I would suggest changing waterpump while they are in there. Save money in long run.

Yes, I am on my original pump at 120k miles on my RX300.

I saw them at walmart also.

sounds good, let lexus do that first change.

Just old school, but I always do it at 1000 miles, gives the engine a chance to seat everything. Then put in synthetic. oil.

Go to tirerack.com they have the brembo and ceramic pads. I understand from many Lexus owners the brembo disks are the one to get. I installed two new rotors and ceramics pads on both axles for $240 total, not bad for my Lexus RX300.

Yes, and they appear to be superior to the Lexus part in that the filter has filter medium, instead of a screen. However the last filter I purchased from Lexus also had filter medium. As most parts are made somewhere, who is to know that this manufacturor makes parts for Lexus.

Unbelievable, absolutely. If a truck hit him, he still would say there was nothing there except poor maintenance. I changed my fluid every 30k miles and it still failed.......Now I am looking for longevity, something Lexus did not do.

I thought of one more variable, Some of the AWD had limited slip as an option on the drives.

Oh, great, How expensive is that?

I would not machine new rotors, they tell you to do that, but it removes mass. I just replace the rotors and all pads on MY RX300 and they work great. Got all parts from tirerack.com Brembo rotors and ceramic discs. $250 for everything including shipping. (two rotors and two sets of pads for front and rear. My orginal rotors went 118k miles

Unlike the old days, you may not ever see blue smoke, the Catalytic converters are so hot, that they burn the oil before reaching the exhaust. I had that happen on a Mercedes 190E, the valve stem seals were leaking ( valve guides were shot) Until I did a cylinder head fix the oil useage was there, but not detectable in the exhaust.

I am confused, are you talking about the front differential that takes 80-90 weight fluid, or are you talking about the transaxel off the transmisssion that takes toyota TIV that shares its fluid with the transmission.?

Thank you for your service, You are the only one that responded,

Thank you veterans on this day to commemorate you. I know there are a few of you out there. Army of one gets my first thank you. If you served, list your branch of service. I was Navy from 1968 to 1974.

Hey everyone I just ordered and received a transmission filter that definetly has filter medium in it. Looks identical to the Lexus part except no wire mesh. I ordered it from Eurasian parts. Filter and gasket from $48.00 including the O ring gasket for the filter.

You can also order them shipping free from the Plano TEXAS Lexus site. Price about $90 for all of them. Or order ceramics from Tire Rack.com