lenore

Both of us, seemingly, have forgotten an important point.

You just reminded me.....

Most of our previous experience is primarily with RWD vehicles, or AWD/4WD vehicles with longitudinally mounted engine/transmissions. FWD vehicles' transmissions must, of necessaty, occupy a much smaller space/area than we have experienced in the past.

Less space, smaller clutch surfaces, different frictional surface materials, higher hydraulic pressures, etc. All add up to a much lower margin of error for the designers.

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Well the margin of error has created a lot of very unhappy customers of a quite expensive automobile. I still say it is important to let Lexus of America, and Consumers Reports know of this weakness so they either admit it or downgrade the reliability of the transmission in the AWD RX300. I am a consumer and expected the Toyota reliability that was promised. What a terrible dissappointment.

I promised Lexus of America I would not let this go, and I will not. I love the RX300, but will not accept the responsibility for poor design. At least Accura MDX has come up to the plate and acknowleged their design flaw. I have more respect for Honda/Accura as a company that backs their product. Since I have come on this site I have learned that many owners are very complacent with the Tranny failures. I guess dropping $4500 to $8000 is not much to many but it sets me back when I want to do other things with my money, like vacations, family, and grandchildren. Lexus has no excuse, and will not take the blame, but I will give them the blame of not being a class act, as they so want to be. I have only owned 1 American vehicle in my life, but Lexus is the first to have turned me off in the way they treat their customers when they know they have a problem. Maybe their is too much American corporate in their ranks, and they have lost sight of their vision of a great auto which could be respected and compete with the Luxary class auto of the world. I applaud all of you that have responded to this terrible problem. I hope Lexus wakes up before they realize a black circle in the next edition of consumers report for reliability. The owners are the true test of a vehicle with their experiences whether it be good or bad. Good night and the best to all of you.

we were told that we must drive it at least 20 miles (ie highway) at high speed (at least 55 mph) continuously for something like 20 minutes every week or some such.  we are going to try and get that in writing.

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Todays alternators put out 14.5 volts instantly and driving at city speeds should sufficiently charge the system. I think you have a short, and those can be difficult to find. They should be able to put a current meter in line with the battery with the car off and determine the amount of draw. most cars with power doors, etc. will draw something. If they really do not have this specification than they could check the draw on a like vehicle with everything turned off and compare. Corrosion on starter, battery, and main harness leads could cause poor charging in your car. Batterys do go bad, Alternators could have a shorting diode inside which could drain the battery. could be most anywhere. good luck

I read the discussion on temps for engine and that is why the transmission hang in gear longer when cold. Does that mean if I add a Transmission cooler to my RX300 AWD that its temp is also monitored? Or would it be bad to relocate the transmission cooler in the wheel well to the front of the radiator? I added one years ago to another car and it worked alright. Would the addition cooler help on the design flaws in the RX300 AWD and possibly prolong the fluid from getting burnt and black?

I sincerely agree that no-one (not even the Lexus dealer) will do as careful a job as I will (you all too I'd assume) and also that most basic service can be done yourself in the driveway. There are a lot of other issues to consider though, a $100 oil change might sound good vs crawling under the rig at 30 degreesF or worse yet how about 36F and raining.

Anyhow I prefer to do-it-myself, if anyone's interested  I use premium synthetic oil (mobil-1, a sure way to prevent engine sludging) and an oil-change usually runs me about $35 in materials. I can easily do it in 30 minutes, clean to clean. Our local university has an oil drop at their Environmental Health and safety unit. I've had my RX serviced at a Lexus dealer and they did a great job but they're 30 miles away from me so its not very convenient. I do have Toyota dealer a lot close and I'm going to take a previous suggestion and have my timing belt changed there (if they'll do it) when I hit 90k.

Oh, as a note, I keep all the store receipts when I buy the oil and/or other parts and I have a small log-book where I document the woek I'm doing. While this may not be the same quality evidence as service receipts it does somewhat document the work you do yourself sould there be a problem.

PS Women are probably better suited for car-work than men anyhow, smaller hands, more anylitical approach and a more even temperment.  :D

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by the way when I gave Lexus of America my receipts and log book they said that is fine but they didn't feel my level of work met their shops standards and would have taken in consideration my complaint if they had done all the work.

agreed. thankyou for your input. Apparantly only you and I are the most voiceful ones on this issue... And yes Lexus will hopefully someday step up to the plate as Honda has with their transmission problem. by the way my grand daughter was born in NC. And being one of those from wacko California I appreciate your down home logic and I applaud the congeniality of the folks from NC. ps she is truely as beautiful as a southern girl should be. Must be the water.

Like anything else, the only person who can say its overpriced is you. I happily pay it out of ease really, I need the free loaner car and I'm assured that the work will be done right, and if anything is done wrong it will be taken care of professionally. Think of Lexus service like Nordstrom, you can buy the same suits at discount places like Syms but you're not going to get the personalized service or attention to detail you get at Nordstroms. For some people thats worth the cost, for some people its not. There's certainly nothing wrong with having your Lexus done at Toyota or an independent shop from the first oil change as long as you keep the reciepts.

Joining the LOC gold program gets you service discounts at certain dealers also...

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dont bet on the work being done right. I have nothing but war stories from the Roseville Lexus dealership. Even to the point of unsafe maintenance after they were done. I have to have them put the car on the rack so I can inspect afterwards to see if everything, ie bolts to transmission, stabilizer bar, vacuum lines are hook up safely. I have had the timing belt and water pump done by Toyota and they did a great job at $490 versus $1200 at Lexus. Good luck.

Earlier RX300 burnt fluid and transmission failures and RX330 hesitation problems are directly related, ABSOLUTELY.

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I take if you have proof of this to make such a statement?

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Very interesting discussion, Is it possible that relocating the transmission cooler in front of the radiator from the wheel well would help in the burnt transmission fluid problem? Also the Type IV fluid may not have adequate properties to handle the higher temps required by your scenario. I am going to have it anaylized by SWEPCO ( a distributor of this product) To see what the temp breakdown point is compared to the SWEPCO transmission fluid which I have successfully used in a Dodge Caravan (1991) to alleviate its inherant tranny failures, by the way I change the fluid at 80k and ran the vehicle to 165k with no failures and better shifting properties. Lexus has a problem, and changing the fluid at 10k is probably good, but not acceptable by automotive standards on modern transmissions. Type IV is not cheap, in my area it cost around $6 per quart. I wish more people would contact LEXUS of America and complain. The trend is to make things more maintenance free with 7k oil changes and coolent that goes 5 years and 100k. Leave it to Lexus to hide their shortcomings by going backwards with a 10k automatic transmission change. By the way I also assume that most owners of Lexus would not be able to change their own fluid, So the $24 fluid change would probably cost in the neighborhood of $145 every 10K? Boy that really makes the vehicle desireable.

We are currently looking for a new vehicle for my GF. She has a Land Rover we will get rid off. We were looking between the X5, XC90, LR3 and the GX 470. As I currently have a 03 4Runner and like it a lot, the GX sort off became the default choice. We still have to test drive the new 05 with the KDSS and uprated motor.

AS she likes to swap cars often it makes sense to lease, I was however very interested to find the current lease offer the dealer made for the GX470. A fully loaded GX goes for $53k or so with the Nav, Sport package and 3rd row, the Lexus also have the best resale value of the bunch. The X5 is about $63K with a bunch of stuff, the LR3 $54k with some options ,etc. Yet the lease payment without tax was $830 for the GX, $790 for the X5 and $850 for the LR3 (I get this one with the poor past resale value of LRs), but the amount for the GX sound way high given the great resale of these vehicles. Oh yes its a 36 month lease with 15k miles a year.

Anybody got any ideas? Anybody leasing now and how much? Or is the dealer just thinking they can make a good buck?

Thanx for any help.

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Unless you use it in business. Sorry that is all I know about it. You could go to Consumers report and do a comparision, or maybe one of the CRedit Union sites, which do comparisons of lease versus purchase.

Just about all the major automotive forums have a troll or two that secretly works on behalf of a class action lawsuit attorney. Their agenda is to rally owners together to bring a class action suit against the car maker. That's how they make their living.

Of course this is self defeating for the car owner because suits lower the resale value to the car and even in the case of legal settlements the car owners get no significant financial compensation.  But the attorneys and the people that work for them sure do.

Anyway, whenever you see someone chronically bad mouthing a car maker on an internet forum, consider they may be doing it because that's how they make their living.

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I assure you I am not part of a class action suit, I am just disappointed with Lexus which I was led to believe was a class car company that touted great reliability and back their product. I am on my third transmission which I payed $4400 for and got very poor quality worksmanship on and had to take back 6 times to get my car put together properly.

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There are something wrong with rx300 transmissions, I am not sure what it is but I have had two failures in the last few months. Lexus need to correct this problem...

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Thank you for your comment, Yes as more people participate we are learning that indeed the RX300 AWD has a serious transmission problem. Make your concerns heard at Lexus of America. They will never admit the seriousness of the failure until all of the AWD RX300 customers speak up. Your tranny is probably close to being toast. Sorry, join the rest of us in our grief with such a poor design that is not being addressed by Lexus. What a dissappointment for what could have been a good customer experience. Just wanted you to know it will cost $4400 or more if you go past warranty. Remember you only have 6 years or 70k miles to take advantage of the warranty. Do not let Lexus shun you off, Tell them the burnt fluid indicates failure and you want a new transmission.

Just about all the major automotive forums have a troll or two that secretly works on behalf of a class action lawsuit attorney. Their agenda is to rally owners together to bring a class action suit against the car maker. That's how they make their living.

Of course this is self defeating for the car owner because suits lower the resale value to the car and even in the case of legal settlements the car owners get no significant financial compensation.  But the attorneys and the people that work for them sure do.

Anyway, whenever you see someone chronically bad mouthing a car maker on an internet forum, consider they may be doing it because that's how they make their living.

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I assure you I am not part of a class action suit, I am just disappointed with Lexus which I was led to believe was a class car company that touted great reliability and back their product. I am on my third transmission which I payed $4400 for and got very poor quality worksmanship on and had to take back 6 times to get my car put together properly.

Please note you mentioned the Accura MDX being recalled. At least they admitted a problem and are doing the right thing. They have a cooling problem and are increasing the transmission cooler and making all repairs to the trannys. Lexus is still sitting on the sidelines and treating us like crap.

My wife regularly experienced conditions very similar to what "pds" described with her 2000 RX300 AWD last autumn, and she gradually came to fear the vehicle as unsafe.  It took me a month to accomplish, but I forced Lexus to install a new (rebuilt) transmission last November, under warranty at about 48,500 miles.  She just reached 70,000 miles this past weekend and she's yet to experience these unsafe conditions since the transmission was replaced.

You can bet that I will change the transmission fluid, using only Toyota Type T-IV fluid, every 30,000 miles during the period that we own this vehicle.

No vehicle should have to "learn" your driving habits before it performs properly  -  don't buy that flimsy excuse.  Get your transmission situation resolved before you wind up in an accident.

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just want you to know that lexus now feels the fluid change should be 15k, however Lexus of America will take no part of this and refuses to acknowledge the 15k changes recommended by the dealerships. What a lying, cheating car company.

I am a Copier service rep. Been one for 30 years and prior was in the United STates Navy as A communication technician (CTM2) Proud to be a conservative Christian family with three kids and three grandchildren. Started my car experience on British cars, Austin Healey, Triumph, Jaguar, etc. Now own and maintain the RX300.

The RX series of automobiles appears to have a major problem with transmission problems. It started with the 1999 RX and has got only worse. While my wifes RX was in the shop for the second and third transmission we had the experience of driving the RX330 and my wife found their transmission at best very disconcerting. It would shift at weird points, which would distract the safe driving experience making you wonder whether it was going to fail. Thank you Lexus of America for !Removed! up a almost perfect car. Time to go back to basic 101 transmission engineering school. Lenore

I agree whole heartedly. Lexus does need to address this problem. Wake up Lexus owners and be heard. Enough is enough. The RX300 is a great vehicle, but it should not be having tranny failures like a Dodge Caravan. I expect much better. Even Mercedes does better, and their reliablility has gone down the toilet. Lenore, (On my third transmission)

well I changed the left strut and mount this morning, 1.5 hours. could have been faster but I fought the keyway in the strut to mount bushing. Yeh. all noises gone.

Since I have done both now You have to be very observant of the rubber coushins in the strut tower that seperate the spring from the strut. They wear. Also the alignment of the strut mount to the shock is very critical as there is a keyway that must align with the two mating surfaces. Very easy to do the second time around. The top strut nut is torgued to 56 ftlbs, the mount to 36ftlbs and the strut mounting bolts to 156 ftlbs.

Your strut upper mount is going bad. The rubber bushing inside the metal housing is breaking down and causing the noises. The part cost $83 at the local parts house (Napa) and comes with a new bearing plate. You need a spring compressor to replace the mount on the strut. By the way I change the strut, but do not feel it is bad.

The clunking on the right front was the shock mount, I replaced the shock and mount, total cost $185 for both. Ordered KYB shocks on internet and the mount at my local NAPA store. Have the left side too, that is for my next day off. Incedentally it only took an hour to change one side. Not to bad other than compressing the spring with some spring compressors from harbor freight tools.

Where can I find information on the powertrain warranty for my 1999 RX 300 AWD?  I keep hearing 6 years / 70,000 miles.

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It is 6 year 70k miles warranty on the powertrain of the vehicle, which includes the transmission. If the car sold in november of 1998 it is past warrranty.

Well, I should have started reading this forum much, much earlier....unfortunately, my tranny went out around 90K miles...no warranty of course and it cost me $7K to get it fixed at AAMCO.  Lexus was going to charge $8-$10K !!! 

I still can't believe that a $40K car's tranny isn't covered for at least 100K miles!!!!  Where do I sign up to get some recourse!!!

-Bitter...party of one!

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I agree with you totally. I have tried to deaf ears at Lexus of America, however I tell everyone I know to not buy a RX300 with AWD. Buy a Toyota 4runner...

I payed 4430 at the lexus dealer for the rebuilt transmission. Sorry you were quoted higher. Lenore

My RX300 takes approximately 4 quarts of fluid when I do a drain and refill.  I think it may call for 4.2 quarts or something like that in the manual.

The transmission drain plug takes a 10mm hex drive to remove it.

You will also want to replace the crush washer (metal gasket) when you do this so that you can be sure to prevent leaks.

The RX calls for Toyota Type IV and that is all I have used.

Hi Tom,

  Thanks for the good info. I picked up the tranny fluid today from the Toyota dealership. After you have drained the fluid from the bolt under the car, where do you add the new fluid?

Thanks,

Mark

Obtain a funnel from walmart for less than a buck that fits the dip stick tube, which is where you add the transmission fluid.

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Puzzling....

The first time I need new blades I buy the complete Bosch assembly and then after that the refills, typically two mismatched sets. I seem to get a good one year life from the Bosch's here in the NW "rainforest".

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Maybe it has something to do with the increased air pollution here vs there degrading the rubber or something. Don't know but I've never had good luck with the Bosch blades.

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Personally I just go to walmart and buy the whole blade assembly for under $5 and then replace it annually. Lot cheaper than the Lexus route.

Help, how much play should there be on right inside axle shaft on AWD RX300 front axle?  Mine is moving about 8-10 mm.  When you pull the inside axle boot the Transmisson fluid pours out.  I have obtained a new seal and axle clip but have not pulled axle yet.  This all showed up after my third transmission change at my wonderful Lexus of Roseville DEalership.  Cant prove they caused it but am supicious, since there work has been very substandard and consistently poor.

I called Lexus and they said that they had not pulled the right axle when doing the transmission.  Then three phone calls later they admitted they do pull the right axle when doing a transmission.  They suspect the spring clip not being seated in the transfer case.  But they are not sure whether they should cover charges for fixing the loose axle shaft and seal.  Will keep you posted.  Lenore

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Lexus decided to make the repairs, the clip was bad and the seal was replaced. no charge. Now I can move on to the shock, and mount replacement.

Does there seem to be any kind of pattern on the trans failures? Towing or using the ect button in either mode?

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I do not tow and do not use the ECT button. Just a slow commute daily