TunedRX300

Synthetic gear oil is 75w90, it is still GL-5 just slightly different weight, I like to get low viscousity oil at low temp since it flows better. Remember flow lubricates. Synthetic also reduces foaming, tiny bubbles increase the temperature, which is one of the major killers for gears. I choose Mobile 1 because it is more widely availiable, have higher vicosity index and lower kinetic vicosity number @ 40C over Amoil, only cost me a little over $8 at Autozone. 1 liter for front, and slightly less than 1 liter for the rear. You can visit Mobil 1's web to get Mobil's claimed advantage, just take it with a grain of salt because it is partially for marketing. http://www.mobil.com/USA-English/Lubes/PDS...t_LS_75W-90.asp Double check with Amsoil to verify Mobil 1's claims. You will see Amsoil recommends 50K change for severe driving, 100K for normal driving. 100K is nice - Yes, I would hate to open that drain plug again and I am not going to pay Lexus $200 for this. http://www.amsoil.com/storefront/fgr.aspx Last, pershaps you already know that Toyota outsource gear oil. Toyota may not choose the best gear oil since only DIYer really care what is in the differential anyway. http://www.clublexus.com/forums/showthread.php?t=194850

Glad you get more ATF out. I forgot to mention that you can also drain out old ATF from in the cooler itself but I think you may do the obvious by opening up the return line. This method is actually posted on Amsoil's web site. See step 13 in page 2 http://www.amsoil.com/faqs/ATF_and_Filter_..._Procedures.pdf Have you tried to shift gears when the car is running, or just left it in "p"? The front differential drain plug is the hardest to get off. I used 15/16 Craftsman open wrench and patiently wedge it to catch the drain plug. Toyota does not leave any space so be careful not to strip the relative soft alloy plug in the process. You can buy a suction gun at Autozone for about $8-10, the type that has a clear plastic tube, dip the tube into your fresh gear oil to draw it in, get under the car and pump it into the fill plug. You need 10" extension and a 15/16 socket to loosen the fill plug, and make sure you can loosen it BEFORE you drain out the old fluid. Rear differential for AWD uses 10mm fill and drain plugs, you can use L shaped allen wrench or a craftsman socket with 10mm hex end.

I guess, I am confused with holes "One fill hole to fill transfer case and tranny even though there are two drain plugs". One hole to fill ATF and the same to fill gear oil??? Tranny dip stick fill hole fills tranny and transfer case. Drain tranny with its drain plug, 6" behind there is another drain plug to drain transfer case. Both drain plugs are opened with 10mm allen wrench. If you put fresh ATF into the tranny dip stick hole, it will goes into both transfer case and tranny. Similiar to rear differential , front differential uses gear oil, it has its own fill hole and drain plug, 15/16 six point plugs.

Yes, both differentials use GL-5 gear oil, weight 80w90 or 75w90. One fill hole to fill transfer case and tranny even though there are two drain plugs. If one is confused with naming, just fill with whatever coming out.

Thank you. I was thinking to use the drain and fill strategy each 15K. My friend did it at a dealer at 15 and 30K and I have 50K now. I will do it for 2/3 consercutive times during a week some time next week. I am kind of afraid of flashing to introduce something else into this tranny. Besides, I have to find somebody to do it and I hate when I can't do it myself (my wife uses all bad words for this idi...tic habit, but I actually like it). What do you think about this approach? Thanks. Drain and fill is the proven method, but you can drain only about 4.3 quarts. If you think about it, doing 2-3 drain and fill in a row will drain out some of the fresh ATF you just poured into the tranny. Also it does not replace all old fluid. Open return line from the tranny cooler to drain and fill fresh fluid through the fill hole is using RX300's own ATF circulating mechanism, not using some machine to force flush in and vacuum fluid out. You can get most of the tranny fluid out in the first shot. If this method hurts the tranny, why would Toyota design the tranny cooler, which is by design circulating ATF in and out? Some will swear drain and fill is the only way, some will say flush with machine. Think and decide, it is your car. Just my $0.02 Thank you everyone for your input and your time to write a respond. I really appreciate it. TunedRX300, I like your approach to open the return like from the cooler and drain it as well. However, I have couple of questions on this method. When your recconect the return line back to the coller and start the ATF filling (from the check plug, I assume) can you introduce some air pockets to the ATF system? They probably have a recirculating pump at the lowest point which creates some minimum pressure to push the liquid through the cooler. This pump is probably lubricated with the same ATF. Do you think there may be some condition that this pump will run dry (it will just push all the new ATF to the cooler). Because you don't want to overfill the pan with 6-7 quarts, I guess, to kind of prevent this. Please let me know what do you think on this subject. Also, I checked the car records from my friend, the previous owner and found that when he was twice doing this procedure at the dealer (Fremont, Bay Area), they charged him only for 4 quarts of ATF. That obviously means they have not done the drain this way. Were they lazy (which is possible) or they followed the procedure and there is a reason for that. Thank you again. The pump won't run dry since you drain from the return line to the cooler and add from the tranny filler hole at about the same time: add one quart when one quart is drained. That is after you drained 4.3 quarts of old ATF from regular transfer case and tranny drain plugs and fill with fresh ATF. In another word, you got 4.3 quarts of fresh ATF in those pans to be drawn to the pump and use RX's own circulating mechanism to pump out the old ATF remains in Torque Convertor. Stop when you see ATF color change at the drain point. Again nothing invasive and if you think about it, how can it stir up old sludges in the tranny? The main goal of replacing the ATF is to replace old fluid with fresh fluid. Makes little sense to drain out fresh fluid (expensive T-IV!) and still not getting most of old fluid out. Just my $0.02 again.

Thank you. I was thinking to use the drain and fill strategy each 15K. My friend did it at a dealer at 15 and 30K and I have 50K now. I will do it for 2/3 consercutive times during a week some time next week. I am kind of afraid of flashing to introduce something else into this tranny. Besides, I have to find somebody to do it and I hate when I can't do it myself (my wife uses all bad words for this idi...tic habit, but I actually like it). What do you think about this approach? Thanks. Drain and fill is the proven method, but you can drain only about 4.3 quarts. If you think about it, doing 2-3 drain and fill in a row will drain out some of the fresh ATF you just poured into the tranny. Also it does not replace all old fluid. Open return line from the tranny cooler to drain and fill fresh fluid through the fill hole is using RX300's own ATF circulating mechanism, not using some machine to force flush in and vacuum fluid out. You can get most of the tranny fluid out in the first shot. If this method hurts the tranny, why would Toyota design the tranny cooler, which is by design circulating ATF in and out? Some will swear drain and fill is the only way, some will say flush with machine. Think and decide, it is your car. Just my $0.02

Tranny cooler is in front of the passenger side front wheel, look for ridges on the plastic wheel well cover, stick your finger into one of them and you will feel the cooler. Take off the wheel well cover if you want to use return line to the tranny cooler to flush ATF out.

Really? You waited that long to change the belt. That sounds risky. I have this notion that one should replace the belt around 100K. If the belt breaks, severe problem can result but not sure if the RX has the same risk. I think tune up can wait. If the car doesn't miss a beat, it probably is not necessary to get it tune up. I bet that someone might think otherwise. ← RX300's engine is non-interfering. If the timing belt broke, nothing in engine will be damaged. The RX has an interference engine according to Gates. http://www.gates.com/downloads/download_co...folder=brochure You can't trust Gates' web site. How can RX300 is interfering when Gates lists ES300 for the same year,as non-interfering, given ES and RX uses the same 1mz-fe engine? I have checked Gates' web size at the time of my old posting, it listed RX300's 1mz-fe as NON-interfering. Also timing belts worn down by age and temperature extremes more by mileage. Talk to any Toyota/Lexus mechanic you will find no one has ever seen a broken timing belt at 90K. Mileage is listed as a replacement indicator because it is easy to explain and additional profit for labor for Lexus.

Akebono pads came with stick on shims and a pack of high temperature noise dampening grease. www.rockauto.com have the best price, you can even google 5% coupon code on the internet.

Front 4 piston calipers double the clamping force because it is clamping on both sides of the rotor, not to mention that is on top of larger caliper surface (2 pistons on a side vs 1) and larger rotor size. Check out LS's rear rotor, it is vented and again larger in size than RX's rear. That combination is more than 10%. That design is more than 10 years old, now newer LS430 has boosted up its brake design. Each of its own, for me, I would like to have a little more insurance when it comes to brakes. If I travel 50mph down the street with my family on board and a druken driver just ran a red light, I am not thinking I have a sport car, a SUV, or a luxury sedan, I slam on my brake to stop so we don't get crushed. If given a choice, I would rather have engine to underperform than my brake underperform. I guess others may think they would never get into such situations then RX's brake is perfectly fine for them.

Did I miss something? You dispute test data (RX300 vs X5) that I provided, so physical principles that all brakes follow, regardless of testing setup, would be objective enough to reveal that heavier SUV such as RX300 needs better brake. I showed you a lighter Lexus model that has better brakes. Now you come back and ask for data again? It is not hard and does not take long to look. If you choose to ignore the ES example, take a look at the previous generation LS (94-00), front rotor is 315mm, 5% larger than 00 RX; LS has 4 piston per caliper, RX has 1. LS, a sedan with similar weight class as the RX, is aimed for more conservative drivers than RX's. If Toyota believe LS has adaquet braking, RX's braking system is again inadaquet.

Good observation on test data. Let's not trust that and go down to the physical fundamental of braking. Stoptech has a good technical white paper on the physic of braking system http://www.stoptech.com/tech_info/The%20Ph...g%20Systems.pdf Few highlights from page 1 Kinetic Energy = 1/2 * mass * velocity squared This means higher mass vehicles liks SUV need proportional larger brakes (larger rotor, multiple pistons for better clamping force) than sedans to stop at a given distance from a given speed. from page 5 and 3 A little algebra will also yield stopping distance having inversely proportional to piston surface area and caliper force. That is why multiple brake pistons clamping on both side of rotors reduces stopping distance. Brake rotor radius is also inversely proportional related to stopping distance. Larger brake rotor means shorter stopping distance for a given weight and speed. It is very obvious to see RX's braking is on the small side given that Porsche's rear rotor size is 10% bigger than the front rotor size of RX300. Again, let's assume Porche Cayenne's drivers are speed demons. 2002 ES300 has two piston calipers in the front, 2002 RX300 has one piston caliper in the front. I highly doubt ES owners are more aggressive driver than RX AND ES is a much lighter car. If we believe ES's braking is adaquet, then RX's braking is not.

Not to spark a debate but good rotor and pad wears are secondary features, the primary feature of the brake is stopping. As wwest posted, he could care less about brake components beat each other up, as long as it saves his life. Some objective data BMW X5 weights 900lbs more than RX300, yet 60-0 is 125 feet http://motortrend.com/roadtests/suv/112_03...erd/index3.html 2000 RX300's 60-0 is 132 feet http://www.edmunds.com/apps/vdpcontainers/...22/article.html

That explains why rear pads cover only 75% of the frictional surface, leaving 1/3 to 1/2 inches of rust ring. It is fine to use common part among models but Toyota must know SUV needs bigger brakes since it is heavier with higher payload limit. Rear rotor is already tiny and not vented, I am just puzzled why anyone would use the brake pad designed for a compact sedan to ghetto fit a SUV :chairshot: ← Are you saying Toyota's rear brake design is bad on the RX300? I believe this is possible because the rear pads are showing almost the same wear as the front pads. On my Avalon, the front pads were shot at 60k while the rear pads look like they can go another 50-60k. My RX front pads are shot at 60k and the rear pads look like they only have another 5-10k on them. The front pads for the 99 Avalon and 99 RX300 appear to be identical. It doesn't make any difference whether you buy them from Toyota or Lexus. If this isn't true, I hope someone tells me. Based on aftermarket stock numbers, it appears that the rear pads on the RX300 are identical to the rear pads on a 99 Celica. I have yet to confirm this. Is it possible that the dimensions of the pads are identical allowing aftermarket suppliers to specify the same pads for the RX and Celica, but Toyota uses one pad material for the Celica and a different pad material for the RX? I am not interested in putting cheap parts on my vehicles. On the other hand, I am not interested in paying Lexus $15 more for the exact same pads I can buy from Toyota. IMHO RX's rear brake design is not adaquet for a heavier SUV. If you look at Porsche Cayenne, the basic model of the three have standard 330mm vented rotors, 4 piston monobloc aluminum painted calipers at the REAR. RX300 has non-vented (RX's FRONT is 298mm, rear one is even smaller) rotors, one piston cast steel non-painted calipers both front and rear. We can say those who drive Porsche tend to go faster, fine. At least design the brake so it at least look nice (e.g. no rust ring around the hub). Take a look at RX330's rear brake, Toyota powder-painted the non-frictional surface with heat and rust resisting paint and have a brake pad to cover most of the rotor frictional surface. Can anyone tell me why can't Toyota have these obvious features on RX300?

That explains why rear pads cover only 75% of the frictional surface, leaving 1/3 to 1/2 inches of rust ring. It is fine to use common part among models but Toyota must know SUV needs bigger brakes since it is heavier with higher payload limit. Rear rotor is already tiny and not vented, I am just puzzled why anyone would use the brake pad designed for a compact sedan to ghetto fit a SUV :chairshot:

I recently found out that Toyota uses the same strut mount for all models of Camry platform: ES, Camry V6, RX. However RX weight more than its sedan sisters and has a much higher payload limit. Could it be that these strut mounts that were designed for sedan are not strong enough to support RX's additional weight.

Lenore, not sure about Type C but I used Mobil 1 75w-90 synthetic to change out my front and rear differentials. Cost me a little over $8 at Autozone. BTW, the front drain plug is a pain to remove, be very patient since there is not enough space to fit two "claws" on my Craftsman 15/16 open ended wrench. You can easily strip the soft alloy plug, I just angle the wrench until I get a good grip. ← Any problem with the Mobil synthetic mixing with residual (undrained) gear oil? Any special flushing/decontamination required before adding the Mobil synthetic? ← If you are concerned, just drive around for one month and do it over again. Gear oil lubes, synthetic gives you less bubbles thus lower temperature. lower weight 75 vs 80 at cold means there is more lubrication when you start driving. Remember a wax like thick oil does not lube well, oil that flows better lubes better. Even with the same weight, synthetic tends to have lower viscousity.

Lenore, not sure about Type C but I used Mobil 1 75w-90 synthetic to change out my front and rear differentials. Cost me a little over $8 at Autozone. BTW, the front drain plug is a pain to remove, be very patient since there is not enough space to fit two "claws" on my Craftsman 15/16 open ended wrench. You can easily strip the soft alloy plug, I just angle the wrench until I get a good grip.

Toyota pads are good. There is a TSB on RX OEM pads clicking and clunking when you shift from D to R. However, not all cars have this problem. See multiple discussions on this problem on RX300, RX330 and even ES http://www.clublexus.com/forums/showthread.php?t=128059 http://www.clublexus.com/forums/showthread.php?t=154152 I hope you don't run into this problem. Like Mikey00 said, you must tell your mechanic to re-use removable wear indicators if you don't DIY. A lot people who install themselves have to go back and install them since this is not a common design. Good luck

I have Akebono ProAct and Brembo rotor and great result. Read this link about Akebono, they are OEM pad makers for many automakers including Toyota. Not all ceramic pads are the same. http://www.babcox.com/editorial/bf/bf30322.htm www.rockauto.com listed the same Akebono part number for RX300 and Avalon. RX300's OEM front replacement pads do not have integrated wear indicator so be careful.

Anyone has Toyota part number for power steering belt?

Forget about replacing the leather, why bother when you can have Recaro, as in this hot BMW :D

There is no Optima of our car. You can research and find a smaller battery or go to Costco to buy a Kirkland. Before you laugh, Kirkland battery is made by Johnson Controls, which makes Optima battery and Coscto's warranty is longer than others, and cheaper...

Anyone wants to go for bigger rims please note that you will suffer with worse accleration, poorer mpg, and worse braking because of additional unsprung weight added with bigger rims and wider tires. Likely one will have inaccurate odo and speedo meters because the tire diamter change. That is four negative one must pay to get that cool rim look.

Brake pads have little to do with rusting. All brake dusts are corrosive, even though ceramic brake dusts are less. If you live in a salt belt state, road salt and heat generated by braking are both catalysts for metal oxididation. I recommend you Rotora front rotors because non-fritional surface are covered by black heat resistant and rust preventing paint. Rotora called it "E coating". I got my rear Rotora rotors at StreeBeatCustoms, subscribe to their email list and chances are they will even email you coupon code during holiday sales. Rotora rotors are slotted and the E coating is awesome. The only drawback is that they may backorder so the wait could be 2 weeks. But they will email to you when it is ordered and shipped