paulsRX300

Thanks for the replies Lexus Fans!

I have a 2001 RX 300 that needs a lot of front-end ball joints.

Is it possible to buy these at Toyota?

I'm sure they would be cheaper. 

Hey people!

Since my first 2001 RX 300 was the best vehicle I ever owned I bought another after this one died at 275,000 miles.

Long story short, the remanufactured engine I put in the RX died due to the incompetence of engines-usa.com where I bought it.

So, my question: where is the best place to get another reman engine for this RX?

I got 275,000 out of my 1st 2001 RX 300. The tranny locked up so we sold it to a parts place and found another 2001 RX 300 with low miles and bought it.

How do you like the locker? 

I drive an '01 Rx 300. I guess I just missed getting a locker if I'd bought a little older RX.

What little time I've spent off roading my RX it sure needs that locker!!

You're correct but we never ever looked at two-wheel drive cars since we live in the snow zone of north Idaho. 4 feet of snow dropped on us in February alone. Wife got stuck in the driveway twice in our Subaru Outback which I'd bet you know is all-wheel drive. We hope to move south of Sedona, AZ completely out of the snow except for a dusting of snow and then maybe we'll pick up an '06 SC just for the fun of it. Thanks for replying....not many people do.

We got 274,000 miles out of our 2001 RX 300. The engine was running like a top but the transmission failed. With that amount of miles, we sold it to a junkyard. Then I spent two months looking for a replacement. We wanted a 2009 RX. I just can't get around the weird looking 2010 and newer models. All the '09 Rx's I saw were more than we wanted to spend. Then another 2001 RX showed up as a trade in at a local dealership for $2000 with only 125,000 miles on it. Come to find out it had a rebuilt title for a minor front end collision in '04 and the dealership just wanted it gone. So I drove it and as soon as I left their driveway I felt something slip. There was snow and ice about and I was on the way to my mechanic so I thought little about it. After looking over the car my mechanic said If I didn't buy it he would. He really didn't check it out as I would so I really put it to a little extreme use and noticed the tranny slipping again. A friend of mine has a tranny shop and we figured we'd get the tranny replaced for $4200 and pay the $2000 (Damn dealership would not come down anymore) for a total of $6200. We came real close to buying another 1999 RX for $6400 with 145,000 miles and it needed a timing belt replaced. Now we're driving the new to us 2001 RX for a week and a camshaft snaps!! Engine wasted due to metal everywhere.. This was supposed to be my daughter's car to go to college with. What NOW!! I'm sure you can guess, we bought a remanufactured engine that is being installed as I write this. We will not have a $10,000 2001 RX 300!! The moral of the story is keep your RX 330 if its running great and just needs a few things now and then, I hear some of them will go to 350,000 miles. 

Could it be the coils? I had the exact same issue with my 2001 Lexus RX 300 and an old 1995 Isuzu Trooper, the coils were replaced and that fixed the issue. Both times I bought used coils from a wrecking yard. I just made sure the coils were from lower mileage cars.

This happened to our RX 300. Only a couple of the coils were misfiring. We replaced with cheap coil's and several of those coil's started to misfire so I bought some used OE coil's off of ebay and those lasted for years. The coil's had the Denso name on them. This RX died at 274,000 miles of tranny failure.

We bought another RX with 125,000 miles on it and I may try the Accel coil's, they are the same price as the Denso. Of course, I could go to the Lexus dealership and pay $200 per coil's....hahahahahahahahah

Our RX 300 would cut all gas pumps off after a very little gas went into the tank. It would take 20 minutes to fill the tank. We never fixed it and the car died after 274,000 great miles. Never found out the cause either....

Has anyone tried these plugs? If so, what's your opinion of them?

2 hours ago, lenore said:

Time is the enemy on this engine, I first hand saw what happens to my neighbors highlander with same engine.  His wife only drove short under 3 mile trips daily, the engine never warmed up to proper operating temp, He also used non synthetic oil, when we took the engine apart there was gobs of tar like sludge throughout, the oil pan was the worst, it had blocked the oil pump strainer and caused the failure.  I personally had the RX300 (1999) and never experience this problem even after 14 years of ownership until I sold it with 189k miles.  But the key was I used synthetic and kept up the maintenance.  At the time I was using Castrol Oil German formula.  First oil change after switching even the crust came off where you add oil...I apparently has great detergent properties.  On my RX400h I used Mobil 1 and Penzoil synthetic.  I am at 235k miles. Sorry for your failure.  If you take the front valve cover off which is easy, you will know whether you have sludge or not...my neighbors car was terrible under that valve cover.  Lexus made changes later in the valve covers to help the sludge issue.  Good luck friend, sorry for your problem, We all have those terrible experiences, but remember these are mechanical beast, and they need attention.  sometimes more than other engines. 

Hey again,

My first Rx was a 2001. We bought it with 48,000 miles on it in 2004. Like you, I took care of it and always used Mobile 1. That RX dies Late last year with 274,000 miles on it. Actually, the tranny locked up without warning, the motor was running like a top. With that many miles, it seemed senseless to fix it. Now we have this new to us RX where the engine failed after only owning it for about two weeks, it only had 125,000 miles. Oh well, I guess. As far as the sludge goes the underside of the valve cover looks good. I'll see what the oil pan looks like asap. If I don't find any metal in the oil pan I may find a new head to replace the damaged one and go from there. If sludge didn't cause the camshaft bearings to starve what did?? Any ideas?? I hate to fix this motor only to have it die again!

I know about the sludge engine thing. My question is why did it take 125,000 miles to destroy the engine? If I buy another engine how can I be sure it will not happen again?? This really makes me sick, I'll have $10,500 into this 2001 RX by the time I'm done with it. I could have bought a 2008 instead.

Looking for an engine as low as miles as possible, of course.

After owning a 2001 RX for 14 years (It was 4 years old when we bought it)  and never having a single issue with the car it finally dies at 274,000 miles. The greatest vehicle I ever owned and I've owned about 10 different cars and SUVs. So I get a bright idea to see if I can find another one in decent condition with low miles for my daughter since she needs a car for college. Long story short I find a 2001 RX 300 with 125,000 miles! It's at a local Honda dealership so I go have a look with my daughter. Right up from they tell me it has a rebuilt title. No problem since the minor accident happened in 2004 with less than 50,000 miles on it at that time and it's still running fine here in 2019. It looks great inside and out, like its been taken care of. I take it for a drive and noticed the transmission slip leaving the dealership driveway. I'm hoping it was some ice but I know the feeling. I take it to my mechanic and he does an inspection and says if I don't buy it he will, he could not find the tranny problem, the dealer wants $2000 for the RX. So on the way home I find a deserted road and do a few fast reverses and hit the brake hard, the second time I do this I hear a nauseating bang/slam! I'm guessing the torque converter sliding around. Anyway, I gas it forward and everything seems ok. At this point, I have not bought it. I look into buying a rebuilt tranny at my friend's transmission shop., $4200. Considering we almost bought a 1999 RX with 145,000 miles needing the timing belt replaced for $6500 plus around a grand to replace the timing belt and related parts. We opted for the 2001. Delivered it to my friend to have a rebuilt tranny installed, total cost was around $6375, we thought, great, a little less than the one we almost bought.. Also, the carfax showed the local Toyota dealership replaced the timing belt/water pump 10,000 miles ago. She should be good to go.

So, great car, ready for a couple of years at college for my daughter. About a week later my daughter comes back into the house and tells me the car is making a weird noise. I lifted the hood and something was making a sound that sounded like a dry bearing, I was thinking the alternator but the sound was coming from the middle of the engine, water pump? Maybe those !Removed! at the dealership didn't replace the water pump, I have a deep distrust of dealerships formed by experience. Well, we parked it and waited on Monday to take it to the shop and I made it about a mile when it went dead. Got it to the shop and my mechanic showed me a broken front camshaft due to oil starvation on two of the bearings!! Just had the oil changed when the guy did the transmission swap using my favorite oil, Mobil 1.

My question to you good people here is: Any idea why the bearings were starved of oil?? Anyone think there could be metal in the engine from this disaster, enough so that the engine should be trashed?? If so where is a good place to get an engine? Money is an issue due to myself being disabled and can not work. Almost all our money will be tied up here in this car. I want it right, can have my daughter 1500 miles away in a crappy car