Amy Hernández

Oh yikes!! Well, I'm glad that I saw your original post! It sounds like they drained the transmission fluid and then put oil in the vehicle.. so you actually DIDN'T get an oil change. Might want to call that shop, tell them what happened, and get your money back. And then don't ever return. Pull out the owner's manual and look up how much fluid needs to be in there. I will also say this.. don't just grab any old transmission fluid at Wal-Mart. Go to a Toyota or Lexus dealership and buy it there. Fluid quality matters - especially in these older vehicles. In my 2002 RX300, the transmission filter pan is more square (my hubs calls it an allen bowl), and it's located near the middle underneath the vehicle. The oil pan is more round and has a plug in it to drain the oil. IF yours also has the transmission filter underneath, it's worth it to just replace the filter & fluid pan in addition to adding the fluid. It's not all that expensive. I think we paid around $60 total for the parts, fluid & everything when my husband did mine.

That's the vehicle going into limp mode. My 02 did that when I had taken it to a shop I trust, and they weren't able to get it into the shop and told me I'd need a new transmission. The issue for mine was that the transmission filter (which in the 02 RX300 is underneath the transmission and needs to be replaced every so often) had very likely never been changed. The local Toyota dealership didn't even know that it was a changeable part. We purchased the filter from a local parts store and got the Toyota/Lexus transmission fluid at the dealership and my husband changed it that evening. Once he got a half mile or so down the road to "test" it afterward, it began running as normal and has ever since.

Since it now does it when you turn the AC on (or just even the blower) "too soon" after turning the car on - or if you don't turn it OFF before turning off the car - I am thinking it MIGHT be the AC compressor. BUT.. how do you diagnose it to figure out FOR SURE what's causing the issue?

My 2002 RX300 has been doing this for a while. I figured out that if I had everything on the dash turned off, and waited for a few seconds before turning the ignition all the way over, that it wouldn't do that. Well, it rained today and is chilly. And now it's making that awful noise even with me doing all of that. And it's not stopping after 5 seconds, so I've turned it off because it's LOUD. It sounds to me like a really squeaky belt that maybe got wet or something. My husband thinks it's a leak in the power steering pump. Any ideas??