Jim Duguay

What I believe Lexus114 is saying is that - make sure the planetary gear (which probably failed and which will be replaced anyway) is replaced with the newer part that is made of stronger steel and thus will probably not fail later. Chances are that the upgraded part is what will be used, but it doesn't hurt to make sure. -- I hope you continue to enjoy the car, whcih is a great vehicle. I've replaced my 1999 RX300's transmission TWICE. I suggest you make sure they install a titanium planetary gear.

I had this exact problem last week. I had an independant mechnic diagnos and fix it for $385 total (including the electrical control unit part which was $260 from Lexus). It shouldn't be difficult for you to replace yourself. From talking to my mechanic, you just need to remove the glove box and wrangle yourself under dash by the passenger seat. You should be able to locate it from there, it is a silver piece about the size of a calculator. The electrical connections have snap connectors. I don't think you need any special tools for this. I pulled my glove box once to service the a/c servos and it wasn't very difficult.

So, I just had my SECOND transmission failure in my 99 RX300 AWD. First one blew at 80K miles, now this one blew at 146K. Throw in a failed transfer case and I've spent close to $9K on this "quality" Lexus product. If I had the time and the know-how I would file a class-action lawsuit. I'm a little broke at the moment though! A word of advice: Apparently Lexus changed the design of the Forward Planetary Gear (a part inside your tranny). So if yours goes, make sure they don't repair the Planetary or use a rebuilt....make them replace it with a new titanium one from Toyota.

Look in your spare tire area for the mounting bracket, I've read others have found them there. I was wondering what that link laying the trunk was. Now I know!

It doesn't suprise me about the servo motor. Lexus doesn't fix anything, they just replace it.

I had the same problem. I think it matters which way you insert the tape. See if you adapter can be switch to where it can be inserted the opposite way. When I did that, it stopped ejecting.

I have the same problem on my 99RX300. I tell people I have a gerbil living in my dash. Any additional info is appreciated.

Don't have any help for you other than to comiserate as mine did a similar thing about a year ago. Weird thing is that mine will un-lock fine 99% of the time but will only lock about 5% of the time. I've gotten in the habit of just locking the driver door manually as I exit the car as all the other doors work fine. If you find any answers to this dilema please let us all know. I plan to get into the mechanisim sometime and try to rig a fix, perhaps the holidays will provide that time, I'll let you know if I come up with anything as well. Same problem. Both passenger side door lock actuators are faulty on my 99 RX. Lexus wants $950 to replace both locks.

I just experienced the Rx300 transmission failure this week, and am now waiting for the bad news from the Lexus dealership on how much this will cost me to repair. We wound up on the side of I-70 near Colby Kansas, and had to have the car towed back to Denver since there were no qualified dealerships anywhere close to where we broke down. I was not aware of this problem with the car - we have had no issues at all since we bought it in 2000 (new). We have had the car serviced at Lexus dealerships, following the schedule religiously. In fact, I just had the car in two days before the failure for the 95K service. I was amazed to find out that Lexus designed such a cheesy transmission - the only tran I have ever replaced was in my first car, a 64 Dodge Polara! I would have hoped that a so-called luxury car would do better, since I have had Volvo's last for 200K+ without having to replace the transmission. I mentioned this forum to the dealer when I picked up a loaner car, and he immediately went into denial mode. I intend to go in armed with cases from this site, as well as the complaints already filed with the NHTSA and see what happens. Has anyone considered filing a class action suit against Lexus. This is absolutely criminal - they are lucky that there have not been any accidents or injuries reported yet. I would love to join a class action suit. My 99 RX tranny failed around 80K.