perk

Thanks for the advice so far. I talked to the mechanic and he said he never messed with it, which surprises me because I checked the fluid the yesterday morning after the car had been sitting all night and the transmission fluid was still a half an inch above the top "hot" notch. So thats been overfilled. I took it in to a recommended transmission shop and he hooked it up to a machine and found no error codes or anything - so its a mechanical failure where Drive and Overdrive are gone. So there charging me $275 to pull it apart to find out what the problem. Once they have a better idea he said he'll call to authorize repairs. He estimated $1500 to $2500 in repairs which doesn't sound so bad as to others charged on this forum. Any other suggestions?

HELP! I'm not sure what to do with this situation. I have very little experience with cars so I'm really feeling vulnerable to taking my car in. I'm a college student and was looking for a Honda CRV when I came across a 2001 Lexus AWD RX300 for a good price. It has a lot of miles on it (113,000) but its in pristine condition and everything added up. The previous owner was an older woman who drove it in between Prescott and Phoenix alot. She said she had it serviced at Bell Lexus religiously. She said the oil changes were done every 3000 miles instead of the recommended 5000 and that all of the necessary repairs were made that were recommended by the Lexus Dealer. She drove the vehicle the life of the car...and it showed.... It was in beautiful condition. Anyway, she traded it in for a RX330 to the Dealer and then a small time auto dealer got the vehicle for himself and sold it on his car lot to me. I got a great deal on it (bought it last week) and believed the guys pitch about Lexus being the most reliable cars and lasting forever. I researched it on Consumer reports and it had great reviews. (Too bad I didn't read this website) I got it looked at by our family mechanic and he did a regular oil service and checked it out - said everything looked great. I thought I finally found a car that was reliable. So I drove it yesterday from Phoenix to Provo, Utah to get ready for the Fall semester and 575 miles into the 600 mile trip, I was driving at 83 miles per hour in overdrive - when my rpms would soar and then fall and the transmission would catch. I slowed down to 70 mph and it was fine as long as I didn't gas it above that. Then I turned overdrive off and it drove fine - I could accelerate and the rpms wouldn't jump - but each time I put it in overdrive and sped up to normal speeds it would jump like it was shifting into neutral and then drop quickly and catch in another gear. I tried to make it the last 20 miles with overdrive off, but it revved up finally like when it was in overdrive but didn't catch... so I had to coast my new car off of the highway into a parking lot. The car idled just fine - no check engine light - no problems parked there. Anyway, I checked the tranny fluid and it was an inch above the top hot notch. I let it cool down for 20 minutes and the fluid was still above hot. I began to wonder if our family mechanic had topped it off to high (after reading this forum I wonder if he used the right fluid in the first place). Anyway, after letting it cool for a little while, I started it again to see if it would shift. It shifted fine into reverse and then just fine into 1st. From first to second it has a harsh shift - but it will do it; then from second to drive it will not go into drive - rather it will jump in rpms like going into neutral and fall back down into 2nd. I drove home in low and came inside to start searching the internet for solutions. Your forum seems to have the most competent and realistic discussions on the subject and I would appreciate advice and recommendations before I let a shop I don't know much about charge 5000 dollars of my school and tuition money. Do you think that my whole transmission is lost? Could it be a cellenoid (sp?) problem? Any help at the next steps of action would be helpful? Thanks, Another Lexus transmission story....