monarch

Just seems to be too many "things" going on and off to convince me the car will be as reliable as should be for a Lexus.

Both the Toyota Prius hybrid and Honda Civic hybrid have excellent frequency of repair records in Consumer Reports owner surveys. Therefore I believe it's safe to assume the RX400h will do very well too.

The oxygen sensor(s) ahead of the catalytic converter need to be changed by 100-150K miles even if they aren't responsible for the P0170 check engine light, but most of the time they are. Delaying changing the oxygen sensors is a walet emptying proposition because it means you're car's fuel economy if off by 2 MPG and the excess gasoline is shortening the life of your catalytic converter and EGR valve. Another cause of a P0170 is old spark plugs or aftermarket spark plugs. The MAF sensor is generally troublefree unless you have been using an aftermarket air filter.

I really like Toyota/Lexus products and will likely continue to buy them. But my experience during this vacation with the Ford Five Hundred shows me that the gap is being rapidly closed.

For 30 years, four major gaps have existed between the American and Asian cars; namely: Reliability, Durability, Long term Owner Satisfaction, Depreciation. The Ford five hundred and Chrysler 300 havn't made any substantial strides in those four areas, hence havn't helped Ford or Chrysler gain market share on the West or East coast where Asian cars rule. But I think they should help Ford and Chrysler maintain market share in the Midwest where American cars rule.

Have you ever driven fast over bumpy roads? It's fairly easy to do permanent damage to both car and 2WD truck suspensions by driving fast and aggressively over bumpy roads - damage that permanently degrades both ride comfort and cornering capability. Some owners, including myself have seen TV commercials of cars and trucks being driven wildly and then wrongly assume the vehicles are built to take that kind of punishment.

I have a 91 LS400, 105,000 miles original timing belt and water pump. Also, a '86 Corolla, 70,000 miles, original timing belt and water pump. Both cars were purchased faily recently and previously owned and driven by seniors. I believe Toyota timing belts routinely last 15-20 years or 120,000 miles IF they cars were driven by easy going, non aggressive drivers.

I couldn't disagree more. I rent cars 25 times a year and every time I get an American car I soon wish I could push it off a cliff. Why? Because NOTHING in an American car is simple and intuitive to operate. I can't get in and figure out how to turn the headlights on, turn the cruise control on, adjust the mirrors, adjust the seats, turn on the wipers, dim the headlights, open the gas filler door, open the hood, open the trunk ad, turn on the radio, adjust the radio and so forth. All this is downright scary if I rent in the late evening and try to drive to a motel without crashing or getting a ticket (for not having the lights on or being unable to turn off the high beams). It is as if the American car designers spent months trying to figure out how to infuriate drivers and make them hate their products.

Some Ls belts have broken as early as 90K and others lasted as long as 150-190K. For decades its been known that young aggressive drivers wear out automobile timing belts and timing chains much more quickly than calm, relaxed, highway drivers.

You can not make presumptions like that, many owners do not participate on these internet forums, Maybe many of them experienced the failures

Maybe. Maybe not. There may be an objective way to find out. Of the dozens of 1999 RX300's for sale at cars.com with over 100,000 miles, I could answer the for sale ads and query the owners or car dealers to find out whether or not the transmission has been replaced.

the fact that having 127 100k+ mile RX300s RX300's for sale on cars.com adds absolutely NOTHING to the discussion

Well if you are correct about there being 127, 100,000+ mile RX300's for sale on car.com right now, then reasonably that means there are many thousands of 100,000+ mile working RX300's still in service that are not for sale.

Now consider how many of these many thousands of 100,000+ mile RX owners have publicly complained about transmission failure on internet forums or to the NTHA? Answer: roughly a dozen owners. I think this data suggests, as jrg7 proposed earlier, that the transmission failure rate of the 100K+ mile RX300's is small in relation to the number of 100K+ mile RX300's on the road.

The Toyota Highlander was introduced in 2001. Far more Highlanders are sold than RX's, hence more have accumulated over 100,000 miles to date. Here's are current for sale ads that can be found at cars.com:

2001 Toyota Highlander $19,999 111,759 miles Payless Car Sales

2001 Toyota Highlander $17,595 100,430 miles Seaview Chevrolet Pontiac GMC

2001 Toyota Highlander $16,995 112,844 miles Saturn of Beechmont

2001 Toyota Highlander $15,475 101,362 miles Woodbridge Public Auto Auction

2001 Toyota Highlander $15,218 104,892 miles Gulf South Automotive Sales

2001 Toyota Highlander $14,995 116,640 miles Landmark Motors Inc.

2001 Toyota Highlander $15,218 104,892 miles Gulf South Automotive Sales Inc

2001 Toyota Highlander $15,988 124,202 miles Thompson's Toyota

2001 Toyota Highlander $14,950 108,082 miles Daytona Toyota

2001 Toyota Highlander $13,995 112,870 miles Hendrick Honda

2001 Toyota Highlander $13,990 126,891 miles M&M Auto Sales of Waldorf, Inc

2001 Toyota Highlander $13,900 120,056 miles Powdersville Motors

2001 Toyota Highlander $12,995 112,756 miles Hilltop Nissan

2001 Toyota Highlander $12,900 100,000 miles Classified Ad

2001 Toyota Highlander $12,500 121,000 miles Individual Seller

2001 Toyota Highlander $11,995 222,358 miles Country Hill Motors,

2001 Toyota Highlander $10,850 145,000 miles A-1 Plus Auto Center Inc.

2001 Toyota Highlander -- 116,147 miles Claremont Toyota

2001 Toyota Highlander -- 129,500 miles West Kendall Toyota

Over 1,500 people are members of the toyotahighlanderclub@yahoogroups.com discussion group so I decided to search the archives of that group using the search words "transmission failed" transmission failure" and "AWD transmission". I did not find a single post about any transmission failures. Just posts about the usual hesitation on acceleration issues.

NOT!! When my ATF started showing contamination and smelling burned at only 38,000 miles I immediately fired off an email to Lexus customer satisfaction inquiries. I recieved an immediate response indicating that I should contact my dealer for updated advice on servicing my transaxle. My immediate email response to that was " Yes, like I"m going to let the fox into the hen house". In return I was advised that the 15,000 mile flush and refill recommeded by the dealer was on the advice of corporate.

Yes, advice from corporate Lexus presumably made in the spirit of helping RX300 owners like yourself obtain much longer transmission life than 6 years / 70,000 miles. But corporate has never required owners to adhere to a "15,000 mile flush and refill" to keep the 6 year / 70,000 mile powertrain warranty in effect. Indeed, the scheduled maintenance guides of the 2004-2006 RX330's specifies a fluid level and condition check every 30,000 miles just like the early '00 RX300's did.The 2006 models also have the same (admittedly confusing and misleading) note on the transmission fluid dipstick that says: "fluid does not require changing under normal driving conditions." Again, I believe this minimum service frequency advice is intended to instruct owners about the bare minimum amount of preventive maintenance required to keep the 6 year / 70,000 mile powertrain warranty in effect.

I think corporate Nissan has always done a clearer job than Toyota of explaining maintenance requirements. For example, if you had purchased an Infiniti FX35 you'd find corporate Infiniti requires the same minimum "inspect fluid level and condition at 30,000 miles" that corporate Lexus does of the RX300. But unlike Lexus, Infiniti goes a step beyond and provides a "Premium Maintenance Schedule" for owners who desire to obtain maximum component life. The corporate Infiniti Premium Maintenance Schedule recommends a "total transmission fluid replacement (fluid exchange) every 30,000 miles.

Okay, just how do you address the obvious conflict between what the owners manual, written by and under the guidance of the factory engineering team, states vs the newly required 15,000 mile interval??

Absent an initial design flaw, how do you get from "no service required" to 10 ATF flush and drain actions in 150,000 miles? A typo in the manual, maybe...??

The Scheduled Maintenance Guide of Toyotas sold in America since about the mid-80's dscribes only the minimum service frequency intervals necessary to keep the new car powertrain warranty in effect, not the optimum intervals for really long component life. Ditto in regard to the note found on the RX, ES, LS, etc transmission fluid dipstick that says "Fluid does not require changing under normal driving conditions."

The first scheduled automatic transmission service is at 30,000 miles at which time both the fluid level and condition must be checked and the fluid in the pan changed if it is visibly deteriorated. Same thing at 60,000 miles. In the vast majority of cases, this minimum amount of transmission maintenance will get a RX transmission over the 6 year / 70,000 mile powertrain warranty hurdle, hence from corporate Lexus's standpoint, the transmission is not defectively designed.

Corporate Lexus does not have a "newly required 15,000 mile interval". That's simply a dealer suggestion. However, corporate Lexus DOES SAY, in the new car service booklet that "your dealer may suggest more maintenance services or more frequent maintenance."

I think the 15,000 mile dealer suggestion is made in the spirit of helping RX owners obtain much longer transmission life than 6 years / 70,000 miles. I don't think it is made in the sprit of helping the dealer avoid a transmission warranty repair within the 6 year / 70,000 mile period. Virtually all car makers have a pretty much standardized maintenance schedule despite the reality that fluids and lubes and internally lubricated parts inside different transmissions deteriorate at different rates.

If your Lexus service advisor or mechanic is telling you that you should change your ATF at least every 15,000 miles, what do you think they know about the durability of their transmission system? They certainly know it's weak, and although they'll never admit it, they probably know that it's flawed....

RX in NC, I agree with Bluestu when he wrote: "It's not a design flaw, but a service flaw. Just because it says Lexus, made by Toyota, doesn't mean it is maintenance free. Most transmissions will fail if you don't replace all the fluid on a regular basis."

Also, I suggest you check the owners manuals of some American cars of the 1960's that had legendary reputations for durability. Example: 1965 Chevy Impala owners manual: "Drain and refill the Powerglide transmission fluid every 12,000 miles." Impala owners who obeyed those instructions obtained 250,000 + miles of troublefree automatic transmission service.

In the late 60's and early 1970's Toyota owners manuals read as follows: "change automatic transmission fluid, manual transmission, differential gear oil and repack front wheel bearing grease every 24 months or 18,000 miles" "Change brake fluid every 12 months or 12,000 miles" In those days corporate Toyota recommended short (frequent) service intervals because they were best for maximum component durability. By the mid- 70's corporate Toyota started extending service intervals because they realized American consumers wrongly associate short (frequent) service intervals with weak mechanical designs.

In other countries like Australia and Brazil where customers are less inclined to associate short (frequent) service intervals with weak mechanical designs, Toyota still recommends shorter (more frequent) service intervals than in the USA.

Also, at http://www.craigslist.org/ there are about 100 for sale ads of RX300's with over 100,000 miles. Here's a small sampling from the San Francisco Bay Area:

1999 Lexus RX300 ALL WHEEL DRIVE Super CLEAN, New Timing Belt 135,000k miles,

1999  RX 300: ALL WHEEL DRIVE LEXUS, FACTORY CHROME WHEELS, 111,000 Miles

2001 LEXUS RX300 AWD - $17990 120,000 miles

1999 Lexus RX RX300 4X4 $11,100 137,000 miles

1999 lexus rx300 - $14,000 110,000 miles

1999 Lexus RX300 SUV Loaded , orig. Owner - $11500 (los altos) 145,000K miles

To date, I havn't seen a single one of these ads that said: "new transmission" or "transmission replaced"

Daffy, here is a long established auto AC forum where you can spend hours reading posts about refrigerant conversions: http://tinyurl.com/jsju6 The forum consensus is that R12 systems should not be converted to R134a or you risk degraded system reliability, durability and performance. You will also find out that quite a few owners who switch to R134a want to switch back to R12.

As I mentioned before, one problem involved with converting to hydrocarbon refrigerants like Autocool HC 12A is flammabilty and here is an example of a fire that occurred due to an AC line rupture: http://ed.scherer.name/2004-928OC-IC/photo...l/index_13.html (although the risk of bodily injury due to an refrigerant leak fire is small)

If you don't want to visit the USA to get some R12, then you should convert to R134a following Toyota's official hardware conversion guidelines which are quite involved and costly, but help miminize the problem of reduced system reliablity and durability. There's a TSB that outlines the conversion process and is probably available as a .pdf from the clublexus.com website.

Granitize competes with the BG company for the specialty fluid conditioner / cleaner / additive business and fluid changing / recycling machine business of American car dealers including Toyota dealers. Car dealers (in the USA) like specialty conditioner / cleaner / additive products because they can charge the customer an arm and a leg for them to boost service dept. profits. Likewise American car dealers like to use specialty fluid changing and recycling machines so they can offer and sell highly profitable total fluid replacement jobs instead of less profitable partial drain and refill jobs.

For only $20 you can get a "Irwin Vise Grip" brand Locking Chain Clamp (wrench) at Harbor Freight to hold the crank pulley still while using a 22 mm six point socket on a long breaker bar to loosen the pulley bolt. Wrap the pulley grooves with an old timing or sepentine belt to protect it from abrasive damage and to help the chain grip the pulley firmly. The chain wrench technique can also be used to tighten the crank pulley bolt when you are finished with the timing belt job. One possible caveat - I am not 100% sure the chain wrench mentioned about is large enough to fit the LS400 crank pulley - I think it is but I'm not positive. I've only used this wrench on some 4 cylinder Toyota motors to change their timing belts

including a good cleaning of the tranny solenoids

Gumart1, did you find any deposits on the solenoids that needed to be scrubbed clean? Transmission fluid is such an excellent solvent that I have a hard time imagining any internal moving parts of the tranny could get "dirty"

Again...Pure and simple..These failures are the result of a change in the shifting procedures adopted at the beginning of the RX300 production.

Then why don't the 2WD RX300, ES300, Camry's, Sienna Vans, etc. transmissions have failures?

I still don't believe the compressor hose was leaking. Those hoses are much too thick and tough to crack. I believe it was the O-ring that seals the hose to the compressor that was leaking. The usual cause of leaking O-rings is system non use during the winter months. In any case, Autocool / Duracool refrigerants are flammable hydrocarbon refrigerants that have been around for decades and no one hardly uses them except owners who have junker cars and just want to temporarily get the AC system working again or who want to get the AC system working so they can sell the car with a working system.

I would say that most of the RX300 transmission failures are caused from poor maintenance and overheating rather than a design flaw. When you have factual evidence to support a design flaw, then I will be one of the first to take notice.

I agree because if the RX300 transmission had an inherently flawed design then there wouldn't be any RX300 owners who reached the 200,000 mile and beyond . And instead of dozens of RX300 owners complaining of failed transmssions, there would be thousands as is the case with several model years of the Chrysler / Dodge / Plymouth minivans. My definition of a flawed design is when a componet fails prematurely despite always being kept continuously lubricated with the correct quantity of fresh lubricant and despite being driven in a reasonably gentle manner.

The stuff on ebay is Autozone / Pep Boys / NAPA quality. If that quality level suits you then have at it.

I've owned multiple 29- 32 year old Toyotas with factory AC and their hoses are still leak free. So I don't believe R12 hoses will fatigue as long as the owner keeps using R12. All R12 substitutes spell trouble, one way or the other. If you live in Canada, R12 is totally illegal. So you might need to have a contact in the USA buy it for you on ebay and then you could drive down to the USA, recharge your system then drive back home to Canada

The real question is would you have bought a car that required you (john Q Public) to take your car out of overdrive in town, and change the fluid every 15k miles, because otherwise it would fail early? I don't think so.... It is fruitless to read your posts unless you either want to get mad, laugh, or go beat your head against a brick wall.

My intent is to help existing RX300 owners become future proud members of the RX300 transmission 200,000+ club. I believe the same transmission durability enhancing tips that car makers suggest to owners who are hauling heavy loads or towing trailers would also help extend the life of the RX300 transmission.