ALarsh

Wow. Your a first class *******. Congratulations.

I think you have problems in that department.

Parker Gen

It's "you're" (you are).

OceanView

I don't think I've heard that this car is known for transmission problems.
Maybe the problems come from incorrect transmission oil changes.
I've been fortunate not to have any problems on my 98 ES300 with 262K miles all on the original tranny.
The only thing I do is drive easy and change the trans oil every 60K miles.

To the OP, are you the original owner of the car?
If not, maybe the original owner was rough on the car before you.

Lexls400

well... to let everyone know.. I was working with the executive office over at Lexus Corperate and they are NOT helping me in any way with this repair.. I looked into it and if I get it repaired at a local shop they want $2000,00 to repair the transmission.. I don't have the money for that either... I have been a loyal Lexus customer for years and I have always been so into the Lexus product line I even know people who work for the Lexus company as well as the dealers since I was a kid.. and to get this news is unbelievable.. The Persuit Of Perfection my ***!!

-Joe

chicagoSC

Did you ever get this solved? I am having the same issues with our 99 es300. Lexus will not help. Must be the sign of the times..... Original owner bought new and will not do a good faith warranty? I have bought other brands and have had warranty work good welled as long as i was the original owner.( Honda, Hummer, Cadillac) have fixed many problem even after my warranty expired. So i told them i will never buy another Toyota product and will never do business with this dealer. Sold my LS430 the next day, looking to move my es300 and hated to but sold my SC300.

I hate Lexus right now..........

llcoolpass

im confused, why should they do something outside of the warranty?

satiger

iTrader: (1)

I am sorry to hear about the tranny issue... hope it got resolved.

On a different note, I haven't either seen/read about general statement 'ES300 known for tranny problem'. I have 2000 model with 120k (single owner) and do transmission drain/refill at every 30k miles, at times 15k interval too. On my 90k service, I did the tranny power flush (Toyota dealership) and didn't encount any issues yet. For that matter, it started shifting more smoothly than earlier.

I 'think' it can be to certain extend attributed to how the car was/being maintained from day one. Remember the 'famous' engine sludge issue?. Has any one did regular oil change at 5k or less miles (or every 6 months), got into sludge issue?.

285exp

As llcoolpass said, you have a car that is well outside of warranty, and 144k is not exactly low mileage. Sorry to hear of your problems, but you're not going to find many carmakers that are going to help you out on a vehicle that far out of warranty. Contrary to some other statements here, these cars are not "known' for transmission problems, unless your definition of a known problem is that one will sometimes fail.

$4500 is crazy money, but $2000 sounds about right. If you decide not to get it fixed, you aren't going to get much for it, and the $2000 that you don't spend on the transmission isn't going to buy you much car. And notice that they claim to pursue perfection, not that they are.

Shahryar

What are thoughts on this?

My uncle has a 2002 ES 300 that is now at 120k miles. I am not sure if he has done any sort transmission service yet (I know he's bought the car used, but don't know at what mileage). I saw some more info on specific fluid here, but am trying to help him figure out what he should do (drain/fill or flush) and around how much should he expect to pay.

h4vok

Yeah 4.5K sounds really high unless it is a brand new transmission

Mine went when it had 210,000 Kms, and did the same things you described, but I was able to drive it home on 4th gear...

Anyway it cost me 1k AUD all up for a low 20,000km jap import transmission and labour to get my es300 back on the road here in Australia.

odeanLexus

I'm a senior citizen 67 & you wouldn't believe how many crooked mecs wanna take advantage of me. No scrupules. Spent lately $130 on tranny flush instead of $3000+ 3 mecs wanted for "replacing the tranny." No ethics whatsoever. Thks to ur site and the youtube videos. Minor solutions 1st some members here recommended. God they were right. No way I'm a retired PhD psychologist & I taught critical thinking for 10 years. I knew the mecs were lying to me : how did I know? "their lips were moving; just like lawyers." This site just saved me money. One mec wanted to also replace my struts because they are noisy when I turn. Not a chance. A silicon spray did it. I spent $6 instead of $ 600. CROOKS. I trust this site. I have a Lexus 2000 es 300 and it is so comfortable it's amazing. I refuse to sell it. I read a lot and that it saved me lots of money. Btw : most mecs don't like it when I ask questions. Even one mobile mec (I use often) said to me: "I'll fix ur sway bar links but I don't want u to hover over me." Yeah sure, might as well give u access to my bank account. lol. I fixed them myself; thks to yr site and youtube, really easy; and I did even a ps flush to teach him a lesson. KNOWLEDGE IS POWER. My wheels now turn nicely, noise disappeared. Thks again for helping out.