Hello,
About a month ago my car starting making a whining / whirring noise between 25 - 35mph. It was really cold in Chicago and I thought it would go away when the weather warmed up. Then my car started shifing funny and I had a few really weird shifts. I noticed if I was at a dead stop and floored the car at 4000rpms in second gear the car/trans would go BOOM and drop it hard into gear. I went straight to Lexus. Told them about the noise and the weird shifting.
Lexus called be back, said they never heard the noise, but O by the way your trans fluid is burnt. The service writer told me I had two options. Do not do anything and the trans can break, or do a trans fluid change and the trans can break. I had them do the trans fluid change. My local Lexus dealer does not do flushes. Only changes. After the fluid change my car started driving worse.

Below is a pic of my trans fluid dip stick and a little fluid on a paper towel. This pic was taken after the fluid was changed.



How bad is the color of my fluid? I have a 2001 gs300 with 86k. All serice done at lexus. Trans fluid changed at 15k, 29k, 45k, 65k, 79k, and now 86k.
What are my options? I will probably go and do a full trans fluid flush, but I am afraid it will brake the trans.

Does anyone have any good advice?

 

get it flushed at a toyota/lexus dealer with a flush machine... run T4 thru the transmission... hopefully it makes it better...

 

There isn't much you can do besides get a tranny rebuild. The reason your tranny got worse after the fluid change is because the old fluid was most likely so gummed up that it actually helped hold a little friction. With the new fluid being fresh and not as *thick* you are getting more slipping.

A tranny flush will probably just make the matter worse. It won't hurt to try it but be prepared to get a rebuild. Sorry to break the bad news man

 

I think I will try the flush and see if it helps.
Can anyone answer this? Does any Lexus dealer do a flush and what does Lexus corp recommend?
I had my trans fluid done at 79k and was at my lexus dealer 2800 miles ago for a oil change. I feel like they should have told be that my fluid was going and I should go get a full flush before it gets burnt.
I would love to put some blame on them.

 

that's weird it went bad even with all those fluid changes.

 

i think you're suppose to flush them anyway.

 

Tranny flush isn't something most places do. You pretty much need to find a place that specifically does flushes and have them do it if it's something your interested in. It sucks the tranny went out that soon, that is def. abnormal.


Have you done any towing with the car? Lots of hard driving? Do you manually shift the car?

 

Never did any towing. I am a normal driver. Never been hard on the car. I have only used the e-shift thing a few times.
In the summer I do have the ect power thing on alot. But that is it.

 

you don't need to flush if you keep up on changing the fluid. I have 37k and I have changed my fluid 4 times, it comes out looking like new.

 

From the pic you posted, that is how good old Toyota Type IV looks even with 10k miles on it. My advice to you is to get it flushed out, and replace the Type IV with Amsoil Universal tranny fluid. You will no longer have that shudder, thump, or burning fluid in your car. I had a meet recently with fellow members in NYC, and one of them had burnt Toyota Type IV tranny fluid in his ride. His car would slam into gear, and feel harsh with the type Iv fluid. He got his tranny flushed out with Amsoil, and he is now a very happy camper. His tranny is much smoother than before.. Check out this thread there is a vid in it too. https://www.clublexus.com/forums/sho...ht=amsoil+meet

 

I put 12 quarts of amsoil through my tranny this weekend & at first I didn't notice anything: it would shift soft from 1-2 or 2-3 but would shift like before also. A few days later I'm really starting to notice the difference...its not night & day, but it IS smoother. My Eshift is where it really is different. Instead of kicking into a lower gear, it pauses & smoothly shifts as if I had a manual & was feathering the clutch into a lower gear...its nice.

You might want to use the Bilstein machine WITH the amsoil to get results like the NYC guys, but I agree switch to amsoil...expensive but worth it.