as99east

Hi Friends,

Let me preface this by saying I know little about cars, but am trying to learn and do more, and I recently bought a 95 LS400 with 127k miles as a second car for me when my wife has our main car. I’m doing some catch up maintenance work (needed new cat and steering rack). I just joined this forum which has been HUGELY helpful to me as a new LS owner.

I bought the car without validating a complete service record from prior owner, like an idiot, anyway it was an impulse purchase (I adored these cars as a kid) for $2750 and mechanic says car is in decent shape overall. Engine sounds great. As far as I can tell the prior owner maybe had transmission fluid flushed once at 100k miles. Maybe more but only one flush shown in CarFax. So I don’t know.

Lexus dealer (I know, groan, I took it to the dealer) has actually I think been pretty above board and helpful. They are NOT recommending I flush the transmission fluid because in their experience, better to leave it in as the older car’s transmission has learned to shift with the old fluid.

For what it’s worth the transmission fluid dipstick shows a kind of motor-oil color, so not red, but not black either. Car overall drives and shifts very smoothly although when engine is still cold, when I take my foot off gas I hear / feel just the very slightest clunk, and it disappears when car is warmed up.

Anyway, any thoughts on to flush or not flush? If this has already been comprehensively answered somewhere, my apologies.

400fanboy

Welcome! The exterior of that car looks to be in incredible condition - plus that color is quite rare. Mechanical issues nonwithstanding, I think you paid a good amount for the car. Whether that changes to "fair" or "amazing" depends on how well it holds up mechanically and how it's been maintained.

The noise you hear is probably transmission mounts. It could be other things but those are the common headlines.

As for whether you should change your transmission fluid, this video explains all the major talking points of this topic:


The tl;dw answer to your question is at the 4:50 mark.

as99east

Thank you. Extremely helpful.

I am going to get the transmission mounts examined and regarding the transmission fluid, that video pretty much laid it all out. At a minimum I think I will do a change.

Edit: FWIW, my fluid looks like the middle cup.

paulo57509

Very nice looking LS.

When I first got the LS in '08, I asked a Lexus dealership about what kind of transmission service they recommended and what was involved.

The service writer told me that they use a machine to do fluid exchange with virgin ATF, not a flush with cleaners/additives. He was pretty adamant about the differences. My take-away was that the definition of a flush and fluid exchange mean different things depending on who is doing the defining. Inquire as to what is really meant by who you're talking to. I would stick with virgin ATF in all cases, whether its done with a machine for just a simple drain and refill.

As far as new fluid causing failure, if it's going to fail, it was going to anyway.

as99east

Thanks, you know I think I will not be able to bring myself to not flush it and I cannot have that attitude of I will just let it burn up and turn to black gook. I do not view cars as just disposable things, I guess.

My parents were meticulous about maintenance with their cars and we hit 250k miles on a 97 accord manual transmission (crazy bulletproof 4 cylinder engine) and also on a 95 Maxima GLE with its legendary V6.

Couple more pics since you guys mentioned maybe you don’t see the color a ton. It definitely has a few dings and scrapes, far from pristine, but I’ve always preferred cars with a few dings. It means they are DRIVEN! Good news is the leather interior wasn’t blasted out because it was garaged in NYC for the most part when not in use. (Pic below is from before I cleaned and moisturized the leather)

400fanboy

Dings and dashes here and there are normal, waddya' gonna do after 27 years. It's not a super-rare collector car that's never been driven, and even those get some stuff over the years. The front bumper is in excellent condition - no idea how they managed to keep it from getting chipped from rocks. I wonder if it's been repainted like my front bumper was before I bought my car.

Being garage kept most of it's life is a dead giveaway because it still has an excellent condition clear coat. Visually it looks great, better than 9\10 out there I think. But again, visual cosmetics is only half the story because there are a lot of mechanical things that can cause trouble.

I would also do a drain & fill of the fluid. If that causes it to slip, it was going to fail anyway and need a rebuild before long so you'd only be delaying the inevitable. Don't forget the rest of the fluids! 4-year service interval for transmission, power steering, differential. 2 year interval for brakes and coolant. Personally, I did 3 transmission fluid changes in 5 years after getting my car because mine was... not in the best of shape when I bought it either. No issues to report. These transmissions don't really have any flaws, they are bulletproof if you take care of them.

as99east

Got it, super helpful thank you.

timmy0tool

iTrader: (7)

likely it was repainted since the lower half should match the lower sides which are silver/gray. it appears to be color matched in the pictures. still a beautiful car with non-tan interior! love it.

if it were me i would leave the trans alone if the ATF was already changed once at that mileage. i would wait to do it again at 200k.
in my 97 i did the fluid transfer myself with 12 qts of ATF at 130k but ended up selling her before she even hit 200k.

CELSI0R

Beautiful car! I'm with 400fanboy. I would drain the pan only, perhaps change the transmission filter, and change only the fluid in the pan periodically (maybe every 1-2 years? Depending on how many miles you drive).

I would not fully flush the fluid and introduce brand new fluid. I would be afraid that the shock of new fluid being replaced all at once could lead to slipping.

I absolutely agree with you, as99east. I would not let the fluid turn completely black and burn up just because it's been in there.

100k miles was almost 30k miles ago at this point, so I would change what's in the pan now if it were mine. Especially since the recent service history is unknown. Of course, use your discretion

Gerf

Nice car, looks like the same exterior and interior colour as mine that I just sold after 20yrs of every day use. I did a few drain n fills but didn't change the trans filter..sold it at 300k kilometres.

400fanboy

I don't think there is "shock" from replacing fluid? Either the clutch packs are degraded and will slip. Or they are healthy and still have life left in them. Stale transmission fluid is more or less a band-aid that holds things together for a short period of time (presuming the clutch packs are the wear item that will cause transmission failure and not some other component). It's not like replacing the fluid will take 50,000 miles off of the friction materials or junk the torque converter randomly (though a transmission flush can damage valve bodies and such).

In my book - unless you're trying to coax the final 5,000 miles out of the car before junking it - or you REALLY can't afford a surprise transmission rebuild, it's EV+ to get fresh and healthy fluid on the (quite high chance) that the transmission is still in good working order.

CELSI0R

I think we're thinking the same thing in the end.

I'm referring to the "shock" of removing all of the old transmission fluid at once which may have worn clutch material in it.

Replacing the fluid won't take materials off of the clutches - you're right. But it could remove any material floating in there (if there is any).

I also agree that if the transmission needs have work done, then it will need it eventually either way. I always like to change things over time when I'm not sure what the last state of it was. Like frequent oil changes when there's sludge in the engine on a used car (hopefully never the case) until the engine and fluid are clean.

Pretty much the same process Gerf described - drain and fill a few times until it's good.

Just my experience

94V8coupe

Gorgeous Car. Got a '95 myself ... jealous of that color combo.
Do a couple of (pan) drain and fills (couple of quarts at a time) and see what happens.