HarrierAWD

Sorry this advice comes a bit late. You can measure the amount of ATF drained, then add the exact amount back in. This saves you from constantly measuring the ATF level, which isn't as straight forward as oil level.

wing0

Well, it's a bit late for that...lol.
I just drove for about 60 km today to work and it all seems fine. Gear shifting seems smoother(I'm tempted to do another drain and fill to get the fluid that didn't come out.)
Maybe if the weather isn't as hot, I'll do another drain this weekend, but I'll use the 4L bottle to measure how much fluid came out.

For the coolant, I had two 4L bottle, one had all distilled water while I pour the jug of coolant in to make it another 4L then just mix them up on another 4L of bottle(I bought a lot of distilled water to flush the system). For the last liter, I used two 500mL water bottle(rinsed with distilled water) and did the same procedure. I actually made 2L. About 1 L went in the reservoir and I have another liter sitting in the car.

wing0

Yesterday after I drove the car, the fluid was barely making the lower full mark on the dipstick for ATF. So I added a bit more in.......bad news....now it's over the top mark......

Right now, it's up to the yellow mark(faintly i guess)
How much should I drain to bring it back down?

Also, I let the car sit for 9 hrs, and yet I can't read the dipstick properly to see if it is within the cool range. So is it ok to just measure it at the hot range only?

Lexmex

I have had it up to a little past that yellow mark for years, and haven't had a problem and I follow the same drain and fill procedures I see in the manual and that are also presented in my recent DIY thread, yet it goes up that high. One time, I had it lower near hot when I had it done at Lexus a few years ago (in Texas) and when I got back up to the high altitude of Mexico City, it didn't feel the same as when the dipstick showed higher. My uncle and I did the drain and fill procedure at that point and it showed up higher on the dipstick, and no issues.

However, like many people in this forum remember my coolant temperature gauge thread, this indeed maybe something related to high altitude. My RX runs just fine, so I don't worry about it.

However, let's be safe down in the lowlands.

What you need to do is turn the vehicle on and shift a few times from P and into all gears a few times and then read the level.

wing0

I just drained a little ATF out...just my own estimation. Got the engine hot again and checked while the car is parked on level ground. I didn't go through all the gears except R and D for backing out of driveway and driving on the road. Now it reads just right at the top of the hot mark. I'm gonna leave it for a day again and read it again when I come back from work tomorrow. Hopefully this time it stays that way.

How do people read for the cool mark then? Everytime I try to do that, half the stick gets fluid. It's only when the car has been ran for a while and is hot, that's when I get consistency in the hot mark.

Lexmex

Don't worry, that happens to me sometime, even after I clean the tranny dipstick and stick it back in again.

wing0

Does the fluid level vary a lot if a day was like 35C while another day is liek 23C?
I find that I get the right reading at 23C while 35C is still a bit high over the mark.

Lexmex

I check the oil and tranny fluid every time upon arrival at the track (air temperature can vary from 8C to 32C from my recollections throughout the year) and I don't remember seeing any change in fluid level.

mmahamm

No. You should research oil and decide for yourself. Toyota engine oil is refined and formulated by an oil company and rebranded. Toyota is a car company, not an oil company. I was advised by the Lexus dealer not to use synthetic, after they replaced the oil pan seal on our 02 RX300. I think they're full of ******. I never noticed any leak. I think since it was certified pre-owned, they just wanted to take off the pan to clean it out and make sure there were no sludge issues.

Nonetheless, don't waste your money on synthetic. The small improvement in protection does not justify the extra expense. I have had several cars that have gotten well over 100,000 miles and have never had an engine wear issue, and have only ever used inexpensive conventional motor oil.

Nearly all motor oils today that have the "For Gasoline Only" starburst on them will provide excellent protection for your RX300. Use any of them. Just use the right viscosity grade, which is usually 5W30.

Lexmex

Thesea are excellent points.

The thing about using regular oil and not synthetic is old an goes back to the seals. It used to be that one would a light oil (especially in a Mercedes) or regular oil for about 500 to 1000 miles or the regularly scheduled change and then swtich to synthetic. At least the cars of this century and pretty much toward the end of the last one don't need to have that done. My fathers 1993 190E 2.6 had to have the light engine oil treatment, but he has been using 10W30 Mobil 1 ever since.