salimshah

For RX300, (trying to keep the discussion limited to 300 FWD & AWD), the problem symptons for tranmission from posts have been.

1. Hard Shift into D or R, accompanied with a clunk. Once the transmission is engaged, then auto shifting has been correct. {may or may not lead to the catastrophic failure}

2a. Everey thing is fine and dandy and one morning/evening RX transmission behaves abnormally.

2b. Next morning/few_hours_later the vehicle refuses to move.

2c. Some say the fluid had turned brown some say it was still cherry red.

There has not been any complaints of prolong hunting between gears or surging. Although we can not exclude the pump but the sysmptoms above point to a sudden and almost complete failure rather than a gradual erratic behaviour going bust. 330 is where ppl have compalint about non-smooth shifting.

wwest was prolific(sp?) contributor who had an issue with RX AWD design. His beef was with the viscous coupling and I dont recall any posts on the regular transmission. He made some excellent points in his posts. I went on vacation and when I returned, he stopped posting in ClubLexus. Good to know that he is fine and well.

Salim

turbo1

I was told by aamco that the tranny fluid was burned in color and they would be taking it apart monday and would let me know if they had to put in a rebuilt tranny. They said worst case senario would be $3k vs $4+ at Lexus.

HarrierAWD

That's typically a valve body job. $700 at Toyota, could be $1k at Lexus.

While there's no fixed change interval for ATF, owner should check the fluid level and condition once a month. When the fluid color fades, have it changed before tranny parts start to wear out.

Based on Consumer Reports survey, less than 2% of the owners experience issue with RX300's transmission for each model year.

Typical reasons for tranny failure, not in particular order:
Unreliable tranny (not in the case of RX)
Owner abuse / driving habit
Owner neglect
Traffic / weather condition
Bad luck

Lexmex

How many owners here actually ask Lexus/Toyota/mechanic or DIY to change the tranny filter?

HarrierAWD

Excellent question.

I reviewed my 30/60/90K service records. They did not list the tranny filter as one of the parts used, so I assumed that it was never changed.

They did list ATF drain-n-fill.

thomas1

I for one changed the filter and fluid every 30k before my failure at 100k miles. Now I change it every 15k or sooner, My wife is primary driver, however the commute is under 40 to 50 mph on city streets and it does get quite hot in the summer here in Sacramento, California. Weak design and poor tranny cooling, and bad luck....

Lexmex

I contend the 1MZFE engine is too powerful in the long run for these trannies. As I mentioned earlier from what I saw when I was in Jamaica and from what I hear from friends in Asia, the 3.0 L is not as common as the 2.4 L version of the RX300/Harrier. One time a few years ago when I went to Toyota down here for an alignment, the mechanic and I were noticing a Rav4 on the rack next to mine and he noticed the similarity in size of the the tranny on that one to my RX300.

One of my future modifications is to strengten the tranny through some upgrades at IPT Transmissions, but this will take place when I eventually get back to the U.S.

My reason for asking about the filter is that one of the reasons for failure with trannies here in Mexico is that the filters in some vehicles can get clogged up, even with fluid changes and stifle the flow.

thomas1

LexMex, I put an external filter also on my RX, It is the size of an PH8 filter but is made by purolator. Adds a little more capacity to the system and hopefully adds a little better filtering to the system. I change it each time I do the fluid change.

Lexmex

That's an excellent idea. I would be interested in seeing what kind of stuff it picks up.

turbo1

Aamco told me today $2800 to rebuild my old tranny.

salimshah

It would be nice to trace the failure down to the failing component.

Salim

mikey00

Which Aamco are you using in NJ?

turbo1

Rt. 9 South Marlboro.

mikey00

Thanks. That's just a little to far south for me but be sure and post back with the final outcome.

EZZ

Thanks. I should check these boards more often