Took the car in for 90k service + timing belt replacement (preventative) and a brake job. 3 days and maybe 100 miles after getting the car back, my wife complained about a small "stutter" on her way home from work. Figured it was related to the timing belt service, so I scheduled another appt for the car, but it never made it. Next day wife was driving home from work and the car stuttered badly, made a loud SNAP noise with some griding and then came to a stop. Car won't engage in any gear at all unless the engine is stopped and restarted, and then it will only drive a very short distance before failing again.

Had the car towed to the dealership last night and am awaiting notice on what the problem is. I just dropped $3600 for the last service last week



Edit:

And for completeness -

Car has just over 90k miles, has been serviced exclusively by the lexus dealer it was purchased new from at 5k intervals, has never had any sort of symptoms of transmission failure prior to this, and I never received indication from the service department that there was anything wrong with the transmission.

 

I'm sorry to hear about your transmission failure. $3,600 for a 90K-mi service, a timing belt replacement, and a brake job? I'm curious how they broke down the individual components. That seems awfully high to me. I'm at 60K-mi, so 90K-mi doesn't seem that far off any more.

 

Yep, $3600 was a shocker to me too; I can post a breakdown of the cost...mostly labor - over $2200 in labor.

I'm wondering with all that TLC labor why the heck they couldn't let me know my tranny was 3 days from giving out

 

I have unfortunately heard of the 90K going in to the 3K range from other members over the years.

There is no sure fire way to tell about the tranny. Sometimes the tranny can give some signs, but as a lot of RX300 owners who have had problems most gave them none.

Keep us up to date on this.

 

First .... a little premature to say transmission is shot (although possible). Then again the piece is complex and it can be a trivial thing like a loose connector (lets hope).

I am perplexed like the rest. The 90K service charge seems excessive.

Salim

 

True about it being premature diagnosing a full failure; I'll know more early next week when the service team has had a chance to giving a thorough goings over. The 90k service + timing beld replacement was $2900 and the brake service was $700 (approx). I was a bit suprised about the labor cost for the 90k service minus the timing belt. I don't have the service sheet in front of me, but it seemed a bit much after looking at what was done.

Anyway, I've been doing my homework on transmission issues with the hopes of being educated as much as possible about possible avenues if it turns out to be the AT. I'd much rather it was a more trivial issue that was somehow overlooked or done improperly during the last service. Here's hoping!

I'll make sure to update this thread as I find out more.

Oh, and to add insult to injury, this all happened the same day I took my IS250 in to have the TPMS sensors for my snow tires associated with the car as the second set; the service guy blew away the original codes so I have to bring the car back come spring-time to have the original codes re-associated. At least they waived the charge for this time and for "fixing" the problem.

 

That dealer is taking you to the cleaners, I would switch immediately, but first if the tranny is toast tell them you expect them to give you a new one on their money as a goodwill to having been a loyal (more like screwed) customer. Be firm, but polite. RXNC gives a lot of tips on how to deal with the stearlerships. The 90k service is nothing more than a oil change and timing belt change. Tops should have been $1200 from Lexus dealership. As for brake job, sorry but it should have not been more than $450 total. I could do it myself for less than 300 in parts for everything. Good luck on the transmission .

 

I know it's a bit early to be planning on a major transmission failure/replacement, and strategy, but I've already started formulating a game plan.

I have 2 options that would satisfy me at the moment (in my current state of mind):

1) dealer pays for transmission service/replacement and any labor/parts required to bring car back to MY satisfaction

2) dealer accepts my vehicle as trade in at FULL NADA trade-in value for a vehicle in "good" condition (negating the transmission problem) AND credits me at trade-in the cost of the service I just had performed ($3600).

Anything else and I walk, have the car towed to the nearest el cheapo tranny shop to be fixed, and take it to the Mercedes/Acura/Infiniti dealership as a tradein on a new other brand SUV. I wouldn't sell my IS, but I would definately take it to a different dealer for service.

That's all "worst case" scenario stuff and I'm hoping that it's either a much more minor issue and/or the dealership steps up to keep a loyal customer.

Freaking hilarious thing is, when I picked the car up from repair on monday, I was talking to the service manager and another service rep, saying how reliable this car has been and that's why we decided to keep it another year or so and not trade it in for a new RX. I was telling them how it had NEVER stranded us, and had only been in for service once other than scheduled maintenance. Go figure, eh?

 

You need to research the service history on the car and see if the transmission fluid had ever been changed; the service guidelines for your year were, I believe, 'vague' about how often the fluid should be changed and implied that unless the vehicle saw 'heavy duty' that it was basically a life-time fluid. Stupid, I agree, but at least thats what it was like for my 1999 Rx300, which despite concientious care lost its tranny at about 110K, like yours, shortly after the 90K service (which didn't happen till about 95K).

As for the $2900 service charge? Outrageous.

 

If the dealer failed to change the tranny fluid, point it out and tell them they failed to take proper car of you vehicle and you want a good will replacement of the transmission. By the way a lot of dealers will replace it and offer you to pay labor, So around $2000. That is by all my readings a steal. Jump on it if they dont pay the entire amount. An independent tranny shop will charge more. The usual rate by lexus is $4300 or more.

 

thomas1 raises a good point.

Ppl need to understand how the dealership work. This insight will help in negotiations. Dealerships can be thought of middle men. They make the cut in the process and pay the mechanics and charge the manufacturer or the customer. If Lexus gives them the transmission [and expect the core back] (as an example) then the dealer has to pay the mechanic and still make their cut on real mechanic charge and the labor fee charged. In this process, the only thing they loose is the cut on the parts. So if there is a win win solution for all, paying the labor charge for the change will be it. Lexus gets the good will.

The circumstances have to be weird for the dealership to eat the labor charge and parts. They will be reluctant in even absorbing labor charge, when they get the parts for free (from Lexus or customer).



This may be going off topic ... but I do think the less things touched, reduces the possibility of things going wrong. This is one of the reason, I am against doing un-needed maintenance. The 90k service should have been limited to what the manufacturer recommends.


Salim

 

I just reviewed my service invoice:

90k mi service: $1057.83

Labor: 836.53
Parts: 200.05
GOG: 17.50
Misc: 3.75

Service description:

Front and Rear Diff service: $82.10

Timing Belt Package: $1396.33

Labor: 835.56
Parts: 560.77

Service Description:

Complete front and rear brake service: $563.94

Labor: 403.92
Parts: 160.02

Service Description:

There was another charge for some indicator light replacements, etc, but these are the biggies. The one that sticks out to me as a bit excessive price wise is the labor on the 90k service. It was basically a fluid replacement and inspection, but the labor was MORE than the timing belt package? Also, it does seem that they replaced the transmission fluid on this service, but I'll have to see if I kept the service sheets for the earlier ones to see if it was done at 60k or 75k or not.

This car has been exclusively serviced by this dealership, so any maintenance that was neglected was omitted by them. Its been in every 5k since the day it was new.

I'll keep all this information in mind as the discovery process proceeds and we enter the negotiation phase (if there is one). Despite paying a lot of money for service (possibly overcharged) I have never had any problems with the quality of customer service at this dealership. When they screwed up on my TPMS service for my IS250, they ate the cost of that visit plus the one to fix it without even me asking. They have also done some minor out of warranty work at a discount or free depending on the other service being performed.

 

I would be real interested in finding out if the transmission service was a drain and fill or a flush.

 

You really need to post a breakdown of the services provided and the cost. By the book 90k service is a little more than oil change and timing belt as previously reported. You need to add in brake fluid flush, coolant service, air filter, tire rotation and some checks. That's about $600 at a independent and I bet the dealer would get $1000 plus for the same work. Some other possible needed items at this time could be water pump, transmission drain and fill and maybe belts. This could add another 300 to 500.
If you asked the dealer to perform 90k, and did not specify by the book, you got the dealer recommended service. This is a common practice at most dealers but especially at Lexus dealers. They most likely did a lot of additional questionable fluid changes and checks, which could have added another 1000 or so. They may have even done plugs now, which are due at 120k. Could they possibly have done a transmission fluid flush and caused your transmission problem by moving some debris around in the trans?

Edit: Looks like we were both posting at the same time. After looking at your invoice it looks like your dealer did exactly what most Lexus dealers would do. It still would be interesting to see if they did a trans flush.

 

Quick observation .. looks like double charge for 90k service (which should include t belt replacement) and additional charge for "t belt" replacement.

Salim