salimshah

For those who have had their transmission worked upon .. Please post what was broken, excessively worn. out of spec.

I hope it is not disassemble, reassemble and every thing is ok.

Salim

mikey00

Unfortunately, that is the answer I am getting so far. I spoke to a few different shops/dealers trying to select a place to do my trans. Both the Lexus dealer and the 800# try to convince you that transmission failure is rare. They even make you feel like you are the first one. But even if they did admit to the large amount of failures, they wouldn't know why, being that they just do remove and replace. It would real interesting to talk to someone in the shop that does the rebuilds for Lexus. All the other shops know about the large amount of RX trans failures, but it is difficult to get an answer from them on exactly what is failing. They just rebuild them and they work. Sometimes they need additional parts like planetary gears, etc. I am getting the feeling that whatever is failing is clogging the filter which is starving the pump. This in turn sometimes causes the additional failures.
My RX is in the shop right now and the trans will be apart later today. I may have some answers then.

Lexmex

Transmission pump, I think you remember the thread. What was found there was a fracture in the pump itself that caused the pump to become slightly unhinged from the seal by the torque converter. This was due to a piece of rock hitting the underside of the vehicle. Transmission mechanic who worked with us said after seeing the broken bump and then seeing the new pump that we had brought from the U.S. that it was of weak design for working on a vehicle of the RX300's size.

lexus114

Lex,are you saying the new pump is better built?

Lexmex

Well the broken pump and the new pump were exactly the same. It's just that by comparing the broken piece with a functioning piece, the mechanic gets a better idea of the quality of the build, basically seeing how a piece has a weak point. He just didn't feel that the build quality nor the design lent itself to supporting a vehicle that size. When I told him that the tranny was virtually a clone (except mine was the U140F, not the U140E) to that used on one of the previous generation RAV4 and also the first Camry offered in Mexico, he was quite shocked.

CK6Speed

iTrader: (1)

Just curious, is the tranny in the 1G RX the same as in the older 92-94 ES300 and around same years Camry? My moms old 92 ES300 developed a tranny problem. Basically reverse gear worked perfectly, but could barely move in forward gears. They never found the problem as it started working again and worked for months like that until she got rid of it. Now, my dad's 94 ES300 is doing the exact same thing intermittently. To top that off, a very similar problem happened to my uncles Camry which miraculously cured itself as well. I don't believe he has that car anymore though. All of these car have/had over 100K miles on it. All had clean looking trans fluid and at a seemingly proper level.

lexus114

I can`t answer you question,But I sure wish the RX trans,cured itself like that.

CK6Speed

iTrader: (1)

Well, it could just be a temporary cure and bite the dust a little later. Right now my dad's ES is at the shop with them trying to figure out whats wrong with it. Might have to get rid of that car too if they can't find the problem or if it needs a new transmission.

salimshah

We have discussed this many times with no conclusive answer. Then to complicate the issue some one has to track which model(awd/fwd), which year, type of maintenance done, use/abuse, type of problem and most of all units sold.

Talking about impressions it seems AWD 99-?? saw more failures {more being a relative term**. *Thomas1 has some data to back it up.

My conclusion has been, if you encounter a failure, it does not matter if the failure rate is 0.0001%.

I hope this thread remains on topic of "failing part(s)" and if needed we can start another thread on failure rate.

Salim

lexus114

And what`s worse is they seem to give out no matter how much you try to maintain them.

Lexmex

For the 92 that was an A540E, whereas the RX300 comes in either the FWD U140E or the AWD U140F, http://transtec.com/selector_guide/Lexus.htm

mikey00

I picked up my RX from the trans shop today and don't have much info on the failing part. "It's all tore up in there, same as they always are" is the famous quote from the guy who did the rebuild. He claims they all come in pretty much in the same condition. All the standard wear parts in the rebuild kit are pretty much shot and then they usually have to add some gears to that to complete the rebuilt. He says it could be a some sort of lubrication problem causing massive failure or a single part failing and in turn clogging the filter and starving the pump. Once the pump is starved you definetly have a lubrication problem which causes even the good parts to fail. One good thing is he said they don't come back after they rebuild them. He said they may have fixed/redesigned the failing part (if it is just one causing the problem) or it could be due to the fact that they use Mobil 1 full synthetic in all the transmissions that they do. I questioned this, knowing that Mobil 1 is not listed as T-IV compatible but ended up going with it anyway due to their success record. Rumor is T-IV should be listed on the Mobil 1 bottle sometime around the end of the year.

Lexmex

I knew some diplomats many years ago in Mexico who brought over a couple of Toyota Harriers and had put Mobil 1 ATF in, and at least for the time they were there, I don't remember them having an issue, but I stuck to the Type-IV, never could get a follow up from them as they left for South America.

sktn77a

iTrader: (2)

Where did you have it rebuilt and what was the bottom line?

mikey00

One shop independent in Denville, NJ. Bottom line was $3400.