tekillah

My Lexus is nearing 166K and I have benefitted a lot from this forum. I visit at least once a week and sometimes daily just to keep me abreast with all the updates on Lexus in general and RX/GS in particular. I bought my current 1999 RX300 AWD at 88K 5.5 years back from a Lexus dealer for 15K OTD. Right now I am at 167K and I have done the following maintenance

Apart from the above I have regularly changed oil/filter myself every 5K miles with regular dino oil. Have replaced cabin and engine air filters regularly. I have cleaned the MAF sensor because of check engine light codes. Have also done the following enhancements/repairs myself
The car still runs well and is my daily driver (about 45 miles a day). Apart from the above the car has been running great and frankly I haven’t done anything else at all to this car. I haven’t changed the spark plug, brake fluid, coolant, transmission fluid, transmission oil, rear brakes – nothing and it still runs like a champ. The road noises are a bit annoying and ofcourse the acceleration in not the best, but I think I can live with both of these peeves given how much I pay in insurance and the general cost to operate this car.

A small problem I see now is that the car seems to run a little “tired” but still great. I have a feeling that the water pump is leaking because I can smell something burn every now and then, its definitely not oil and I suspect it’s the coolant from the pump as the coolant level drops by a very little bit and I top it up whenever I change my oil. Also I have that creek/whine, whenever I accelerate and the engine is on load at low RPM, it goes away once the engine picks up or I tread lightly on the accelerator. Have looked up this forum and I suspect it could be the tail pipe but I will have to check. Doesn’t happen regularly, but only at certain speeds on load at low rpm. I have checked stepping on gas on neutral but that whine is absent. So I have a list of what’s wrong currently and/or what needs fixing
Since I might have to do some of the above repairs, my question is what maintenance I should do in addition to keep this car running for another 30-40K miles (and more). I know I can do a ton of stuff but what does the community here recommend in terms of a middle-ground (in between bare minimum maintenance and going all out maintenance). I will plan on doing everything myself as I am confident and have quite a few it of tools to do most of the jobs.
I appreciate your feedback, folks. Thanks

jcjr

Great post.
Spark plugs were due at 120K....

thomas1

If AWD have you changed the Rear differential fluid and the transfer case fluid.?

C-Stone

Yes, great post. Good to hear updates on your 1999 RX.

We have 137k on ours. And had to replace the flex pipe at around 100k due to a hole/leak developing. Also, I had all the fluids replaced (have a good local mechanic and just didn't have the time myself).

Also, it's good to replace brake fluid every 3 years on any car. The fluid has a tendency to attract moisture and it's good to flush it all out and replace with fresh

I did the plugs quite a while ago. New battery at 125k. Replaced rubber on front struts. Front and rear pads and rotors, too.

Cleaned Air Box and K&N Air filter recently, along with the IAC valve & MAF sensor. These were pretty easy and helped the car breathe much better... and get normal gas mileage again.

Do you still have your original tranny?

Glad you are enjoying the ride. So are we.

Lexmex

Good to hear about the DIYs.

Doing things on my RX300 is one of those little things in life that keeps me going from day to day.

kingnba6

sorry to go off topic. but in general how long would a rx300 last? mile wise.

Lexmex

There's people already well about the 250K mile mark (I'm not there yet), but many of my miles were quite brutal for 6 years in Mexico. The key thing to focus on in the long haul would be the transmission and making sure it gets regular fluid changes. Most of the other things that do occur are sensor issues that easily fixed in a DIY. Sludge is not as common nor are transmission failure (they do occur and we've had members in this forum with them). I think that in our forum being a very pro-maintenance DIY forum, we probably highlight certain issues more than in other forums so it's not a common thing at all (I've got a neighbor with two ten year old Acura TLs that have had 2 transmission failures each! and he's been religious with his fluid changes). The only other major maintenance every 90K are timing belt changes (but even then people have reported going well in the the low 100K range that the belts look just fine when they are changed out). I plan to keep mine for as long as possible and I recall somewhere that Toyota is one of the longer groups in the industry in keeping spare parts flowing, and I expect that to continue given that the RX series is one of the most common SUVs sold in North America.

tekillah

Yep, I have the original tranny and with just one fluid flush in the past 6 years.
Its an AWD and the rear differential fluid and the transfer case fluid haven't been touched.

What I am happy about it that although I have not done a lot the car has really served me well, even with a couple of trips to Tahoe every year. I don't plan on pushing my luck too far and will soon list what I think is a good middle ground in terms of being cont-effective. I could do some nice cosmetic things like swap out the foggy headlights, LED etc, but I am not sure if I want to do that to a car this old. I would be happy to get another 30-40K miles in the next couple of years.

I just looked up Craigslist and I see 1999-2000 RX300's listed for 7-9 K with 180-200K miles. I am sure there is a market for these cars even at these high miles.

C-Stone

Thanks for the info tekillah.

kingnba6

thanks for the info guys.