Tadman95

First Post!

In 2005 I bought a 2002 RX300. Drove it for 3 years, then took a new job that came with a company car, so I gave the Lexus to my parents with the stipulation that they give it back if they every got rid of it. It had about 60K miles when I gave it to them.

Yesterday I got it back, with a 101K miles on it. Yep, 40K miles in 11 years. That's good, and bad. Mostly short trips in the city.

So reading thru these boards the last few days it seems like the motor sludge and transmission failures are the two biggest potential problems. They took decent care of the car but no major maintenance items were done that they remember, and no records.

I checked the transmission fluid, it's dark but not black or burnt. I'm going to do a drain and fill for now and let that cook for a few days or weeks.

I pulled the oil fill cap, pretty black in there. The oil is clean, I think they kept it changed on some reasonable schedule. But it's still dark in there. I'm going to run a can of Liquid Moly Engine flush thru there and see how much the clean oil is blackened. Put soe Mobil 1 in there, put some miles on it.

Meanwhile I'm going to work on the smaller maintenance items while I decide what to with the tranny and engine. I have a 30 mile commute to work so I want to build a little confidence in it before I use it for work. A little freeway driving can only help it or expedite it's demise.

I put a K&N air filter in at 50K miles. It's still there. LOL I'm afraid to check the cabin filter.....

The suspension was a lot smoother 11 years ago. A rough highway coming home was pretty rough for a Lexus. I think the shocks are okay, not sure, but the other parts may need attention.

Lot's to do but I want to feel that it's not gonna die on me right away. It's a 3rd car so I don't need it and can take my time.

Any suggestions or ideas are welcome.

JAB

As someone who has put his fair share of miles on a pair of RX300, my advice is to get a complete timing belt service, change the spark plugs, replace all fluids and filters (especially the cabin air filter because it keeps the blower motor control module cool), rotate the tires, give it a careful inspection for leaks, then just drive it.

Tadman95

Thanks! Yea all of that is on my to do list. Pulled the two air filters tonight. Pretty bad. The cabin filter barely had ridges showing.

Lexmus

OP,

Is your tranny an AWD or FWD? If it is a FWD then there is less to worry about.
I like your idea to do a single D&F and wait a while. If all seems ok after a week of variable driving, I would do a second. and if that seems ok, do a third D&F a week or two after that.

Assuming each D&F replaces 3.75 qts of fluid, the amount of new fluid after each D&F in the tranny is as follows:
1 D&F = 43%
2 D&F = 68%
3 D&F = 81%

Tadman95

It's AWD. That's my plan. On the 3rd D&F I'll drop the pan, clean it out and change the filter. I like the slow route.

Tadman95

Finally changed my 20 year old original spark plugs yesterday. The car has 112.000 miles. The car was running fine but I was concerned about the age of the components so I went ahead and changed them. Took about 3 1/2 hours start to finish, not too bad. I did go ahead and replace the three rear coils while i was in there. The original coils looked fine so I'm saving them for any future repair if needed.

I will say the original plugs looked remarkably good for their age and usage. I can tell a difference with the new plugs so I'm glad I got that chore out of the way.