HDD

Hello,
I drive a 2013 RX350 under normal conditions. Have 29900 miles on odometer. Mixed city and highway . NO TOWING. I went to a local Toyota dealer for the 30K maintenance service and had the Synthetic oil change, Brake fluid flush and replaced, replaced Engine air filter and tires rotation. The manager advised me that i should get the differential fluid changed. My question is with such low mileage and me not towing even occasionally, do I need to replace the differential fluid ? I was quoted $100 for the service.
Sincerely appreciate members input and recommendations. Thank you all in advance.

Cocal

I'd wait till you do a transmission fluid change, by then it would be a good idea to change both differentials

MellonC00

On my first gen RX AWD, I do it every 90k miles. It has 252k miles now.

Swinke

It is recommended by Lexus every 60,000 miles. I would do it then. Transmission is due at 100k and I would not wait that long. If you have ever pulled a drain plug on a diff with 100k miles on it you'd know why it's recommended at 60. Its highly discolored with a lot of metal shavings. Keep it clean

mandyfig

Weird for a 30K mile car for the differential fluid needing changed!

SteveCraig

Believe the "should" really means "send me your money".
I would stick with the maintenance schedule in the manual.
Don't have it handy but would think it's not too often.

NateJG

That's encouraging.

I hope to do that with my '13h AWD.

(Fingers crossed - and gearbox lubes changed once around 35K - will do again in 8K - will be 70K then. BTW - my local Toyota dealer changes the oil for me at a significant $aving$ over that quoted by the Lexus dealership.)

NateJG

It's just that I prefer to extend my cars' "Lifetime" - and doing the easy things - like changing lubricants - makes me feel good (whether or not it actually makes any difference).

It's kind of like putting those little chrome-plated whistles on the front of my car. Since putting them on, I haven't hit even one Elephant.

Cocal

All of these intervals are there for marketing purposes only, they mean the max mileage/time before damage occurs. In reality the fluids should be changed at much shorter intervals to prolong the car's life. I give you an example on my Mercedes the brake fluid had to be changed every 2 years or/30,000 Km in the Lexus every 3 yrs or 48,000 Km why? They both use synthetic fluid, but the MB schedule was set up for europeans who follow a much stricter maintenance schedule and the Lexus is set for north americans who are notoriously a lot less observant in preventive maintenance ( in general). Brake fluid absorbs approx 2% of H2O a year and in that lapse of time it would acquire 4% water accumulation thereby increasing the boiling point of the fluid and contribute to rust/oxidation of various sensors. In cars w/o ABS and other tecno advances this exchange was not critical, but in ours it does matter.I play it safe and do my fluid exchange at 2/3 of the recommended interval just to be sure and only use the recommended standards.

11bravo

hahaha, good one...absolute proof that they work.

HDD

Thank you all for your input.I am going to wait until 60K before I get it changed.