My 1999 RX300 has 169K km (or 106K miles) - and has been a reliable vehicle up to last month when the transmission suddenly failed at high speed on a 4-lane highway. Literally the drive failed and it was as if I was in neutral.
Not exactly, but my 94 ES300 needed the transmission completely rebuilt about a year ago at 124K miles. It didn't fail on me on the highway, it failed on me in the parking lot, but that's exactly *how* it failed.
US$2300 to rebuild at Aamco.
Hint: never, ever let a corner gas station do a "power flush" of the transmission, especially when they use "additives" for "long life". (Wasn't me, it was the prior owner; don't know if that was the cause, but I strongly suspect it.)
I suspect that automatic transmissions as a rule are fairly fragile things. It seems every manufacturer (except for maybe GM) has issues--Ford, Chrysler (!), even Honda, for God's sake. Honda has had so much trouble with automatic transmissions over the last 6 or so years, it's not funny. They just can't seem to get it right lately.
I know countless numbers of GM owners that have had major problems with their automatic transmissions within the last 5 years. In fact, I had one to fail in a 2002 TrailBlazer LTZ with only 9,000 miles of operation on it. My fiancée and I were on a trip to the mountains in a neighboring state when it happened. Had to spend the night out in the boonies and creep into the closest Chevy dealership on Saturday morning with no 3rd or 4th gears. They put us in a Cavalier for the one hour and fifteen minute drive home. Needless to say we were both upset over this.
All scheduled maintenance was completed on the vehicle by one mechanic at the local Toyota dealership. (There is no Lexus dealer within 150 miles of us.)
I made it a condition of purchase that this mechanic would receive Lexus training and all the Lexus training manuals so that I could be sure the maintenance was done correctly.
No - I don't assume that anything mechanical is good for the life of the car. I view proper maintenance as an investment and always assume mechanical things will break down.
My concern is with the catastrophic nature of the transmission failure. One moment it was working and the next moment it wasn't.
Any thoughts as to why there was no prior warning? Do you know anyone who has suffered a similar problem with a Lexus?
I recently experienced the same thing with the transmission on my 1999 RX300 last week. I have 104,000 miles on my vehicle. I had a transmission flush in October and my car was running expectionally well up until last week. We were on the expressway and once we arrived and was getting ready to depart from our destination, we could not get the car in gear. We had to have it towed. My questions is, is there a recall or some sort of problem with the RX300's that were manufactured that year?
Who did the "transmission flush"? What procedure did he use? What fluids did he use?
Modern transmissions, as far as I can tell, aren't meant to be "flushed". My guess is you had an overzealous service writer, probably with an independent mechanic, who was making profitable work for his business.
While 104K is below average for transmission life, it is hardly unusual to have a failure at this mileage. And the flushing procedure is certainly suspect.
I just had the same thing happen at 112,000 miles on my 1999 RX 300. I can't believe it!!!!! It seems that there is a trend here. I am wondering how many others have experienced this and WHY hasn't there been a recall?
Because it doesn't relate to safety. If you don't like these transmissions, you should try Honda/Acura automatics which sometimes fail long before 50k. I believe the reason the RX300s have a higher failure rate is because people use them like trucks but the engine & trans are basically the same as other Toyota cars.
MotorsForum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here.
All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.