The transmission fluid is a dirty gray color on my 1997 ES300 with 48000 miles on it. I have never seen anything but a clear reddish color on any other car that I have owned, no matter how many miles on it. Is it common with this particular transmission to get so contaminated? The oil change people recommended changing the fluid. Is this a Lexus recommended time to change the fluid? I want to thank those who have responded to some other questions that I have posted. Rich Rossler
Transmission Fluid
Feb 15, 2005
2 Replies
Not sure but my mechanic always replaces the trans fluid every 30K.
This is Turtle.
I'm not a transmission peoples but have been told by the transmission people who works on my service trucks. if the fluid gets the color of light brown varnish , the transmission for some reason got hot. the engine over heating can do this too. the Light Brown color that the fluid becomes is told to me as varnish on the transmission gears coming off. If it gets hot enough it will come off the metal gears. this does not make the transmision bad or anything but you should start looking into why it was getting hot and the varnish coming off. you can drive a auto a 1,000,000 miles and the varnish will not come off. Reason for getting hot.
Pulling trailor too big. Engine over heating. Need transmission cooler at radiator. driving over 120 M.P.H. for long streches over a 100 miles at one time. Running in the Indy 500 with it. something going wrong to make it over heat.
TURTLE
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