Lexus: Catastrophic Transmission Failure - 1999 RX300

In article <com>,
org wrote:
 

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.

"Elmo P. Shagnasty" <com> wrote in message
news:usenetserver.com...
 
was 
rebuilt 
it 

Gee, Elmo, do you think that the prior owner "knew" and/or "trusted" the
mechanic?

In article <net>, "David Z" <net>
wrote:
 

I know for a fact he didn't. I know the history of the car in question
very, very well.

"Elmo P. Shagnasty" <com> wrote in message
news:usenetserver.com... 

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.

J. Perry

How often did you change the trans & diff fluids? Or did you assume they are
good for the life?

<org> wrote in message
news:com... 

On Wed, 08 Dec 2004 04:12:38 GMT, "Rog" <com> wrote:
 

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?

Cheers
Margaret

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?

In article
<talkaboutautos.com>,
"mcclure" <net> wrote:
 

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.