Qwerty321

The A541E transmission in my 99 Windom (ES300) suddenly died on me last night out of the blue. Cruising along perfectly in traffic and suddenly just lurches out of nowhere. There were no warning signs, it just died. Wasn't even under any stress when it went. Even now that it's blown, there is no check engine light or anything, just the ABS and VSC lights flashing.

Either way, Transmission is basically confirmed to be blown. Not drivable (Had to get it towed to mechanic's) and the fluid is brown with metal specks in it. Currently, I have been rough quoted around 1k (NZD) including labour to get a used transmission chucked in with 6 months warranty. I'm going back later today to get a more in depth quote and analysis of what's wrong with the car. Car has about 192000 KM on the clock, and the engine is extremely well maintained. That said, it's only just occurred to me that while I've taken every measure with the engine, I've completely forgotten about the tranny, and haven't serviced it at all in the 4 years I've had it.

Anyway. Do you guys reckon I should go with a used transmission? My logic is I could get a used transmission and take a risk with the tranny, or alternatively write off the car and take a risk with a completely unknown used car. At least with this car I know everything but the tranny is pretty much mint.

I don't think re manufactured is an option, cause money is tight and I don't actually think anyone in NZ sells re manufactured transmissions, and even if they do, it's be at an exorbitant price. The only other option is a rebuild, but the mechanic said a rebuild would be costlier than a replacement used transmission.

ES300NZ

hey dude, I'm from NZ.

a remanufactured transmission is about $1600, yep people sell them.

which city are you in, because that really hinges which way you should go,

If you are outside of Auckland, then finding a replacement would be harder, but not impossible.

Qwerty321

Now I'm in an even worse situation. Car mechanic is completely unable to find a transmission at all. We decided to try the used transmission route, and surprisingly not a single transmission could be found. Very peculiar, I thought the Windom/ES300 used a A541E, the very same transmission that half the Camrys use. Very strange indeed.

Correction : He did find one transmission. But it had about 287,000 km on the clock. So definite no no.


I got quoted anywhere from 2k to 3k for a refurbishing of my current transmission. Mechanic did assure me that the refurbished transmission would be worked on by specialists and will last a very long time. But 3k is just way too far out my budget. As of now I'm just going to leave the car with him and ask him to keep searching for a used transmission. Once he finds one we'll pop it in.

That said, I find it very odd that this transmission is so hard to get hold of. Any explanations or advice?


P.S. I've been with the same mechanic for over 5 years. He's a honest and competent mechanic, never set a foot wrong, which is why I'm so confused as to why we're in this situation. Something just doesn't sound right.

crwys

A quick eBay search brings up tons

http://m.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=a541e&isNewKw=1&isRefine=true&mfs=KWCLK&acimp=0&_trksid=&sqp=a541

PFB

At this point you don't have much to loose. Disconnect the battery for 15 min, reconnect and try again. You may get lucky

Also, you really should get the car to a trusted transmission shop for proper diagnosis. Could be an electrical issue.

Good Luck,

Phil

ES300NZ

You didn't say where you are, but I found several at reasonable prices just by making a couple of phone calls. They're not hard to find, I'm not sure why you're having difficulties.

They were all in Auckland, and all had shippings costs, but were well under 2k.

ebay is no use to us here in NZ, we use a website called http://www.trademe.co.nz, there are none listed on trademe, so I had to call suppliers directly.

Qwerty321

Could you be an absolute gem and tell me which suppliers you called?

I'm not financially capable of getting a remanufactured transmission though. Currently I only have around $1700 that I can put towards changing the transmission. So really, the tranny itself can only cost $1200 at the very most. That said used transmissions tend to be around the $700 range I believe.

Qwerty321

Oil is brown, indicating and overheat and there are metal fragments in the fluid, visible on the dipstick. Personally I believe the overheat occurred after the transmission failed, because it did start smelling quite bad while I was moving the car onto a side road away from the traffic, which was a good 500m to 1k drive.

pauloil

reading this reminds me: time for a drain and fill.

Qwerty321

Never again bro. Never again am I underestimating the importance of proper transmission maintenance.

ES300NZ

Toyotas Galore (north shore) 0800 480 095
Toyota Parts, T PARTS LTD - 44 Patiki Rd Avondale Auckland 0800 167 909
Japanese Spares 3 Gordon Rd, Otahuhu, Auckland 09-276 3388

I did ring a couple of others, but the general feeling I got was that you can find one easily, and you're always taking the usual risks with a car this age, the trans will have over 100,000 kms on it, perhaps as much as 180-200k-km's. You'd need to drain it, and re-fill it, and then take the risk.

If you're short on cash, it might be smarter to sell the car, take your 1700, and the proceeds from the lexus sale (several hundred?), and then buy a run around.

speedkar9

I think starting in 1999 Lexus started using the U141E transmission in the ES300, while the Camry carried on with the solid A541E transmission.

The U141E wasn't known to be a very reliable tranny according to many on this forum. It was updated to the U150E 5 speed with the 2002 redesign. Thus there are only 3 model years of ES300 that used this transmission, making it tough to find.

Qwerty321

Car uses an A541E, that I know for sure.

So should any A541E be fine? Does it matter if the tranny comes from an ES300 or a Camry, Avalon, Windom etc?

Some of them are listed as A541E-01a and others as A541E-05a. Are there different versions of the A541E transmission itself, or a case of one type fits all.

Qwerty321

Shot bro, I'll give them a call tomorrow and take it from there.

Yea, I'm currently treating it as a new purchase. I can put the money into a new car and take a risk with the entire car, or put the money into this car and take a risk with the new tranny. In the end, this car is mechanically perfect apart from the tranny and frankly, it's been one hell of a workhorse, no complaints at all. So in the end, I've decided to just go ahead and "repurchase" my car for all intents and purposes haha.

ES300NZ

It's hard to say what the differences between the minor various is, in other words I don't know. But, at best it's mechanical improvements, at worse electrical changes which mean the plugs either don't match at all, or do but have different pin configurations.

My guess, the gearboxes are likely exactly the same, but slightly improved as the numbers go up,

.... perhaps someone else can shed more light (with actual knowledge).