king889

Hi everyone I have a 2006 Is250 with 95.000 km on it.. according the technicians said should be change the Transmission Oil every 50.000km but i know the Is250 they do not have a dipstick to check to fluid but i got under the car. on the Transmission Oil pan i found 2 nut the first one is 14mm and the Second one have to use the alan key. with the mark CHECK on it.. my problem are. if i drain the Transmission Oil where can i pull it back? i know some people said Lexus carring lifetime Transmission Oil we dont have to change it. but i dont think so.. Oil is oil. should be change it.. to keep your car into mint condicion... Is some one can tell me how to do it. i will appreciate... Thank You

JDMis350

iTrader: (1)

yeah i was wondering the same thing. i worked at jiffy lube we have a Transmission Saver machine but it wont work on IS's . rear diff is a different story tho.

shui3000

manual states that it can't be changed. lots of people have talked about it before. it can be done, but you're not supposed to.

xuningshen

iTrader: (1)

not sure how it works exactly on the is250 manual since i don't have one,

on some other trannys there was a bigger drain bolt on the pan, and then in the center of that bigger bolt there was a small allen screw that you can unscrew and it'll open a smaller hole into the bottom of the pan instead of the big one.

on those transmission pans it would be located not exactly at the bottom of the pan but there would be a 2nd level (so to speak) on the pan.

what you would have to do is put some transmission fluid in the pan using the smaller hole and a pump, since your pumping in fluid upside down (haha.... that lead to some fun storys and some greasy transmission fluid showers mmmmmmm)

again thats how some transmissions work, but havn't worked on a is250 manual yet so idk if this applies.

lobuxracer

iTrader: (2)

He's got an auto. Pretty clear from the description of the two drain plugs.

There's another plug on the side of the gearbox on the right side.

It's not a good idea to mess with the oil, but if you insist, there's a pretty extensive thread already covering this subject from beginning to end including instructions for those foolish enough to tempt fate because they believe its "better" for some reason.

BinaryJay

The dealership can change it with some specific equipment for doing it at the right temperature etc.

A lot of people don't realize that although the US service schedule for the IS/GS state that it never has to be changed, the Canadian service schedule mandates that the transmission fluid be changed every 96,000km (or 60,000 miles).

I had the transmission fluid done on my GS, and all is well. One can only guess why for the ENTIRE US lexus doesn't mandate this fluid change but for the ENTIRE of Canada they do. The climate here in Toronto is pretty much equal to that of all of New England (or even more moderate because of the lake effect).

nipperiley

It is my opinion that the auto trans fluid should be changed. I know BMW has had lots of failures with their "life time" trans fluid auto transmissions lately. I had the local Lexus dealer change mine at the 60k mile service (2006 IS250). They charged $233, which is a lot, but a whole lot less than a new transmission. They also recommended changing it again at 90k miles. They believe it should be changed more often as the car gets older. They also mentioned that it probably should had been changed for the first time at 45k miles.

I have changed the transmission fluid on numerous older Mercedes and GM auto transmissions myself. They are easy. I would NOT think of touching a Lexus trans. Also, if you screw it up, I am sure you would void the factory warranty.

Kurtz

iTrader: (1)

I'm really curious how these dealers are changing the fluid, given the aforementioned thread referenced gives some considerably technical detail suggesting it's physically impossible to change even half the total volume of fluid in any reasonable way.


I'm sure the dealers are happy to suggest you pay for their service as often as possible though, no matter how badly it directly contradicts the Lexus owners manual written by the folks who actually built the car. (canada notwithstanding )

BinaryJay

$233? Wow. A local Lexus dealer quoted me $140. I ended up having it done at a Toyota dealer for $70!

Seeing as how it's a required maintenance item in Canada, I certainly don't think it will hurt anything to have Toyota/Lexus change it at some extended interval. Even if the fluid itself is supposed to be good "forever" (nothing lasts forever), a simple drain and fill on some kind of schedule will get rid of some of the gunk and grime that is sure to build up over time from regular wear and tear of the transmission components. If anything, by lifetime, they mean lifetime of the transmission and they probably have some figure worked out where they expect 50% of the transmissions will require some sort of major service at which the fluid will need to be drained and refilled anyway. By being a bit more proactive with the fluid, perhaps you can extend the "lifetime" of your transmission past whatever Lexus decided.

Unless Toyota messed up and charged me far less than they should have, at $70 a pop, I have no qualms with having them refresh my car every 45,000 km... doing it at least twice as often as required. After the PT warranty runs out, it probably becomes even more incentive to just be a bit more preventative with it, especially if you like to gun it at red lights on any regular basis... and I think that fits most IS/GS driver profiles.

edgeucated

iTrader: (4)

do you know if they were able to flush the whole trans or did they just change a little of it? As of for now, im not going to plan on changing my transmission fluid, but if someone ever post proof that a fully transmission fluid change is possible, then i'll gladly do it around the 100k mark

BinaryJay

I only paid for a drain and fill, which only replaces maybe a third of the fluid. There is a lot of folklore out there about transmission flushes having the potential to do more harm than good. I think the general consensus is that you are better off doing a few drain and fills over a shorter span of time than a flush.

A flush will use solvents etc, and loosen caked on crud at the bottom of the pan and potentially get the crud lodged into places it might normally never end up. The crud stuck to the bottom of the pan won't hurt anything. There are some strong magnets at the bottom of your transmission pan that trap metal particles and such that are just best left there instead of being forced through your transmission filter, I think.

nipperiley

The $233 I was charged was for a for a complete flush and included 12 quarts of trans fluid they used doing the flush. I am sure the Toyota dealer would do it for less, but 12 quarts of fluid is not cheap. My wife's 02 Acura MDX just had the 60k mile service and the Acura dealer charged $199 for the same service (12 qts too), they charged $6.50 per qt whereas Lexus charged $9.75. Excessive, but I expected it with Lexus.

Kurtz

iTrader: (1)

the entire transmission only holds 8.25 quarts... what did they use the other 3.75 quarts for? the "flush" fluid?

But I'm really curious how they did the flush/fill since I'm not aware of any way to do this. Dropping the pan only gets about 1.5 quarts out. There's no place to physically connect a fluid exchange machine that I know of.

BinaryJay

No idea. I bet if you took a sealed transmission in for a flush, the SA wouldn't know any better and charge you for it and then the tech would just do a drain and fill and you'd get charged anyway. Perhaps by "Flush" what they really are doing is draining and filling, taking for a spin around the block, and repeating a few times. There is no way of knowing how much of the old fluid is still mixed in there at the molecular level but a succession of drain and fills would amount to the same thing at least from continually diluting the fluid. Pretty wasteful, though, so perhaps that's where all the extra fluid they charged came from?

Also I'm pretty sure they don't drop the transmission pan to do a ATF change. There is some way to get the fluid out of there, I think they pump it out and pump it in.

Kurtz

iTrader: (1)

I'm not clear where, physically, it would be possible to attach any sort of pump.


There is a drain plug on the pan, so they can pull that without dropping the pan itself... but you get even less out... only a small fraction of what's actually in there.