realkrs

The "I'll talk to corporate and see if we can get you a break on this" gambit has become so common across many maker dealerships that I think a service advisor's claim of doing so should be considered suspicious. With a Honda episode of mine a few years ago this was used. A few days later I got a call from the same service guy saying that corporate was willing to absorb $1000. of my potential $4000.+ trans bill. I asked for the claim number associated with my wife's car, a 2003 Accord and he told me that there wasn't a number and that his manager had spoken directly to someone at "corporate".

He did not know that I had contacted Honda America's customer service line and been asked immediately for my claim number. I had no number and they couldn't help me without one. So I concluded that the whole' try corporate' is only a new ploy - a way of discounting from an overinflated repair in order to lock down the customer and keep him/her (Me) from taking the car somewhere else.

Obviously I can't say that this ploy has been used here but because of the experience I had OP's story is very similar sounding.

The Honda trans was swapped by an indy shop (recommended to me by a guy working the Honda dealer's parts counter) for a wrecking yard version for less than half the dealer estimate and rolled on just fine for the additional 35K miles we kept it.

diamente

same here. I didn't think my Camry would need its transmission rebuilt. My 2004 Camry, 4 cylinders, now with 242K miles. It is running fine with regular maintenance.

Its transmission was shot at 85K miles just after the warranty was over at 80K. I called Toyota corporate and they wouldn't cover anything. Sometimes soon later, Toyota was sued and had to settle billion dollars for unintended acceleration issue. I think it's karma. I didn't get any settlement even though my car was made in that time period.

Rebuilding transmission cost me about $1,400. I did it through a regular indy mechanic. I stay away from stealers. I don't know how much it would be for Lexus but it shouldn't be more than $3k, definitely not close to what dealer would charge.

What probably led to transmission failure could be I was refilling it with Mobil Synthetic transmission fluid. No more, I stick to Toyota Type WS transmission fluid now.

roadfrog

Not quite. Toyota CHOSE to settle and get the ridiculous claims out of their hair and move on. It was NEVER proven that this issue was legit. The only issue that was discovered was that PERHAPS the floor mats were the cause of these claims and thus retrofitted special clips/clamps for the mats, which my car has.

Bgw70

sha4000

iTrader: (1)

Any difference in the shifts? How can it be compatible with T-IV and WS when they are not supposed to be compatible with each other? I've read lots about the Valvoline Max Life being compatible with the WS so I'm not disputing it since lots of ppl including yourself have used it successfully.

Bgw70

roadfrog

Keeping in mind that "compatible" does not mean that it is a substitute, nor does it mean that it has the same qualities as WS. It only means that it can be mixed with WS. It may not have the same additives, nor the same spec. A good example is coolants that call themselves compatible with Super Long Life Coolants, but have nowhere near the same specs (silicates etc). The state of California apparently recognized this and (I forget the details), Valvoline (and others) were not permitted to state that their fluids could be used in applications that did not match oem spec.

boatpix

My 2007 LS460 with 196K miles near Miami has started slipping so I contacted a used dealer friend who recommended indy trans repair shop to pay him to replace the fluid and the filter. Indy trans repair shop owner said NOT to pay him to change the oil and filter as in his experience it might die immediately. Indy trans repair shop owner said the LS460 transmissions in his experience do fail (this was his opinion as a fellow who would profit if I took his advice for the full repair rather than the oil and filter change) . He said it would be $2K to repair my own transmission and I thought that a bargain as opposed to sourcing a running takeout transmission and having it installed. A car flipper friend said to put a quart of "TRANS X" and he has had good luck with that product extending the life of a transmission before it failed. Thoughts on whether the indy transmission shop is correct to NOT replace the transmission oil and filter and wait for it to fail? Is there an easy fix? Should I have them rebuild it when it fails as it would seem to be the same price as to source a used trans and have it installed? Really just want to fix what is currently wrong with it and asking for advice. If it is inevitable to fail it might be easier to have it rebuilt now under my timeline. Prefer simple fix for long lasting use. Tom 561-346-2816.

305Busa

My 2007 with 135k miles also started slipping at around 120k. Checked on the procedure of oil filling and when I removed the overflow plug, nothing came out. Waited on the following day until the exhaust was cool and followed the procedure again and dropped in a little over a quart. That was 15k miles ago and car hasnt slipped since. Not sure if always going to the extreme is a good choice. I'd have them check the oil levels first and see. Im in Miami also
BTW, i'll be changing filters and such shortly.

boatpix

I dropped in 2 quarts and it seems to shift fine now. Apparently the leak is near the output shaft of the engine and the torque converter. It's transmission fluid.