Lavrishevo

iTrader: (1)

• Of course the drain and refill. I would say every 30k. My dealer says every 90. The cost is not much. About $130 at you're local dealer.
  
• Always come to a complete stop before shifting from drive though neutral and into reverse. Going from reverse into drive. The same thing. Be completely at rest.
  
• When parking on a hill or any kind of incline or decline shift the LS430 into neutral and maintain your foot on the break. Set the parking brake and let off your pedal some for the weight of the car to shift and holding into place via the rear brakes. I personally curb my wheels. I then shift from neutral into park. This prevent the weight of the car being held mostly in place by the transmission. Not good.
  
• Let's not forget punching through the gears. The harder she has to shift the more heat and wear she will suffer. Drivers choice. Leave that up to you.
  
  The goal of this fantastic way of shifting an automatic transmission is to take away the most stress and wearing elements away. Habits like these are what separate 160 / 180 thousand mile transmissions vs 300 thousand mile transmissions.

AlexusAnja

Good practices for sure but you're not doubling the mileage by doing this. My '95 civic I drove it like a rental because I was young...it went 250k no issues when I sold it and went another 60k until my friend sold it again. The LS transmission you're talking 350k or 400k.

LScowboyLS

I would say 30K on those LS models with a dipstick and 90K on those without - the procedure on those without is too meticulous and failure prone to tempt fate every 30K!


this is THE MOST IMPORTANT transmission longevity tip ever written!


this is an old wives tale - the parking pawl on an automatic transmission is MADE to do this, it is the beefiest thing you have ever seen, even on a very steep hill you are fine - but definitely come to a complete stop before shifting from reverse to forward gears or vice-versa, as previously mentioned, not doing that is a transmission killer!

I would add that you should inspect and/or replace the filter every 150K miles

also, if you feel the need to drive like a maniac, at least make sure the engine and transmission are fully warmed up first! - on a cold day, it's about 1/2 hour of driving before the transmission is fully warm.

warminwisc

I drove my last04 LS to 200k and beat the hell out of it as carefully as I could, sport shifting, high speeds, loads of winter driving. I couple drain and fills it shifted almost as smooth as my newly bought 04 with 62k. Always come to a complete stop when going R to D Point....these trannys seems to be very well engineered and strong.

hypervish

LOL, have you actually ever seen a parking pawl?

I assure you it is NOT the beefiest thing you have ever seen. In fact, you'd be surprised at how little "metal" is holding your car at rest when only in park.

But, it will not increase the life of the transmission if you use the parking brake before engaging Park. Unless the pin breaks and catastrophically destroys the transmission. Which I've seen occur before, but it however depends on the design of the transmission.

If you want to look at it in simpler terms, there is a reason why even the cheapest vehicles selling today have a parking brake. IF auto manufactures thought it wasn't necessary, you'd damn well know it.

LScowboyLS

Yeah, in 27 years of working on Aisin transmissions, I have seen a parking pawl

But I will tell what I have not seen on an Aisin transmission in 27 years:

● one of them slip out of Park
● a broken parking pawl


On an automatic transmission, it is more of an "emergency brake" - such as the case if your hydraulic brake system were to actually fail while the car is moving, it would really come in handy! - it's also included with automatic cars for little old ladies or people like my father who has a messed up shoulder, who might have trouble pulling a car out of park on a steep hill - and this is not to say it is not a good idea to have some redundancy on a steep hill, but it is really for piece of mind, and the absent-minded more than anything, and for drifting.

Manufacturers are not inclined to delete features that customers have come to expect in a car that don't add a lot of extra cost.

1WILLY1

iTrader: (9)

4th day now driving my LS, its amazing I cant even feel or hear the gears changing lol

I have no idea what gear im in when im driving, never felt anything so smooth in my life.

On my SC400 we used Toyota type IV tranny fluid, what are you guys using for the LS430? I would like to do a drain refill sometime soon.

Thanks

AlexusAnja

The '04-06 used sealed transmission and WS fluid so "never" needs changing. I'm not positive on the '01-03 but.believe all non sealed Toyota/Lexus use the type IV fluid.

1WILLY1

iTrader: (9)

thanks buddy ill ask around a bit more, I got loads of type iv laying around so hopefully that's what it takes.

and wow I never heard of anything like that before, sealed tranny.

Lavrishevo

iTrader: (1)

I wonder what Aisin recommends. It's not really sealed just no dipstick. It is setup for you to change the fluid and I can't believe this idea of lifetime fluid. If the Lexus dealer can do my fluid exchange on my "world" transmission in less then an hour it can't be too hard to do it right. I understand it is more difficult but it could be done right every 30k.