fancyjean

My son at college has my RX300. I have a 2010 now. He just called and said the transmission will not go in reverse at all. He also said that it seemed to rev high when stuck in neutral yesterday. His college buddy told him to tow it to a tranny shop who gave him a quote of 1600 and threatened him with a high dealership bill of 4000 to replace the tranny. Could it be clogged, could it be the computer, could it be anything other than replacing the tranny? ideas? I told him to have diagnostics done at Lexus and make an informed decision. Help, I am no mechanic, ideas from the experts please asap

hypervish

Unfortunately it likely is the transmission.

$1600 is not a bad deal, but what is that for? Rebuild?

M45owner

I just went through this with our 99 RX. Drove flawlessly with no indication of failure then all of a sudden on the highway we had a misshift. Hopped off of the highway and pulled into a parking lot. Wouldnt budge whatsoever in reverse or drive.

Paid Lexus a nice chunk ($4000) to replace the transmission. Frickin ridiculous.

fancyjean

I am having my son call the tranny guy. He got "recommended" to him. Geesh a mother hates to loose control! He needs the car to get to class, work etc. so I am playing catch up with him trying to make sure he bails himself out of this one. Thanks for the input, it sounds like the same indicators, just slipped when driving and then same day won't go forward or reverse.

Please keep up with the input I am checking all the time and thanks.

fancyjean

He says regarding the 1600 quote that is a starting price but he thinks it should be accurate. He said no he does not replace the tranny with a junk yard tranny but he opens it up, and usually there are parts that get shredded, like a fork in a dishwasher he said. Some are plastic, some are not, but he replaces the parts, cleans it up and shuts the tranny up again.

hello, does it sound like I am over my head here? Yes... Does this sound legit or can I expect a big problem later one with stuff floating around the tranny. And if Lexus does it, don't they charge about 4000 for a new transmission. So isn't that a sure thing? Advice?

JAB

In my opinion do not take it to an 'independent' transmission shop. There have been some real horror stories. Take it to a Toyota dealer or Toyota specialist.

trhs75

So sorry, Jean! I worry about this happening to my daughter's! Just out of curiousity, I called a major chain about two years ago who quoted me $2500-$3500 to "rebuild" the tranny. He said about $1300 of that was for labor. Also, any "weak solenoids" found would be replaced @ $200 each. Our Lexus dealer uses Lexus-remanufacured (not rebuilt) trannies. Lexus won't even give their dealers the tools to rebuild them. 2011 quote from Lexus dealer was $5200-$5400. I saw this month that Sewell sells Lexus-reman trannies for $2362.25, including return freight charges for the core. No core charge is made unless the core isn't returned. I agree with JAB; this should give you some cost ideas. I don't know what a Lexus or Toyota dealer would charge to install a tranny from Sewell; maybe you could use the Sewell quote to get a more palatable cost from the dealer. Please keep us informed -- many of us may face the same issue someday!

fancyjean

Thanks so much for the info about Sewell. It brings down the level of panic a bit. For right now, getting it towed to the Lexus dealership. The 2011 quote of 5200-5400 is enough to keep you sleepless. Will wait and get results, maybe the Sewell will add some downward pressure on the price (I will look them up on the web and what a "core" is I bought the RX300 new and have never had any major repairs to it, it was serviced regularly etc. but maybe not so much now.

When I get the bad news from the dealer I will share info and have to make the hard decisions. Anyone else with ideas, please let me know and I will post the end result later. Thanks so much.

salimshah

core is the old transmission which they will use to refurbish and sell again. Check who pays shipping for the core.

If the old one is cracked or can not be used to refurbish, expect 0 to partial for core. Also you should expect to be charged the full amount and then credited for the core.

Salim

fancyjean

Thanks for the explanation Salim. The Lexus dealer will tell me the condition of the core when the diagnostics are complete. Meanwhile as backup I am looking at transmissions on Ebay. There are a few OEM ones, there are many rebuilt. They are all in other states so I would have to pay shipping and have lead time etc. But trying to give myself as many options as possible. So I am looking to see what is available and if the dealer is toooo outrageous I could consider Ebay and have it shipped to the independent tranny shop to be put in? Anyone have opinions on this I will take note. I did notice that if you replace it there are many steps to keep the parts warranty good. But I would think a good independent shop would do these (replace seals, flush carefully, and so on) And I also noticed the warranties are just on parts not the pricey installation part. The warranty length varies, 120 days to 6 months seems to be the average.

hypervish

Also, check www.car-part.com

It's a database of salvage yards, you will be able to find a transmission on there. It will also list if it has already been rebuilt or if it's a reman unit. I don't recommended getting one from the salvage yard if it hasn't been already rebuilt though.

You have to compare the cost. I haven't done any research in terms of that as my RX is still shifting flawlessly at almost 200k miles, and as is my uncle's 99 RX at nearly 400k miles.

trhs75

The used trannies I have seen online have been close to $2000, not much less than the remanufactured, apparently. I think the extra few hundred dollars would be money well spent. Some on this forum have suggested getting the Lexus zone manager involved to get Lexus to help you out. Having owned the vehicle since new, you (hopefully) can document that the maintenance was done on schedule. I have heard this has helped get some reimbursement help from Lexus before for these RX300 transmissions. You really hate to invest close to the value of the car in a repair. Obviously you are a repeat customer, and Lexus is likely to want to keep you. Personally, I would prefer to have the Lexus dealer do the install, if possible. I know it's going to be more money, but let's see if they'll help you out. Maybe you buy the tranny from Sewell if your dealer won't lower the price (it is exactly what they would order for you and install), then maybe Lexus can cover the labor cost, or you can split it. This way you save money and Lexus and the dealer have no significant out-of-pocket costs, just some labor time. I would start by asking them to cover ALL the labor, and go from there. We're with you!!! Salim is right about checking shipping charges for the old part (core). If I read Sewell's listing correctly, that is included in the price.

M45owner

When I had my transmission done at Lexus, it was a remanufactured unit with 1 year/unlimited mileage warranty. Yea - like its going to fail in one years time...these transmissions are one of the worst out there in my opinion. I am sure you have read the many thousands of failures.

LA4Mead

I would not go with a used transmission... you might be waiting for another failure.
I would only go with a transmission that has all of the "updates" or a rebuilder willing to do so... Maybe Hypervish, Code58 and/or Salim have a better explanation.
My explanation is that I had mine replaced by Lexus in 2004 under warranty prior to failure. The dealer tried the two transmissions they had in stock (Lexus uses third-party rebuilt transmissions) which after installation tested problematic even before I picked the car up. The dealer service writer and manager then got approval to order a brand-new transmission from Kyushu, which they assured me was complete with all "updates" Lexus specified after the original design. The new transmission is a completely different animal from the original transmission. It does not exhibit the same premature wear characteristics the original transmission did from when the car was brand-new (burning, contaminated fluid at yearly changes, odd cold shifts, etc.). It seems some of the internal parts are made of stronger, more heavy-duty materials and by this point I think it's safe to say it's built to last much longer than the original design (it already has).
I hope the information is helpful to you. Please share how things are going for you and keep us informed.

M45owner

You'd think that by now they would have all of the rebuilds up-to-date since these failures are so common.