TheEther

Thank you very much for your time in advance..

I'm looking to buy a 04 RX330 from a close family member. My wife and I know how well it's been cared for, it still looks brand-new. Immaculate. The vehicle has had ZERO problems. Regular maintenance, battery and brakes is about it. It has 60,000 miles dead on.

I'm a decent shade tree mechanic and do 90% of all my own auto work. I have 3 cars right now that are every day drivers with 159,000 miles, 231,000 miles and 357,000 miles. (I'm stubborn about keeping my cars running).

I'm looking for info from the group here, as I fully expect to put another 80-100K on this car. What should I look out for and expect to occur based on precedent with the 04 RX330? Not being familiar with this car, I just don't know enough about it to make an educated decision whether buying the car is a good risk.

Thank you again!

lexus114

For the most part the 04`s and up are more reliable than the first generation RX. Some trouble area`s are On AWD models Hub bearings, trans shift lag (which the dealer can update) Radiator leaks (from bad batches of radiators) and my personal favorite....Headlamp moisture. I have had very good service from my 05 for 2.5 years now. And am very pleased. If you can buy this RX for the right price, I would go for it in a heartbeat!

jconst6558

I bought an '04 rx330 a year ago with 49,000 miles on it. It was in perfect condition and I paid $20,500 for it from a private party. In this area that was $3-4 thousand lower than Kelly blue book value. It had new Michelins on it and had Mobil 1 changed every 5000 miles. We have 1 headlight that occasionally gets a little moisture in it. We had a coolant leak at the block heater plate next to the oil filter, had a rear brake light led burn out and needed a new tail light assembly. These were the only problems we've had. I changed the trans fluid as soon as we got it. I used 8 qts. of Toyota T-4. Then at 60k miles I changed it again and put in 8 qts. of Amsoil synthetic fluid. Please don't let anyone talk you into NOT regularly changing trans. fluid. Done a couple of mods that we feel have really improved the car. We had the TTE springs installed which lowered the car about 1" but improved the ride and handling significantly. Removed the roof rack. Had the tsb done to reprogram the ecm for improved shifting. The reprogram was a very nice change for the car. No more searching for the right gear at low speeds. Mpg seems to have improved by about 1+ mpg. too. The car just turned 61k and we couldn't be happier with it. Good luck with your new RX.

TheEther

Thank you all very much for your prompt replies. I feel much better about the car and my wife is looking forward to driving it for sure!

lexus114

8qts? Did you do a trans cooler flush or something?

jconst6558

Drained the pan. Added 4 qts. and then disconnected the trans. cooler line and started the car and pushed out additional 4 qts. This procedure has been covered in other threads, but iirc removes about 70% or more of the old fluid. Added 4 additional qts. and the fluid level was perfect.