Smoothride

My GF has a 04 GX470 that according to the dealer has fried it's transmission to the tune of $5,500, it slips badly and won't go past 3rd gear. I hate to spend 1/3 of the value of the GX on a tranny from the dealer, has anyone experienced a bad tranny or have any ideas other than to drop $5,500 on a remanufactured tranny? Any help or thoughts are appreciated. I will be calling some local shops to see what they can do. It's also throwing P076, P0974, and P0986 codes if that helps. Thanks in advance.

Bruce

Ancient

How many miles on the 04?

BurgBoxstr

I have 120k on my GX and [knock on wood] no tranny issues. I do have a bearing in the front xfer case which seems to be going but nothing pure transmission related.

Your first issue is going w/ the dealer for diagnosis/repair particularly on this one which I assume to be well out of warranty. Find a competent indy shop and repair should be less than half. For a ballpark difference, call a national chain like AAMCO and inquire as to full rebuild price. Plus, with as many GXs as their are on the road, you may be able find a wrecked one w/ a sub 50k mile tranny you could swap in.

Good luck

Smoothride

Sorry, I should have mentioned 113,000 miles. I have called a few places and both are right at $3,000; one for a used 49k mile tranny, and the other to take it apart and rebuild it (Mr. transmission). I think we will be going with the rebuilt.

I had the dealership go ahead and change the fluid while they had it on the chance it was low and this may be the cheap fix, if it works, great, if not, oh well...

She has also had a wheel bearing go bad and a transfer case seal in the past 5,000 miles, we're not having the best of luck once the car went past 100k!

z0lt3c

iTrader: (1)

Check out car-parts.com -- They have options from $700 to $2000 but it looks like most are right in the middle of that range. As mentioned, find a good local Indy to install it. If $3000 is an installed price, it's not that bad...

The other options is to buy a parts truck from an insurance auction. Something like this -- i'd love to have that trucks entire interior.

Smoothride

Hey All, thanks for the replies but for now it is OK, but likely living on borrowed time.

While at the dealership I asked them to go ahead and change he fluid and we would take the car home to make a decision, I was also gambling that a fluid change would fix the issue if it was low. Even though it is a sealed system, I still don't trust it.

The results is the fluid change worked, at least for the current time and the car is shifting normally, I have no idea how long it will last, but am happy to save $3,000 for now.

gsobol

BTW, find someone who knows what they are doing when replacing a trany on the GX. I had a local dealer (yes Lexus dealer) do a replacement of trany and transfer case when my GX has developed drive-line vibrations and started slipping during shifts. When I went to pickup the truck, I was shocked. The truck was silky smooth when in park, but as soon as you put it in gear it felt as if someone has replaced the seat for one of those vibrating massage chairs (and not a good one at that). Needless to say, the truck went from check-out to check-in in 30 seconds flat. It took them 2 more days to get it right. I spoke with a technician (who worked on my truck and was from another dealership ???), who explained that the placement on the GX is critical and that the trany and transfer case have to be properly aligned and trimmed in order to prevent drive-line vibrations such as the ones I have experienced. What bothers me the most is that these guys should have known in the first place, but apparently had to get a guy from another dealership to do this right.

Oh, and that was when the truck had less than 40K. That proves that you can always get a banana no matter which car company you go with. (or some other fruit :-) )

desolate

Ebay has a number of them with warranties for 950 shipped.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/04-LEXUS-GX4...ht_2745wt_1341

Sweep

It isn't really a sealed system. It requires a fluid change at 125k. There is a major misunderstanding by many techs and service writers on this. The trans uses an expensive synthetic ATF, and because it cannot be mixed with normal ATF the dipstick was removed (keeps people from topping off themselves). There is a special toyota scan tool that is used to check the trans temp and set the final level. So if you had trans service, it may have been the fault of not following procedure when topping off.

mann777

The tyranny slips could be of various internal issues. The Transmission on GX has 7 solenoids & 2 Clutch Control Solenoids. When the Lock up Control Solenoid gets locked due to electrical issues, the clutch control solenoid dose not function, this ceases operation of the Line operation Oil Pressure solenoid and only works intermittent with very low voltage supply. Thereby the Clutch also slips and gets locked at certain times. The solution to this is replacing the solenoids within. whosoever says to replace the whole tyranny should be dumb, without tracing the root cause.
Now coming to the fault code raised, I will let you know soon.

AMTT

Drove my GX470 about 20 miles (doing fine all the way), stopped, put in park for about 5 mins, shifted to "D" and engine revving and bucking a bit, RPMs up to 4K when tried to accelerate. Limped home going 35 mph. It's a 2004 with 175K miles. Not sure if the scheduled maintence in past has included a transmission fluid change or not? Will discuss with dealer tomorrow. Man-777, does your discussion of "slips" sound like this problem? I saw that Smoothride had similiar problem helped by fluid replacement. Should I have them check down the solenoids, etc, before trying a tranny fluid replacement, or just try replacing fluid first?

clubsport

well this makes me wanna do a 2nd transmission fluid change before my 100k mark...