Hello guys and girls, my name is Ziggy. I own a 2008 manual, 6 speed Lexus is250. I began to smell what I thought was oil about a month ago. My father is a retired mechanic and when he smelt it he said it didn't smell like engine oil, but likely tranny fluid. He then looked around and found a bit of a leak in the rear main seal department of the tranny. He told me to have it looked at but I had been very busy and thought it was such a small leak that I could put it off. I finally took it to the local Lexus and... Apparently I put that off too long! They want to replace the entire transmission and the quote was 6.5k! I took it to another guy who said he can do it for a quote of 4k. But quotes normally only mean a starting point and they normally only go up by the time it's done so I'm guessing it would be a thousand more then the quote regardless of the route I took : (... So I had my Dad look at it again and he believes I could get away with replacing the entirety of the last section of the tranny, part number 33103-53030. Then reassemble, put fluid and go about my business. I believe he may be correct, the transmission still exhibits no problems itself... but because of what people say about refilling the transmissions on these things I'm leery that his solution may not be appropriate for this particular car? He's very old school and he's awesome with older models, but his skills with 2000 on up isn't that great and this is a Lexus





My question is whether or not anyone has ever done anything of this nature and how it turned out?

 

I have actually already ordered the part at MyLparts.com. I may have been too hasty though. Now I'm realizing that while my father may be able to walk me through replacing the actual parts... I'm doubting whether he completely understands the internals, specifically the transmission fluid on this thing! But I did a lot of reading and I am of the understanding that only so much fluid can be replaced, that some never comes out? And if this is the case: theoretically I was only losing the portion of fluid that can be replaced? So maybe my fathers solution will work?

 

This isn't a completly new special one off vehicle. It's a standard everyday run of the mill transmission. If he has experience as a mechanic I have confidence he will be able to replace what needs to be changed out. The IS is a Lexus not a foreign spaceship. Rear main seals are a common problem and it's not the first or last time this will happen to an IS250 manual transmission. I've done the same job on a Honda Civic in the past. It's not hard and all parts that break can be replaced. Some are just easier to get to.