I believe I have read on the forum that the transmission is sealed and the fluid cannot be changed.

 

Anything can be changed.

If I owned a 350 and had 50k miles, i'd definitely change it. take it to the dealer to get it done.

 

the trans is vented to blow off pressure..etc nothing about it at all is sealed.

they tell people its sealed to have them say oh ok .. or the bull**** lifetime fluid response ...

lexus defines lifetime fluid at 100k .. for those who are interested.

get that fluid out of there.... and make sure they put enough back in .. you'll get flares if they don't level it right.

 

I went to my local Lexus dealer and they refused to do it because of it being "lifetime" fluid.

Anyone had this done and know how much they paid for it?

 

my dealer charged me for the gasket and an hour of labor and i had my favorite master tech do it ... i did bring my own amsoil tranny fluid ... lexus charged 175$ to do it with my own fluid.

 

Thanks!

Did they flush it or drain and refill?

 

Its true what Toyota/Lexus says being lifetime fluid (100K miles).
But I'm planning on doing a drain-and-fill @ 50K miles. Not a full flush-and-fill.
For the drain-and-fill: park the car as level as possible, measure what is drained and put the same amount back.
Going to also check Diff fluid at 50K as well.

It depends how technical you want to get with it.
Leveling of parking.
Temperature of transmission.
Amount of fluid.
Type of fluid.
Torque spec for drain/fill bolts.
I think there is a full Toyota/Lexus technician procedure sheet of ther process in the ISF forums somewhere.

The only thing potentially different in this video is the amount of fluid since 3IS come in 6/8 speed transmissions.
The Aisin drain/fill bolts are pretty the same position for both trans. The Fill bolt is labeled with "WS" so you cant miss them.
Procedure will be identical to this:

Here are my personal checks I did with my IS200t when I first got it:


12K miles vs 0 miles



12K miles diff fluid

 

drain and refill