I just serviced my ls400 transmission and now its missing gears, before it was completely fine. I used a ryco transmission filter kit comes with a gasket and filter and penrite atf synthetic fluid. Ive called lexus themselves and they said it could be because you added synthetic fluid instead of the toyota atf fluid, and a local shop which advised me to rebuild my trans. What should I do? I don't have enough money to rebuild my transmission.

I have a ucf20r

edit: On the way to fix my error of adding Penrite, the transmission gave out on me and drive was no longer drive, it was just neutral and reverse, ive now towed it to a shop for diagnoses and we will see what they say.

edit 2: shop says there's no hope, it's time to start looking for a new trans.

 

The transmission is extremely sensitive to fluid level. You need to be quite pedantic about getting the level correct. As for fluid type, that appears to be an Australian brand (explains your RHD car!) that I'm not familiar with. I personally just use Toyota's fluid, it's known good and the prices are fair.

What gasket and what filter? Did you remove the pan?

 

yeah i removed the pan i used a ryco filter and gasket that i orderd

 

Yep, there’s no way of replacing the filter without removing the pan.
You don’t need a rebuild if the gear box was fine before the fluid change.
Get the Penrite fluid out and replace it with one of the following-
Toyota T-IV
Mobil 3309
Aisin ATF0T4
(All 3 are basically the exact same fluid)

 

do i just drain it and fill it or do i need to get it vaccumed out since the lexus tech said thats what you needed to do

 

So just to be honest, I really worry about that gasket. It would not surprise me if it starts leaking on you in the future. That can of worms is now forever open now that the original FIPG has been replaced.

Drain and fill only replaces about 20 or 25% of the fluid. There is a lot of fluid in the cooler, lines, torque converter and other internals. So you may have only replaced 25% of the fluid when you dropped the pan, the other 75% is whatever was in there before.

I dunno what tools or systems you have access to. You can do like 3 drain & fills with the correct fluid and be more careful with how you fill up the correct amount of fluid, or, something like this if you want a more complex DIY solution if you want to remove lines:

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/ls-...-pictures.html

I'd personally first make sure your fluid level is correct so we can verify if that's the cause of the problems. The proper process is with the car idling, warmed up, on level ground. Run through all of the gears with the selector. Measure the hot level.

 

Ideally you really don't want to mess with the transmission drain bolt too much. It's a much better process imo to vacuum the fluid out through the transmission dipstick from the top of the engine, especially since you already dropped the pan. These vacuum machines have a translucent canister so you can see and utilize the measuring lines on the canister of exactly how much was taken out. I've never personally vacuumed my LS 400 from the top this way but I do think if you can do it that way it is better. Its going to be a smaller diameter line you will have to snake down there. There are some good machines out there I just don't know the better ones off the top of my head if you want to do it yourself. The drain bolt for the transmission likes to strip out after so many times.. the bolt metal is softer than the pan metal threads, its designed to strip before the pan strips. Its just a way of avoiding another headache.

 

this was the gasket originally on the car, i doubt you can get worse than that, the fluid level was filled to the cold line no more no less.

 

we will see what the shop does, hopefully this will save the trans

 

Never heard of Penrite, but I see they have a variety that they claim is compatible with Type IV. I hope it is, but I wouldn't use it. As others have said, you'll lose shifting capabilities with the fluid level even a little off. You said you filled it to the cold line. Might not be enough fluid. I've done the same after a drain and fill and lost shifting until I added more fluid. Hopefully, that's your problem as well.

 

this is how i did a trans flush w/o removing the pan:
http://www.lexls.com/tutorials/trans...ransflush.html

it's tedious but it worked out well. i went through about 12 quarts if i'm not mistaken.

 

shop says transmissions toast, and to swap a new one into it

 

Did you do any of the testing suggested here, did you even try and set the correct fluid level? Is there a reason why the shop said it's toast? A transmission shouldn't just die because you serviced the fluid.

 

Many shops are going to suggest to replace. They don't want to mess with transmissions so they by default they suggest replace. They don't want to do the work to evaluate transmissions, not many do now a days, most shops will just put up their hands and say replace it. Doesn't mean it needs replacement it's just they don't want to deal with the liability or maybe they don't have the technical ability or confidence, or they just don't want to deal with it. So by simply replacing it, if the shop has an issue with the replacement transmission they put in, they can hold the company that provided them with the transmission liable. It's a way of covering themselves. Even most transmission shops don't want to deal with it, they just want to replace it. Is it toast? It might be but it might not be. Just because someone is a mechanic and works on cars, a transmission is a whole expertise within itself. Kind of like an auto electrician is in expertise, a focused area. General mechanical ability a lot of people have, but these are kind of specialized fields of expertise.