Yes, same here. I'm not gonna do a flush, ONLY a drain and refill. I'm not sure I trust the Beverly Hills Lexus SA I talked to. She said they don't do drains and refills, just flushes. That makes no sense. They probably just want more money to use that expensive machine. Then I called a few Toyota dealers and they can do them.

I'm also waiting to hear back from my Knoxville SA (whom I dealt with personally for 2 years and knows my car) and see what he says.

Will keep everyone updated.

But yeah, I'm not flushing my transmission.

 

Rear Diff drain and fill is about the easiest job possible in terms of fluids on the LS430. Can be done in 15-20 minutes if you take your time. Fluid cost is about $15 at autoparts store. I would not pay more than $100 max for that service. $220 borders on robbery plain and simple.

 

$70 in Lubbock Texas and $220 in Beverly Hills sounds about right to me.

 

I recently bought a 2002 ES 300 with only 54,000 miles (yep, only 54,000 miles) from Lexus dealer (Knoxville, TN), but only had service records up to 30,000 miles. After getting some good advice here on this forum, I decided to play it safe and go ahead and drain and fill the tranny fluid ($149.00), along with a brake fluid flush and oil/filter change. The service guy said that they do not ever recommend flushing the transmission, just a drain and fill , even with the low miles I have on the car. He said doing the things that I mentioned should get me back on schedule , service wise.

BTW, I went ahead and "bit the bullet" and had the timing belt/ water pump changed last month after learning that it is recommended every 6-7 years or 90,000 miles , whichever comes first. Now, I can rest easy and enjoy my ride.............................

 

The Canadian factory maintenance interval for changing rear differential fluid is every 32000km. I did mine at the 96000km interval at a Toyota dealership, cost was $40CAD ~= $33USD. I'm approaching the next interval, 136000km, and if Toyota will still do it for $40, I'll pay it. Otherwise, I am sure I can do it myself.

The quoted prices for both services sound abnormally high, but perhaps that is due to where you live.

About whether or not you should change the "lifetime" ATF, that topic has been extensively discussed in another thread. Best to keep all relevant technical information in that thread for everyone's ease of reference.

 

way high for the differential service. Anybody can do this in their driveway in about 20 minutes.
did mine a couple years ago at around the 70k mark for first time, oil looked like new.