Ok. Will Do. Thanks again. Will report back within a few days.

 

I checked the radiator after removing cap this morning and it was full. Added about 6 ounces of coolant to reservoir to top it off and warmed up car with heater on full and engine revving to 2500 rpm. Will need to check after driving a day or so. However, maybe after checking my other fluids, I should have renamed this thread: "Adding Transmission Fluid After Radiator Replacement". Although the car was cold, I pulled the trans dip stick and it barely read 1/2 inch from bottom of the stick. Would you think it would ever come across the mind of the Lexus Tech to check my transmission fluid after changing the radiator knowing there is a cooler that has retained some fluid?? Anyway, I don't remember off hand the type of Transmission fluid my car takes and need to approximate how much I might need. What bothers me even more is that I've been driving around the last week or so with less than the minimum transmission required for my car. I'll warm it up and recheck now and top it up. As I mentioned earlier, you just can't depend on getting a job done correctly unless you recheck yourself. I'm not going to complain to the dealership until I make sure this job was done correctly. Thanks all.

 

Your point about checking transmission fluid after a radiator change, Boca, is a very good one, and often overlooked (including on CL threads). Since you have a trans dip stick, you're lucky cause you can add trans fluid through the dipstick tube. If you owned a '04 - '06, no trans dipstick. Trans fluid must be added from underneath in a more difficult cumbersome procedure. Be sure to check trans fluid hot, after driving. Don't overfill.

 

The saga continues: So far the coolant seems to be where it should be after an entire day of driving. It's slightly higher then where I topped it up at full this morning which was to be expected for expansion. However, with regards to the Transmission fluid.......This morning I checked it when the car was cold and it looked very low, but after driving all day and checking on very level ground in my garage numerous times (3-4) while the car was running, on the contrary, the tech actually overfilled the transmission!!! At first I was besides myself not knowing how overfilled it was, but after getting it into my garage and checking carefully, it is just above the top notch and just about touching the letter T that is on the stick. Possibly 1/4 of an inch? I'm going to assume it can't be much more than a few ounces but I can't be sure. I've called the head of operations at Lexus and am bringing the car in first thing tomorrow morning. He was of course very apologetic but why can't they get things right the first time around?

 

Boca, checking the transmission fluid level is a bit tricky - it must be done with the fluid at a very narrow temperature range (158-176 degF). The repair manual also says to wait 30 minutes after extended driving at high speeds in hot weather.

 

Thanks RKW. What repair manual did you get this info from? I did check it after a 20 minute highway drive and did not wait 30 minutes, nor did I shift from P to L to P. Not sure how much that will affect my overfill, but I'm having Lexus look at this morning. I'd still rather be a little under than over.

 

Update: Coolant level is holding steady and trans fluid is back where it should be. All is well. Thanks guys for your help.

 

Did the dealer overfill and have to drain some trans fluid, Boca? Thanks for coming back to report.

 

It's interesting that the temps for checking the 6-speed "sealed" trans are between 115 and 130 F.

 

Yes. The head of operations as well as the shop foreman checked the level and agreed it was slightly over the full mark. They approximated it being between 4-6 ounces. They asked me where I wanted it to read as anywhere in between the two notches for warm are acceptable. I told him closer to the higher notch and that's what I got. I guess the tech who replaced my radiator just took a guess of how much fluid was needed due to the fluid loss from the trans cooler in the radiator and he guessed wrong. All's well that ends well. (I'm sure most owner's wouldn't even think to check after a radiator install but I happen to be a fanatic!)

 

This was taken from the 2001-2003 LS430 repair manual.

 

Thanks again for your help.

 

I was going nuts for over an hour looking for the drain on the engine block. Here's what I discovered and just maybe it will save someone else an hour.
The block drain is on the drivers side of the block but way back - almost to the bell housing. You won't see it until you pull the rear belly plate off. You can't see it with only the front pulled.
The drain is a tall multi-piece insert with a hook shaped drain tube on it. Don't try loosening random bolts that might seem to be in the right place. I almost did that and I can only imagine the disaster that could be created. I never found a drain on the front of the block.

The radiator won't set down properly and will be high if you put the rubber "feet" on the bottom of the radiator. Put them in the seat in the frame element and sit the radiator in them instead.

If you have air suspension the car will settle down. When you lift the car back up from the jacking point and pull the jack stands the car will be so low on the suspension that you won't be able to drop the floor jack low enough to get your jack out. I tried raising it again and put blocks under the tires. Forget it. It still won't be low enough. You will need to run the car for 10 minutes to let the compressor raise the car back up. I moved the suspension setting to high which was more than enough. Maybe that wasn't needed - but it did need to raise the car to at least standard height.

When I read 10 quarts I thought I would need 3 gallons. 2 gallons was more than enough with several quarts left over. I used the premixed Asian formula pink Zerex. I think it should be cheaper at half water but at least it's cheaper than Toyota's mix.

 

I may get flamed for this but 4-6 oz of ATF over will not cause any issues... BUT it was good that you had the level corrected.