I received this advise from an honest Lexus tech that said
- just drain and fill the trani on my RX every 20,000 miles (30,000 km) and the trani will last the life of the engine.

 

According to my owner's manual, Lexus recommends every 2 years / 30k miles.

 

I just got a transmission flush at a Toyota Dealership today. My GS400 only has 54,000 miles, but I felt a big difference afterwards. The transmission was much smoother as I took a test drive in stop and go traffic. Also, when I got back home I checked the dip stick and saw the ATF was very clean with no dark spots left on a napkin.

I think the $160 was worth it since I don't know how the previous owner treated the car. But my next ATF services will be only drain and fill since I will be the only driver.

 

Glad to hear you felt a noticeable difference with the tranny from the total tranny fluid flush. Since you already completed that task, you don't need to do it again for a LONG time

 

If you did two drain and refills in your own home driveway you'd notice a big difference too and the cost of 4 quarts of fluid would be only around $15. Plus, unlike the dealer tech, you'd be meticulous and take care not to get any trace or dirt or lint in the transmission fluid and you'd be meticulous to get the fluid level precisely correct.

 

Like Ripe911 , I am not the original owner of my 94 LS.

I had no idea what condition the fluids were in , but had reasons to suspect that this car had seen some usage on rural dusty roads. I wanted to be real diligent about changing all fluids based on this knowledge. Highest on my list was tranny fluid , since transmission replacement is prohibitively expensive.

I went with a flush at a Toyota Dealership. They used a BG machine to do the job and claimed that they used nothing but Toyata approved fluid in the machine. I went the extra mile and ordered BG Quick Clean and ran it thru the tranny prior to the flush.

It's claim is: "A safe, effective solvent/dispersant cleaner that will quickly remove accumulated deposits from the valve body , filter screen and other automatic transmission components."

I cannot claim to know that this product works as advertised , or for that know for sure that Toyota of Plano uses the correct Toyota Fluid. I asked to watch & they declined to allow me. I do know that my tranny seems to be working fine at 160,000 + miles and now I will feel much more comfortable with doing just a drain & refill regimen moving forward.

Paddle shift GS400 owners , I would be really diligent about changing fluid cause I've seen how my friends drive them!!!

damon

 

I just did two drain & refills today of my tranny. The fluid was very dark, so to me it seems like the previous owner didn't take very good care of it. I plan on doing a few more drain & refills over the next two weeks to get most of the old fluid out. Since I just did two drain & refills, the tranny seems to shift smoother.

Here is a link to BananaGS' webpage regarding changing the tranny fluid, and it's really easy to do too: http://lexusmodz.netfirms.com/GS_DIY...il/index1.html

 

The link above seems to be dead. Here's a good link to flushing the transmission - http://www.lexls.com/tutorials/trans...ransflush.html