Im looking to do a drain and fill for the auto trans, according to the Canadian owners manual, im suppose to change the fluid every 96k kilometres. I cant seem to find the drain plug anywhere. Do i have to take off some of the plastic covers underneath to get to the drain plug?

The only plug visible is the engine oil drain plug.

 

you will have to remove the large plastic under the engine (approx 2 feet by 2 feet). once that is off, locate the transmission and at the bottom you will find the dain plug. it accepts the 3/8" drive ratchet to remove. mine was on rather tight, so lots of effort was required. Since you only change the ranny fluid once in a while, i would also buy the washer from the dealer, it crushes when tightened, to ensure the plug wont back out.

then just fill via the dip stick.

if your fluid is rather dark, i would recheck the condition in 6 months and consider doing another refill.

 

the fluid looks very good at the moment. Regarding the plastic under the engine, i saw 3 seperate pieces of plastic, they all go across the whole car. the first in the front is more narrow, it then connects to another larger one that connects to a third one. All 3 are like interconnected and they all go from one side of the car to the other.

I already bought the ATF WS from the dealer, i'll get the washer next time i stop by the dealer.

I don't think i saw the 2x2 plastic that you are talking about. I will check again tommorow.

thanks

 

does it use the same washer as the engine oil drain plug?

 

No, they are different. The picture here should answer. Also shows the part numbers involved.

http://lexus.sewellparts.com/accesso...2009/2627.html

 

Thanks. I guess I was lucky to not have found the drain plug today, as i would have been missing the washer.

regarding where the drain plug is again. Is it on the driver side?

The other thing i found weird is that my manual says to replace the fluid every 96k kms (60k miles) while the US manual says "inspect" every 100k miles.

I also noticed that for my 2008 ES350, the manual also says to change ATF every 96kkm while others in this forum has said the ES uses a sealed transmission and fluid never needs to be replaced...

I wonder if lexus just used a generic scheduled maintainence booklet? The one for my ES and RX have the exact same intervals for everything.

 

Technically, the ATF WS is a lifetime fluid according to Toyota. You would be good until 100K miles unless you were towing or the other hard driving situations listed in the Owner's Manual. However, many here believe there is no such thing as a lifetime fluid. As you are intent on doing a drain and fill we try to help as best possible. I believe at 60K a drain and fill, even with the WS, is not a bad idea. Give you a gauge as to how things are going. Depending on what you see you might want to drain and fill again at 30K miles or wait another 60K miles if it looks clean. If it looks really dirty, you might want to drain and fill more often. At least this way you have options and information to use in making that decision.

The RX and ES share engines and transmissions. Would not be a far stretch to see their service intervals to be the same as well. The RX is nothing more than a tall wagon.

I cannot speak to where the drain plug is located as I have an RX330.

 

I was going to ask with a new thread, but then I found this and thought my question was appropriate in this context.
Where on earth is the transmission oil dipstick?
I neither found it on the car, nor in the manual.
My RX is a 400h, which has the 330 engine, but actually I'm not sure if the transmission is the same as in 330/350...

 

The 400h has no dipstick. The following link from the CL Hybrid Forum may help, especially from Thomas1 at the bottom:

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/hyb...ion-fluid.html

 

the fluid still looks very good. i don't do any towing. I guess i will wait till my next oil change to do a drain and fill on the ATF