Clutchless

Well you have nothing to lose but some money by paying to have it done sooner, say at 30,000 miles. It is the first one that is more important to get the debris out from break in and initial wear. You could go to every 50,000 after that.

Sometimes there is just a bad casting of a metal part and it fails too soon for that or some other reason such as a bad bearing.

Back when I worked on defense of a Nissan and Mitsubishi lemon law cases we had a Mitsubishi that blew the engine and spewed oil all over the highway at only about 30,000 miles. It had a perfect maintenance history and the oil had recently been changed properly. We investigated and then hired Terry Dyson, a professional tribologist, or oil analysis expert as there was about a quart left in the engine to analyze. He found certain types of metal which made him conclude the oil pump had failed and there had been no negligent maintenance. We paid the owner for the car. So the lesson is, stuff breaks at any time.

iolmaster

iTrader: (1)

The maintenance schedule here in the US is to never change the fluid. Not sure why there would be a difference.

Clutchless

The Warranty and Services Guide for the 2010 RX350 states at page 55 that for the 72 month or 60,000 mile service the transmission fluid should be replaced if driving while towing. It also calls for replacement of the rear differential and transfer case fluids at the same time.

royalleade

Yes, the 2015 RX350 maintenance schedule doesn't say anything in the booklet that's given to us, but if you go to the dealership, they'll tell you to change the transmission fluid at 96K km in addition to replacement of the front and rear differential fluids at the same time like Cluthless mentioned. The service manager was highly recommending to get the front and rear differential fluids changed even though its not in that maintenance guide. My Warranty and Services guide just says to inspect for leaks and have it repaired immediately if there are any signs of leakage. So I can only assume that every single maintenance job is not mentioned in that maintenance schedule... or maybe the dealership is just out to get the extra $$$.

N4TECguy

Just curious, what were the symptoms leading up to the transmission giving up? Was it sudden, or were there signs ahead of time? Did it leave you stranded, or without a couple gears, or something else? Was your car mainly driven City or mixed? Do you have the tow prep package, which has the transmission cooler?

Genuinely curious as we are starting to see more of these transmission failure threads and they are failing way too early for a Toyota product. I changed the transmission fluid changed at 96k Miles and it was dark as night, even though I have the factory transmission cooler and the car does not have a tow hitch. For everybody asking for PROOF that you need to change the ATF, are transmission failures, burnt smelling dark fluid, and hard shifts not enough proof? You will never see enough proof if you keep your eyes closed. If not for it being my wife's car and her hating car shopping, I would probably get rid of ours...

lex_rx

I just replaced my tranny fluid after about 82K km but already three years since I'd consider hot and cold temps here in Canada's capital as extreme driving conditions. C$170 every three years is cheap tranny insurance for me.

salimshah

Why not at 50K or better still at 32K?

Hope you dont have to collect.

Salim

royalleade

My car doesn't show the gears shifting on the dash. It just shows the max gear I have selected and leaves that on the dash while I'm driving.

royalleade

I started noticing a problem when gear was shifting from 1st to 2nd. It was a rough shift most of the times, kind of give a little jerk. Not every time but lot of the times. I can tell something wasn't right. But it was still driving fine so I didn't pay too much attention to it. But this problem didn't last for too long maybe only few days before the main problem occurred. I was out on a trip about 170km away from my house. Stayed there overnight. Got up in the morning packed my car up to go home and car wouldn't go in reverse. It wouldn't go in neutral either. It would only go in Drive. Unlucky for me, it was parked in a place where I had snowbank in front of me so I had limited space to move forward and car wouldn't go in reverse or neutral to be able to move back. So kept trying and trying and pressed on gas while on reverse and it jerked out of reverse while almost running my friend over because we was standing next to me with my door open. Then I put it on drive and it was making strange racketting noise. Not too loud but loud enough for both of us to notice it. But the noise went away after a little while. I had to stop over somewhere for couple of hours before making my way home. But my drive back home for that 170km was amazing lexus drive on highway. Only other issue I noticed when we hit traffic was sometimes the rpms would start revving high for no reason and i would have to let go of the gas to bring the rpms down and then continue driving and it was fine. Just need to add here that the car would go in reverse once I start driving. So I was able to reverse park it when I got home. The next day same thing, it wouldn't go in reverse, but since I reverse parked I had no issue putting in Drive and driving out.
Car is mostly highway driven. No tow prep package.
I was seriously thinking of getting rid of this car while it was being repaired (for 10 days). But my choice of alternative luxury SUVs are all premium gas and I would lose lot of money if I sold this car so I have decided to keep it for longer since I got brand new transmission now. I am really hoping this problem doesn't come back again though because I was told it would cost $7K CDN to do this job.

Clutchless

What I meant was when in Drive and on the highway in (I trust) 6th gear, if you slide it over to S it will show the next lower gear (5th) and you should feel it. I do not recall if it shows different gears if you start selecting them manually.

diverchris

Clutchless

Power steering fluid is an item that is very easy to maintain if at every oil change you remove as much fluid as you can from the fill container and then replace it with new fluid. Do that 4 times and you have essentially replaced all the power steering fluid as most systems only hold about a quart. A cheap fluid pump or turkey baster works to get the fluid out. Only takes a few minutes.

royalleade

It shows the gear that I have selected and I can make that go up or down by moving + or -, but it doesn't show the actual gear of the transmission.
Not sure if its a good idea to go in S while driving on the highway since the default gear is 4. Don't want another dead transmission.

royalleade

How often does the power steering fluid need to be changed on this RX?

iolmaster

iTrader: (1)

No power steering fluid on my 2015 RX. Electric servos.