Originally Posted by Bgw70

I had a 2002 and never opened the transmission. I drained and refilled the transmission multiple times. You can certainly drop the pan and replace the filter but if it was me, i would just do the ~3.5qt drain and refill once, then do it again the next time you change the oil. After that, i would do it every 15k miles or so. It’s such a simple process on the 2002-2005…and its so nice to have a dipstick.

I now have a 2007, the 2006-2010 have the “Sealed Transmission with Lifetime fluid” (Can someone define lifetime? Is it my lifetime, just kidding.
Anyway, i did the factory procedure on this car and it is a HUGE PIA. After that, i decided to replace all of the fluid at once (~65k miles), i documented my procedure in a thread.

There is a thread from DshngDaryl on a complete drain and refill, I used his procedure on my 2007.
if you are interested, search for it. I will help you find it if you have trouble located it.

Originally Posted by GX4OLand

Thanks for your input BGW. Yeah, just IMHO Lexus should be ashamed to even use such a term as "Lifetime", as it applies to ANY fluid. That may work just fine if you're the original owner and don't want to mess with it. And I do believe, though I could be wrong, that the "Lifetime" fluid designation from Lexus only applies to the WS fluid, and most likely not to the T-IV fluid. Either way, I'm not buying it. Fluid is far cheaper to change that buying a new tranny. I'll try the fluid drain method next, as you stated that you're draining and replacing 3.5 Qts., yet when I do the suction through the dipstick tube, I can only get about 2 1/4 quarts no matter how I try to get the suction tube positioned in the bottom of the pan. Must be curling up down in there where I'm not able to empty the pan.....Ha

Originally Posted by jimisbell

OK, lots of opinion here. Wish there was some definitive stuff. But now I have a question, how do you know if you have a 5 speed or a 6 speed tranny? I have tried to counting the shifts both manually and automatic and they are so smooth I cant detect them. In manual shift the indicator does not change so you cannot count them that way and in automatic they are rarely felt. I guess that means my 200K tranny is OK? Since my LS is a 2004 and the SC is a 2006 it is my understanding that they are on the cusp and might be either transmission?

Originally Posted by iolmaster

Very easy to tell. If you have an 02-05 it is 5 speed. If you have an 06-10 you have a 6 speed.