I recently purchased a used lexus RX300. I recently read that these cars have real problems with transmission failures. Is there any type of preventative maintenance that I can perform (and how often) to prevent this problem
Change the transmission fluid every 30,000 miles, or more often if the owner’s manual recommends it.
Is this specific to this type and model car or are you talking in general for transmissions? I?m not nitpicking; I just want to make sure I understand exactly what you?re saying because I would like to do everything I can to keep this car up and running.
Do you think this is the root cause of most of the transmission problems with this model or are there other issues at play here?
It’s a recommendation for care of automatic transmissions in general, not your transmission in particular. Some manufacturers specify longer fluid change intervals, or no change interval at all. Changing the fluid periodically seems to be the best thing (the only thing, really) you can do to increase the longevity of automatic transmissions.
If the transmission has an internal filter, that should be changed along with the fluid.
Perhaps some of our automatic transmission experts will respond you your post with more detailed information.
Where did you hear they had ‘real problems’? While ‘transmission, major’ reliability is only rated ‘average’ on Consumer Reports for the 2001 (as compared to ‘much better than average’ for most all other years), it’s still not bad.
How many miles are on it? And I agree with McP, unless you have documents showing the fluid was changed in the last 30k, I’d go ahead and have it done.
I spoke with someone who has had to replace their transmission twice. The trouble started at 80K and again at 130K miles. I don?t know if it was because of something that they did, or didn?t do, or if it was due to some model-specific design flaw. I then checked Edmunds.com customer reviews and this seems to occur far too often, especially for a Toyota product.
Make sure that whoever changes your fluid uses genuine Toyota fluid. A lot of oil change places want to use Dexron with an additive pack. Don’t let them do it.
Thanks, I’ll keep that in mind.