Transmission Sump Gasket Replacement + Diff Leak

[G_man]

I had my LS430 on the ramp the other day due to tracking and whilst it was on their, I along with my mate noticed a leak coming from the Transmission Sump. Looks like the gasket has failed, anyone else had this occur? Lexus want £120 to do a transmission fluid change ( doesn't quote in the gasket being changed ). Apparently the fluid is a life of the box thing so he had to go and check the price as it's not something normally needing to be done.- Preferably want this doing by someone who knows what their doing just incase hence why I got a quote from lexus. ( they want £20 for the gasket which abit steep )

Also their was a tiny drip of oil from the rear diff area which i'm unsure of what to do with at the moment.

[Cotswold Pete]

£120 quid seems good if it is a full replace of the oil.

Oil is never for life, it will break down, and having had full transmission oil replace it makes a difference with gear changes, and was only £50 more than having just a standard oil replace, which only gets about 20-30% of it replaced.

[ambermarine]

The differential leak may not be ,in so much as there is a expansion valve on the diff that allows the pressure to release when it gets hot this also allows the hypoid oil to escape in minute quantities that is normal between service changes.

[Titch LS]

Gavin, replacing the gearbox fluid can only be a good thing. As Pete said, no autobox oil lasts for life despite all the hype from the car manufacturers. If never changed, all that will happen is that the gearbox will eventually fail prematurely and then your local Lexus dealer will say to you "thankyou very much, that will be £3,000 pounds please". (This happened to a friend's BMW). As regards the diff, if it's only weeping and not actually dripping down on to the floor,-- don't worry about it, nearly all diffs do this for years between differential oil changes.

[Titch LS]

Gavin, another quick thought in addition to my above post; if you do change the gearbox oil ONLY use Toyota type IV or exact equivalent ie Mobil J3309. Do not let a dealer/mechanic put in Dexron of any sort. Hope this helps.

[G_man]

Gavin, another quick thought in addition to my above post; if you do change the gearbox oil ONLY use Toyota type IV or exact equivalent ie Mobil J3309. Do not let a dealer/mechanic put in Dexron of any sort. Hope this helps.

Is Dexron a bad type of oil to install in these cars?

Is their any PDF's available that list the type of oil as I've been on the american owners site and I recall their was but can't put a finger on them, reason I ask is I would just print the PDF showing what the american service schedule for the change is along with the oil used.

Does anyone know how often the diff oil should be changed? I've had the car since July 2011 and this isn't something that's been done ( I've Driven about 13,000 miles since then )

Again cheers to everyone thus far in the advice given.

[cruisermark]

ok guys here's my take

1) lexus say they are sealed for life and

2) In the 8 years i have been looking at lexi i have never heard of a gearbox failure or problem of any sort on any 400 mk1,2,3 and 4.

3) Nobody has said that changing the oil makes a major difference to the gearbox

so question remains - why should it be changed?

[G_man]

Mark, only Lexus UK says it's sealed for life, in the states their is a service schedule for it to be changed

[Titch LS]

Lexus specify Toyota type IV from new, so why would anyone want to put Dexron in their car if it's not designed for it? Also, If you don't want to change your gearbox oil, then don't, it's your gearbox. I would though, and change mine every 35,000 miles or so. I believe that no oil can last forever without losing some of its effectiveness in an environment of considerable heat and pressure. It's just not logical to think it could. Eventually, even if the autobox doesn't actually fail (as in modern BMW's) not changing the ATF will cause poor or missed shifting due to sticking solenoids.

[ambermarine]

Gavin

The Differential oil should be changed every 36000 miles on the Mark 4 so I would imagine that it will be a similar period on the 430 as they are virtually the same diff.If Lexus were still servicing your car during that mileage time it is probable it as been changed and they could have over filled it, hence the damp .

[soundchaser100]

If you look round the top of the dipstick (the handle) it will say something like "this oil does not need replacing". I fitted an external ATF cooler to mine recently and had to run some oil out as I figured out which pipes were the send and return. So I removed about 4 litres and replaced it with Toyota Type IV. ( £63 for 5 litres from a Toyota dealer)This is the ONLY oil you should use, it is designed for this type of transmission. Something to do with a slip clutch I believe. The guy on the LOC in the States who put something else in says he now has clunky gear changes, but no one has put him wise. The oil in my transmission had done 112,000 miles and looked OK, a bit darker than original but no burnt smell. The gear changes on my car are imperceptible, but then they were before I changed the oil. By the way ,the total oil in the box is about 8 litres so I only changed about half of mine. To remove the oil pan from the transmission you will have to use a gasket cutter, but I bet that Lexus want £120 just to take oil from the drain plug and then refill it. This will change about 2 litres only.

Paul

[G_man]

I emailed lexus bristol yesterday to get a revised quote including the gasket and he's put the following.

"The price to replace the gasket and the fluid will be £173.94 for the gasket and the original £120 for the fluid."

I mentioned in my email to factor in the £120 already quoted for changing the fluid. So I'm assuming the cost is £173.94 + £20.00 what I have to pay for the gasket anyway or is it £173.94 including gasket?

Is this a complete rip off or ok still? I also asked about costings for changing a few settings on my 430 in relation to enabling the auto lock feature and disabling the recline on the steering wheel, they want £51.00 to do this. which i'm assuming is for supposedly 30 mins labour

I Included a link below to show the available options

https://www.dropbox.com/s/1yaecddkn94ar7k/2001%20LS430%20LPS.pdf?dl=0

[Cotswold Pete]

I emailed lexus bristol yesterday to get a revised quote including the gasket and he's put the following.

"The price to replace the gasket and the fluid will be £173.94 for the gasket and the original £120 for the fluid."

I mentioned in my email to factor in the £120 already quoted for changing the fluid. So I'm assuming the cost is £173.94 + £20.00 what I have to pay for the gasket anyway or is it £173.94 including gasket?

Is this a complete rip off or ok still? I also asked about costings for changing a few settings on my 430 in relation to enabling the auto lock feature and disabling the recline on the steering wheel, they want £51.00 to do this. which i'm assuming is for supposedly 30 mins labour

I Included a link below to show the available options

https://www.dropbox.com/s/1yaecddkn94ar7k/2001%20LS430%20LPS.pdf?dl=0

Maybe you should give these guys a call

near Glos docks, and they did my complete autobox oil change

http://www.autotransgloucester.co.uk/

They seem to know their stuff, though of course they would not be able to change the settings for the other stuff.

I use Gas & Go in Swindon and the chap there has his own 430 so may be worth a chat with them as well

[G_man]

Thanks for the info Pete, I called that place in Gloucester and they want £165 + vat and require the car all day as the cars needs to be cold apparently. So their more than Lexus and In Gloucester but I'm in Bristol.

[harrylime]

I had a minor leak from my gearbox sump. Lexus dealer sorted it out for me, as far as I recall, the oil was topped up but not completely changed. If the 430 is the same as the 400 there is no gasket as such, they use some sort of flexible seal out of a tube. It wasn't cheap, into three figures I think for the job, but took a while, as they had to manipulate the front suspension a bit to get the sump off