New to Lexus

[Linas.P]

31 minutes ago, Andrew250 said:

I appreciate its deemed a 'lifetime' fluid but as has been stated by many prior owners, what is an appropriate lifetime? Some owners report having never changed the oil, some have had transmission problems at 150k on the original fluid, some advise changing at 100k. 

My car is approaching ten years at 120k and that could be somebody's idea of a lifetime and yet I've just acquired it! I think I am going to have a drain and fill of the transmission, even if this only seems to replace two litres out of about nine. I've read not to seek out a flush as that can do more harm than good. My service book states it's only inspected at 40k intervals and from the receipt I have Lexus did drain and replace some (about a litre I think), but that was many miles ago. I am wondering if this is worth having it done by Lexus - Has anybody who has had this completed and could you give an estimate of costs and how much fluid was drained? I know that most of the fluid is contained in the transmission and not the pan, hence the need to keep changing the pan oil. 

I've read that you can have the drain and fill completed over a course of three or four times to get most of the older oil out of the gearbox, but this could be very costly if visiting a dealer each time. Perhaps it best for me to just do it yearly with an annual service? Despite watching a few helpful Youtube vids, not something I would do myself. 

I think I probably stated all the points (my opinion) on this topic, so I can just summarise it in one post.

Is gearbox fill life-time? Yes and no. Yes because Lexus probably considers life-time to be as long as car is warranted ~120k miles/14years (with warranty extension gap). So when you car is past that it may need changing.

Does it need changing... that will depend on many thing you may not know e.g. was car driven for long journeys on motorway or trashed around town, was the previous owner driving it hard or not. Was previous engine braking or using brakes etc. etc. therefore my take on it - if you have issues like hard/late/early shifts then do it, else leave it.

Regarding the job - I already said it is better done by independent gearbox specialist. This is not brand specific job, it is more AT transmission specific job and transmission specialist will have more and better experience on how to do it best, including full replacement at once. Rather than going to dealership and refreshing it many times.

In terms of cost, depending on what you use and what is their labour cost it may cost you quite a lot... I mean even in the range of the cost of transmission itself - . Just a note here - used 4GR-FSE + A960E package depending on accessories costs £600-800. So I am sure it is possible to get just transmission for £200-400 + fitting. So this becomes question of economical sense because the full refill job will be ~£300-400 on dealership rates. Consumables alone are £142: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/toyota-a960e-automatic-gearbox-oil-5L-aisin-type-iv-fluid-filter-gasket/264387179867?hash=item3d8eb4355b:g:b4wAAOSwND5dHefV

Finally, if you not in big rush and can wait a bit then I may ask the owner of my previous car to advise how it went for him. As mentioned my previous car had issues shifting (after all near 200k miles, maybe more now) so he definitely going to do this. Sadly, I can't promise, because again it is not my car anymore, but is not in rush then it may give you insights on what is to come.

[Mr Vlad]

I was charged £136 to replace about 1.5 litres of gearbox oil by Stockport Lexus. Someone on here found a gearbox place in Chorley i think who is very conversant in Lexus. A Full gearbox oil change was done by vacuuming the oil out and putting new in. Where on this forum I can't remember. 

I've mentioned this before. Our gearboxes are made by Aisin. The auto box in the Ford Mondeo 2.0 ecoboost is Aisin also. However Ford recommend the oil be changed every 47k miles or 4 or 4 years which ever is the sooner. Cost of that job circa £500. The oil alone was £350. 

To me no matter how complicated complex etc etc a gearbox is its lubrication needs renewing at a period of time purely because of the work the oil does. Hey our engine oil gets changed every year.

Me? I'll get my gearbox oil partially changed yearly. Next year when service is due the diff oil is going to get changed. 

[Andrew250]

Thanks chaps for your input - I have emailed a nearby transmission specialist with a couple of questions and waiting to hear back. Depending on what they say I will be hoping to get as much of the oil changed as possible with the filter and gasket changed at the same time. Having now spent a lot of time researching online it seems definitely worth doing for somebody like me, who wants to keep hold of the car for a few years. I am pretty certain the gearbox would be fine to push on without interference to 150k+, but I don't want at that point, damage to occur that preventative maintenance could have avoided. Hopefully at my mileage it's still fine, but as noted above, I don't know how the car was used in the past. The mileage it has for its age puts it at around 13k average per year, so quite high, so you may assume motorway miles, but who knows.

As you state Vlad the gearbox is made by Aisin who recommend frequent gearbox oil changes (see PDF I have attached). 

The list of jobs to do on the car grows longer, but I know it will all be worth doing in time. 

 

 

 

atf_a2_CFEx_AFW.pdf

[JDM-Fiend]

I'm 

44 minutes ago, Andrew250 said:

Thanks chaps for your input - I have emailed a nearby transmission specialist with a couple of questions and waiting to hear back. Depending on what they say I will be hoping to get as much of the oil changed as possible with the filter and gasket changed at the same time. Having now spent a lot of time researching online it seems definitely worth doing for somebody like me, who wants to keep hold of the car for a few years. I am pretty certain the gearbox would be fine to push on without interference to 150k+, but I don't want at that point, damage to occur that preventative maintenance could have avoided. Hopefully at my mileage it's still fine, but as noted above, I don't know how the car was used in the past. The mileage it has in the age puts it at around 13k average per year, so quite high so you may assume motorway miles but who knows.

As you state Vlad the gearbox is made by Aisin who recommend frequent gearbox oil changes (see PDF I have attached). 

The list of jobs to do on the car grows longer, but I know it will all be worth doing in time. 

 

 

 

atf_a2_CFEx_AFW.pdf 1.1 MB · 1 download

Thanks for your research so far, along with others information too.

This is definitely something for me to consider on my car in the coming year or so.

Everything has a lifespan, especially fluids.

[Linas.P]

2 hours ago, Andrew250 said:

I will be hoping to get as much of the oil changed as possible with the filter and gasket changed at the same time.

 Well basically that means ALL 5.5l of fluid as you cannot change gasket/filter (both under oil pan) and keep oil.

[Andrew250]

Yes I understand that - I meant in terms of the whole transmission 7.5 litre total. 

[Andrew250]

On 10/29/2020 at 1:10 PM, Linas.P said:

elf - . Just a note here - used 4GR-FSE + A960E package depending on accessories costs £600-800. So I am sure it is possible to get just transmission for £200-400 + fitting. So this becomes question of economical sense because the full refill job will be ~£300-400 on dealership rates. Consumables alone are £142: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/toyota-a960e-automatic-gearbox-oil-5L-aisin-type-iv-fluid-filter-gasket/264387179867?hash=item3d8eb4355b:g:b4wAAOSwND5dHefV

 

Well I had quite a long chat with the local Lexus dealer service department about it. They have done it previously for people who wanted to service the transmission, but advised in their opinion it's not required. They can understand why owners want to do this but seemed reluctant and discouraged really from having it done which I thought was fair. He advised after working for Lexus servicing for a long time auto trans failures are rare. The advised they can do the job, it would entail cycling through 7-8 litres of ATF by draining and re-filling and it would take at least three hours labour. Total cost at the dealer £550 all in. I can't recall if this included a new filter and gasket, I assume it would but forgot to check.

I await further communication from the gearbox specialist in Gloucester on the fluid used, but their quote was almost half this, so will be going with them.

[J Henderson]

New filter and gasket alone is £100+ so that doesn't sound too bad if they are also included.

[Linas.P]

18 minutes ago, Andrew250 said:

He advised after working for Lexus servicing for a long time auto trans failures are rare.

Total cost at the dealer £550 all in.

Yes - actually I don't think we ever seen AT issue on IS250 on this forum either. By issue I mean mechanical issue requiring to replace parts or whole gearbox. Hard/late/early shifts and error codes are what usually requires fluid change, but that is not a "fault", because after fluid change issues mostly gets solved.

And again that is why I said - it becomes question whenever this is economically viable to do, especially if you don't have any issues at the moment.