7th Gen ES 350 Transmission

[Georgie-Hustle]

I just bought this 2007 Lexus ES 350 with 159,000 miles on it 3 weeks ago. Car transmission seems fine. I have the Car Fax and according to it the transmission fluid has never been changed. Do you all think it's a good idea to change it now?

Heard pros & cons of changing high mileage transmission fluid.

 

[Levi]

Heard pros & cons of changing high mileage transmission fluid.

Sounds like AI generated post....

 

[Georgie-Hustle]

I'm new here! Is this the kind of replies I can expect here? AI generated lol! Give me a break dude!

 

[F1 Silver Arrows]

I'm new here! Is this the kind of replies I can expect here? AI generated lol! Give me a break dude!

Hey there! Welcome.

If the transmission seems fine then I wouldn't think you'd need to change the transmission fluid. Though, I find it hard to believe that it has never been changed.

If it were me though, I'd take the liberty and do a transmission fluid change just to be safe. :^)

 

[Georgie-Hustle]

Which model do you own? I'm worried about it starting to slip after changing fluid. What about new filter if it even has one! I plan on keeping this car forever! I'm 65 years old, car has everything I need except lane departure which I heard can be added on?

 

[Will1991]

I would make a deep overhaul, changing all the fluids (gearbox, oil, brakes, engine coolant) to know what’s been done and how.

 

[Georgie-Hustle]

State inspection due October so will wait and see if brakes pass inspection.

 

[ssun30]

I had an 2009 ES350 and I did the transmission fluid change at 250000km (~155000 mi) when it began to shift rough. That is very close to your mileage. Around 200000 km (120k mi) is when that gen of ES needs a lot of work. If you got it pretty cheap, the previous owner probably had a lot of deferred maintenance. Lexus/Toyota owners are two extremes. They either take very good care of the car or none at all.

My suggestion is doing a pretty in-depth maintenance (all the fluids, filters, engine tune-up, pads, rotors, tires) as you've stated you plan to keep it forever. It wouldn't cost you that much and it will be good to go for another 100k mi. I did that but unfortunately after 30000km I totaled the car when it rolled over into a ditch.

 

[LS500-18]

I had an 2009 ES350 and I did the transmission fluid change at 250000km (~155000 mi) when it began to shift rough. That is very close to your mileage. Around 200000 km (120k mi) is when that gen of ES needs a lot of work. If you got it pretty cheap, the previous owner probably had a lot of deferred maintenance. Lexus/Toyota owners are two extremes. They either take very good care of the car or none at all.

Was your first trans fluid change at 250K km? If yes, that's not very wise. If it's not the first one then OK. Check out The Car Care Nut on YouTube, he's a Toyota tech that explains when and when not to change the fluid.

Changing fluid alone rarely "fixes" anything.

 

[F1 Silver Arrows]

Which model do you own? I'm worried about it starting to slip after changing fluid. What about new filter if it even has one! I plan on keeping this car forever! I'm 65 years old, car has everything I need except lane departure which I heard can be added on?

We haven't kept any models with the 3.5 that had those levels of mileages (we ended up selling the car for something else), so I can't speak to that. But normally I would take the liberty to do a transmission fluid change. :^)

 

[Georgie-Hustle]

You Said you started to get slippage right after transmission fluid change?

 

[Ian Schmidt]

No, they said they changed it because it was shifting roughly. I've never heard of changing the fluid causing slippage, slippage is due to mechanical wear/damage.

 

[Georgie-Hustle]

Car Care Nut said not to change it but I think transmission fluid that's never been changed with 159,000 miles on it the fluid has broken down over time and not doing much good anymore.

 

[Ian Schmidt]

Yeah, I'd be surprised if there wasn't at least some bits of worn aluminum in the fluid after that long. And you definitely want to get that out of the transmission.

 

[Georgie-Hustle]

Are The spark plugs hard to change myself?

 

[F1 Silver Arrows]

Are The spark plugs hard to change myself?

Hard, but not impossible. Transverse Toyota/Lexus V6's are hard to change the spark plugs that are near the firewall (read as, hard to reach).

 

[Ian Schmidt]

For situations like that (which are not exclusive to Toyota/Lexus) it's helpful to have one of those ratchets with the U-joints so you can bend it all kinds of ways.

 

[ssun30]

Was your first trans fluid change at 250K km? If yes, that's not very wise. If it's not the first one then OK. Check out The Car Care Nut on YouTube, he's a Toyota tech that explains when and when not to change the fluid.

Changing fluid alone rarely "fixes" anything.

It's not. The first change was together with fixing the sticky throttle in 2012 when it had about 100k km.

My 250k change was part of a bigger maintenance work when my entire powertrain was behaving poorly.