Lexus RX 300 - Servicing

[popeye1947]

Hi,
I have a 1999 Lexus RX 300.
The car is no longer under warranty.

I bought it couple of weeks back.
What are the types of regular maintenance I should do?

OIL CHANGE:
- How often?
- Is Jiffy Lube good enough?
- Which Oil do you prefer

The previous owner had done the 30K service.

When would the next one be?

Any tips on maintenance would be highly appreciated.

Thanks.
Cheers,
Popeye!

[slowtan]

I don't like high school kids working on my wife's Lexus ..

The oil can go 5-6k if you use synthetic which is what I use.( Mobil 1)

The 1st oil change my wife took the RX to a Texaco station and when I checked they didn't change the oil filter. I raised hell with them. The reason I know this is because I tried to change it the day before she took it and it was on there super tight.I was going to buy a tool for it but I marked it up when messing with it. When she got back from the oil change the filter was still dirty and had all my prints on it. You will get burned when taking this filter off. It is on the worse location..

Other services:
Diff fluid every 15k
tranny fluid change 30k .. (TYPE iV) must be done at Toyota or Lexus . only place to buy that special fluid .. Dexeron 3 will ruin your tranny.
air filter (every other oil change )
cabin filter 15k
fuel filter 10k ( not mentioned in the owners manual but I always do it)
Lexus likes to change all the fluids every 15k but I don't .. your choice as it is your $$ ..

Stephen

[mruwka]

Under paid lex tech. With info to the public……

Good way to save money and piss off the techs.......ask for an oil change and tier rotation.....instead of a 7500 service.
hears why:

oil change and tier rotation they charge you only .8 tents of an hour
7500 service you get charged 1.5 an hour and a half

and all you get is an oil change and a tier rotation nothing more....

if you really want to stick it to them then look in to your owners manual and somewhere there should say some thing about them rotating you tiers every oil change , for the price of just an oil change it's called an 3750 service.

But they don't make any money of that so they don't inform their costumer of it>>>>

Have funn!!


Was a lex tech and i do agree with the lexes recommendations to change all fluids every 15K. These vehicles are build very well i had a RX 300 come in that didn't have an oil change for 20K. Not recommended. But after two flushes it drove out the door, with no complaints...

Very important don't forget about your tiers, to get the max life of form them, they should be rotated every 7.5K. Other wise you will get all kinds of noises and choppy vibrations all though the tiers will look still good... And there is nothing you can do about it except replace the tiers....

The only recommended oil for your vehicle is 5W-30. In our dealership we used Casteral GTX 5W-30 in all our vehicles and i still continue to do so with my car.....Lexus LS 400 it's an 1991 with 242,000 on it and still running goood..

Your next big service that you need to pull into a lex. dealership in your 60K and 90K which you timing belts should be checked....
word of advice if you are changing the timing belt change you water pump with it. you’ll be adding maybe another $200 on top of your bill instead of being towed back and having to dish out another 1200 to get back in there.


any questions ill be around just post them.....

[lodownlv]

i red the man on 60000 service and it says timeing chain inspection.. this even true? they going to actualy take of the timeing chain cover and look at it? dose the water pump realy need to be changed? let me know anything further. I would like to obtain the fsm and do it my self but who knows.. let me kno

[mruwka]

Lexus dose not use timing chains, they use timing belts. At 60K its usually the time to check the condition of your timing belt. But most of them are not replaced at that mileage! It's up to the technician to determine if you need one or not.
I highly recommend:
If your installing a new timing belt, install a new water pump with it.......you will save your self a lot of money down the road.....and use dealers parts only if you want to do it your self.

FSM......Lexus is using a internet based program, so all of the dealership had to have a good internet connection and connect with Lexus server, to receive any info....so no, no disk

[lodownlv]

dam i need a fsm bad for lexus rides if you come accross anything let me know i realy want to do the timeing (belt),water pump and the head gasket down the rode by my self rather than paying a idot to do it

[mruwka]

Try this....if your looking to do it your self....see if this helps
http://www.autopart.com/manualbelt.htm

But remember that you should only do this if you have some kind of an automotive background.....this is a very unforgiving job.....you screw up on bit and your looking to purchase a new top end: Cams valves and so on....
just a warning!!
Ps you can always find someone with " alldata" program.....its almost like an FSM...

Got boost??

[lodownlv]

id rather have somthing that says lexus fsm on it if ya know what i mean. i am verry fimilar with doing this job marking cam and crank ect but i dont want to do the job without fsm on any car that i dont have the fsm too expecialy these new electronic cars with vvt so on and so fourth.. if ya come accross anything kick me down with a good deal or somthing... also alldata??? got boost??? no boost onn this bad boy

[mruwka]

well let me know what year is your RX and ill see if i can dig some thing up for you.......

[lodownlv]

its a 02 vvt model ... thanks for your time dude

[mruwka]

ill see what i can do for you but its going to take some time.....K???

[mruwka]

did you ever come across an Fake O2 sensor signal generator????
I did some time ago and now i need one and i cant find it any where..
please help if you know something....

[lodownlv]

cant you just short it with resistors. i know that new smog testing reads vats, obd, aka computer when i got my gm yukon smoged they justed pluged the obd II in and took the readings from it.. this what your trying do do? If so what model you trying this on???

[lodownlv]

thanks for the info if possible i know some people are selling the cd on ebay with all lexus models go figure.. i just am not trying to pay for it... if you come accross anything i have nissan 240sx every year fsm and i also have nissan g35 every year fsm in pdf format (ill hook u up maby you will need them one day conserdering the nissan sr20det engine is very popular. let me know.. im also looking for Gmc yukon fsm if anyone has it?

[92gsr200k]

I was told by the dealer that the RX, atleast the 99 that I have, does not have a fuel filter that is changeable. It's part of the fuel pump assembly that's inside the fuel tank. If this is true, then you don't have to ever change your fuel filter, theoretically...

I change my oil and filter every 3 to 4K even with synthetic. Why do people always think using synthetic will mean you can keep the oil longer?

Just stick with the maintenance log and don't let the dealer change things at their intervals. Obviously they are in the business to make money, so they want you to change parts as soon as possible. The timing belts is good for 100K, but they just want to change it at 60K, so they can get two changes in by 120K, rather than one at 100K. With that said, it's better to be safe than sorry though with timing belts.

Have fun.