Edmunds.com | Inside Line | Auto Observer Your Account | Help | Directory
You are here:
![[F]](http://a332.g.akamai.net/f/332/936/12h/www.edmunds.com/media/townhall/webxicons/site.gif){kind=small}
Forums
SUVs Lexus RX 300/330/350 Lexus RX 330 Maintenance and Repair
1741 messages, Last post on Dec 01, 2009 at 4:44 AM
You are in the Lexus RX 300/330/350 Forum. Your Hosts are steve_ & tidester
|
Replying to: jyj (Nov 18, 2008 9:49 pm) hesitation abolition delay ALL Toyota FWD and F/AWD vehicles with E-throttles, DBW (Drive By Wire), will oftentimes exhibit a downshift delay of 1-2 seconds, sometimes in quite DIRE situations. |
|
|
Replying to: avery1 (Nov 18, 2008 11:38 pm) Lack of wear on the edges of the seats (where you slide in and out), door panels, brake pedal, "door dings", etc. The type of brake wear may also help verify a sellers claim. These are just some indicators I know of... Does anyone have other ideas? |
|
|
Replying to: lon7 (Nov 04, 2008 10:08 am) |
|
|
We will be picking up a used one owner RX330 AWD with 35K miles from a private owner in a few days for my wife. Any pointers any one can give me about what to watch for, and what goes wrong with 2004 RX330 will be appreciated. My wife did have a 2001 RX300 that we sold for a 2008 Accord EX, now we are back to Lexus again. The RX300 oil filter was in a tough spot to get to, didn't Lexus/Toyota go to a vertical position for the oil filter with the 3.3L engine? Are there any issues with RX330 AWD system? Does it use 87 or 91 octane gas? Thanks, Joe |
|
|
Replying to: jodar96 (Nov 24, 2008 6:30 pm)
|
|
|
Replying to: steve_ (Nov 24, 2008 6:41 pm) I have looked at used cars for years. I have pretty good idea what to stay away from and what is a good buy. I can tell a clean car from a car that scrubbed for sale. So far so good My specific question was to RX330 owners, people that own these and know ins and outs. I was not looking for a check list. Joe
|
|
|
Replying to: jodar96 (Nov 24, 2008 7:42 pm) fwiw, I haven't heard of any recurring issues with Toyota/Lexus since the gel days, and that didn't affect the V6 in the RX's. You may want to track down Kdhspyder too; he's at a dealership and keeps track of issues and talks straight. You can find him at the Toyota Prius discussions lately. |
|
|
Replying to: jodar96 (Nov 24, 2008 6:30 pm) When the RX was in the design stages they had to find a way to "beef-up" the Camry transaxle so it could be used in a heavier vehicle AND have decent towing capacity. As you may have noted there is not a lot of spare space left over in the engine compartment for a sideways mounted engine and transaxle and now with the RX a center diff'l and PTO, Power Take Off. So something HAD to go/give. So the traditional ATF gear type pump with fixed spring pressure relief/regulator and pressure holding accumulator was abandoned in favor of real time pressure control used a PWM (Pulse Width Modulated) electric solenoid. Substantial space/weight saving plus significant improved FE. But there proved to be a "hitch" in the "get-a-long". If the engine happened to be at idle, no substantial ATF pump flow capacity, and the real time ATF pressure control suddenly called for high pressure it simply could NOT happen. A few of the conditions under which that would soon prove to happen are spelled out quite clearly in a TSB issued for the '92 Camry in the spring of '93. Toyota, CLEARLY, did not foresee those happenings. So the '99 and '00 RX300's had horribly premature transaxle, 70-80,000 miles, failures as a result. By the time the '01 RX300 rolled off the production line Toyota had recognized the problem and came up with a quick, and what proved to be a "dirty" fix. They reprogrammed the Real time pressure control solenoid to sustain the ATF pressure for longer durations. When I purchased my '01 AWD RX300 it came with the towing package which includes an external ATF oil cooler. But even that, apparently, was not enough to provide the extra cooling my ATF required due to the extra ATF pumping capacity required under the new pressure control design. At ~40,000 miles the ATF in my transaxle looked dirty and smelled burned so I did a drain and fill, twice. It turned out that while the owners manual had no requirement of ATF scheduled maintenance for the life of the vehicle, Lexus (actually LEXUS, not just the dealer) was now recommending ATF FLUSH and refill every 15,000 miles. So as of the RX330 DBW was used to allow the original ATF pressure control firmware to be used by still have a transaxle and ATF life within reason. As a result the driver of RX330 and RX350 might encounter a downshift delay of 1-2 seconds in the conditions, sometime DIRE circumstances, defined in the Camry TSB. And I would advise you to Google for.. wwest "two-layer" defrost/defog/demist The entire Toyota/lexus product line is subject to instances of sudden windshield fogging, sometimes fogging so complete that all forward visibility is lost, as a result of thoughtless design on the part of NipponDenso, Denso US. Not to mention the problems of "dirty gym socks" odor emanating from the HVAC system. |
|
|
Replying to: jodar96 (Nov 24, 2008 6:30 pm) A bit of a strange BEAST, that one. The RX3X0 series is, and will likely always be, primarily a FWD vehicle, best referred to as F/AWD. The earlier AWD RX300's has a VC, Viscous Clutch, mounted across the center differential that would provide some moderate level of "locking" of the center differential. By the time the '01 rolled off the produstion line Lexus had added VSC and TC, Traction Control. The adoption of TC made the VC virtually useless so as of the '01 the VC fluid was reformulated to remain flaccid except for extreme (read "NEVER" happens..!!) cases. Instead TC is used to brake, moderately, any wheel that develops wheelspin/slip due to engine torque and thereby sustain and redistribute, hopefully, torque to wheels remaining with traction. Due to other considerations, the possibility of brake components, rotor and pads, overheating, not to mention the potential for loss of control being EXTREME otherwise, the engine is also instant dethrottled. For the RX300 series fuel starvation using EFI was adopted. The RX330 series abandoned the use of the VC entirely. So many customers voiced dissatisfaction with this "braking" technique to implement the RXes F/AWD system that newer models have the ability to disable TC...and subsequently...VSC, in order to "escape" from the many common instances wherein the TC F/AWD braking technique has proved to be inadequate. There is word that the 2010 RX series will be getting an entirely new AWD design, hopefully we will be able to refer to the new one as R/AWD.
|
|
|
Replying to: wwest (Nov 25, 2008 11:03 am) I know the AWD in a FWD lay out design is kind of useless. I much rather get a FWD RX330, but this one appears to be an excellen used RX so I will take the AWD part. My biggest complaint with our RX300 was its lousy turning circle. Do you know if the oil filter mount is changed to vertical position or is still horizontal like it was in the 3.0L engine? Joe Joe
|
|
You are here:
Forums
SUVs Lexus RX 300/330/350 Lexus RX 330 Maintenance and Repair
New? Join Now!
Forum Tools
Search Forums
Browse by Vehicle
2006 Lexus RX 330
Browse by Board
Browse by Topic
Today's Chats
