Power Train Problems of Lexus RX300 - part 1

The vehicle was started and in park in a flat lot. When I shifted to reverse, it did not engage/roll back. As I applied pressure to the accelerator nothing happened until a it suddenly clunked and lurched back. I put it back in park and then it repeated the same synptom. The transmission has now begun to whine and there is rumbling and jerkily between rough shifts on the streets and highway. After hearing and reading numerous horror stories of these transmission problems, and how they have suddenly gone out or locked up at highway speeds, I'm sure this is a problem Lexus has known about and is defective, especially since it represents more than 70% of the nthsas published complaints on this vehicle. There should be an investigation into this. The sudden unreliability of this transmission and it's potential to cause harm is not a coincidence among these many reports. If this were a boeing max 8 plane it'd be out of commission for a failure like this!.

See all problems of the 2001 Lexus RX300 🔎.

Suddenly my gears began shifting into neutral, park, reverse and into !st and 2nd gear without locking into any of them. No matter what the shifter moves freely. My car only moves forward no matter which gear it's in, including reverse. I put it into park and it still keeps moving forward. In order to park and stop, I have to use my emergency brake and turn the car off. I do not know the cause (unknown) it just suddenly happened on a toll road at the pay station. Also, my internal lights do not come on when I open any door, including the trunk lights. My radio does not change stations and knob does nothing, reception is poor & comes and goes. I cannot get any am stations.

See all problems of the 2002 Lexus RX300 🔎.

My transmission is not shifting smoothly between gears. This happened about 7 years ago and I had to have the transmission replaced. Now it is happening again.

Transmission began not shifting smoothly and mechanic put in transmission fluid but could not locate any issues with it. Tranmission soon went completely out at 88,000 miles while driving on highway. Only owned SUV for a year and a half. Had inspected before purchase and no problems noted. Very disappointed and will not pay several grand to buy another transmission which is more than the value of the car. Lexus should be ashamed. Just found out how to report this here.

See all problems of the 2000 Lexus RX300 🔎.

Takata recall, Lexus transmission is messing up not shifting properly. There is a bunch of complaints about the transmission messing up and no one is doing anything about it. I am scared to drive my car because it could fail at any given time. So please I ask you to look into this problem and at least try to help thank you.

Bad transmission.

The transmission on my Rx300 just gave out. It was regularly maintained - the fluid levels were checked and had a major overhaul on it before I gave it to my daughter who goes to school in houston, where the incident happened. She only uses it for local commute - not long distance driving. The intent was to give her a dependable vehicle! it I have about 149000 miles on it. The replacement cost is enormous - more than the vehicle is worth. I demand better quality for a luxury vehicle. Obviously it is a defective product that should have been recalled. I now see numerous transmission problems reported on this vehicle. Why are we allowing such lemons on our streets!.

Told before purchasing that transmission was rebuilt. Not shifting properly. I was told it was an electrical issue power train. I also am not visible to most drivers in the we morning dusk dark hours of the days due to lighting. Pulled over by law enforcement a few times in regards to the lights. One owner before me and did not get any recalls done. I called Lexus @ grapevine TX and they told me there were no recalls on my truck. There h e been and they need to be done ASAP. I have a disabled child and can not jeopardize the safety of my child. I need help getting this matter taken care of ASAP. Thank you!.

I was driving down the street doing about 40 or so and all four wheels locked up at once suddenly. It causing the car to a come pleat stop in the road. The car behind me had to lock up all most causing a accident.

See all problems of the 1999 Lexus RX300 🔎.

The contact owns a 2000 Lexus Rx300. While parking the vehicle, the gear shift failed to reverse the vehicle without warning. The failure was persistent. The vehicle was not diagnosed nor repaired. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 190,000. The VIN was not available.

Driving to school die shift . . . . Shop says auto transmission dead . . . Cost $3500. . . . Good maintained services. . . . . Also crazy electrical problem. . . . Must recall auto transmissions.

Shifter lever moves freely (and loosely) but doesn't shift the transmission into any gear. This happened in a publix parking lot after backing out of a parking space and attempting to put the vehicle into drive. Aaa was called and the Rx300 had to be loaded onto a flat bed and brought to a service center.

Tl-the contact owns a 2000 Lexus RX 300. The contact stated while going on a regular maintenance check the mechanic notice metal shaving in the transmission pan. The vehicle was taken to a dealership where it was diagnosed that the transmission needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The failure mileage was 130,000. The VIN number was not provided. Ng.

The contact owns a 2001 Lexus Rx300. The contact stated that the reverse gear was no longer operable in the vehicle. The vehicle was taken to the dealer to be diagnosed. The contact was informed that the transmission needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 147,651.

The transmission has been damage no power , no gears are engage total failure, the vehicle has in motion at highway speed.

The contact owns a 2001 Lexus Rx300. The contact stated that the vehicle failed to shift into reverse. The vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic who diagnosed that the transmission needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 162,000.

Was driving home from work on the highway it started slipping it was getting out gear now it moves on low gear no drive reverse or 2nd only low gear.

Transmission stop working when I was driving at 40 miles for hour no drive or reverse, I turn off the engine and on again , work for few miles and had same problem . I call a tow truck. I try again at home and now transmission doesn't work and I see smoke from the transmission dipstick coming out. I check online and many people had the same problems with the Lexus RX 300.

The contact owns a 2001 Lexus Rx300. While driving 40 mph, the transmission seized and the gear could not be shifted into park. The vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic who diagnosed that the transmission needed to be replaced. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 145,000.

Transmission went out ,the vehicle jus stopped in the middle of the road thank god it was not the highway. There seems to be a problem with the transmission in these vehicle ,a very serious life threatening problem.

The contact owns a 2000 Lexus Rx300. While driving approximately 55 mph, the vehicle stalled without warning. The vehicle restarted, but failed to accelerate. The vehicle was towed to the contact ¿s residence and was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The VIN was not available. The approximate failure mileage was 140,369.

At approx 195,000 the transmission has completely failed. I recognize mileage might be high but I believe that as engine is good for 250,000 to 300,000 the transmission should also be rated that high.

The contact owns a 2001 Lexus Rx300. The contact stated that when attempting to shift, the shifter would delay. In addition while driving at 35 mph, the vehicle lost power and failed to accelerate. The contact attempted to restart the vehicle and after multiple attempts, the vehicle was able to restart but the failure recurred. The vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic, who stated that the transmission needed to be flushed. The vehicle was repaired but the failure recurred. In addition, the vehicle failed to reverse after the repairs. The vehicle was not repaired. The failure mileage was 192,000.

Transmission will not downshift.

The contact owns a 2001 Lexus RX 300. The contact stated that the while driving at various speeds, there would be a sudden loss of acceleration. The vehicle was taken to a dealer where it was diagnosed that the transmission needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was 150,000.

Purchased from my mother in 2013 at 115k after she had purchased new from dealership. Babied, dealer serviced, my transmission gave out at 130k at a cost of $3800!!! then in less than a year it went again, and it was under aamco warranty. Then transmission went again in 2018, and just out of warranty. Why is there not a class action lawsuit!!!!!! car died 3 separate times without warning in very dangerous situations. $3800 was my entire savings, and now my Lexus was the only thing I had of value, and it is worth $250 as a junker!.

I have just sat and read probably 50 complaints; safety and defective, concerning the transmission for the 2001 Lexus Rx300. From what im reading, I guess I should consider myself lucky, I currently have 142,000 miles on my vehicle and although I've experienced non-periodic shifting abnormalities, I haven't experienced any of the horrific problems I've been reading in the NHTSA complaint section of this site. It is obvious there is a manufacturing defect that needs to be addressed before someone (if not already) is mangled or worst, killed. It astonishes me that a company that survives by there reputation for quality would not address what is obviously a serious and costly burden to there loyal customers. We are talking about a 35,000 dollar vehicle in 2001. Apparently Lexus is not planning on resolving the issue, so what can consumers do other than complain which obviously is doing nothing to force big business to take responsibility for there poor design that resulted in unsafe costly products, leaving the consumer powerless, with no option but to pay them again to fix the problem they created in the first place.

Car can only be driven at <5mile for 10 second. Loss power at higher gear.

Driving along normally, the transmission began moving in and out of gear spontaneously. Depressing the accelerator resulted sometimes in revving the engine, other times in acceleration, and other times switching back and forth between the two causing the car to jerk. Thankfully, I was not far from home and was able to get back safely.

Transmission will not shift into the last gear.

My 2000 Lexus Rx300 had an unexplained sudden unintended acceleration where the vehicle almost killed me and my son. I was driving residental backroads by my house, accelerated slightly to get up a hill and that's when it took off. The brake pedal was unresponsive, the emergency break was unresponsive, I pulled the floor mat out for good measure, nothing worked, it kept accerating at a high rate until I finally slammed it through gears to "park" to get it to a stop. I had it towed to the Lexus dealership, where the tow truck driver even told me when it started the car to get it up on the truck, after being turned off for over 12 hours, it was still red lining the engine, and even lurched forward but because the car was in park, it didn't crash into the back of the tow truck. Lexus investigated the car and did absolutely nothing. They wouldn't tell me why it happened. I demand an explanation and a replacement vehicle - one that doesn't have a history of having sua problems. I fear for my life everytime I have to drive this vehicle.

Transmission is bad.

My 2001 Lexus Rx300 which only has 115k miles on it, completely shut down in rush hour traffic. I could not accelerate at all and I was almost side swapped by an oncoming vehicle. No service light came on and I had not had any problems indicating this. After having the car towed to my mechanic, the diagnosis was that my transmission had completely failed, the trans clutches burned out, along with fluid debris in oil pan. I have my car regularly serviced and even the mechanic said there was nothing I could have done to prevent this. My mechanic said he has worked on several Rx300 whose diagnosis was the exact same-transmission. After researching this further, it appears Lexus has not taken ownership of this problem and even though this is an older model, this should not be taken lightly. What if my 2 children in the car? is it going to take a fatality for Lexus to own up to this?.

Complete failure/breakdown of automatic transmission powertrain. Transmission had to be replaced.

I serviced my Lexus throughout it's life. Now the transmission suddenly locked up. After checking to see if this was a design flaw and if anyone else had the same problem, I found out it is a common problem with this year and model. When I took it to the transmission repair facility they too told me that the transmission was flawed in its engineering design and that no oil was able to reach the vital components and that over time they dried out and became brittle. I think the NHTSA should look into this and make Lexus corp. Compensate people who "got had" by Lexus. . . . This $45k car shouldn't have this happen with this low mileage.