Other powertrain problem on the 2000 Lexus Rx300
When other powertrain problem gets reported
Owners of the 2000 Lexus Rx300 report other powertrain problem at a median of 110,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 90,000 miles and a quarter after 130,000 miles, from 62 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 92,000 miles. It is the 1st most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 75,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 157,500 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 82,014 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
When the reports scatter this far, the mileage is telling you about how these cars were driven more than about the part itself.
3% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 76,100 miles | 90,000 miles | 108,858 miles | 129,750 miles | 158,114 miles |
Read the 10th percentile as “one report in ten arrived this early”. Exact figures are shown in this table because it is the table of record; everywhere else on the site they are rounded to the precision the sample can carry.
What a percentile can and cannot tell you here
These five numbers describe the readings owners gave, in order. The median is the middle one: half the reports arrived below it. The 10th and 90th are the edges of the bulk of the distribution, and the distance between them is the part worth reading. A tight spread — say 70,000 to 95,000 miles — points at something that wears out on a schedule, and the schedule is knowable. A wide one, 20,000 to 190,000, points at a fault that hits some cars and never troubles others, which means the mileage on the listing in front of you tells you very little about your odds.
What these figures are not is a survival curve. Every reading here comes from a car whose owner filed a complaint, so the sample contains only failures: it cannot say what share of the fleet made it past 150,000 miles untouched, because those owners had nothing to report. Nor is the mileage the moment of failure — it is the odometer reading as recalled at the time of filing, which may be weeks later and is sometimes rounded to the nearest ten thousand by the person typing it.
Percentiles are shown at all only once 8 readings exist for the vehicle and mode. Below that the middle of a handful of numbers is noise wearing a decimal point, so the figures are withheld rather than dressed up.
What happens, and what it costs
Putting it right typically runs $400–$4,500 at an independent US shop. That range is an editorial estimate held in this site's failure-mode catalogue, not a figure from NHTSA, and it is a repair cost rather than a diagnosis cost.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 5 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2003, at a median of 100,000 miles, and latest on the 2002 at 110,000 miles.
By volume the 2000 is the worst of them, which makes this a problem of this specific year rather than of the model as a whole.
If one year stands out to the left, that is the year to avoid; if the whole line sits at a similar mileage, this is wear rather than a defect in one production run.
Tick median reported mileage Solid middle half of reports Faint 10th to 90th percentile Colour how bad the failure is when it happens
What owners wrote
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The mileage is the one the owner gave.
While traveling on central expressway in dallas us75 going about 65 my lexus rx300 lost forward acceleration as cars zoomed past me, the engine was still on as I managed to safely exit onto the access road and into a parking lot. I turned the vehicle off and checked for leaks or a broken belt, but found no problem. I restarted the vehicle and kept going. I talked to the lexus dealer in plano but service dept. Was closed and they reffered me to take it into my austin dealer. I was told that without a check engine light nothing would be found. I continued to drive my vehicle and while on another trip it lost forward acceleration again, only to find out it was the transmission. I had to replace it , rent a car and then fly back to a toyota dealer to pick it up.
Mileage 75000 AWD rx300 complete failure of transmission pump. Loss of vehicle control and manuverability => dangerous car was 100% maintained by a lexus dealer web revealed many similar failures first time toyota tried to use a lifetime transmission fluid, it did not work!!!!*jb
Tl* - on 12-22-06 while driving on the highway at 70 MPH transmission dropped to first gear and would not move out of first gear. The contact stated that the vehicle has been serviced at the dealership on schedule. The contact currently has vehicle at the repair facility. *ak updated 2/27/2007 - *nm
Also reported on the 2000 Lexus Rx300
Complete transmission failure
Other engine problem
Other speed control problem
Seat belt or retractor failure
Audio or connectivity failure
ABS module or sensor failure
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 70 is a floor and not a count of affected cars. Mileages are typed in by owners and cluster on round numbers. And the mode itself is assigned by software reading the complaint text, which is reliable in bulk and fallible one report at a time.
Questions this page answers
At what mileage does other powertrain problem happen on the 2000 Lexus Rx300?
Across 62 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 110,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 90,000 miles and a quarter after 130,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other powertrain problem on the 2000 Lexus Rx300?
70 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 376 per 1,000 vehicles. Complaints are voluntary, so this is a floor rather than a count of affected cars.
What this is and is not. These are the mileages at which owners chose to complain to a federal agency, which is not the same as the mileage at which the part fails on every car. It skews toward failures that happened outside warranty, cost real money, or frightened someone. It is still the only public dataset that carries failure mileage at all, and the shape of a few hundred readings is informative even when a single one is not. Methodology · JSON · this failure on other cars
Source Owner complaints and recall records published by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, model years 1996–2027 Figures rebuilt Published by AtWhatMileage How every figure is computed