great tutorial. I inherited a 186k mile 2004 ES330 and have been doing a deep dive into it's service records. It looks like Lexus Dealer initially defaulted to 30k interval service for the transmission, although that seems to have disappeared after it's 90k service and seems to never be mentioned or recommended by Dealer again. The 30k service includes the description: "... REPLACED TRANSMISSION FLUID, REPLACED DIFFERENTIAL FLUID, ..." and includes parts charge for 00279-000T4-01 ATF T-IV quantity #4 (that sounds right to me) but also includes parts charge for "DIFF GEAR LUB, BULK" quantity #2. Was this a mistake or scam? or just an poorly done auto-generated generic charge sheet? I thought that in this vehicle the front differential is combined with the automatic transmission (U151E) into a unit referred to by Toyota as "TRANSAXLE, FRONT" and fluid service is ONLY ATF T-IV. In other words - there is no separate front differential, correct? clarity would be much appreciated. My Dad sunk a lot in repairs into this car including a/c control motor, pass side air mix motor, (unrepaired sunroof), driver side blower servo, cracked dogbone, a/c compressor, and the inevitable 3MZ-FE valve cover gaskets. He also blew through gobs of tires and brake parts - IDK if that's typical or a result of how/where he drove in mountainous upstate SC. To be fair, problems only started accruing after ~100k. I did managed to swap out #1 cylinder coil wo the elaborate air plenum removal after it failed. I've got an AWD Highlander Hybrid w the 3MZ-FE and another with the 1MZ-FE so I've been down that road twice. Both due for Timing Belts - which I've never attempted before ..... Which is more important: mileage or elapsed time?
