Recent content by MGeorge

For those of you who don’t remember me, I had very minor symptoms and P0714 and P0761 codes late last winter. I pulled the car off the road right away to avoid any potential damage to the transmission and then installed the Sonnax zip kit. I also found a check valve hole in the shim plate that...

Quick update on my posts from this spring. 10,000 miles on the sonnax valve body rebuild and check valve seat repair and no codes or problems. I think the jury is still out until the cold weather hits but things are looking good so far.

I’ve been using 0w-40 euro oil for the last several years. I change it at 8500 miles. But the engine will go the distance no matter which oil you choose.

I’ve had a chance to get my valve body installed and have driven the GX for a few days now, including some chilly mornings in the low 40’s. Everything is working as it should for now, but it was several thousand miles between the last two events with this transmission. Fingers are crossed...

Consensus is that manual shifting until the trans is warm gets you 30k-40k miles before other symptoms start showing up. There is some question as to whether repairing/replacing the valve body as soon as these codes appear will fix the problem. I’m going that route as I took my GX off the road...

As for the fan, I sourced my replacement from car-part.com and got a used oem blower from a low miles 2021 GX for the same price as an Amazon Chinese blower.

A call might not be a bad idea, but their website doesn’t list the spacer plate or any type of replacement valve seat, while they do make those types of parts for other transmissions. I ended up tig welding the edge of the hole and having it machined back to round. Total cost $0, but would have...

FYI, the Fitzall replacement valve seats arrived but are too small. I also called Lexus to find a replacement spacer plate, but they don’t sell them - they will only sell a complete valve body or the external parts (solenoids, etc. ). I’m weighing my options, here. Do I reassemble knowing...

I forgot to mention, make sure you note the location of the check balls. The Sonnex diagram had 2 check balls in a different location than what I had. When you split the valve body, keep the spacer plate against the upper halves until you flip them over. This will keep the check balls in place...

Quick update: I spent a couple of hours yesterday disassembling the valve body and taking pictures, and another 2-3 hours today slowly swapping the parts from the Sonnax Zip Kit. The job isn’t too bad provided you take your time, follow the instructions, and keep everything clean and lubricated...

The worn spot is in the shim (for lack of a better word) between the upper and lower valve body. I’m going to look into replacing this part as well.

I pulled the valve body to start installing the Sonnax zip kit and saw this worn check valve seat:

My 2011 has a cooler

My wife's 2011 GX460 threw codes p2714 and p0761 about 1 month ago with 165,000 miles on the clock. We bought the car about 3 years ago with 123,000 miles and I flushed the transmission with 12 quarts of Valvoline Max Life at around 135,000 miles. The fluid that came out looked normal compared...