1999 Lexus RX300 review from North America

When starting my 1999 Lexus RX 300 after work, I noticed a "whining" sound coming from the engine. My commute home is about 15 miles. I noticed when driving that it would "jerk" when trying to change gears. It made me think back to a couple of months back when I was in a parking space and put the car into reverse and started to ease out of the parking space when it felt like someone has hit me or I had hit something. I got out, but nothing? I then got back into the car and started to leave and the car would go into reverse, but when applying the gas the car would not move. I tried again and the car finally "caught" into gear and made a terrible sound. I noticed in the weeks leading up to the day of failure that the car would have a hard time changing into second gear. It would "wind out" before catching.

Now, the day of the failure, I was leaving work and I noticed a "whining" sound in the engine and in my commute home it got worse. The car started jumping back and forth and the RPMs were randomly jumping. Even while coasting down a hill the RMPs would jump and accelerate and slow down the car making it jerk. At times it would act as if it was in neutral and I was traveling at 45 miles per hour. When this would happen, the RMPs wouldn't move? My car has approximately 78K miles on it. I immediately told my husband, we called Lexus and took it straight to them. I had to get a rental car. I got a call the next day to tell me that the pump failed and the transmission fluid was black and the transmission was gone. It's going to cost $4,600.00 to repair. There are many other cases exactly like mine. In doing personal research and internet research, I have found many other people with the same issues. This should be a recall!