moolman

Some may have seen my other thread with how to do an oil change on a GS350. This is a follow up to it.

I got the free 5K oil change at Longo in SoCal. I decided to swap out the oil with synthetic and to see how well of a job they did. I don't really believe that synthetic is better than conventional oil for a 5K interval but I just did it anyway because I felt like it. Plus it's bad for the environment because I'm wasting perfectly good oil but that's another topic.

Overall, Longo did an okay job. Only complaint would be that they barely tightened 2 of the screws on the panel that you open to reach the filter. They were barely in 1 or 2 turns and could of fell out.

I used a Pela Pump extractor to remove the oil. I wanted mainly to see if I could take out all the oil through the dipstick. On some cars like a RX350, it's difficult because of the engine shape to remove all the oil with an extractor. The GS350 is fortunate enough where the extractor works perfectly. I had the car on ramps and then extracted the oil with the pump. I opened the oil pan afterwards and not a single drop of oil came out, nothing, not even a dribble. Since I was using the pump, I can measure how much oil they put in somewhat. I think they put in the appropriate amount, I got at least 6Q in the extractor and there was some oil in the filter housing when I opened it. I was worried they only put in 6 since my invoice listed only 6 quarts, not that 6 quarts is not enough but since the max in 6.6Q with the filter, a more appropriate level would be 6.25 to 6.5Q of oil. I can verify that they actually do change the washer and the filter. I opened the filter casing to remove the oil and just reused the filter they put in it.

As for my tire rotation, I should of marked my tires to check but it seems they didn't rotate them. My invoice just says that they checked the tires, doesn't say rotation, so I assume they short changed me and didn't do it. I couldn't tell even with the brake dust because I cleaned the car before I got there. The invoice just says 5K service and check tires, so maybe that includes rotation. Who knows.

Overall, I'd recommend people to get the Pela Pump, the big one that can hold at least 6.5Q. It makes changing the oil less messy but you still have to go underneath the car for the filter.