jditom

Lexus changes every 5k with dino oil but what if you use syn. Many other co. like BMW, BM go 10-20k if the use syn. Seems reasonable to go 10k with our 400h since we have a CVT (less stress), hybird (less engine use). I am running Amsoil syn in mine and at 5K old it is the same color as new. I am OCD about maintance but this seems like a waste to change at 5k with syn?

Your thoughts?

BosIS300

With the Is300 I use Mobile 1. I change the oil and filter in April for the Spring and I change the oil in October for the Winter. That's roughly every 7,000 miles.

SLegacy99

I thought the whole point of synthetic was to go for 15k miles.

In my Legacy I change my oil every 4-5k miles. Oil is alot better than it was and I think most manufacturers have adjusted accordingly.

Lexmex

Castrol 0W30 is the one I run in my RX300 and I won't run it over 7,000 miles (though it probably could go further). For other synthetics, I used to not run over 5,000 miles. However, I am more cautious about testing it beyond that point given I run my little truck hard and it is 130K miles.

prowler97

The reason why German cars can go 10k+ miles between oil change is they have larger oil pans. My 2006 Benz C230 Sport with 2.5L V6 take 8.5 qts of oil and goes 14k miles or 1 year before oil changes.

joedaddy1

iTrader: (1)

agreed..

PERSONALLY.. i just do it between 6k to 7k.. when i get the chance.. but using synthetics allows me to not sweat when i do go over 7k

Kendig

Also, a number of cars these days specify synthetic and have a variable oil change interval based on the car's software evaluating driving conditions. The algorithms aren't published, but clearly short drives (so the oil never heats up), hard acceleration, above-usual oil temps are some of the contributors to an oil life monitor asking oil be changed sooner rather than later. My cadillac XLR usually goes about 12.5-13k. The last interval dropped to only 11,500, likely as a result of it running hotter than usual when I towed a sailboat from Wisconsin to Florida on a couple fairly hot days.

If Lexus had been luxury enough to put oil life monitor software on my 400h and told me to use synthetic, I'd expect it to easily go well over 10k between requests for an oil change.

Jeff92se

There's only one real way to tell what yur oil is doing. That is to get it analyzed by Blackstone Labs or similar. They can give a recommendation of how long to run the oil based on the condition

MadloR

Personally, I would go with more frequent oil changes, rather than prolonged oil changes with much more expensive synthetics (as well as labor, I will explain further).

The cost of an oil change is complicated by the fact that most won't do it given the nature and placement of the oil filter. It is placed in a difficult area and the oil filter is upside down (meaning, the filter screens onto the engine block, down onto the engine)., so the question is, will you be doing the labor?

To help protect my engine, I follow this procedure... I use conventional oils, whenever the dealer performs the typical oil change at every Factory Lexus recommended service. I dump and change the oil after each service oil change myself (in other words, I take the vehicle to the dealer, they dump the oil and filter and replace with conventional oil) and replace with conventional or synthetics depending on weather condition. During harsh winter months, and very hot summer months, I use synthetics. If I happen to score sales, they occur quiet often in my area, I will stock up.

I much prefer changing the oil in this matter, simply because of convenience, and more importantly, the nature of our hybrid engines. The engine starts and stops much more frequently than a non hybrid power-train. Hence, the engine never really gets hot enough, for a long enough time, to burn off the fuel and other contaminants in the oil. Hence, the reason you should change it more frequently.

To date, my engine has almost 40,000 miles, and my engine oil before each recommended oil change is a nice golden slightly honey color, and after the oil change (when I dump the factory oil soon after the recommended oil change interval) done at the dealer a nice oem like oil color. I figure, my engine is spotless, given the nature of how clean my oil is after before each time I check it before taking to the dealer for the 5000 mile oil change interval.

I could probably get away with conventional oils, but I manage to pick up really good name brand synthetics on-sale for less than $17 in a 5l configuration.

Cheers,

MadloR

ColdLexus

MadloR, Do you change between dino and syntho?
I thought once you go syntho, you can't go back to dino?

wildta

I'd like to try that. I read about it in an article. It cost like $25 to get it analyzed. Seems worth it in the end.

scchen

There is always a huge discussion over the interval of oil change. I have been following this theory for years, and i practice it as a religion. I tested the water at first by slow increasing the miles at every oil change, and submitting oil sample to Blackstone. Initially i pushed the Dino oil to 9000 miles over 7 months(Texaco Havoline 5W-30) before i changed it. The result reflects the oil were still able to perform at normal operation. The next move was for me to switch to Synthetic and run for a full year like the Euro cars. I did just that but i monitored the oil level every other months to make sure it doesn't go to unsafe levels. I did that for the entire first year with my Toyota 4 banger. I only had to add oil on the 8th months when i noticed at halfway mark. I continued to drive on the same oil for another 4 months, and submitted the oil sample to the lab. Again the result proven that the oil can still be used with more miles. I submitted the oil for analyis for another 2 years with the same engine. After 4 years of reviewing the analysis i just stopped because the result were very similar. In the end i was reading the report for other items such as signs of water pump faliures and etc... I continued this practice until i sold my car after 8 years of ownership. The engine was still running strong no issues what so ever. So I passed this to all of my family members for them to try. None of them had any problems with any issues related to prolonged use of oil, and they are not even monitoring the oil as closely as i am. They just believed my words and ran with it. We had Accords, Civics, Wrx, Lancer Evolution, Echo, and MDX. None of the cars had issues and they are still running with the same oil change interval (1 year or 10-15K miles). Some of the cars on the list are more than 8 years old, and still going. Now i am doing it with my RX400H. If i can find my old reports i will attach it this thread to show the details. Personally i have been doing close to 10 years on many vehicles i owned. None of them had any issues.

BTW- Once my younger bro ran his Civc for 2 years with 20k miles without changing his oil because he forgot about it. Luckily nothing went wrong and he drove his Civic for another 4 years before he sold it. He used Mobil 1 5W-30 with my help putting it in.

This is just my personal findings and opinion. I am not here to save the world but there are a lot of things in our society are hidden for specific reasons. Today's technology creating these motor oil are so advanced that average consumers won't care or take the time to understand. I admit it isn't fun to learn. Who wants to read about advancement of our motor oil except for those hard core people. Plus if everyone hold back on consuming oil what is the impact with our economy? Well that is a separate discussion. Any questions relates to this feel free to leave it in the thread.

rcy

If you drive on the highway, you'll find the engine runs almost constantly. Driving in the city, yes, a lot of start and stop, but the engine will run more often/longer if required to keep it within a certain temperature range (you'll notice this especially in the cold months - the ICE has to keep the catalytic converter up to temp for emissions reasons and the coolant hot for cabin climate control.

My vehicle has 160 000 KM on it - I run synthetic only and change every 10000 KM. The amount of oil consumed in that 10000km is negligible, and the oil also comes out not much darker than it went in. Oil colour, however, is not a good indicator of how the oil is performing. I've had a UOA done, and am more than comfortable with 10000km changes (I could likely go 16000km, which is 10000miles, which is what Toyota is recommending for some of their vehicles IF the Toyota 0w20 oil is used).

gsenthil

I only use Mobil 1. On my 2001 RX300 I changed the oil every 7500 miles. After 200k I have elongated it to every 10k miles.

On the RX400h we have 100k miles already. The way I look at it- on the highway the ICE is on all the time but it is not taxing on the oil as much. On surface streets the ICE is not working as hard but there are frequent start/stop etc.

My question is- how does the hybrid behavior change the oil change interval?

thomas1

I too wonder about the hybrid and oil...I am changing mine at 5k intervals, and I even wonder if the spark plugs should be changed way beyond 120k since the ice is not on as often....Any thoughts? I know in my old RX300 the plugs looked fantastic at 120k when I changed them....The iridium is fantastic.....