GianniG60

Hello everyone,
Just another question on the engine oil viscosity again. People have talked about Lexus' TSB for 5W-20 (as opposed to the original factory recommendation of 5W-30) but when I call the dealerships (and I mean dealerships...I've called about 5 of them in California), non of them know anything about the TSB for 5W-20. They all still say to go with 5W-30. I was wondering if the TSB info people have posted is legit. If it's really a Lexus TSB, why don't the dealerships know about it? Thanks for any light you can shed on this topic.
- GM

Bichon

I confirmed it in an email exchange with Lexus customer service; the 5W-20 TSB is very much legit. (Although when I complained that the dealer was still recommending 5W-30, they reassured me that 5W-30 was also a perfectly acceptable oil grade for the engine) As a rule, it seem like dealerships are TERRIBLE about keeping up on the latest TSBs. My co-worker had to bring in a printout of the low dust brake pad TSB before they would do the work, since they disavowed knowledge of that one too.

GianniG60

Thanks for the info, Bichon. Sounds like you had the same doubts that I had.

josephdoc

JDM it!
May I suggest the 0w50 by Eneos. It is the best if you want more power and keep upt the protection, but it will suffer a bit on the gas mileage.

For more detail... check Nippon Oil's site.

Gtidan

Based on absolutely no Lexus information I submit the following:

I recently had my first oil change and they (Newport Lexus, Newport Beach, CA) used Castrol 5-30. They also have not heard anything about a TSB on changing to 5-20.

Perhaps they use a higher weight oil in the southwest where we have some pretty high temps in the summer and lots of open road.

Remember if you were changing to say Mobil 1 the spec'd oil would be 0-40 which is used by Mercedes in all there high performance models including my C-230 Kompressor

In the end......what's the big deal anyway? Lexus is 'not' going to use an oil that will damage there engines....period.

GianniG60

GTidan, what do you mean if I were to change to Mobil 1 the "spec'd oil would be 0-40?" I am actually thinking about changing to Mobil 1 or Redline Oil.

Lexmex

I found that of the Mobil 1 grades, the 0W40 in my experience was the best of the lot (and I tried many grades in my RX, which also had a 5W30 recommended). I woud actually recommend, if you can get it, the German Castrol 0W30, AutoZone carries it, but it can sometimes be hard to find.

javyLSU

iTrader: (21)

As someone who regularly logs on to the Toyota Information Service website, I can say with absolute certainty that the oil TSB is authentic. Whether your dealer has heard about it or not says something about their product knowledge...

Javier

lobuxracer

iTrader: (2)

Heavier weight oil = more fluid drag. More fluid drag = higher operating temperatures in the bearings, more fluid friction between the piston and cylinder wall and more heat to remove from the resulting higher friction. Finally, it also means poorer fuel economy than if you used the lighter oil.

When NASCAR was allowed to run a qualifying engine, they all ran 0w oil for more power. It wasn't great for engine life, but they also ran those engines without working cooling systems to save power as well.

Heavy oils are great for turbos. They are not great for anything else. Mobil 1 5w-20 is spec'd at 9.1 Cst. The tribologists on BITOG say 10 Cst is ideal. 5W-30 and 10w-30 are all more than 10 Cst no matter who's oil it is. Lexus specifies 5w-20 for the 2GR and 0w-20 for a host of Toyota engines in Toyota and Scion products after MY 2006. I just looked at this yesterday because someone on a Scion board was asking about it.

You will not lose warranty coverage for running 5w-20 in any MY2006 or later Lexus/Toyota/Scion product. You will lose gas mileage by running a heavier oil. I run 5w-20 and I would not recommend running a heavier oil unless you are driving at extended high speed (over 180 km/h - 100 mph) for more than 5 minutes at a time. JMHO.

nabbun

I don't know about using that oil for our cars as it is kinda light at start up and ends up heavy.

I'd stick to the 10w-20 or 10w-30 for street driving.

There are a lot of moving parts in our engines that require the proper weight in engine oil for optimum performance and durability.

Unless you're running turbo or s/c



hehe Lobu,

My Audi Q7 4.2 uses SAE 5w-40

Porsche uses SAE 0w-40

To all,

Porsche recommends the use of that oil no matter where you live and even swears by it for all their old cars.

Something about variable valves and proper engine oil weight or what not.

I'll edit this post with the Porsche tech article when I get home =P

But each engine has their own spec's

Don't go changing things or it'll get screwed up.

A machine is a bunch of parts working in balance and harmony.

You don't want to tip the scales in any one direction especially if the margins are so tight =X

IS_Mine

+1

I think dealerships should be more in tune with this stuff!

My dealership knew about it.. heck my Toyota dealership was also aware. Goes to show you how far customer service goes with some of these places.

lobuxracer

iTrader: (2)

Ferrari recommended straight 50 weight back in the 60's for their racers. It took 1/2 hour just to warm the engine up, and lots of very unhappy street driving Ferrari owners had valvetrain issues because they didn't properly warm up their engines. They thought if 50 weight is good enough for racing, it must be good enough for my street engine. Oops.

I build engines tight to run light oil. It makes more power. If it's a factory build, I run what they recommend because they built it a certain way to work with their recommended oil under normal conditions. It doesn't mean there aren't times when I will ignore their recommendations. It just means I'll follow their recommendations for normal service if I am using their product in what they would define as normal service. That describes my IS350 to a tee.

Lexmex

Rotary engines like to eat oil and you have to feed them heavy weight oil.

The Mobil 1 0W40 is probably one of the 'lightest 40s' I have ever used, whereas the Castrol 0W30 (German one) is probably one of the heaviest 30s on the market.

Amsoil makes a very good 5W20.

nabbun

I didn't mean to say that you were wrong in any way =P

I was trying to prove a point to others saying each engine has specific requirements.

Our engines require 10-30, or 10-20 rather, so I suggest everyone owning our cars should stick to it.

I'm gonna switch to synthetic at about 25,000 to 30,000 miles.

Planning to keep the car for a long time . . .

5humans

It seems most are using 5w-30 and 5w-20.
My local mechanic didn't have 5w-30 or 5w-20 at the time of my oil change so he just put in Mobil1 10w-30 in my IS350.
I had got the free 5000K oil change at the dealer.
I'm at about 10K mile and I decided to go with Mobil1.
With that said, should I be worried with the 10w-30 oil running now?
Should I change back to 5w-30 or 5w-20 now or will it be OK to wait for the next oil change which I plan to do after about 5K to 6K miles?