7milesout

Guys,

I got up under my car yesterday in order to determine if one of the oil filter cap wrenches I have already would fit. It does fit. Mine may slip, but I'll fight it if necessary.

While under there, after removing the screw that holds the flap, that flap felt as if it had never been pulled down before. It's a "living hinge" of plastic, and that living hinge seemed like it had NEVER been flexed before.

This gives me a lot of concern. I immediately begain wondering, did the dealer ever actually replace this filter? Before I become too concerned about it, let me ask you guys.

Does your flap want to bend? Because pulling mine down felt like it could break, it was so tight. And then it tried to close itself back, when my arm / wrist wasn't in the way messing with the cap on the filter housing.

P.S. That flap opening is smaller than I was anticipating, I can see a big ole mess coming, so I'm going to try the plastic drain tube ... but AFTER draining the oil pan first (to minimize the potential mess).

roadfrog

One way to determine if it's ever been accessed before, is to look for a screw hole adjacent to the flap. When dealers service the filter, they will often screw the flap after it's opened, to the panel to keep it open and out of the way.

7milesout

roadfrog - Brilliant. If you mean a self-tapping hole, then yes, I saw a self-tapped hole. Now that you mention it, from my memory, I can imagine this flap being rotated 180° and held back out of the way with the original screw. I was wondering why that self-tapped screw hole had been made. And, there are at least 2 self-tapped holes really close to each other.

I'm going to try it tonight, and that's a good way to hold that flap out of the way. Thanks.

roadfrog

You're welcome!

7milesout

Turns out, that was exactly for holding open the flap. Worked like a charm.

Unfortunately, the prior technician that changed the filter must have been King Kong. As the torque required to remove the filter housing must be about 500 lb-ft. My sheet metal oil filter wrench keeps popping off.

I've put a towel in the cap, and cloth rag, and they help the cap stay on (better), but I'm cranking the hell out of it, still pops the cap off.

So I came inside and went ahead and ordered the oil filter cap wrench with the grooves, and will try again in a couple days.

Unfortunately, the car is sitting there with no oil. I drained the pan first. Once that was done I moved on to the filter. I took the bottom plug off the filter, pushed the plastic drain in the filter and it poured a fair amount of oil out. More than I expected. It drained nicely right down into the pan. No need for a tube extension.

Everything was going real nice till I ran into the oil filter housing installed by King Kong.

Now I have a paper sign on the steering column, in front of the cluster ... "DO NO CRANK!"

I'll let it sit till the filter wrench comes in. Luckily I have a few other cars in the fleet.

And I finally got my license plate, registration, and title done today. In a couple weeks, I'll have a GA Title, with no lienholder! Yahooooo.

roadfrog

Wow.

That new filter wrench will do the trick for you. If it's the same one I have, it's well constructed and stout.

7milesout

Got the filter wrench yesterday and finished the oil change last night. Makes a huge difference having the right tool for the job. The car had 16,955 miles on it at this oil change.

In the 30 miles I have put on it since the oil change, there has been no hesitation. It drives just like it did before.

roadfrog

This is good. What oil did you use? Did you use a Toyota filter?

7milesout

5W-20 Castrol GTX (non synthetic). And I used the free (correct) filter the Lexus dealer gave me.


7milesout

roadfrog

What do you plan as your OCI's? Also, why 5w20 over 0w20? Any plan to use synthetic? Just curious.

7milesout

5,000 miles. I programmed it into the maintenance screen. I'm not sure if that triggers the cluster reminder or not.

5W because 2 reasons. My Lexus dealer said they use Castrol (which I've used for about 8 years now) and when I went to get it I could only find 5W in Castrol. Oh, and that's the exact oil I run in my Honda Oddity. So less complexity for me to remember.


7milesout

CRowe14

I have a question for you both, or anyone for that matter.
I understand that (and please correct me if I am wrong) Lexus desires for the owner to use 0x20; synthetic, right?
Also, as 7 resides in GA and Road, you reside in BC Canada, does climate have any influence on the selection of blend/weight?

Thanks.

7milesout

My opinion is, Lexus recommends what is written in the owner's manual. And in the owner's manual it states either 0W-20 or 5W-20. From my memory, the owner's manual doesn't specify synthetic. I could go look again, I may be wrong. My Odyssey uses 4.5 quarts of 5W-20 and does 7,500 mile o.c.i.'s based on following the computer's Maintenance Minder.

So if you ask me, 5,000 miles with 9.1 quarts of oil is VERY conservative. If I ran synthetic I would run 10,000 mile o.c.i.'s regardless of what the book says.

And yes climate makes a difference. The colder the climate, the lower the W weight you want but within the manufacturers recommendations if you know what they are. The W is referring to "Winter." When the engine cranks it's fairly dry if it's sat for hours. Theoretically 0W is the same viscosity as water at some temperature ... I forget if that rating is at freezing or what. And because it's like water when it's cold, it flows more easily / quickly. But as the oil warms it changes viscosity. It gets thicker for better protection. The thickness increases to 20 weight with a warm engine.

Sorry if I'm repeating something you're already familiar with.

Devh

I would. The reason why we get 0W flow ability is mainly because modern synthetic oil can do so with less additives. This can have a benefit not just in cold climates but also in very hot ambient temps as well. The most amount of engine damage is at start up and having the oil flow quickly to vital parts can be a big benefit to the reduction of wear over time. There are no downsides and it's a good indicator of the quality of the base oil.

Conventional oil cannot do this and therefore it's winter rating is going to be at 5. Also it will require more multi-viscosity additives that will break down in time and have the oil come out of grade.
Nothing wrong with using conventional oil if you want to save money and my experience with my Honda Accord when it was brand new running Castrol GTX was uneventful until I seen at around 70k miles a really dirty engine when I removed the oil filler cap. I then switched to Pennzoil platinum and over the course of 20k miles the engine has cleaned it's self out. If I kept using Dino oil I may have also dried out the rubber seals which is a bad thing. Also after switching to synthetic oil I also had some temporary consumption issues because the rings were coked and not sealing as well as it should. Now the engine doesn't consume oil and it getting better gas millage which is offsetting the cost of synthetic and the extended 10k drains ended up working out cheaper when I did the math.
A clean engine is always better then a dirty one especially in these newer cars with small oil passages in the VVT.