river

I bought used RX300 2000 with 200k+ miles, recently I took a trip to Texas and realized it is consuming oil. There is no oil leak. I have put a brand new PCV valve and connecting pipe.
IS this the oil sludge issues as mentioned in other thread? if yes how to tell if my car has old rear valve cover or newer?
If old/defective rear valve cover and Toyota agreed to replace how to get it done?
Is there any other way to clean the engine of sludge like addititves or engine flush before oil change to do it with out changing the valve cover?
How much is the valve cover and how much to expect to pay for labor?
Thanks for all your help.

P.S. I used Mobile 1 high millage Dino oil. Is this the reason for consuming excessive oil? as I have read somewhere on the net. IRF yes what are the additive in mobile1 reason for it

jnovak01

The old cover has the PCV placed into a gromet in the cover. The new cover has a tube sticking out of it. Most likely you have oil sludge blocking the baffle. I too used synthetic on my RX and thought I would be immune to the sludge issue, but all of sudden it started using oil and lots of it. The job is not too hard if you have the tools and patience. Do a search and you will find a video of how to take off the old cover. I did not buy the new cover. I thoroughly cleaned the old one cover and baffle by disassembling the baffle - about 12 rivets you drill out - then clean, and reinstall with self tapping screws. Mine had 130k on it, but it does not really matter. Sludge is a function of how many short trips the car was subjected to. Once I did the job I do not have any oil usage - good as new. Not a tough job, but it does take some know how. Do a search and you will find two threads, one has pics of my job. The new parts are not that expensive. I just figured that I will never put that many miles on the car to worry about buying $300 worth of parts. This was two years ago and the RX runs like a top. Good luck.

river

thanks for the response after considering the complexity of replacing or cleaning rear valve cover snd cost involved. I decided to try Auto-RX and use synthetic oil thereafter to keep it clean. Hope this works out. By the way since i came back from my taxes trip i dont see any big oil consumption. May be it does on highway only and not intown driving.

Boypony

River-
Even if you have a screw in PCV valve it may be a crappy Gen 2 design like I had. Changed to Gen 3 cover and cured problem.

See this thread- https://www.clublexus.com/forums/rx-...cs-inside.html