LexES330

I’m a new owner of a used 04 ES330, black on black, 56k miles. I’ve own many cars and done most of the work myself. I know that there have been other posts about how to change the oil on the ES’s but there were too many words and not enough pics for my liking. When doing work on a car, a picture is truly worth a thousand…hours of labor on your back with sweat and oil in your eyes.

With that said, I submit to you, oil change 101.

Based on everything that I have read online, you want to do this when your engine is cold or you have asbestos sleeves and gloves because of where the oil filter is located (pics further down).

First thing to do is get the car in the air, I’m lazy so the best way I found is drive it up on ramps.




Next you want to locate the drain plug for the oil. Now I had read on one of the posts that someone was confused between the transmission pan and oil pan / drain. The Transmission, with pan attached, is located on the driver side and requires an Allen wrench to get the plug off.




The oil pan is located on the passengers side and uses a 14 mm socket (thank you other postings for that info, kept me from having to guess). I’d like to take a moment to make a shout out to the jerk face that put my drain plug on with what had to be an air ratchet as I had to use a breaker bar to loosen it…not cool. IMO, once the bolt is snug and can't be turned with light to moderate force, I give it a little elbow grease and turn it 1/8 more or so to snug it up, no more than that or you run the risk of stripping out the threads of the pan.




This for me was the easy part, the only question I had was the washer that came off with the drain plug had black paint on it…or at least it did. Does anyone know the significance of this and now that one side is missing the paint does this mean I should replace it?


Now the oil filter.

To locate the oil filter you want to stand in the front of your car and from above, look below the front exhaust manifold. Below the oil filter is a little plastic tray. I didn’t see this at first and wished I had as I made a mess of things trying to out think Lexus.




What not do to...I hate making a mess and sometimes I out do myself.




The only way to get to the filter is from the top. To get off the oil filter I had to use an extension on the ratchet to clear the manifold. This is why it's a good idea to do this when the car is cold or you have the proper heat resistant sleeves and gloves.




Once the oil filter is off you can see how well thought out the oil drip catcher thingy is engineered.




This is shot of the drip catcher from under the car. I show you this for two reasons, one so you can see all the oil I got everywhere by not knowing about it and two to point out that even though there is a plastic ground cover on the car that looks like you would need to remove it before doing this (so as to not have all the oil hit it) you don't need to touch it either. If the car is elevated, as mine was on the ramps, the oil will flow right past the edge of the under body cover and onto....let's say a shirt that you just might be wearing while you are trying to take this photo.



The final steps are to spin on the new filter to specs and clean everything up. Add your 5 quarts of oil (Synthetic Mobil 1 5W30 for me). Let the engine run for 2 - 3 minutes, shut it off and let it rest for 2-3 more minutes and check your levels.

I hope you find this useful and will keep you from making the same messes that I did. I plan on documenting all the work I do on the car and will share with everyone as I go.

steviej

iTrader: (1)

I found it helpful to cut the top part of a 20oz plastic soda bottle 3/4 the way up from the bottom. This would then be placed under the drain spout instead of your paper towels. The spout would keep it from tipping over and the bottle then caught all the oil that came out of the filter upon removal. Try it next time.

steviej

LexES330

Thank you I will try that.

Update...So it looks like the threads of the pan might have been stretched out from the bolt being on so tight because now it's leaking

Either that or it's because the black paint on the washer came off? (not likely but throwing it out there)

I was thinking about trying Plumbers Teflon tape around the bolt to see if that stops it for the time being. I'll look at having the pan re-thread and a larger bolt put in before I replace the pan.

Any suggestions?

steviej

iTrader: (1)

Did you not replace the washer? You shouldn't reuse them. I doubt the bolt threads are messed up. They are crush washers and once crushed they won't reseal well when used again. They are only about $1 each. I buy them in packs of 10 at a time because they fit my motorcycle drain plug as well. You can get them at any Toyota dealership if Lexus is not close to you.

steviej

LexES330

Thank you sir! I will pick them up tomorrow. I had wondered about that, on my speed6 it was reusable

rlx101

great tutorial. Thank you!

Dori330ES

This is great info and I am going to change the oil in my ES330 following these instructions next weekend.

Question: Would it be ok to use an oil extractor rather than deal with the plug under the car?

gulffishin

I wouldn't, removing the drain plug will remove more sludge that may have settled on the bottom of the oil pan.

EclipseAWD

Relative newbie to the ES330. I've had it for ~4mo/2000 miles.

First I brought the car to op. temp (for max oil drain flow) and then went to unscrew the filter. Bad idea as I didn't have the filter adapter wrench and its in a position where the exhaust manifold will easily burn you. Let the car cool and then used both hands (a lot of torque-age!) to unscrew the filter. Thanks to OP, I knew about the "filter oil catch". Placed a small container by the outlet of the catch and it worked out very well. Car had a Service Champ WPH2835 oil filter in it. Glad it has my Mobil-1 M1-102 in there now. Drain pan plug didn't have a gasket/washer. I bought a Felpro 70822 from Advance Auto. Parts Used....

$31.99 5QT Mobil-1 5W-30
$ 0.00 1x Mobil-1 M1-102
$ 0.99 1x Felpro 70822

GSteg

iTrader: (15)

Make sure you guys prime the oil filter, oil the thread and rubber gasket, before putting it back into the car. It helps to prevent seizing.

ES330MD05

I had read this thread few months ago but still ended up making mess with filter. I think tranny fluid change is easier compared to oill change. Removing filter is pain. Filter wrench helps though. FYI: if you have torque wrench, it's 33 lb-ft for oil drain plug (Lexus service manual says use 22 lb-ft for oil filter union. Is that same torque spec for installing filter?). Also, the gasket that my Toyota dealer gave me free with the oil filter that I bought looked like a thin metal coated with some sort of soft plastic type material on both sides. I am guessing that plastic material will crush and will need replaced next time. This was my first oil DIY and the local mechanic that used to change the oil probably didn't care to put in a gasket or tell me about it. It didn't have one when I took the drain plug off. Needless to say plug was tightened little too much.

Hayk

iTrader: (1)

I use this type of oil filter wrench, and it works quite well. I just can't use it to tighten it.

pauloil

I take my filter off from the bottom, reaching up with glove on my hand to unscrew it. not much spill that way. I like how the filter screws into home when on put it back on. I figure 2 seconds of low oil pressure won't hurt anything and don't prefill filter. 10mm hex for tranny plug , 3.7qts Type 4 atf

randal

I figure it does not take much time to pre-fill the filter and avoid the rattling start-up. I am always amazed at how much the paper filter inside the oil filter soaks up during that first fill. Makes me appreciate the pre-fill all the more. In the end, it probably does not really matter all that much. I am just **** about leaving the engine oil pressure low for any period of time.

ES330MD05

^^^
Not sure about other models, but in 330, filter is directed downwards, so if you pre-fill it, doesn't oil spill out before you can screw it in the place? May be fill it to just soak the filter paper and not the entire filter?