Plastic Shavings in oil filter
 

Greetings everyone, I recently purchased a beautiful 2013 Lexus ES350 with only 53k miles for my wife. The car is in pristine condition but the previous owners seemed extremely cheap in regards to maintenance. The car had a walmart wrong sized battery, they replaced 1 walmart tire when it needed 4 and the brakes were shot. Im planning on keeping this car forever so i started pouring money into it buying all the highest quality parts I can get. I swapped out the battery for an interstate, installed 4 New Michelins, replaced the filters, upgraded the front pads and rotors to drilled Brembos and the rears with drilled and slotted power stops. As you can imagine the car now drives like a dream. I just wanted to give some background as to how deep I’m now in it before I dive into my issue. I was changing the oil and I found small plastic shavings in the oil filter. No metal, only plastic. I can’t imagine a car with such low milage to possibly have an issue with the timing chain guides but that’s the only possible thing I can imagine. It runs and drives like new and makes zero noise. Let me know what you guys think.
Thanks

What brand of filter? Maybe the filter itself was coming apart. 2GR is not known for timing chain guide problems.

That’s what I was hoping as I know some filters can have plastic in them. It’s possible that it may have been a previous oil change with an aftermarket filter as I know the car was serviced at a random shop and whomever kept changing the oil just flat out never took the time to clean it out the plastic debris. The The filter I pulled out looked identical to the Genuine Toyota. I bought this car because I was tired of German car problems and my wife complaining to me but now I’m a little worried and kind of want to sell it before anything happens but at the same time it runs great so I’m quite conflicted and if I do sell it I’ll lose a ton of money since I just spent a bunch on maintenance.

In my opinion there are 2 plastic sources: the chain guide and the oil filter. Some oil filters have plastic caps and they can disintegrate overtime.

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Go ahead with the second oil change soon and check for any debris.

Does it have service history for the past 10 years?

I would do the next oil change in a few thousand miles and check the filter again. The Toyota oil filter (and K&N) does not have plastic end caps, but many aftermarket filters do have them.

If they neglected some oil changes then a few quick ones may help clean things out. You may want to replace the oil filter housing as they can clog up over time and cost about $36 for OEM or $16 for aftermarket. I usually spray mine to clean it out with brake cleaner each oil change.



You can see the dealer service history by joining the Lexus Drivers Site and entering the VIN. Then go to the Vehicle Health Section and hunt around. The site can be cranky and may take a few attempts to work.
​​​​​​https://www.lexus.com/My-Lexus/account/create-account

Finally, you are at the perfect mileage to get the transmission fluid changed so that you do not have any problems as you approach 90,000 miles or more. A Lexus or Toyota dealer or transmission shop can do this. Many just use a BG machine, such as my local Toyota dealer. Call around as some dealers will spout the corporate BS that the fluid should never be changed and the trans is sealed. But other dealers welcome your business to get this important service performed. Many members take their Lexus vehicles to Toyota dealers for service.

It is very unlikely that the chain guides are failing and if they were, you would be hearing noise and having drivability issues. I would second Clutchless's advice above.

This sounds strange. Any chance you have pictures of the plastic? As others have said, chances of chain guide problems are near zero. The only way plastic could get in is if the little ring that stays on the neck of the oil bottle when the cap is removed fell in when it was poured into the engine. The cartridge filter has no plastic, except for the little bag the O rings come in.
As far as the Lexus owners site, chances are you won't see much except very early history. It is very quirky, and at times I can't get anywhere with it and have to try again a day or so later. I signed up for it when I bought my 3 year old 2016 CPO lease return. Fortunately the previous people went to the dealership. It had decent records, including that the front and rear bumpers had been painted before being offered for sale, plus the 2 years of free service the dealership gave me when I bought it. I do most of the work myself now, and no independent service records get recorded unless I manually enter them. I doubt the PO did that.