I thought all Lexus ES 350's had a metal oil filter canister........surprise.

 

you mean its no longer a cartridge style as it was before?

 

It is, but the oil filter housing cap is plastic. I have the Toyota metal cap in the garage, will install it when I do the oil change again.

 

The 7th gen ES350 does have a cartridge filter.

 

Why? What’s wrong with the plastic housing?

 

It’s plastic, and can crack and leak. I prefer metal. I change it on all of my Lexus and Toyota vehicles.

 

If a DIY job do not over tighten the canister, spec is 18 ft lbs . The Lexus dealership that serviced my 2021 ES 350 before I bought it in 8/24 overtightened it excessively. When I did the oil and filter service it took near 150 ft lbs to get the plastic canister off YIKES!!. I replaced the o- ring oiled it and put canister back at spec and red indexed marked canister and engine for future service without the torque wrench. No leaks after 6 months. FWIW I prefer the spin off old style one piece filters for the KISS approach.

 

For good or bad, plastic is more and more common in engine parts. We older types have to remember that the plastic we think of from the past is vastly different from what they can make today. I’m not saying it’s all great, of course, but the modern compositions seem to be doing just fine, at least so far. Will it last as long way down the road? Who knows yet. We do know it won’t rust

 

Metal, in this case, would convey more of a quality aspect. Plastic is the result of an engineering concept called Finite Element Analysis which refines the part to its weakest usable state, to achieve "cost benefits" for the company. I have other Toyota products and have switched over to these, so obtained another metal container prior to the ES350 purchase. It was then relayed to me that all Lexus vehicles use metal containers, so it was thought to be unnecessary. Like I said.... surprise, surprise when I changed the oil at 3K.

 

The metal style toyota canister does not have the same length for core pipe, its a bad idea, these parts are not interchangeable. You will have to go aftermarket. Listen to car care nut, he said he had seen zero issues with plastic and warned about replacing it with a metal one that does not have the same specs

 

The only time your plastic canister will fail or crack if its improperly tightened, otherwise it will give zero issues. If you want metal one, needs to have same specs, the metal canister from 2gr-fe has different height for center core tube.

 

Nothing IMO... My 2013 came with a metal housing over the filter and when I bought the 2019 I was surprised that it was changed to plastic. If one is careful, experienced with changing oil, and don't overtighten the housing i don't believe there would ever be an issue. Also, starting with generation 7 ES cars Lexus put a cover over the filter and oil reservoir that must be removed in order to change the oil. This further protects the housing. All good IMO...

 

We don't know what we don't know. The plastic probably is better today but it still is a concern like in: the cooling system, intake manifold and elsewhere, need to keep a sharp eye on these parts. It is cheaper to produce and that is probably why it's being used.

 

The only time there would be an issue is if it’s drastically overtightened. If you do your own oil changes, it can obviously be avoided. If someone else does your oil changes and you’re worried about them overtightening, wouldn’t you be concerned about the metal housing potentially damaging the threads of the oil pump housing? You can’t damage those threads with a plastic housing.

 

Like I said in my post #7 the Lexus service dept excessively overtightened the filter I had to use a 3 ft breaker bar with about 50 lbs to get it loose. I bought a real good all steel tool (details available) not the junk cast aluminum to fit snug on all the filter flukes and luckily the plastic filter was not damaged and I reused it and back at 18 ft lbs.