I'm pleased to report that the oil consumption I experienced (and posted about) on my new 2021 350 ES seems to have permanently ended at about 3500 mi. I bought her new in Miami and a couple of months thereafter drove her home to PA. I checked the oil prior to and throughout the trip. I was alarmed because the oil level went down about 30% (not to 30%) 2 or 3 times during the first 3,000 mi. and required topping off. I called dealership. Tech said normal during break-in (as per owner's manual) and not to worry. I was skeptical, as I considered break-in to be maybe the first 1,000 mi. and this oil consumption was still going on at 3,000 mi.
Thankfully, after about 3500 mi., the oil consumption ended. I recently turned 9,900 miles. Since my last change at about 7,000 mi., not a measurable drop of oil seems to have been used. I think I'm out of the woods now and I expect no oil consumption to speak of to become the norm for the next 15 years/75,000 or so more miles.
To those of you with 5 year old or older ES or 50,000 mi. or more on your ES, may I ask, "How often between changes, if at all, are top-offs required on a ES 350 as she 'matures'?"

 

I do NO oil topping off between changes which occur yearly... Didn't with my 2013 and don't with the 2019... And the oil is very clean at the change...

 

You keep the same oil for more than 6 months (irrespective of the miles)? Isn't that a Lexus no-no?

 

Isn't it 10K or one year if you go by the book?

 

Yes, but the service people there told me that 6 mos. is their dealerships recommendation because of something about moisture infiltrating the oil after 6 mos. Even their little windshield sticker had the 6 mos. date on it, as I recall.

 

For our use case it is one year or 10k miles. My wife 2014 RAV4 was on this schedule for 8 years and it hasn't burnt any oil. If on other hands had it sits in the garage for long periods of time follows by occasional short drives it makes sense to do it every 6 months due to moisture as vehicle never gets to operating temperature. At end of day if you can do it every 6 months and have the time and money then more power to you.

 

They can put any date they want on your "little sticker" on the windscreen. It's about M-O-N-E-Y... Pure BS...One year or 10k...

 

This is not BS, 10K/1year for normal driving conditions which very few people fall into. Short trips and excessive idling would need 5K/6moth changes. If you are not willing to pay for used oil analysis to check for viscosity drop and fuel dilution to validate your OCI, its owner's manual statement is meaningless argument.

 

Nahhh, pure BS and money grab... Taxicabs and police cars do short trips and excessive idling... And virtually no one has their oil analyzed.

 

Obviously not an educated statement. You are thinking of old non GDI engines, with GDI there is a fuel dilution issue with shorter trips. There is a lot of information about this, I am not going to waste my time.

 

Can we return to frequency of oil top offs. Hoping virtually none of our cars require it, owner’s manual admonition, saying top offs are no cause for concern, aside.

 

Agree 100% with one year or 10,000 miles. I listen to the people who manufactured my vehicle. The same with the transmission fluid. If one goes out and researches synthetic oil mileage change 7,500 to 10,000 miles by far is the length. I use Mobil 1 who also agrees with 10,000 miles. The proof is in the pudding. Been changing at 10,000 miles with Mobil 1 in multiple vehicles for well over a million miles in total and of course have never had one engine issue. For those that disagree go for it. Change it every 5,000 miles or even better 2,500 miles.

 

Is the six month time parameter of any relevance to your circumstances. It is to mine, as in 6 months I'll drive only maybe 2500 miles. Am I throwing out good oil? Dealership strongly recommends the change at six months even if only 1,000 miles on the oil

 

That is right. Let’s not try to be too smart about that, the hybrid engine does not run all the time, actually it runs 30-40% of the time and then there’s another fact: these engines burn clean so no pollutiom/ash in oil but the problem is the stress that oil goes through when starting the engine (100-200 times a day) and also when the gasoline gets in the lower part of an engine (dilution (high pressure injection)).

Let’s change it every 6mo/5000 miles and all will be OK.

 

Yes, you're discarding good, clean oil and wasting not only resources but your money too...