Indeed, I would love to have access to their engineering/design documentation as I do not know what they define as a "lifetime" on a Lexus product. I am confident it is much more than something like 60k miles, and could see it being in the ballpark of 150k miles. I assume they define it in both time and mileage. In my industry, we go by calendar time and use time (my products are typically 20 years or about 80,000 hours of use, whichever comes first).

 

!!!!!!!!!!

 

That's if he's even equipped to service/rebuild his transmission. He may or may not be. I do strongly believe that planned obsolescence is built into some products but, not all product. I think Toyota/Lexus as it is today is not built with PO in mind. Their track record speaks otherwise. Wacky Scotty Kilmer on YouTube had a 700,000 mile Lexus yesterday on his channel. That's pretty amazing to me!

 

As a Toyota Engineer we only wish to make money by building our reputation and amazing cars. We never want any component of our cars to fail. To suggest that we would is quite an insult.

 

Exactly. I have never met an engineer in any industry who wants their products to fail.

 

It has little to do with engineering, it's all about making the vehicle appear cheaper to own. That's why capped servicing is the lead marketing tool manufacturers use to sell their cars.
Isn't it funny how the older Lexus and Toyotas that had the same engine and transmission as the prefacelifted GS required servicing, yet this one doesn't? What's changed? Not the vehicle, but market expectations have...

You can all get the idea that the engineers in Japan who design the thing are writing servicing requirements out of your head. Requirements differ wildly per country for the exact same drivetrain.

The US is a market where they're really keeping new car costs down so it makes sense they would want to limit servicing. There needs to be a sticky on this, comes up every month
​​​​

 

I'm glad that you brought up the fact the same driveline used to have service intervals but now is called lifetime.
If a new transmission was released in 1998 and was given a 50k service interval, that would be a way to play it safe and not be replacing transmissions, only fluid.
If not in 2008 they are still using the transmission, have had almost no reports of failures or issues, it makes sense that they would push the interval out, or even remove it.

 

I was going to say, even if nothing changed, we have changed over time. We know more about the product and real world usage. We have more historical data and have come up with a more accurate conclusion. We do a lot of simulated aging tests in the lab at my work place. It gets us a ballpark but copulate that with real world data and we have a much much more accurate report. When was the last time you heard JIffy Lube tell people to do 3,000 mile / 3 month oil changes?

 

The Owners Manual Scheduled Maintenance Service goes to 180 Months or 150,000 Miles with no requirement to replace the transmission fluid.

 

At my rate, I will hit 150K miles in just under 24 years. 7 down, 17 more to go. I plan on never changing the ATF.

 

This is why I hate 0w20 oil. I'll never use it again in any of my newer cars.

 

Tell us why...

 

I'm interested in this

 

As an engineer, would you agree with this?

- increased blow by
-poor seal between piston ring and cylinder wall due to thin oil = increased fuel dilution (oil shear) and oil consumption
-decreased cylinder wall protection when the engine is still cold
-increased valvetrain clatter
-Vehicles destined for everywhere else in the world come pre filled with 5w30 oil
-no where except for canada or united states is 0w20 "recommended:
-0W20 performed very poorly on a Japanese key deposit formation test
-the only thing protecting your engine oil from shearing is the additive package which must be formulated specifically to ensure the oil does not thin out. Most oils shear down at least one grade by the end of it's useful life cycle (eg. 5w40 becomes something like a 5w20 or 5w30 toward the end of its life)
- a 0w20 blend with an excellent additive package will more or less be okay, but how much thinner can the thinnest oil possibly get?
- I know somebody with an oil catch can on their Mazda CX5 (2.5L engine, naturally aspirated) who noted almost 500ml of blow-by after 7000 mile interval with 0w20. (they live in texas, hot weather) using 5w30 for the same duration, the catch can was completely empty. 0w20 causes blow by even if your engine is so well sealed that none of it is being physically consumed in between oil changes.

@mrplesh

 

I'm not an engineer. I absolutely agree with the Toyota/Lexus recommendation to not replace the ATF in the transmission.


You can cite all sorts of personal beliefs, but you are only one non-expert individual arguing against the expertise of thousands of qualified engineers at one of the largest car makers in the world. Your argument doesn't carry 'any' weight compared to those engineers...