When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
I was out of town and let the wife take my GSF into my local dealership to get an oil change. I come home and find out the recipet reads 0w-20 synthetic oil. The GSF clearly call for 5w-30. Should I take it back and make them change it to 5w-30 or will it do any harm running the 0w-20? What oil do you guys run?
Given what I have experienced with the "free" Lexus service, I would be back at the dealership asking for an explanation. I had to drain 2.5 quarts from the wife's GS F after Lexus did their free 5k mile service, it really was overfilled that much.
My first oil change was after 1000 km (600ish mi) and the tech guys at my local dealership recommended a specific oil (Motul 300V HIGH RPM 0W-20) which I used until I changed to another oil (5w-30) at 5000 km, because I was worried, that I didn't comply the factory recommendation. I got no problems with the 0w-20 oil, but it's calming for my mind to have the 5w-30.
If they only made a "typo" on the receipt and put the correct oil in your F, then there are no worries at all.
Truth be told, if you can check oil pressure at idle accurately and the engine maintains proper oil pressure with 0w-20, it won't hurt a thing and will make just a little bit more power. Higher viscosity oil takes more energy to pump through an engine and causes more fluid drag in plain bearings, so ideally you want to run the lightest oil you can while still providing adequate protection. I choose not to mess with this much. My only real experiment with oil weight in the IS F engine was to try 0w-30 instead of 5w-30 to see if the random ticking noise on cold start would diminish or go away. And, as it turns out, it did help reduce the noise significantly to the point I no longer notice it unless I let the car sit and warm up (which I almost never do).
So even if they did put 0w-20 in it, it's not a disaster, AND you have documentation Lexus did this, so if there is a failure, you can easily get them to fix it even if it means a new engine.
^^^^hmm - I live in a warm to hot climate and use 10w-30. No start up ticking here. My late wife's ES350 did experience the ticking on startup. When I went to the heavier oil, it stopped.
Given what I have experienced with the "free" Lexus service, I would be back at the dealership asking for an explanation. I had to drain 2.5 quarts from the wife's GS F after Lexus did their free 5k mile service, it really was overfilled that much.
how did you know it was overfilled? Idle? Warning light? How it drove? I’m About to get my 2nd oil change at the dealer.
^^^^hmm - I live in a warm to hot climate and use 10w-30. No start up ticking here. My late wife's ES350 did experience the ticking on startup. When I went to the heavier oil, it stopped.
Lou
The heat of your climate has nothing to do with the weight of your oil unless you running an air cooled engine. Running 10w-30 just means you wear your engine more on cold cycle than those who run 5w-30 or 0w-30.
Have you ever removed your valve covers? If not, it won't tick. The problem is the seal between the valve cover and the cam cap and if you've never broken that seal, you probably won't have a problem until you do.
Running heavier oil to solve a ticking problem is just plain bad. The only reason to run a heavier oil is because your idle oil pressure is too low and your engine won't maintain the 10 psi per 1000 rev rule of thumb.
Then you're wearing out your engine faster than someone running 5w-30 or 0w-30. Arizona/Mojave/Sahara has nothing to do with oil weight in a water cooled engine and never will.
0W-20 oil
