Hi, My wife has a 2017 Lexus IS 200t and I have a 2016 Lexus NX 200t F-Sport. Both cars have the same (or at least very similar) 2 Liter Turbo, thus the 200t in the name. My wife recently had her oil/filter changed at the Lexus dealer. Unfortunately we have discovered either a small leak (oil pan nut??, filter seal??) or perhaps enough oil got dumped on the undercarriage (and no one cleaned it at the dealership) such that five days later we are still getting small drips on the garage floor.

It's a long story why I am more or less an expert on reading oil on a dipstick where seeing the oil level is not easy (another car model which is one reason we switched to Lexus). I just have a lot of experience with "hard to read dipsticks". But now I've encountered the same and maybe even a bit worse on both of these Lexus cars.

I've tried reading the oil level on the dipstick both soon after shutting the car off all the way to waiting a full 16 hours before attempting to read the level. And what appears to happen is as you remove the dipstick from the engine, no matter what I do I tend to apparently wipe oil off the walls of the dipstick tube and seeing some single, reasonable level is more or less not doable, even after letting the oil settle overnight.

1. Have others had this same difficult to read the level issue with this model of Lexus?? 2. What, if any solutions have you come up with to make reading the level easier???

Any help would be appreciated.

thanks

 

Oil should always be checked hot, or at least warm. If the vehicle is cold run for a few minutes, then shut it down, and let it settle (typically about 30-45 seconds) then read.

Whenever doing your oil change you should always run the vehicle for about 15 seconds, then shut down, let settle, then read.

Your oil level is where the first "break" is in the fluid line. Often dipsticks are run through the block ports, or casing, and run down causes illegible reads, so where you see that first "break" thats where your oil level is.

Oil level should also be planted firmely between the hashes, or the two dots. If its at the top dot, or top of the hash and warm. It's overfull. Oil as you know changes viscosity with temperature, and also has residual throughout the engine when shut down. Therefor when checking your oil it should always be at the half-way point, and never at the top.

 

I have no issue reading my dipstick personally, this might be why so few ppl responded because they don't have issues either. Car should always be on level ground, and if you want to check it right after driving, best to wait 15min after engine shut-off (you have to do that for Nissan/Infiniti 3.5L engines) before checking.

 

I'd worry about the oil drip on the garage floor. Such new vehicles should never do this. Reading oil level on dip stick, I never had an issues on so many different vehicles in my `60 years driving. When engine is shut off, wait for a while(still oil is warm) get a clean rag or piece of paper towel, pull the dip stick, wipe oil off. Put the stick back in all the way, pull it straight out look at the oil level against the rag or paper towel. Little low is alright but over is not a good thing. Nowdays some vehicles don't even have dip stick(our Bimmers for an example). Turbo engines tend to eat oil more than non-turbo engines. I just stick to regular scheduled oil change intervals
without needing to top up the oil in-between.