I read so much conflicting information. Many say the factory puts specific oil in cars specifically for break-in, so changing early isn't necessarily good. Does Toyota have an official stance? I don't mind changing oil before the 12 months/10k miles, but I don't want to remove oil they prefer to stay in. I have the old school 3.5 though, so maybe the turbo or V8 are different?
Quote: “SAE OW-20 is filled into your Lexus
vehicle at manufacturing, and the best
choice for good fuel economy and
good starting in cold weather.”
I read so much conflicting information. Many say the factory puts specific oil in cars specifically for break-in, so changing early isn't necessarily good. Does Toyota have an official stance? I don't mind changing oil before the 12 months/10k miles, but I don't want to remove oil they prefer to stay in. I have the old school 3.5 though, so maybe the turbo or V8 are different?
I didn't read anything in the manual to indicate when to do the first oil change, so it is most likely the standard 12 months / 10k mile oil change interval. As a side note, that is usually way too long to go between oil changes for most people. Unless you're on the highway every day with relatively little city driving, and you never drive in snowy weather, and all sorts of other stipulations, you should be changing it more frequently, probably twice a year is the bare minimum (in my opinion).
Have a look at the above service info booklet that I found on the Australian Lexus website. The Canadian site lacks a booklet that is this detailed, and I cannot access the US site. Go to page 17, it basically lists out some real world conditions (except the part about driving at top speed for 2 hours, lmao, not in NA anyway). If you meet any of those conditions, or if you care about your car at all, you need to do the additional service on page 20.
The oil changes are slotted in exactly right between the standard 12 months / 15000 km intervals, so it's basically telling you to do oil changes every 6 months / 7500 km if you drive the car in the real world. It even recommends replacing the transmission fluid at 5 years / 75000 km, which is within my expectations.
I have other cars, so if I get 5,000 miles on the car every 12 months, that will be a lot. I called my dealer and they don't want to do an oil change right now as I am only at 1,300 miles. So if I hit 5k miles before the 12 month mark, I will get it changed. But for now, I guess the break-in oil stays put. I bought the Toyota with the old V6 in part because I wanted at least one of my cars to be fairly robust and not super-finicky. I see all these 3.5 Toyotas running around with super-high miles that look like they are run in baaaaad conditions. Hoping the engine can withstand some metal in the oil filter. Surely those people aren't changing oil every 1k, or 5k miles. I bet some have gone past the 10k mile mark before any maintenance.
