I’ve owned two IS500’s now and have experienced the same weird thing on both, I get a low engine oil warning only 1-2k miles after changing the oil, sometimes sooner. I read the owners manual and this car does consume oil but it’s weird to me how much it consumes. They had to top up my car with 2 quarts of oil last time I got the message which was 2k miles after the oil change. This has happened on both of my 500’s so wondering what’s going on here. Anyone else run into this?

edit: I ran into this on my first 500 1500 miles into owning it before any oil change was ever made so I know this isn’t an issue with the shop.

 

^^ Nope, had mine for almost 4 years and never had a single issue with oil level at all....It barely moves on the dipstick

 

Same.

Do you have the same shop changing the oil? Maybe it's not being filled all the way.

 

My car hasn't burned a drop of oil that I know of. I would echo the previous sentiment. Do you check the oil manually after having the oil changed?

 

Coming up on a year and I don’t even know where that idiot light is, never seen it.

 

I just noticed the bottom "edit" part of the first post.

Given how most owners are not experiencing this, and you are, yet you don't think it's the shop, this leaves some possibilities:

• Both of your IS 500s have been defective in some way.
• Something you are doing while driving or caring for the car is causing excessive oil consumption.

If it's still under factory warranty, I'd take it to a dealership for a free diagnosis.

 

Either you are doing the exact same process on each vehicle (how you change the oil, who changes the oil, the type of oil, and the amount of oil is the same) or both 500s are burning oil due to them not being broken in properly. The more likely, is that it is being underfilled or the wrong oil added. 0w-20 would burn more as it is thinner, and it is the incorrect oil, but there have been several examples of 0w20 being added to 500s because that is what basically every other engine from Lexus runs except the V8.

How are you driving the car? Are you cranking it and immediately driving? Are you getting on it hard before it has warmed up?

I change my own oil. I get my oil to the top dot every time. I have an RR catch can and get the slightest amount of blowby, like a teaspoon or two, over the course of an oil change, so my oil level doesn't meaningfully change much at all. I also don't drive my car super hard. At track events, depending on how hard you drive, you could burn a considerable amount of oil, up to a quart. Still not enough to get a low oil light.

My guess is you are being underfilled and/or incorrect oil being used.

 

yes but with my first it gave me the message before I even got an oil change, also all oil changes were done at a Lexus dealership.

 

It must be how I drive it, I always let it warm up and never push it until the downshifts are smooth when in manual mode - but once I hit that point I drive it hard since that’s how I run my sports cars. I followed the break in period 100% as well. With that being said I remember looking in the owners manual and Lexus does disclose that oil consumption is a thing with this car. On chat GPT it said “For many Lexus/Toyota models, there is a published “max oil consumption” rate: 1.1 quarts per 600 miles (≈ 1.0 liter per 1000 km). If the engine uses more than this, owners are instructed to contact a dealer” - so it actually is a recorded thing.

I’m taking it to a new place for the oil tomorrow, but i highly doubt its actually the shop that’s the issue.

Is everyone else just not flooring it all the time? I can’t resist lol that’s why I got a sports car. My dad’s e46 m3 used to consume oil as well and he didn’t even push it super hard.

 

1.1 quarts per 600 miles would be completely unacceptable for a new car and would set off every red flag and alarm bell inside my body. You are talking about over the course of an oil change interval (5,000 miles), losing the entire oil capacity of the engine.

Flooring it all the time is certainly not how or why this car was designed and built. It is just a normal car...

 

1 L of oil being burned per every 1000 km is a very high amount of consumption, and I've only seen/experienced this with a very old car with very high mileage. Even then, I only remember topping up once with a 1 L bottle in between regularly scheduled oil changes.

Now again, if you're doing this from light to light, then who knows...............

 

I mean, I floor it on a regular basis, but I am also not foot-to-the-floor for a significant amount of time. I'll usually do a couple pulls here and there, no extended hard driving though. Kinda hard to do that on the street without risking losing a license - this car wants to go fast.

But even with my somewhat spirited driving, I've seen no evidence of oil burning.

 

I get on it all the time, it's too fun not to. But to rip on it WOT everywhere is not normal driving behavior.

 

It's not normal behavior but it also shouldn't cause this much oil loss. I feel bad for the poor soul who buys his car someday lol.

 

Yea it absolutely wouldn't account for the oil loss.