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I decided today, to take matters into my own hands. The oil extractor was a good idea and I found a manually actuated device to purchase.
As is indicated in the pictures, I needed to remove just under 1 litre to get back into the normal operating range. I recognize that the level is almost impossible to see, but it is just below the full mark now on the dipstick.Everything is good again
When the GS F got overfilled, I took a piece of clear vinyl tubing, measured it against my dipstick, put it down the tube to my measurement mark, and pulled out the oil with a vacuum pump (I have a few of these including a lab grade unit made by Alcatel) into a clear jar. Sad I had to remove 2 1/2 quarts to get back to full after the "free" dealership first oil change. After checking it by the book, it was just below the full mark, which was just fine with me. For my purposes, anything above the low mark is good enough. I've done all of my oil changes myself since then.
It was at the full mark on the dipstick and did not deviate from there during the break in time.
That has a lot to do with the oil you run. Our factory tune is very rich and depends heavily on the cats to clean it up. This also means there is more blowby from combustion than would be ideal resulting in fuel dilution of the oil. I have oil analysis to show this happens with Mobil 1 and it is what got me off the Mobil 1 for Lexus/Toyota engines ride I'd been on for many, many years. Every engine burns a little oil on every combustion cycle, even the best, most meticulously built and broken in engines burn a little oil. So your oil level not moving can only mean one thing - something is getting in the oil and keeping the level up. It might be fuel, it might be water (water sits in the bottom of the oil pan and is hard to remove without getting the oil very hot), it might be both, but I can say for sure an oil that manages fuel dilution better than Mobil 1 is what you want in your engine. It will continue to protect where an oil like Mobil 1 can't. I run Renewable Lubricants 5w-30 SHP PCMO in all my cars now (they're all Lexus/Toyota) for this reason. It's not the only oil capable of doing this, but it definitely makes a difference in my used oil analysis results which you can find for both my IS F and GS F in their respective forums in the Blackstone UOA threads.
If you are leasing and have no expectation of keeping the car long term, just ignore what I wrote above and get the car serviced at the dealer with whatever swill they're using this week. You'll be fine.
That has a lot to do with the oil you run. Our factory tune is very rich and depends heavily on the cats to clean it up. This also means there is more blowby from combustion than would be ideal resulting in fuel dilution of the oil. I have oil analysis to show this happens with Mobil 1 and it is what got me off the Mobil 1 for Lexus/Toyota engines ride I'd been on for many, many years. Every engine burns a little oil on every combustion cycle, even the best, most meticulously built and broken in engines burn a little oil. So your oil level not moving can only mean one thing - something is getting in the oil and keeping the level up. It might be fuel, it might be water (water sits in the bottom of the oil pan and is hard to remove without getting the oil very hot), it might be both, but I can say for sure an oil that manages fuel dilution better than Mobil 1 is what you want in your engine. It will continue to protect where an oil like Mobil 1 can't. I run Renewable Lubricants 5w-30 SHP PCMO in all my cars now (they're all Lexus/Toyota) for this reason. It's not the only oil capable of doing this, but it definitely makes a difference in my used oil analysis results which you can find for both my IS F and GS F in their respective forums in the Blackstone UOA threads.
If you are leasing and have no expectation of keeping the car long term, just ignore what I wrote above and get the car serviced at the dealer with whatever swill they're using this week. You'll be fine.
This is very interesting information. Thank you for providing. What is it in Mobil 1 that particularly causes this issue that you are referring to? Does the standard synthetic oil that Toyota/Lexus provide cause the same issue? What is SHP PCMO?
When I checked my LCs oil periodically prior to my first oil change, I would smell the oil for an odor of petrol, to see if the dilution was an issue, but did not detect any scent. I did a reasonable engine break in with the LC but not excessive by any means.
Mobil 1 is a factory fill oil for many manufacturers and I have always felt it is a good product (especially compared to conventional oil). I may be wrong but I believe my Viper, I factory ordered came filled with Mobil 1. Same with my C63. I used this brand throughout their ownership and never felt I had any issues, but then again, I did not perform an oil analysis.
If you can smell fuel dilution, you're in big trouble. Mobil 1 is a great oil. It's just not a great oil for the exceptionally rich Lexus tune. Lexus does this to minimize warranty claims for engines destroyed by bad fuel. They are extremely conservative, so it isn't unusual to see 11.2 to 11.4:1 AFR at WOT (for reference, the MkIV Supra came from the factory tuned at 10.5:1 at WOT - absurdly rich). Proper tunes for NA engines are ~13.2:1 at WOT. So there's a little more fuel than the engine really needs and it ends up in the oil in small quantities, but enough to show more than 2% fuel dilution with a good UOA (not Blackstone, they're not equipped to do a proper fuel dilution test). 2% is the upper limit of acceptable. Other manufacturers don't do this, and Mobil 1 as a factory fill means they tuned the engine closer to good than Lexus/Toyota does. Mobil 1 does not manage fuel dilution well, and VVTi with oil driven sprockets can be problematic with Mobil 1 (I have a lot of evidence to believe this is a fact, not a supposition). You are better off running an oil with better fuel dilution management.
SHP PCMO is Renewable Lubricants designation for super high performance passenger car motor oil.
Bio-SynXtra™ Super High Performance Motor Oil is a patented biobased motor oil. It is designed with additional enhancement chemistry to provide optimum performance in newer high output turbocharged and supercharged gasoline engines in passenger cars, vans, sport utility vehicles, and light duty trucks requiring ILSAC GF-5, API SN and SM (Lubricity Enhanced Energy Conserving Formula Meeting Newest Catalytic Converter Requirements).
I have 2 F cars with the Supra, so I buy oil in 5 gallon pails, not by the gallon or quart.
although i haven't done all the research lobux has, i have total confidence in mobil-1. car oil at some point seems to go from science to religion.
maybe if we were driving formula 1 cars it might make a difference, but an lc sitting in traffic or blasting down a back road... i highly doubt it.
i knew a key patent inventor on mobil 1 by the way... even he said it was overkill for passenger cars.
^ah so much this. I had a guy on the maserati forum swear up and down that using Mobil 1 saved him 15,000usd on engine variators (a common failure point on Ferrari / maserati f136 engines).
I just used whatever dealership oil (shell I think !?) they used to fill her up and mine lasted from 2010 till when I sold her this year. Only had 44,000kms but still, no variators issues.
yes engine oil has turned into a religion. All hail the great synthetic.
Mobil 1 is great oil. It's not great oil in Lexus/Toyota engines. I know way too many people who have had weird cam timing issues with Mobil 1 and changed to a different oil and had no problems at all. I ran it for a long time in my IS F. I got schooled by someone with far more knowledge about what was going on inside my engine based on just Blackstone results. It's just not good in our engines. Works great in Corvettes and other engines where the manufacturer factory fills with it.
Also, you can see over the years in my UOAs where Mobil 1 changed their formula with no notification to the public, not to mention they originally used Group V ester base stock and now use a Group IV base stock because Castrol forced them to do this by calling their Group IV based oil "fully synthetic" when in fact it really isn't. Lots of stories about all this on the web.
Sure it gets to be like religion. That's why I said if you're leasing and not keeping the car, just put whatever swill the dealer uses in your car (NO, Lexus corporate does not specify the type or brand they use, dealers buy in bulk from local suppliers who meet the API spec required by Lexus) and be happy.
My IS F has nearly 200k miles on it, and the wife's GS F has just over 100k miles on it. I can show you the results both from analysis and from visual inspection. Mobil 1 didn't do me bad, but it didn't do me good either. RLI is doing amazing in the GS F.
Last edited by lobuxracer; Jul 11, 2022 at 08:24 PM.
Additive packages vary greatly between synthetic oils. The additive package is the secret sauce that makes any particular synthetic oil perform the way it's manufacturer intends it to. Sure people can say that synthetic oils are similar or the same like any other competing brand of oil but that's simply not the case.
Lobux turned me onto https://540ratblog.wordpress.com/ and it was definitely an eye opener in regards to how synthetic oils perform specifically with the boundary layer of film between moving parts and not all synthetics are created equal. His blog is quite lengthy and some people just don't have time to go through everything, but those that do it's worth the read and you can make your own decisions on what you think of his data points and his conclusions.
He does have a ranking list of oils that perform the best in his testing. People have their own opinions on which oil they like to use and that's fine, but his points I think are valid in regards to additive packages and how some oils are more hype and advertising than anything.
Last edited by MileHIFcar; Jul 12, 2022 at 02:31 AM.
well my lexus dealer put in 'synthetic' but i don't know what kind.
amazon will deliver my extraction pump today hopefully so i can take some out so it's not overfilled.
Did you end up getting some oil out? Would you happen to know the size of the tube? My IS 500 just got overfilled and the tube I have is 5/16 and too big. I ordered a 3=16 tube, hoping it fits.
