New to clublexus. What oil should i use for my 1992 ls400 155k?

 

I guess its a choice thing. I use 10W-30 Chevron mineral oil. Some people use synthetic, I say no on an old engine that came with non synthetic in the day. Synthetic will find the places to leak. In winter time you may want to use 5W-30 since your in a cold area.

 

totally depends on the shape of your engine and the condition of the seals.

if you have lots of sweating around the harmonic balancer (front of engine Crank seal) or out of the bellhousing (Rear main seal) or if your LS burns oil between changes you might want to use a High mileage oil.

we have had good luck with plain old Castrol GTX 10w or 5w30. However will be trying the synthetic version on the next change as it currently has no leaks but as dicer said this may bring some out. Synthetic will lower the operating temperature of the oil slightly which is generally going to protect components better but the engine in the LS is pretty bulletproof to begin with and mineral oil of today is a lot more advanced than it was back in 89 so the main thing is to change the oil regularly and make sure its at the correct level.

 

Get your FREE owners manual at Lexus.com/owners. Good luck.

 

Usually a good 5W-30 will work fine. Dino oil is OK, unless you just like to pay more for oil. A manual would be helpful.
Here's a complete tutorial if that would be helpful to you.
http://www.lexls.com/tutorials/lubri...oilchange.html

 

Since both dicer and tiagz used the term "mineral oil" when I think they were talking about non-synthetic motor oil, I'll ask ... is that "right"?

My understanding of mineral oil is that it is not equivalent to non-synthetic motor oil, but I must agree that it is a lot easier to say or type, and if people know what you're talking about, that's how words get invented or re-invented. Like "dino oil."

I think of mineral oil as clear, like baby oil.

So, is it correct to call non-synthetic motor oil "mineral oil"?

OP - the spec is probably on your oil filler cap. Likely to be 5w-30. I've used both synthetic and non-synthetic (dino oil) in mine with no problems. If choosing between the two, I would be guided by how many miles I'd put on it in a year. Right now I'm down around 2-3k per year, so with at least an annual change, I'm still feeling confident in dino oil. If I were putting on 15k per year, and wanted to extend oil changes to 5k or beyond, I'd use synthetic. Never tried baby oil.

In general, cars of our vintage (mine is a '91), the engines themselves never seem to cause problems. It's the other things that eventually wear out that cause maintenance and repair needs.

Also, since your car is new and you're asking about motor oil, you may be wondering about ...
The AT takes Toyota Type T-4. The AT dipstick will say Type T-2, but that supersedes to T-4. "They" say that DEXRON III can be used if needed, but most on here will recommend to stick with the (more expensive, tougher to get) Type T-4.

Your Power Steering system does not take PSF. It takes DEXRON III. If you can't find that, DEXRON VI is the modern synthetic equivalent. DO NOT put power steering fluid in there.

Welcome to the club.

 

This isn't some exotic sports car...put it whatever weight the manual calls for and stick with factory fill (dino oil). Brand really doesn't matter -- I simply pick whatever is on sale lol.

 

You can get Mobile 1 (I use 5w 30) on sale at either Costco or Walmart for something like $26 for six liters - nice deal for synthetic oil. No need to go cheaper than that, when Mobile is one of the best oils out there. My car is 26 years old and has 200k miles on it, and not a single leak anywhere. I change oil myself every 3000-5000 miles (depending on type of driving) and I use only Toyota filters (bought a box of them a while ago at around $5 ea.).

 

Mineral oil is the correct term, there is no such thing as dino.