Thanks for the informative reply. I, too, have wondered about the strict "use only Lexus parts" mantra that seems to be common on these forums. Parts are parts, and quality is quality, wherever you find it.

 

Thanks for the tip on Bell Lexus.

 

Welcome to the forum and your first posts

 

Why? what makes you not like them besides being biased against them?

 

Yeah wix doesnt seem bad by any means at all, their micron rating is 21, which is only a 5% larger micron, but I figure might as well go with whichever one(s) have the lowest rating

 

The oil isnt gonna be that dirty after 2000 miles from any oil let alone Restore and Protect (R&P), what its gonna be is capture dirt, metal particles, and sludge in the oil filter. Yes it may make your oil slightly darker but I really doubt it and if it doesn't get darker versus the other oil you use that does NOT mean its not working. To see how well if works you'd have to open your oil filter from the last oil change before Valvoline's R&P, send it it to get tested, and then do the same with the oil filter from when you used R&P.
And you'd want to drive the same amount of miles between oil changes obviously.
This being said your engine is probably decently clean, due to the fact that most owners and previous owners of these cars take good care of them. But if you love your car and want to keep it as long as possible and take care of it as well as you can, then I'd suggest using the R&P for the next 3 oil changes like the recommend (they recommend 4 or more oil changes to clean out up to 100% of deposits). And of course like almost everyone would say you should keep buying synthetic oil for your car even after the R&P, And if it seems expensive just go to Costco and get 10 quarts of synthetic for like 38$ here in California.

 

I plan to use R&P ongoing, unless some problem revealed. I don't do my own changes, but Walmart has it as an option for $65 total, including labor, with minimal waiting, a bargain. However, twice in a row they overfilled me by a quart+. So I found a place that charges labor ($35-$40 depending on car) and my parts. My point about the oil is that I think my engine is clean-ish. However, you could be right that filter shows the dirt, rather that the oil showing it. I am not going to change filter early. in 6-7 months it'll have 3k-3.5k-ish miles and I will do my normal next change. I like the R&P and how my engine sounds/feels, and it is really just about same cost, +/- $10

At Jiffy Lube / Valvoline Instant I used to get conv oil change fir $40 with coupon. I guess their base price they don't expect anyone to take. JL tried last time to force me to go to high mileage oil, refusing to do regular, saying their computer would not allow it over 150k miles (!). Then they got oil on my carpet. I am done there. Found an instant change place that allows me to bring my own oil. $35 for the R&P oil (I will save 1/2 quart from single quart + a new 5 quart bottle ) and a few bucks for the filter + their labor. $80 or so total, and this place is no-appointment, quick. Walmart would be great, and cheaper, if they did not keep overfilling me. I'll splurge on $80-$85 instant oil changes with R&P for now. I expect my car body or trans to die before the engine, but time will tell.

The main thing I have learned in recent years is for my other cars with oil life monitor. I would go up to a year/7500+ miles, but owning a turbo, I try to always change around 9 months or 5k, whichever comes first. My LS430 more just because the manual sys 6 months and I saved money being able to use conv all these years until recently. I keep cars a long time: had my LS430 for over 16 years now.

 

The marketing teams of auto parts and oil companies are salivating over this thread.

 

Who knows if R&P really works? But at nearly same price, I'll try it. After Shell 5w30 conv, I don't think a synthetic will hurt. Labor is main cost if not DIY., and I am not. I won't use R&P on my GM however, since not Dexos.

 

Nice that's cool. I love to hear other people who take care of their cars for a long time. I always like doing my oil changes my self because I have time and am 22, and I always suggest this to others as well because 1. You save money 2. You know you did everything right and everything is tight and filled correctly. But I understand some people dont have time or are getting to old to want to crawl under their car. For the people who are worried about messing up or are scared to do it I highly suggest watching a video and then doing it with a friend or family member who has done it before on their vehicles.

 

You obviously havent done any research and are a dip$hit, multiple people have tested it and then taken their engines apart and seen the difference, and even more have got their filters taken apart and tested. Do some research

 

Respect, please. whether R&P is magic or smoke and mirrors, Bradland is right that my/our discussion sounds like free marketing. He is certainly not a diip-anything, and has helped many of us many times over many years!

 

My bad. I get it sounds like "Free marketing" but it only sounds that way if you've never done research and watched people actually test it. Out of all my research on it not a single person has said its a gimmick or doesn't work as intended. One guy who tested it on his 4.0 Ford showed it worked so well that the oil filter was fully clogged by 500 miles. It just takes some research to see that it works.

 

Multiple people..?!?
Is that a numerical measure of sample size and, more importantly, validity?

I am a fan of French Onion dip!

 

It was literally launched in 2024. DO SOME RESEARCH. How many people you expect to test it?? And if you're not happy that 50 people haven't tested it why don't you test it then? I've seen 9 people make videos on R&P who all said it worked, go be the 10th