Correct. Unless you're running extended oil change intervals of 7500 miles or more there is simply no need to run synthetic. You can, of course, but at 3000 mile change intervals you're just throwing money away.

 

3000 mile oil changes, at that frequency it's throwing away a perfectly good filter...never heard of such a short interval. Maybe severe duty of some sort.

 

I could talk at length of the methods we used when making repairs in the shop or in the field, but to spare you the lengthy read we had breaker bars and would put metal 4' pipes on just to get additional leverage. Chains, crains, and other vehicles sometimes were incorporated depending on the severity of the situation. The reason I'm nervous working on these aren't because of a lack of capabilities, but we would regularly find ourselves in a situation where we would encourage operators to break components or we would physically destroy a component just so we could replace certain parts rather than attempt a repair that had no guarantees to stick.

The machines ranged in age from 1970-2012, so some things were easy to repair, others may as well been a flat out waste of time. Regardless, i don't feel comfortable having the "drive it until something breaks" mentality when I'm paying for everything out of pocket rather than having a virtually unlimited budget via the military haha

 

Simply out of curiosity since I bought this car used with 170k miles on it, I'm pretty confident this will be a good investment for the first change. I'm very interested to see how efficient it is!

 

This is an incredible fascinating but of knowledge! I appreciate you sharing.

 

Thanks for the advice, the seafoam order has been placed! I'll say though for 170k miles, the car rides like it's brand new. I'm simply not very familiar with this vehicle, so are there any notorious issues that have a tendency to arise so I may begin diagnosing and addressing those first?

 

On my wife's car I just go by the OLM. I do believe it works, because when she worked 2 miles away, the car never warmed up, and the interval was short like 4k. Then, when it got all highway, suddenly once I did 8,100. And the car did NOT come with synthetic, it came with a blend (Dexos1). I use synth, though, and still change it when the car gets down to about 5%. There is much truth to throwing money and oil away, marketers have taught us this is good (for them!).

Food for thought--BMW used to say 1 yr./15k, change. Everyone incl. service managers said they "feel" this is too infrequent unless you lease. Do 7,500. So that's what I do. This was costing BMW money as they provide free maintenance, so they changed it to 2 yr./15k. A mfg. is not going to "ruin" engines to save money.....

 

Someone on this thread mentioned 3-4000 mile OCIs. Even a 5000 mile OCI is ridiculously short for synthetic oil and a good filter. Personally, I run 7500 mile OCIs using Mobil 1 or whatever brand is on sale. I may start going 10,000 mile OCIs but before I do it I'll get a blackstone oil analysis of my 7500 mile oil.

 

Gotcha, a lot of this is by "feel." I think in reality, it's like when the vet checks a dog for cholesterol (they really do during the blood test). They don't do anything with the results, because dogs don't live long enough for it to be treated (unlike humans). Toyota engineers basically stated there is no benefit to running synth up to 500k miles (I cannot find the document anymore this was 15+ yrs. ago). But as mentioned I feel synth is worth it, esp. when I can use those rebates to get the oil. What has changed though even with Japanese mfgs. is they seemed to have at minimum introduced blends (maybe that is the sweet spot, but I am ok with full synth)....

 

 

I think of synthetic oil as cheap insurance. Mobil 1 is my preferred brand, but you probably cant go wrong with any of the major brands these days and there is always one on sale it seems.

 

I use Amsoil Signature with an Amsoil filter.

I change it once per year.

 

I would agree with your service advisor - using synthetic on a 5000mi or 8000km change interval is a waste of money. However, if you get your full synthetic for dirt cheap (e.g. buying on sale, using coupons, etc), then it's barely more expensive to use. What is also a waste of money is paying a dealership (or anyone else really) to change your oil. Oil changes are very easy to do on an LS430.

I don't change oil based on time, I change every 8000km (normal Canadian service interval for 2002 Lexus vehicles), and I use Toyota 90915-20004 filters with a full synthetic 5W-30, whichever full synthetic is the cheapest. One time I bought Valvoline SynPower at $3.99/L (CAD) at Wal-Mart, other times that and Pennzoil Platinum Synthetic were both $5.26/L. All in 4.73L jugs, which is fine because a 2002 drain and fill with filter change is spec'd for 4.5L. I figure an extra 230mL every 8000km isn't going to hurt anything.

However, using 5W-20 instead of 5W-30, as the dealerships have been instructed by Lexus HQ to do, may hurt something. Google this for all kinds of debate regarding CAFE standards and manufacturers specifying lower weight oils at the risk of increased engine wear. I will trust the original Lexus engineers that designed the engine and wrote 5W-30 on the oil filler cap.

 

 

I'm not "that" into it, I know folks at bitog really are. It's kind of like a torque wrench, is a 5-75, not as good as a 10 to 150, at say 15 lbs. ft? The reality is that the 10-150 is inaccurate at 15, whereas with the 5-75, 15 is the minimum at which it is accurate.

I've always felt that the weights of oils are misleading. Isn't 5W30 not as good as 0W40? I mean 0W40 is a wider range?

My BMW has 5W30 recommended, but when Mobil 1 was approved, it only came in 0W40. I would prefer to use what's recommended, but, BMW specifically approved at the time, Mobil 1 Euro 0W40, so it happens to be what I have and use.

BMW was so specific, that a 320i used a different oil than a 328i and 335i (these model designations are now obsolete, of course all the numbers have increased lol). And it's because of CAFE....

For the Lexus I prefer to stay with 5W30, but use synth, not dino juice...totally comfortable with $25 less a $10 or $12 rebate...for 5 qts