I might stop doing extended oil change intervals
 

I've been noticing a few things when I go on these longer oil change intervals...after 5,000 miles my car starts to use oil. Now the first 5,000 miles?? Nothing, not a drop, but right after that it's like someone turns on a switch and the oil goes. I might put two quarts in between 5,000 to 7,500 miles...yet the first 5,000, not a drop.

Is the oil "thinning out"? Does the direct injection make life more difficult on oil by washing the cylinder walls with high pressure fuel? Is the 0w20 already a little too light to begin with?

And this happens with any of the oils I've used...TGMO, Mobil 1, Mobil 1 EP, Napa Synthetic, Castrol...they all do great for the first 5k, and then poof, it goes.

Now perhaps just topping off is ok on the way to 10k miles, but I have to think something is wrong when the oil acts so differently after 5,000 miles. I begin to wonder if I'm losing protection when this is going on, especially when I think of that high pressure fuel being sprayed into those cylinders where you need oil to protect those cylinder walls. I haven't made up my mind yet, but I'm leaning towards going back to 5,000 mile oil changes...or 6,000.

Oil consumption should be steady unless you are losing viscosity. Why not get an oil analysis and see what's happening.
Maybe fuel dilution or some abnormal condition given way to the active ingredient that's accelerates consumption.
If it is fuel dilution it can be corrected by locating the drifted sensor.

Try Royal Purple 5W30...I hear that works. ;):p

Well, you are not the only one. I am now at nearly 10k miles and have added 2 qts so far. Both of those came after 5k miles. One at 6.5k miles and more recently at around 9k. I am sticking to the 10k mile OCI on this one and will have the oil analyzed by Blackstone. Then I'll decide what to do.

I heard the same thing

Cool, post it when you get the results. I'm glad I'm not the only one.

It's too late for that, I dumped the oil. But I did consider it.

Can you note any hesitation, sluggish response or adverse conditions under acceleration with the new oil.

It won't be a bad idea to get it done next time. RFs oil consumption is actually pretty good for the distance. The only way I can see accelerated consumption is if the oil lost its viscosity which is not an easy thing to do with modern synthetic oil.
It could also be the frequency of checking your oil only to discover the consumption late in the process.
When I changed my oil I last it consumed about half a quart for 5500 miles which is pretty good for a relatively new motor. I just need to send it out for analysis.

Good thing you didn't use Royal Purple otherwise you would have a predisposition to post bad information. It's listed on the bottle under side effects.

Or so says the bitter person. It took over two weeks to learn the "brake" lesson. The oil lesson may take a bit longer.
11/2/2015
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/ls-...rom-750li.html

11/18/2015
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/ls-...ference-3.html

An extended oil change interval might come under the "extreme load condition" mentioned in the owners manual. A conditional statement appears in the 2007 and 2015 manual.
Attachment 374529


See Specifications §:
Oil viscosity (0W-20 is explained here as an example):
• The 0W in 0W-20 indicates the characteristic of the oil which
allows cold startability. Oils with a lower value before the W allow for
easier starting of the engine in cold weather.
• The 20 in 0W-20 indicates the viscosity characteristic of the oil
when the oil is at high temperature. An oil with a higher viscosity (one
with a higher value) may be better suited if the vehicle is operated at
high speeds, or under extreme load conditions

"404 page not found"

I always change oil at 5,000 miles. I use Mobil 1 (5-20) and Toyota filters (sometimes Wix). I can't, for the life of me, see any reason to go beyond 5,000 miles.

I always go with 5k intervals on all my cars. ES with 252k, GX 137k and LS 38k miles with no 'burns' or 'refills'.

Unfortunately cyber world has produced more pseudo engineers than actual engineers who design and build cars :(

Well, the "real" engineers (those at Lexus), say to go 10k miles between changes now. Since Blackstone Labs has indicated that I can go to 10k miles, which supports Lexus' new OCI's, that's good enough for me. :rolleyes:

Other engineers agree with longer intervals: http://www.edmunds.com/car-care/stop...-your-oil.html

At the end of the day, if 5k miles OCI's make you sleep better, have at 'er.

Why not change it sooner then? Why not 3k miles?

There's plenty of reasons why, as laid out in the Edmunds article. Money, resources, time, throwing away perfectly serviceable oil, etc.

Actually, it was very difficult for me to go to 5K miles in lieu of 3K. But I did it because of the synthetic oil, and because the LS uses 9 quarts.

The OP's admittedly anecdotal report is just the sort of reason why I would never consider 10K miles.

Oil is still quite cheap. I change it myself so it doesn't cost a lot to change it.

Another good reason is that at 5K intervals, it gives me a good chance to look around under the car for other issues such as leaks, nails in the tires, suspension bushing condition, etc. At 10K miles, that would mean I'm only under the car twice a year.

Let's ask ourselves why the big car companies would so actively endorse these long interval oil changes. Here are some reasons.

1) They don't care if the engine wears out sooner. That's good for new car sales.
2) Fewer oil changes caters to the modern day customer's ideal of laziness in car ownership
3) Car makers pay an environmental fee for each car sold. The fee is based on a number of factors, including anticipated service costs (i.e. oil use and disposal) By extending the interval, it saves Toyota millions in reduced fees.


Blackstone....I haven't checked lately but back when all the 'oil analysis' companies sprung up, one of the big magazines ( I think Car & Driver) did a test of their own. They sent the same oil from the same engine to 4 or 5 different labs and the reports that came back were so varied they were essentially useless. From what I hear, there is a great deal of interpretation of test results needed to draw any conclusions. I avoid that sort of fracas by changing the oil every 5K.