I'll keep this short. So I took my car to Charles Barker Lexus for an oil change and a little while later my car started doing the notorious sluggish acceleration. I always buy the Toyota oil in the lexus shop and give it to them to do the oil change. But this time I didn't feel like it. From the looks of the receipt they used Valvoline 0w-20. A couple days later Lexi started feeling like a civic with no mods.

MY RESOLUTION SO FAR
I took her on the interstate shifted her in manual and drove her above 5k RPM for about 3 -5 minutes. Got off the interstate and the problem has not returned since. It's been a couple of days but the wife and I burned up about a quarter of a tank shopping for back to school stuff for the kids and the car was as amazing as the day I purchased it. Try it before you spend a fortune if your warranty is up. I'm guessing sometimes she just needs to be opened up.

 

Above 5k rpm for five minutes? Man I'd be afraid to do that, but if it worked, good for you.

And what made you think of trying that?

 

the more I think about it. Maybe it just felt like forever. I basically drove the car like a race care for 5 minutes or so and that cleared it up.

 

That's an Italian tune up. Usually used to burn off the deposits in the catalytic converters.

 

I recently did something similar in mine, with the addition of 2 bottles of Techron added to 1/8 tank of gas before the "Italian tuneup". Same result, responsiveness returned and it even gets slightly better fuel economy. Go figure, our engines like to be beat once in a while to keep everything clean.

 

This is encouraging, thanks for sharing your results.

All major LS problems seem to have a definite cause/fix except for the hesitation after oil change. It's the one thing that has kept me from purchasing my LS.

 

Try to find out what they do in addition to changing the oil. It makes no sense that a simple oil & filter change would have an effect on acceleration. I changed the oil many times on my '11 and never had the problem. No disrespect intended but 5k rpm for several minutes...YIKES!

 

Haha. My car must hate me, I never have any fun with it. Glad this technique worked for you, I'm really at a loss as to why people experience the hesitation only after an oil change.

 

In for the knowledge

 

they added wynns oil conditioner. Even though I did not request it. They are lucky I paid for it. Lol. But like I said earlier. It felt like 5 minutes but I basically just drove the car in manual like I was Andretti for about 5 minutes as she came around. My thought is I knocked some sludge out of somewhere.

 

when we did the brakes and spark plugs we unplugged the battery for the whole duration and that problem never happened. And as I said I may have over exaggerated a little bit. I just dogged the car in manual for about 5 minutes on the interstate and the problem went away. My thought is the wynn oil condition moved some sludge in a bad area and opening up the throttle like that may have help to burn it up.

 

Boy, I don't blame you. I probably would have told them to change the oil again to get that crap out of there. Like these oils of today need conditioners. Seems like every business is trying to squeeze a little more out of their customers.

 

If it was done properly, the Wynns WOULD have been drained. If it's anything like most oil system cleaners, it's added to the old oil PRIOR to the oil change and run for 15 minutes or so. Then the oil is drained and a fresh oil change is done. I did this on my LS with the Toyota product (Toyota Engine Oil System Cleaner). I have not had the hesitation since (nearly 3 years). Theory is, that the VVT-I system is sensitive to any deposits which partially clogs it, or causing a ping which causes the knock sensor to activate and retard timing.

 

I don't understand, is it not universally understood that the issue is the knock sensors triggered by the valve stems. Oil passes through these for lubrication and a change in weight and / or viscosity could easily cause them to move excessively triggerig the knock sensors. Hence why the issue pops up at oil changes. Am I correct that this issue only affects 2012 and under as 13 got the redesigned heads? If this issue only affects 2012 and under I don't buy the vvti theory. It seems like the issue within the heads is quite logical as this component was what was redesigned not the variable valve timing.

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/att...sb-0033-08.pdf

 

Wouldn't Seafoam in the oil and gas have cleaned all the junk out?