This is really ridiculous coming from a "service advisor", The service advisors I've had in the past back east knew the cars very well. It looks like they get these people from just about anywhere. For me, what used to set the Lexus brand apart from other luxury car makes was the gold standard of service. I would report this to the dealership's owner or general manager. Let them know about what customers feel about their service!

On the subject of oil changes - what really irks me is the 10k service interval for oil changes. My 1st gen NX had 16k miles without an oil change! It was a CPO and they said it was fine because of the synthetic oil used. The PO probably brought it in for 5k miles (no oil change) and "forgot" to have it serviced another 10k miles. Later I noticed that the dipstick had a bit of varnish on it - typical of oil used for too long. I used a bottle of auto-rx and it cleaned up that varnish (and the rest of the engine) and it was problem free until I sold it. I have heard there are wear problems on higher mileage toyota engines following extended intervals. I now do 5K changes on my own between dealership visits.

 

It's always a good idea to check oil level after changed. I usually do it before I leave dealership that way all the 'guilty' parties are still to be found inside the building. You should wait about 5 minutes from shutdown of engine before you check and not wait for 15 + minutes as it could be a little higher on dipstick but not more that 1/8 to 1/4 inch (2-5 cm). The dealer is absolutely supposed to inform you at the start of your service visit what they will be performing on your car 'today' when you show up! That's why you're signing the work order estimate at the service counter when you hand over the keys! And ask for a number you can be reached at if they need to discuss anything with you such as additional work not initially authorized by you already. This would have been a no brainer to say 'we only have 0W-20 available is that ok?' And the obvious option should have been 'We can hold off on doing the oil for a few days and book you in when it arrives'.

Changing grade of oil cautions:
My Canadian 2 cents (.015 USD) for what it's worth. Switching oil grades to thicker viscosities does not solve any engine woes, it doesn't last longer, it doesn't save on fuel costs (it reduces engine efficiency slightly because its thicker) it adds to running costs over time, and it more than likely will harm your engine over time.

The NX350h engine is the A25A-FXS which started showing up in Toyota's around 2020. It uses an electronic oil pump system that operates infinitely more accurate than older mechanical designs from the past. Now, the computer control for this pump is assuming you are putting in the specified oil (big sticker '0W-16' located under the hood states the oil grade required) or the exception of a slightly thicker grade (0w-20 as found in manual) to be used if 0W-16 is unavailable with the expectation that the next change you go back. The computer control can adjust the flow or volume of oil it sends throughout the engine with the assumption the right viscosity is in the engine. It's looking at operating temperatures, gas pedal position etc to send out enough oil. A thicker weight oil will deliver less oil to the engine which will over time slowly wear the lubricated parts more than expected and reduce engine life. Now, I'm sure were talking way down the road here, like after 100's of thousands of miles possibly. But in the meantime putting in thicker oil will add maintenance costs by lowering gas mileage slightly and have no other advantage. Toyota engine oils are made by Mobile One exclusively so no need to 'switch' to Mobile One you're already getting Toyota's specific formulation which is most likely better than off the shelf Mobil One.

I would however not do an oil change every 10,000 miles (16,000 kms) as per manual, that is something no expert mechanic will put their name behind currently unless you're leasing or plan to sell your car with less than 100,000 miles on it. Financially it's not worth it. I have made the choice to change mine every 5,000 miles or 6 months (8,000km's) because the oil and it's additives slowly decay with use and time and there is no substitute for clean oil to help preserve your engine. So I'm willing to eat this extra cost so that I can (hopefully) enjoy many years of engine health.

Explanation of engine oil change intervals for modern cars here:


Explanation of electronic oil pump can be found here at 6 minutes 30 seconds:


And for those of you who can't wait to pay more for even thinner oil viscosities used on newest Toyotas / Lexus vehicles; this video explains that the new 0w-8 is currently costing out at $20 a quart!!. at 15 minutes 45 seconds

 

The service director is aware of this and didn’t want to drag this to a higher management. I was at least calmed down when the service director said “ Don’t worry we’ll get the new 0W16 oil replaced as early as Monday and we’ll make sure to drain all the oil and wait 30mins to make sure the 0W20 oil & any debris is removed”.

I would like to mention the service director's words during the confrontation “ You’re like one of those 0.01% people who actually cares about the nitty gritty details to this extent”. I thought that’s exactly why they were ripping all the customers so far. For now, I don’t want to report this any further but I want to see them replace the 0W20 oil ASAP.

 

YES. This is the reason I got frustrated and I have to mention I’m also subscribed to CCN YouTube channel and BTW, I did recently watched the automotive press intervals video as well since YouTube knows what videos to recommend lol.

Coming to the dealership experience. I did my due diligence on having them fix the appointment and add on oil change as an extra at 5K mile service. I had to confirm thrice to make sure they are 1. Using the right oil 2. Doing the oil change 3. Pricing. Still they did this is absolutely disappointing.

I also just like your recommendation and coming by a recent discussion over the forum that some dealer overfilled the oil, I checked my oil level before going to the dealership to make sure where my oil level is and hopefully they are replacing the oil. Still beats me, they are doing things to their liking and thinking customers are like a cattle herd.

 

Sadly, this is where we are in the 'dealership' experience of today. Like others have noted, the person doing the oil change is usually at the bottom of the food chain there, helping to keep labour costs down. The only respectable way I have been able to come up with is once I have established a face to face conversation with the service manager or hopefully a technician I ask something like 'So how many Master Technicians do you have at the dealership?' As you know AMD aka The CCNut is such one and he explains in some of his early videos what that means, which is a lot of education and testing and training to get to that level. After probably 4 visits I've finally found my 'guy'. The service manager let me know that at my dealership there are like 4-6 master techs on Lexus side (they have a Toyota side too). I spoke with one while setting up my last visit in person at dealer. He's a smart cookie, so after our talk I went straight to the warranty administrator person and said 'I want that guy to do all my work!' He changed my oil, he determined they had brought in the wrong parts to fix my fuel door, ordered correct ones, he checked all my details and even pulled off my rear bumper to confirm that my Blind Spot Monitor sensor while aligned perfectly, had an internal fault and ordered a new replacement. And when I picked it up we had a little chat at my request to go over everything at a 'technical' level. Most of all I thanked him for his good work and thanked all the other staff that looked after my service. Hopefully I've 'planted the seeds' and I'll continue to have a good relationship with this dealer. But yeah, finding a dealer who's realistic and honest is sadly not easy.

 

Nice. I like your approach on getting access to the professionals instead of rookies working on our cars. I will ask the service director next time the same question and find out how many of the work force are master diagnostics and certified technicians. Now with this experience, I know whom to avoid next time at the dealership lol. But yes, CCN is such a great source of information in the context of Toyota Vehicle maintenance. Based on your experience, I don’t know how many visits it’ll take for me to find the right guy and god knows what sort of different experiences I have to face next time.

 

Now to blow everyone’s minds. 5W-30 is recommended one “state” south of you.🤣

The first number is the cold viscosity, the second number is the hot viscosity. SoCal? You obviously should be thanking them for 0-20.

The computer does not “guess” at the expected oil pressure to actuate the vvt, it measures it with a sensor, hence the different country’s recommendation.

Yes, it is only for CAFE. Good on your service manager for trying to please you. Lexus/Toyota are tying themselves in knots switching recommendations trying to score green for the EPA.

Car cost is inversely proportional to car knowledge.

 

I think I’ll have to agree with you on some things. The more I dig into details and taking perspectives on this right oil issue, the more I get worried but it’s a good experience after all I guess. Ultimately sometimes ignorance is a bliss.

Yes it feels good to know 0W20 is not bad for the car after all but there is no way they can justify using 0W20 in my car without my consent provided the fact I was anticipating them to use 0W16.

 

Lexus USA is same recommended oil viscosity of 0W-16.
Computer controlling electric oil pump in 350h is designed and calibrated for 0W-16, flow rates of oil will be less with a thicker oil and result in less oil getting to desired parts. Pressure rises with a thicker oil. Try to draw up a milkshake thru a straw compared to a soda.

 

That fact of ECU/computer calibration is a very important thing - one can't just think of mechanical implications of viscosity, because the overall system is calibrated and managed heavily by a computer in modern cars. In general, if you feed it something the computer is not calibrated or spec'ed for, whether it matters or not is far from trivial hand-wavy speculation.

 

I’m sure we all understand the vast viscosity difference between cold and hot oil while the vvt works via computer direction, and the minuscule difference between-16 and -20 weight at hot temps. There was an actual viscosity chart somewhere here or on rav4world that showed that couple of centistoke difference, essentially overlapping between brands and synthetic/petroleum bases.

I have never seen anyone verify an owner measurable mpg difference on public roads. Maybe try the prius forums?

 

I agree it is akin to Peter's Principle in business "People rise to their level of incompetence."

Which is why I make an attempt to help people on this forum, some of which a don't know how to even read their manual and lookup information.

Peace to all. Enjoy you Lexus NXs


YMMV,
MidCow3

 

Update on this guys. Due to work during weekdays I had to setup an appointment during the weekend for replacing the wrong oil with 0W16. I know it was only a week to tell if there was any difference I could see with 0W20 in my car but finally the dealer replaced the my car with the right oil. Life is great folks. Have a nice weekend.

 

Glad you got it changed. While many in the forums often cite their opinions (possibly well-informed, but then few cite hard data, and they don't own your car) - to me, the problem here wasn't that non-0w16 put in, but it was done by a dealer. The whole point of going to a dealer, is to get textbook-spec'ed oil, one would imagine - otherwise, I would rather take it to my trusted mechanic who specifies the correct brand and grade of oil in their invoice. The fact it was so slipshod for a simple oil-change by the dealer, was the problem - although perhaps not shocking. I'm just glad I never purchased their "maintenance package" pushed by the finance guy at mine [./end sarcasm]

 

Absolutely 💯. You spoke my mind ✌️