Hi Guys.

Today I had my first service of 5000 miles. So I added the oil change (0W16) service where the price was comparable at this dealer compared to local mechanics and Toyota dealer as well. So after the service was done, I saw 0W20 clearly indicated on the invoice and I stopped right there without signing anything. (see below picture)



I told the cashier that you guys used the wrong oil and I’m not paying for it. The guy said please talk to the service advisor. I went to my service advisor and told him the situation. He said “ that’s what your car requires”. I said “ Uh, NO! My car requires 0W16 and took him to the car and opened my engine hood to show him TA-DA”. The guy immediately flipped and said “ Oh, let me be back real quick I’ll explain it to you”. I was like OKAY. After 5-10 mins of running back and forth, he comes to me with a recommendation from Lexus saying it’s okay to substitute 0W20 for 0W16 more than one service interval due to shortage of parts which overrides the manual recommendation as shown below.


So I was like I know owners manual says it’s okay to substitute 0W20 temporarily but I told him that I don’t believe there is shortage of 0W16 anymore. The dealer clearly used 0W20 because that’s what they have on the lot. So I had the service director come to me and we went over like 15 mins of it’s ok vs it’s not ok for me etc. The verdict is guys I have taken in writing from the service director that nothing will happen to the car since they have used a different oil but I wasn’t happy with that and I demanded they change the oil to 0W16.

Question is am I taking it too seriously by demanding them flush the oil they have used and use the right oil OR should I just stay chill and use 0W20? Thanks in advance for your input.

 

Yeah, Lexus service seems to be going downhill. I used to take my IS250 in and pay $50 just so I could have it on the service history that it had the correct oil the whole time. It costs $30 for 5 Qts of 0-16W on Amazon, probably half that with their bulk costs.

 

That’s exactly the only reason I went with Lexus too. It’s good to have a track record of service and maintenance from a Lexus dealer. But if this is case, I don’t know anymore.

 

This is deplorable on the part of the dealer - and I will take Mobil 1 0W16 with me to my oil change as WellsB here plans to do.

By any chance did this happen at any Bay Area dealer ? I would like to avoid the dealer you had this experience with for my service, if the experience was in the Bay Area.

I will let others who know more comment about the oil quality implications, however, a dealer's behavior like this is not acceptable - it must be a really poorly managed dealership. I'm trying to survey forum members on which dealerships in the Bay Area who can be trusted based good management.

 

This is a SoCal dealer in Orange County. Not in Bay Area. But will appreciate your sharing this information to see if anyone experienced this similar situation.

 

The manager’s written statement was unnecessary since your receipt shows what oil the dealer put in it. 0W/20 is fine. That’s what I put in daughter’s 2018 RAV4 which also has 0W/16 written on the oil cap. The primary drive towards thinner viscosity oil is to increase fuel economy, not engine performance. While it does better on cold weather starting, that is not the primary reason. That being said, the dealer should have notified you 0/16 was unavailable before putting it in. Note, 0W/8 is now being used in certain Toyota vehicles, like my other daughter’s 2024 Corolla. That oil is hard to find on the shelfs. 0/16 can be used in it’s place according to Toyota.

 

I totally agree with you. That’s exactly what I told the service director when he was trying to justify they knew what they were doing. I told them “I’m frustrated because over phone, at the dealership and before starting the service/ oil change, you guys haven’t even mentioned that you don’t have 0w16” That’s what’s I’m disappointed at. I got furious when the service advisor without thinking for second telling me that my NX350h uses 0W20. I developed an impression that they don’t know what they are doing with a simple oil change what else did they do to my car. Either way, I think I’ll sleep better if they change to 0W16. But it is good to know 0W20 is safe to be substituted for 0W16.

 

The reason for thinner oil is fuel economy, not engine protection. Personally I plan to use 0w20 and not think twice about it.

 

Doesn't it also offer more protection at cold starts?

 

You will be just fine with 0W20. Your mpg MAY be a bit less, but this is it. In fact, I know some people use 5W30 on aging engines that originally require 0W20, especially when engine starts burning oil (European cars). No harm done.

 

Maybe extremely cold, but for most of us it won’t matter.

Ive sent in dozens of oil samples to Blackstone, and the variance for viscosity is +\- 3 or 4 anyway.

 

In modern designed engines the tolerances have tightened up quite a bit. If you use a thicker oil than recommended the thicker oil takes longer to reach into those extremely tight areas thus creating excessive wear and oil starvation of said areas which can result in damaged parts. (bearings, cam shafts, piston rings, etc....)

Fastest way to void a warranty is to use the wrong weight oil, my best friend a shop supervisor at a major dealership for over 30 years has voided many a warranty just for this.

And they do test the oil when suspect.

Its the lowest paid employee, oil changer, tire rotation etc, that can and will do the most damage to a car, next to the owner.

He's seen it all the time.

Mobil 1 0w16 and 0W20 is readily available at Walmart all day long.

My 19 UX used 0W16 and my 23 NX uses 0W20, and I never vary. Why would anyone do it differently?

 

That sounds good, except the thinner oil also bleeds away from those areas quicker than thicker oil. And piston rings lol. Do you understand how oil gets to piston rings? Hint, it isn’t pumped. How many engines have you assembled?

 

Quite a few.
And yes I understand how oil gets to the rings, it’s called the oil control ring, bottom ring.

 

You sort of summed up my thought process when I was there at the dealership service yesterday. Like the guy who did the service might have just blindly followed a chart or something developed as an instruction manual for the rookies to see the name of the car and use the oil per their sheet instead of looking at what the oil cap says. Again I’m just sharing my thoughts with the experience I had due to their dishonesty. I personally would have said no if they mentioned “Sir, we are currently running out of 0W16 and are you ok with it”. And they haven’t.

On top of that when I confronted the service advisor that they have used the wrong oil and he confidently stated “That’s what your car uses”. That clearly indicates they haven’t even bothered looking at the oil cap or even for the worse part, they don’t know what they are doing. I remembered he said after looking at the oil cap 0W16 indication, this guy is like “I’m not an oil expert but I know 0W20 & 0W16 are pretty much same though I don’t know what 16 means”. I was like “Bruh!!!!!!”