Hi Everyone

I did an oil change on a RX350 last week. Filled it with a little less than 6.5 quarts of oil fresh oil. The car has developed an oil leak towards the back of the engine....haven't been able to find the source yet. It is not from the drain bolt or the oil filter housing....I did check those.

Could I have possibly overfilled the oil? I was certain that the capacity was between 6 and 6.5 quarts. It idles smoothly and isn't burning oil. Any thoughts??

TIA

George

 

What year is your 350?

 

Could be from the camshaft. Honestly, I have had that issue in the past when overfilling. That is something I have done for compression/cooling reasons given what I do with my RX (see left).

Just keep an eye on the oil level for now.

Another thing it could be (and you have to see if it is motor oil or gear oil (has a sulfur like smell) is the transfer case if you have an AWD model. I had a repeated leak on that for years (issue existed even when I bought my RX300 used), and eventually we added a higher weight 75W140 gear oil. Then 2 months ago, when we were doing transmission, work we changed the seals on the transfer case and checked areas for possible leaks, and no issues since.

 

Isn't the oil quantity in the owner's manual? I am wondering if the 350 really has a 6-6.5 quart capacity. I am assuming that this engine is identical to the 330 except for displacement. My 05 330 takes 5 quarts.

 

Thanks Guys. I'll check the transfer case. It is an AWD version. Its also a 2007.....I wanted to be sure I didn;t screw something up before heading to the dealer

G

 

Transfer case and rear differential use about .9L each and usually the bottles of gear fluid come in about .946L or so in size.

I don't have the RX350 down here, but I am good friends with the local Toyota dealer here and I should actually go take some more peeks underneath to see the structure of the Highlander, which has an identical engine.

 

I replaced the oil on my 07 RX350 and it is a little over 6QT.

 

Check the dipstick--how simple is that, is it overful or not! Take to dealer to get fixed up

 

I always do the oil changes on the wife's 07 RX350. I put in about 6.5Q, I buy those 5Q bottles of catrol GTX and just eye it for the half mark for the last quart. The RX dipstick is really difficult to read but at 6.5 it goes almost to the full line but not quite. Ideal is about 3/4 from the low line to the full line.

 

When you changed it, did you drain from the drain plug, or did you have to remove the housing like I did because some monkey at the dealer torqued the drain plug to 4,000 ft lbs?

If it's the latter, when you take off that housing, oil gets onto all of the skid plates and goes all over the place. One of the major places it goes is to right where the transmission and engine connect.

 

Did you purchase a Toyota/Lexus oil filter kit? If so, did you install the small and large "O" rings that are part of the kit? Did you install a new crush washer for the oil drain?

 

Our dealer hasn't had any problems with the RX350's Tcase leaking yet. Yet being the key word So I doubt that is the cause. We've had plenty of the 04-06 330's with that leak, but no 350's so far.

Thats the most likely cause for your "oil leak"

When we first started getting the 350's there were several techs who weren't properly cleaning off the skid plates after they did an oil change and covered it in oil. It seemed like we were having at least one RX a day come in less than a week after an oil change with an oil leak. All it ever was was excess oil on the skid plate.