My RX-350 just celebrated its first birthday. Just hit 15k miles.

My dealer said that city driving is considered severe service and recommends oil change at 5k miles.

Actually, my one-way commute is about 20 miles on the Capitol Beltway in Washington DC. Most of the time I'm at freeway speeds, but it can get bogged down, maybe a third of the time.

I had oil changes at 5k and 10k miles. Now the dashboard is nagging me for another oil change. The dealer clearly have a vested interest in me coming in twice as often, but does their advice make sense?

 

With the synthetic oil I understand it can go 10k between changes. I understand your situation and would not necessarily agree with your dealer. I would probably go a least 7500 miles between changes. The dealers set the little reminder somehow. I assume it can be set for any mileage.

 

I was also told that with synthetic oil we can change every 10K miles. But how do we know if the original engine oil from the factory is synthetic or not?

 

It is.
0w20 made by Mobil/Exxon synthetic for Toyota.
I'm doing 7500 mile changes on the Camry and once a year(5-6K miles) on the RX.

 

Being I don't put on 10,000 miles a year I get my oil changed just once a year.

 

lies. off roading is considered severe driving per lexus manual.

 

I'm surprised you guys go so long between oil changes, i change it every 4500 with semi synthetic, i guess 10k oil changes are jsut another positive of new cars.

 

It was every 5,000 miles before but now has changed to every 10k.

 

If that's the case, then I guess I should be changing mine every 5K. My daily commute is about 16 miles a day, all city, stop and go, no speed over 35 MPH. I will ask my SA when I'm there next week. She'll probably laugh at me.

BTW, happy birthday to your RX

 

In Canada (severe?) the service manual rec every 8km km or 6 months for an oil change so thats what I do. I havent checked what the dealer puts in but Id assume its fully synth.

 

8k km is roughly 5k miles, which was the original recommendation. But a few months after I bought it I got a letter saying that after testing, Lexus now recommends a 10k interval between changes. Except in cases of severe service, which is my quandry right now.

I'm inclined to split the difference, go with a 7.5k interval. Now I got to figure out how to turn off that nagging dashboard...

 

I have mine oil changed at 5k and 10k and both are compliments of Lexus so they are FREE. Now SA said that I need a 15k service interval (no oil change but for tire rotations, air filter, cabin air..... and what not), quoted $~326. Do I really need this? Can I wait until 20k and do them all at once?

On mine 2011 Camry SE, toyota asks to have tire rotates at 5k but not oil change until 10k since they use sync now.

 

Or you could take it into a "Toyota" dealership and have all the work done for < $ 200.
That quote seems very high for the real work that needs to be performed (inspections take very little time). Edmunds estimate of cost.

http://www.edmunds.com/car-maintenan...5000&zip=97470

 

Might as well just get a blackstone used oil analysis, it cost 20-30 bucks and tell you exactly whats going on and how long you can actually go.

Dealers really need to do it like McDonalds and start doing it all the same way, I hate how one dealer to another is so different

 

Pohanka swears it is only 10k oil changes. I am going to get the free oil change at 10k and do the rest myself probably at 5k-7500k intervals. Now how do we reset all the stupid maintenance warnings?