Sadly the owners manual is 8000km/5000mi for oil changes

 

The ticking noise could have been from you not having enough/fresh oil in the engine.

Especially if the noise became less noticeable after the recent oil change.

Hence why I change my own oil.

Worst case, the first free oil change probably did not happen like they promised.

It happens, sometimes the salesperson promise one thing and it does not happen when you buy the car.

 

The dash light reminder is set for 5000 because the tires should be rotated that often. As it was early in the transition to Synthetic Oil for Lexus the screen still read oil change but all the manuals referred to the 10k mile
interval. Caused a bit of confusion when they were new that continues today.

 

My previous 2004 had the ticking noise that I thought the RX had a diesel engine.:-)

The 2011 sounds quieter to me and I hardly hear the ticking noise that plagued the 2004. I hear more of the low hum noise on lower gears and speeds which sounds like an exhaust issue. However, the dealer hasn't mentioned anything about a leaky exhaust. So if ain't broke ...

It is indeed 8K km oil changes for us Canucks, which, for us in the snow belt, is probably a cheap insurance for a reliable vehicle.