Avmanager

I know that the Dealer recommends oil Change after the first 6 months for the break in period, but I was wondering on thoughts of stretching it out due to low mileage. Didn't realize how little my wife drove until I was watching the Mileage on her GX460. She has had it 3 months now and it has 650 miles on it. At this rate at 6 months, it is going to have 1200 miles on it......

hzhao

I always done my first oil change at 1000 miles. to flush out all the initial metal and other engine internal particles out. Just for general break-in practice (although newer cars has no longer required specifically), I would drove it more often in various speed and conditions as much as possible rather than have the car sit around.

BradTank

I've heard all sorts of theories, some say get it out in the first 1,000 miles because of the metal particles. That was the old school way. But I've also heard they put a special "break in" oil from the factory and you want to make sure it gets a chance to properly wear before removing it. I'd love an engineer to say definitively.

I had mine changed at like 6,000 miles. Early than suggested but not by much.

I think though the era where that was crucial was on older cars where the manufacturing tolerances weren't as tight. My guess is if you follow the manufacturers instructions and just do a normal oil change interval the engine will still run forever.

cp2009

I would lean towards the oil still being fine, the dealer has to lean towards caution and of course wants you to bring the car to service more often than not. They may also be passing on this recommendation from Toyota as well.

Modern manufacturing techniques have progressed to the point where you're not going to get a bunch of metal shavings in your first oil change anymore. Some manufacturers pre-lube engine components during assembly with molybdenum to reduce friction on initial startup. This assembly lube gets mixed into the oil as the engine operates. Some manufacturers even break in the engine before installing it into the car, albeit it's rare.

I work as a ME consultant for Honda and the initial oil change will look a bit different (thick and a bit grey) but has no effect on operation as far as I know.

Nickk6

^same here, cheap insurance IMO, I changed mine at about 1,000 also

coolsaber

I think only Honda confirmed their special add package to the breakin oill. I havent seen anything on the Lexus side about special additives.

To the OP
If you leased, I guess ignore
If you buy depends. An oil change wont break the bank to get done early especially if your car is clocking low mileage aka less time to rid the oil of moisture and breakin material. However catastrophic engine failure probably wont occur unlike leaving in oil unchanged for 20k miles

Avmanager

Thank you for all the helps. It will be at about 1K miles when it hits 6 months, so that should time out pretty good to take it in for its oilchange