anyone have an idea how many hours of labor is needed to replace the rear main seal...mine is leaking

 

My 92 ES300 has about 285,000 miles on it, and it still runs fine. Tranny is fine, and so is the engine. Still push it hard, and it pulls strong.

 

haha just realized that i just voted on a poll from over a year ago

 

Hey guys
Great thread! My Lexus has 87K miles on it. Do you recommend I switch? Seems many folks who switched at high mileages are talking way over 100K. If I'm at 87K should I switch to Mobil 1? My mercedes uses it but the engine was designed for it; as far as I know, these engines we have are designed for dino oil (or at least, they come that way from the factory). So I'm concerned about leaking problems down the road.

Something to note, my wife drives the ES300 and normally only puts about 5 miles per day on the car as her commute is very short. We usually use my car for road trips and when we go places together. So i'm not sure if these short "city driving' trips alter anyone's opinion on whether or not the switch to synth will be better or worse?

My oil change is Friday so let me know...I told my mechanic I wanted to do synth but I just left a message, I will talk to him about feedback I receive here once I get it.

 

If you currently have no oil leaks to speak of......you will be just fine to switch to synthetics.....it's total BS that some say switching to synthetic causes oil leaks.

 

it's actually a fact that the type of synthetic oil , like what's in Mobil 1, does better job of swelling the gaskets. Meaning, it's better at preventing leaks in the first place. it's also better in general, and is optimal for the 1mz-fe oil gel engines since it doesnt have the viscosity modifiers to break down and accelerate oil gel / sludge which then causes engine failure

I'm about to stick ext service 10w30 Mobil 1[the long service interval one is supposed to have even more phosphorus than the regual syn version, means better valvetrain wear properties] in my engine and stick with that brand and weight till it dies. I'm just running a engine flush out schedule due to recent job i did on it. gonna do 5000 mile oil changes on it, just to keep it as pristine as it looked when i was looking at it.

valvoline max life is also awesome

 

I say go synthetic and don't worry about it.
My ES now has 247K miles an the engine feels so smooth.
Just like it was new and I think I could get 100-200K more.

I would suggest only getting the standard Mobil 1 synthetic and not the extended 15K mile one. Just too long of an interval.

 

thanks, guys.

on the flip side, what are the cons of not switching to synthetic? i'm sure plenty of people, if vigilant about oil changes, are just fine using dino oil for years w/ this engine, thoughts?

 

oil gel and varnish tend to build up more so with conventional

oceanview, the reason to go with extended in a healthy engine is because frequent oil changes have been shown to cause more engine wear, oil changing all the time is bad for the environment in several ways, it's not worth the expense, and most important to me [and im not doing 15000 miles per change since my engine is not new anymore] is that the extended has more zinc / phosphorus [i think it's called ZDDP ] that they stopped putting into oil. it's a crucial compound for wear, known to be excellent for the valvetrained. the oil companies put 75% less in there in 2005 than they do in 1996. it goes down all the time. API rating:
SJ > SL > SM as far as that is concerned. if you look, and you see energy conserving in the API circle, DONT get that oil since it is likely highly deficient. If it is missing, that is like code language for the discerning buyer that it's got more of compound like ZDDP in it :>

I'm pretty sure mobil 1 ext serv 10w30 is NOT "energy conserving"-rated
I think the mobil 1 10w-40 is NOT "evergy conserving", it's also not extended service, but here's the story. just like the ext service mobil 10w30, it also has more ZDDP and stuff because european engines particularly are known to rev up and strain their valve train. they even put ''european formula'' on the bottle front fascia so that people get the hint. :>

hope that clears some things up

 

The pro's far out number the cons when switching to synthetic. Cost would be one factor to consider with synthetic being more expensive......however, if you can reduce the amount of oil changes you do (IE take advantage of synthetic oil for extended drains.... and go every 6 months or 6k+ miles which is no problem at all) your ahead in both time & money because you would only need to do 2 oil/filter changes per year. Always use a top quality oil filter as well.

 

as of now, it's made of 0.1 % phosphorus , according to their website. that's is considered good enough. decade ago, it was a little bit more.

it may go down in the future. it is probably wise to stock up on it a little bit.

 

Which oil is this for?

As for me I have been changing the oil/filter every 7500 miles.
It's more than double what most people think is the recommended interval but the car is just fine. The drained oil is not too dirty.