Noob4Lexus

Freshly minted 2000 ES300 owner here. Looks like I’ve found a good community!

My car has 96k miles on it. Previous owner claimed he changed it “every 4k miles”. I have no way of verifying this, but as an older gentlemen I think he was more likely to follow the standard regular intervals. He was very keen to mention how he “didn’t use that synthetic crap” due to cost. “$60 for an oil change? I paid $21.85 at my local shop” … I’m sure they used some quality oil :P

Given the fact that this car has the notorious 3.0L, and that the oil was regularly changed, but not necessarily with quality… I’m wondering what’s a good way to proceed for initial ownership maintenance.

I’ve read that running sludge removal products is a bad idea… and I tend to agree. I was considering running half a quart of Marvel Mystery Oil or similar product for the first 3 changes or so, and to change the oil at sooner intervals (2k miles) in order to sort of clean out the gunk that I can. Obviously, this makes me fear clogging any of the fine oil passages the engine might have.

Does synthetic oil have similar detergents / cleaning capabilities? If I were to switch to synthetic immediately, would that prevent future sludging issues from arising? My basic question is: Do I try running some cleaners on shorter intervals, or do I just switch to synthetic and call it a day?

The gentleman also stated he never changed the timing belt … I suppose I’ll need to do that as well. Hopefully this isn’t too much of an undertaking? If so, what other items do you recommend changing / addressing with the timing belt change on this vehicle?

Thanks for the help everyone!

-K

808mcv20l

Conventional oil what's that? I've only used Full Synthetic on my cars for the last 15 years of driving. Always done my own oil changes.

I've run mostly Mobil1, some Amsoil here and there.

I also own a 2000 ES300 bought it from the original owner last June. We've been mostly a Honda/Toyota family. My previous car was a 99 Camry V6, my mom has it now, my sister owns a 98 Camry V6 and mom's last 2 cars were also Camrys.

We've never had a problem with sludge but we do change our oil pretty religiously.

I doubt any Synthetic oil will remove sludge if you have it present, but it's less likely to leave sludge unlike conventional oil.

I've run about 4 ounces of marvel mystery oil on my last oil change, just to be conservative.

Someone mentioned and I think it's a great idea, is that you can put Marvel mystery or any engine flush of choice run it for about 15mins, leave it idling, then proceed to do your normal oil change. This should remove any chance of sludge in the engine.

Other things to note on these cars, change your ATF fluid, the 99-01s have an electro mechanical transmissions that can be prove to failure if the fluid isn't changed regularly. Use Vavoline Maxlife ATF or Amsoil Signature Series.

Other things owners usually do, Leaky Valve Cover seals, dirty EGR/IACV, change your rear spark plugs if you do a valve cover gasket job.

Timing Belt, isn't for the faint of heart, I just got through this job on my mom's 99. There's quite a bit of specialty tools you need and that crank bolt is on there really tight. I bought an impact gun just for this job.

Cams/crank seals tend to leak on these cars so while you're in there for the timing belt make sure those are changed.

Other problems I've seen owners on there run into, Knock sensors, and Oil Control Valves.

Otherwise these cars are pretty reliable, and fun to drive with decent power.