frebay

Couple of questions

Do you guys suggest doing an oil change at the dealer or anywhere is fine?

In my previous cars, I've used synthetic. Good idea to continue or just a waste of money?

How often should i do an oil change? Manual said 5k, but I always did 3k.

frebay

bump for a response.

lexuslover

in all my years with multiple Lexus vehicles, i always did the 5k interval and it was great. never any problems, and fewer trips to the dealer. other vehicle makes suggest 3k, but i think it's a waste. plus, that would have me back at the dealer every other month, which is a pain.

for some reason the BMW's with included maint don't have to be serviced for 10k-12k (but i suppose if you bought one without the maint they would suggest you bring it in every 3k )

GammaLex

If you know how to do it yourself you might aswell. That way you can use your own synthetic and save a couple bucks or just bring your own oil to the dealer. They'll knock off a couple of bucks for mot using there oil. If you are using synthetic you can go upto 5,000 miles between changes. Theres no point in every 3,000 mile even with dino.

frebay

if i were to switch over to synthetic, i would have to do it asap, since older engines that used regular oil shouldn't be switched over to synthetic.

spwolf

thats not really true... You can switch anytime really, we Europeans are using synthetic forever now, even on older cars.

I would use synthetic, and change it at longest that manual suggest - since in reality, you should be more than ok with 10k oil changes...

lhn5

I think the recs from Lexus on my 2001 IS 300 were for every 5000 miles....I have fed it synthetic since it was born every 7500 with no problems...and now it has 165000 miles. It will soon pass on to another family member and I will get the gs300.

chuckb

I have dealer change every 3k at most. better safe than sorry. It takes me 6 months to put 3k on my GS though, and that factors in too.

my ES, however gets changed every 3500-5000mi at Toyota dealer, no probs.

to me, the fact that the GS is a 300hp high perf V8, and the ES is a 188hp family car also factor in.

osx-addict

I think this comes from the old addage that if you were to do this switch on a 1980 Chevy V8 that it would likely start leaking oil from the places that the old dino-oil had clogged up over the years as those engines weren't nearly as precise as the engines available today are.. I had a Chevy like that and it leaked oil from every nook and cranny -- just a drop here and a drop there..

However, I suspect it's fine on any newer vehicle.. I've currently been using synthetic (Mobil 1) in all of my cars and will continue to do so on my new GS300..

SYROB

Everyone is overlooking one major point, the GS 300 has almost 7 quarts of oil, so it will last a little longer than what most people are used to...

7-10k should be OK with the NEW Mobil one extended performance oil...

SYROB

frebay

what does the dealer put in? synthetic or garbage generic stuff?

mmarshall

Unless you drive in the Desert Southwest in summertime at 115-120-plus temperatures or the Upper Midwest in winter with well-below-zero temperatures, IMO synthetic oil is not needed for most of the country, most of the time. The most important single factor, no matter what oil and filter you use, is to keep it changed....every 3-5 months and 3000-5000 miles.

chuckb

neither-good ole castrol gtx