HerMekanic

The HS250 is wifey's car. Last time at the dealer they told her future oil changes would be $90 because they have started using a 'special' oil, whatever the hell that is.
Are we talking about making a simple decision to use synthetic or what? Anyone else have more on this?

Thanks in advance.
Bob

Magellan55

Sounds hokey to me. Just had my 5k done - they used 0W20 synthetic, and the service guy said an oil change runs about $65. That's still high, but I figured that includes the lexus markup for Starbucks and cushy waiting room

I can't imagine the 2.4l engine requires anything more special than a turbo engine, which just takes syn.

moolman

It's special oil because the HS is one of the first cars to use 0W-20 synthetic oil. The oil is changed every 10K now instead of 5K and the reason they justify it is because they are using a synthetic. Looking at the oil analysis at BITOG it looks like the engine should be well protected at 10K using the 0W-20 synthetic so nothing to worry about. Just less money wasted and better for the environment.

Remember that the oil schedule was changed in our cars so we just get a general check up and tire rotation at 5K and the first oil change is at 10K, contrary to what the old manual says.

I've always done the oil changes myself on my Lexus because Lexus has the highest mark ups for oil changes. Nothing says you can't just take the car to an independent garage and get the oil changed. The HS is pretty easy because it uses the canister filters still, not the filter only filter, where you just change out the media inside. It makes oil changes a lot easier. While it wasn't too bad changing out the oil in my old GS and the RX were made more difficult by the media only filters.

MG512

Do you have to use synthetic oil in the HS? I use conventional oil in both of my RX 400h models and they're both hybrid cars.

moolman

Magnuson–Moss Warranty Act gives you certain rights as to what oil you can use in the car and where you can get an oil change.

Do you have to use synthetic in the HS? No, not really but I wouldn't change the oil every 10K like they recommend then, I would do the 5K. They could only void your warranty and only for the engine, if the engine happened to fail because you didn't use synthetic for the 10K oil change interval. But realistically the chances of the engine failing even if you used regular dino at 10K is slim to none.

So what Lexus recommends for the HS is 0W-20 synthetic changed every 10K. I believe the HS and the new 2010 RX are like this. Not sure if any other 2010's got the change. The old recommendation was regular dino oil changes at 5K so that's what our manuals say unless you got the updated one sent to you. Lexus updated the oil change intervals of the HS to 10K since they started using "special oil" which is just synthetic.

I would just go with what they recommend, why mess it. The oil analysis on BITOG support it too. 0W-20 can do 10K easily especially in a hybrid engine. If you want to do regular dino at 5K, the engine will last just as long.

JamesDemo

My dealer give new car owners FREE life time oil changes when needed and free car washes as often as you want to go. They vacuum your car and you drive through and they hand dry it.
They call this "platinum service club" with some other discounts. I always thought it was just a part of Lexus.

hyperme

Free lifetime oil changes? Sweet! We get the carwash and vacuum treatment everytime you take it in, but pay for the oil changes. We do get free lifetime oil changes on the toyota though.

Canesguy

How did you manage to do the synthetic oil change at 5K mileage? Did you pay for it yourself? They refused to do my first oil change until I have 1 yr./10K mileage.

Craig B

My 2007 LS 460 has always used 0W 20 full synthetic oil. Back then, Lexus said every 6 months or every 5,000 miles. For 2010 Lexus says, once a year, or every 10,000 miles.
On my GX 460 it also uses OW 20 full synthetic and Lexus says once a year, or every 10,000 miles. I will change my oil every 5000 miles with 0W 20 full synthetic. Most of the time, I take my cars to Toyota. My Lexus dealer is 120 miles away each direction. Toyota is much cheaper for an oil change. Toyota has the oil and filters in stock. Don't forget the crush washer for the drain plug. Walmart also carries 0W 20 Mobil 1 full synthetic. Toyota oil is Mobil 1 packaged for Toyota/Lexus...

moolman

I think changing your oil every 5K with synthetic is a waste of money but if it makes you feel better go for it. I'm not just saying to blindly follow a maintainence schedule but plenty of oil analysis on sites like BITOG, prove that you can go 10K easily without hurting the engine in anyway. Changing your oil at 5k is a waste of money and also hurts the environment more for no reason. I would stick to the 5k for the 2007 because of the warranty but for the 2010 10K is good.

Magellan55

My guess is they hadn't heard of the new service interval. If someone here can send me a link to the new policy, I'd like to try taking it in to them at 10k and say "thanks for changing my oil before it needed to at 5k, now give me my free 10k oil change".

Someone asked about using dino oil on the HS. I'm not sure there's a good reason to use synthetic (on turbo cars, the oil needs to lube the turbo bearings, which get real hot and will coke dino oil, but I can't think if an equivalent high-temp issue on the HS), other than you can get lower viscosity oil for less engine friction. I'm pretty sure you can't get 0W20 in dino oil, so if you use, say, 5W30 dino, your gas mileage will not be as good.

Magellan55

I'm not sure what to believe on this. My 2001 Saab turbo had 10k oil change intervals, so that's what I did. But around 120k miles, my turbo seals started to go. The dealer said it was common for cars that didn't change the oil every 5k. Reason he gave was that the oil may last that long, but oil gets dirty over time, dino or synthetic, and 10k was just too long to let dirt accumulate. Plus additives tend to break down too, so they are less effective the longer you go between changes. It was rear-ended and totalled before I spent the $1400 on the new turbo, but looking back, I'm not sure it was worth the few hundred saved on oil changes if it results in big $$ repairs down the road.

So now I'm on the fence - I might do 5k oil changes anyway, though I don't plan to keep this car too long so maybe not.

YotaCarFan

The "oil maintenance required" warning appeared on my meter cluster exactly when I hit 5000 miles. It would make sense for them to update the car's ECM firmware to only display the nag screen every 10k miles.

Regarding synthetic oil being required: I don't see this specified in the new maintenance book (I just pulled a copy down from drivers.Lexus.com) or under the hood - the engine's oil cap just specifies "0W20". Where is this recommended or mandated?

MG512

I always change the RXs every 5k because I used conventional oil in them. Sometimes I'd run 1k over at most though if I didn't have a chance to go somewhere to have the oil changed. I did it just because of the markup on synthetic oil; it didn't seem worth the price to me and the mechanic told me it was really personal preference as the synthetic would last longer. I never changed my oil at Lexus except for the first time since that one was free. After that I just went to a Mobil or some place similar and had the change done there. As far as the HS goes I'll probably stick with the synthetic but I'm not too concerned with the warranty as I have a 39 month lease and I can turn it in 6 months early (no penalty, no more lease payments) if I buy/lease another Lexus.

moolman

You can't really think of engine oil in the sense that there is dirt in it. Yeah, it's dirty so there's contaminents but any oil that still didn't break down will protect the engine just as well as new oil. I don't think the reason that your seals went bad was because of the oil change interval but I guess you could of done an oil analysis to see if oil breakdown was present.

As of now there really isn't a non-synthetic 0W-20 so you have to use synthetic but even dino in all reality can go 10K without problems in these engines. So going 6K-10K is not going to harm the engine. The best way to find out are oil analysis and there is enough proof to show that even dino can easily do 10K. Why use synthetic because you just want to. Why do I drink bottled water instead of brita, cause I want to even though both are the same. Well, I guess bottled could be cleaner, just like synthetic could last longer.

Bottomline, the engine will last longer than the car if you just follow the instructions.