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I drove the car to Reno Nevada for the holidays and it ran perfect. Such an amazing car. I put on some new Michelin A/S 3+ tires and wow what a difference! Had no issues driving in the snow either. I managed to get 24mpg on the way there with mostly freeway and 32mpg on the way back with mostly downhill roads which was impressive.
I finally got home yesterday and I drove the car this morning with no issues. It’s now in the evening and as expected, the low engine oil light finally came on. It’s been 1,100 miles since my last oil change and the fluid level right now is hard to read I have to wait til it gets cold but so far it looks the same to me honestly. I think it might be because my driveway is on an incline which might’ve triggered the low engine oil but not sure yet. I will check the fluid level in a few hours.
On another note, warranty didn’t accept my claim for burning oil because 1qt every 1K miles is considered “normal.” In addition, fine print says also states they won’t replace/fix anything until the part has 100% failed/broken... so basically nothing can be done about the blue smoke or oil consumption... my fault for not reading the fine print. Oh well.
I also bought an OBD scanner and will be uploading the report for my car here later when I get the chance but so far there’s no codes and everything checks out.
Blue smoke means burning oil. Do you know the past history of the car? Do a blow down test.
It was used and abused as expected from any loaner car. It was also garaged for a whole year from 2016-2017 according to the Carfax. No changes in mileage so the oil sat for long time before it got changed. Besides that, the car was well taken care of by Lexus. They did most of the maintenance services
Also thanks guys for the suggestions. I don’t know much about cars past the basic oil change, brake change , etc. But I share all ur advice to my friend who’s more mechanically inclined
thank you, I ordered some B&G last week but still haven’t arrived. Will definitely be using it before my next oil change. I’ll keep u guys posted on the results
Checked the oil this morning while it’s cold and can’t seem to get a reading.. I always have hard time getting a reading on this car but here’s what it looks
Manufacturers usually suggest checking oil on a flat surface about 15 minutes after driving. You shouldn’t need to add any unless it’s below the low mark. Until you get through this, I would keep it under 5k rpms to make sure it doesn’t oil starve. I’m confident the B G will solve your issue.
Did the BG EPR oil treatment. Poured it in the oil crankcase, revved it up to 1.5RPM for 10 minutes, followed by an oil change. It’s now been 600 miles since the oil change and sadly it’s still burning oil. But that’s not all. I did the downhill cost then quickly accelerate test and can confirm blue smoke came out the exhaust. I actually got the whole thing on video that I’ll upload later.
My gut is telling me to sell the car but I love it too much and have already spent $1500 on new tires and mods. So right now my plan is to get my buddy who owns a certified auto shop to negotiate with my warranty company and hopefully work out a deal where they pay half and I pay half for a used engine. A rebuild will cost 2x more than an engine swap where I live and since my buddy runs the shop, he offered me a discount.
My only problem now is finding a used engine. I’m looking for 2010+ IS because I heard from someone they did a redesign on the piston rings on models 2010+. Can someone confirm?? I think mostly 06-09 models suffer from the oil consumption but not sure.. still doing research and waiting til end of the month to do the swap if the warranty approves
Sorry BG didn’t work for you. Now you know something is physically wrong. I bet a compression and leak down test would reveal the location. Water under the bridge now. I bought my car with a dented oil pan and locked motor. The junkyard motor I got was from an ‘11 and had over 120k miles. It did use oil, that is how I learned about BG. The only item I know that changed were the valve springs in 09, but most were recalled so I wouldn’t worry about that too much. I think you’ll pay $2k for a used motor, but be careful who you buy it from. Some yards will have video of it running. Otherwise it’s a crap shoot. But the good yards do tend to offer 6 month warranties. Worth it to do the water pump and plugs at the time of the swap unless they look new.
The shop will probably end up doing the searching for me and yeah it’s sort of a gamble with used engines. I just sold my old tires yesterday to this dude who happens to have the same car but a 2008 model and his had 150k miles and didn’t consume a drop of oil. But yeah thanks man, ur right to be careful with where to get it from. I certainly wouldn’t know where to even start.. But my buddy’s shop knows where to look and they’ve done engine replacements for lots of customers so I trust them.
Car-part.com or eBay. I looked long and hard for a used engine from Japan because I bought one a long time ago. But for some reason there are no used 2gr’s from Japan.
Okay so I think the BG EPR might have helped with the rotten egg smell when accelerating uphill... but can’t confirm yet. Need to drive more. But my experience was this:
I drove to this one place I normally go to WOT and the first thing I noticed was the rotten egg smell when accelerating hard up hill was gone. I did it multiple times too up the same hill I normally do it on and there was no rotten egg or burning oil smell. It actually smelled different now like burning brakes or rubber but not really. And u could really smell it was coming from the exhaust when I got out and walked to the back of the car.
But then again, today was the first time I drove it hard since the oil was changed maybe that’s why? I’ll have to drive it more to be sure.
There’s another product I saw by BG called RF-7 that’s more specifically used for reducing oil consumption in engines whereas EPR is used for increasing performance. Anyone tried this yet?
Rotten egg smell is more so unburnt fuel and pretty common in these cars. More wot runs will reduce the smell, in my experience. I still suggest compression and leak down tests. Compression could reveal a sticky ring and that RF7 might work. Leak down could reveal valve sealing issues. If it’s valve issues then it might be easier to swap.
12-27-18, 07:38 PM
