greatone99

so the oil change interval on is 350 is 10000, i put only 4000 miles a year should i chenge every year no matter the milage i put on

drbazing

My rule is every 5k miles on full synthetic oil. You can always check the health of your oil with the dip stick.

redraptor

I believe its every 10k or once a year, whichever comes first.

I plan to change the oil once a year as I do not hit 10k within a year.

timmy0tool

iTrader: (7)

sounds excessive but better early than late. once a year under 10k miles works.

Jbreezie

It is excessive unless you live in a really dusty climate or you're racing it all the time. I used to be one of those believers myself but I figured the Lexus engineers know more than me!

gmanusmc

You're kidding, right? Just how do you check the "health" of your oil with the dipstick? You can check the "level" of the oil with the dipstick, but to determine the actual condition of your oil would require a used oil analysis done by a competent lab equipped to do a proper analysis.

gmanusmc

+1

This is what is recommended by Lexus.

Swacer

lol, not a car guy, are you?

You can absolutely look at your dip stick and tell the condition of your oil and if there are any issues with your motor.

While the analysis would "help", you're far from handicapped without it.

OP, make sure the oil is changed at least once a year, regardless how many mile you drive.

bhvrdr

While I agree that looking at your oil on the dipstick can point to things like blown head gaskets if it is milky or foamy but otherwise it is bad advice to suggest that looking at oil will be able to tell if it needs to be changed. A lot of people will falsely assume they should change darker looking oil when in reality a darker oil may have plenty of life left and is just doing its job removing contaminates. Yes, I agree, change the oil every 10K miles or one year, whichever comes sooner.

Mike

Swacer

I have my own ways to doing it, I am not suggesting that the average joe starts looking at his oil and judging.

4TehNguyen

iTrader: (1)

if you are unsure, do a TBN test at blackstone labs. Ive seen some real dark oil that I've sent out for testing and it still had TBN for another couple thousand miles.

gmanusmc

While I don't profess to be an expert on motor oil, and not sure of what your definition of a "car guy" is (do most of my own routine maintenance, etc and have done it for years), I think you're the one that might need a little education, at least on the subject of motor oil.

Sure, there are SOME things that will give you a hint that something might be going on by visually checking the oil on the dipstick, but the statement was you can tell the "health," and you can't definitively determine that by just looking at the oil without having it properly analyzed. I suppose you're in the camp that believes your oil is shot if it has turned dark, which is not the case.

If you don't already, you might want to visit bobistheoilguy.com - there's a wealth of info on car maintenance there from a lot of folks who exchange advice and enjoy doing their own work on their vehicles (like me).

IC350

Since we are talking about oil change. I had my 10k service done, so I can wait unit 20k to get my oil change again so i can skip my 15k service ?

Zman1

It does not say synthetic in the manual. 10k miles is a lot of miles on non-synthetic oil. I think I may change mine at 200 miles on the first oil change as that has to have the most debris due to break-in.

sdotk

I may compromise and do it every 7500 miles lol. I drive about 15-17k miles a year