Why do lexus say the oil is lifetime?

 

I did both my front and rear diffs earlier this year at around 46k KM. I got a 2015 IS350 and I figured the Canadian winters probably did a number on them. I asked to watch the tech do it and dealership complied. We saw the fluid come out together and honestly, it was a little dirty but it definitely could have gone longer. Either way, it wasn't expensive and now I got peace of mind for another 4 years. I did not notice a difference in driving quality after changing it though, so don't expect to feel anything different.

 

Partially I think it's to compete with the other manufacturers who are offering the same "lifetime" promise.
I'm not a fan of this "lifetime" fluid fad...nothing lasts forever in my opinion.
Plus...with temperature swings where I am, it can be -40 Celsius in January and 35 Celsius in July...so the fluid really takes a beating.
Maybe somewhere in the world there is a place with optimum temperatures that the fluid can last a very long time...but nothing is lifetime.
And really, what does lifetime mean...the life of the car?...the life of me?

 

I did my front and rear diff, and transmission (which includes the Transfer case) at 5 years/50,000kms. I don't drive the car much...it's a 2014 IS250 F Sport Series 2 (August 2013 production).
I only have 60,000kms on it now, and it's now 6 years old.
The tech at Lexus (my buddy) said it was definitely time to change it when he drained the diff's.

 

So is it the same for is300h? Its a uk and Japanese hybrid

 

I was looking into using Motul 75W-90 or 75-90LS... not sure which is better. Is this fluid over kill?

Fun fact, dealership is asking $170 for rear diff fluid change. The breakdown showed fluid only being less than $10 whereas labor was the rest of it. Yea yea I know, never go to dealership, but still fascinates me to see their pricing.

 

What did they charge you? Seems to be about $90 per diff here, but that seems rather steep for a simple drain-and-fill, no matter how much the fluid costs. I'm at 70K and will probably do one at the next two oil changes, about every 6 months.

 

They hit me with $65/differential. Not great, I know, but for something I could do once every 4 years it's not bad.

 

That's not bad at all...considering the fluid is likely over $10 a litre, and they probably charged 2 litres out, really it's just $40 labor.

 

20 minutes sounds reasonable for a simple re-and-re. Getting the car up and down off the lift should take more time than simply removing and replacing a plug and fluid, especially when you can multi-task it. Half an hour for both together should be more than enough.

 

Are you suggesting diff fluid should be changed every 50,000 kms?

 

In a nutshell...yes

 

Has anyone done a blackstone oil analysis in these cars? Visual appearance is not a good indication of wear.