zapola6

Good Evening,

I would like to get some thoughts on oil changer intervals, for my first oil change on my recently purchased 2001 430 with 127K I installed a Bosch Premium Distance Oil Filter and filled with Pennzoil Premium Synthetic 5W30.

In my wife's 04 RX330 I have running the above and changing every 7500 or so, everything is going well with 120K.

How many of you LS owners are running synthetic and what kind of intervals are you changing?

I have seen some changing every 3K, just seems over kill to me.

Pennies for thoughts..

2001 LS430
2004 RX330

hardimen

Every 5k. synthetic oil.

jayclapp

5k, synthetic oil

AlexusAnja

Every 1k with synthetic... j/k. I do anywhere from 5-6k depending on time and how long it's been. I'm not a clock counter and the day it hits 5k I have to change the oil.

C8V6C

Every 5k. I heard you can run conventional, but syn isnt much more, so why not?

BradTank

They've done all sorts of tests, and the old "3,000 mile oil change" has shown to be a waste of oil, even with conventional oil. A lot of people still use standards from when cars still had carburetors and oil technology was nowhere near it is today.

I remember Consumer Reports did a famous test where they put conventional (non-synthetic) oil in several NYC taxicabs, inspected the engine wear under magnification before and after, did tests on the oil, etc. and basically found that even under severe duty, there was really no difference between changing your oil at 7,500 miles vs 3k miles.
http://community.seattletimes.nwsour...9&slug=2336807

For synthetic oil with a quality filter, I think 7k-8k miles between changes is still on the cautious side for a modern car.

jimbosr1

5k with reg oil.

Lynzoid

5k with toyota 5w40

toyo

I guess I'm a little ****. In my RX300 I have done 4K intervals with M1 for 340K miles. When I replaced the valve covers earlier in the year my top end was like new shape. I'm confident I won't be having an engine failure due to lubrication.

On my LS I am moving to 6K due to the fact that this engine is so much easier on oil than the 3.0 in the RX.

BTW, I do oil testing at Blackstone Labs. It's pretty knowledgable.

Stu

I used to do oil changes every 5000 miles, and have used both dino and synthetic oils. I have owned a lot of cars in the past 36 years and not one has ever had ANY work done to the engine or burned any oil between changes, so I know you won't go wrong changing oil every 5,000 miles

I recently, for no real reason decided to increase my change interval to 7,500 miles using conventional oil - car has 75,000 miles, runs great and burns no oil. I live in a big city, drive mostly city stop-and-go but really drive the car easy.

Jabberwock

same as most here - 5k, with whatever major brand of synthetic oil is on sale at Walmart when I need oil - using either a Toyota OEM or Wix premium filter. Its a $15k motor - I spend a few bucks more on the full synthetic even if dino oil is likely good enough. But I only drive 6-8k miles a year so its not a big deal to me.

Note even if you are having the dealer do your oil changes, you can still save big by bringing in your own oil and filter. My Lexus dealer was charging $12/quart for 6 quarts of M1 oil change if I bought their oil. Instead I bring in a 5 quart jug and a 1 quart container and ask for the half quart back so I can use it for next change - savings of about $45 per oil change (just by bring my own oil). My 3 year certification is up last month so I will be doing my own oil changes going forward not really to save money but becuse it gives me a chance to really look over the car and to make sure the oil change is done right.

lextout

yea but it keeps your engine cleaner

Kira X

iTrader: (24)

My step dad typically does 5,000 miles for all of his cars. On my SC300 I typically go between 3,000 and 4,000 miles. I hear if you get synthetic oil, you can go longer without an oil change than you would with conventional oil.

malrafe3i

3000miles or 5000 kn is the best like all dealers say it depends on the quality of the oil u use

sajack

I had a friend who bought one of the notorious P.O.S. Oldsmobile 350 diesels in the late seventies.
He changed the oil and filter every 1,000 miles, managed to get 100,000 miles out of that thing without a whole lot of problems. It's a wonder he didn't wear out the threads in the oil pan.