I live in the tropics, much warmer here. I crossed my fingers on the hesitation not on the choice of 0W40.

 

I have a 2007 LS that had the hesitation problem immediately after an oil change. Before the last oil change I had just had the ecu update and had added a pint of Seafoam to the oil a few hundred miles before. Using a Toyota filter and Toyota 0w20 synthetic, there was no hesitation at all afterward.

Did another oil change today with the Toyota filter and 0w20 toyota synthetic. I had again run a pint of Seafoam in the oil for about 300 miles before this oil change. There is no hesitation at all today. I'm very happy with this result and plan to repeat at 5,000 mile intervals.

This car had 38k miles when I bought it a year ago. It will turn 60k in a few days. I'm one of those fools who trades cars often but this old Lexus rides and drives so well I'm likely keeping it at least another year or more.

 

Good for you, sounds like you've found the secret formula. Personally I've never felt this hesitation after an oil change, but if I ever do I'll give your remedy a try.

 

I'll add a datapoint. I changed my oil last Thursday (12/18), and have had zero hesitation. I've been looking for it. I have accelerated gently and observed. I accelerated briskly, and WOT and observed. I've started off gently and changed to brisk and observed. No hesitation.

I used Castrol GTX 5W-20, 9.1 quarts, non-synthetic. I used no additives. The oil change was done at 16,955 miles.


7milesout

 

Just don't switch to synthetic otherwise you may experience the issue or down the road when your VVT screens gets clogged with depots which ever comes first.

 

Seafoam will work but it also can be damaging to the engine. You are better off using Marvel Mystery oil as it's a lot safer and very effective. I don't think you will require another flush for your next oil change. The Toyota synthetic oil will dissolve what ever left over varnish that was left behind and continue to keep the engine spotless.

 

Thanks, I'll take your advice next change. I've never been a fan of oil additives. I'll post results here in about 5-6 months.

 

Just an update on my recent oil change a few days ago......

I used the Toyota Engine Flush/Cleaner before changing out my oil (as seen in the pic a few posts up on this thread). I then used a Toyota filter and Toyota 0W20 full syn.

NO HESITATION whatsoever. Furthermore, I find everything to be smoother - acceleration etc.

What I will need to do however, is keep an eye on consumption. I did have to add 2 qts over the course of 6k miles. Lexus considers this well within acceptable levels, but it still bothers me. Admittedly, the consumption did go down from my previous oil change (1 qt every 1500 miles).

I'm optimistic that the engine cleaner will have sorted things out that way and that the oil will as well (I was using Pennzoil 0W30 previously).

No blue smoke, no oil contamination in the coolant, etc and no leaks. Admittedly, I do drive it hard occassionally, so that may be a contributing factor.

When I give this OCI a try, I'll be sending a sample to Blackstone for analysis....fingers crossed.

Regardless, the fact that the hesitation is non-existant now, that in itself is reason to be hopeful, as all previous changes had some level of hesitation immeduiately after the oil change.

 

Good to hear. Why not try an AutoRx treatment to expedite some oil control ring clean up.
The rings are an area that takes a very long time with Synthetic oil to clean up.

 

I considered it......what sold me on the Toyota cleaner was it's specific mention of the VVT-I system on the back of the can and it's benefits to cleaning it. It states something about using a can every 40k kms to keep the VVT-I system working properly....or words to that effect.

 

I should have added that thanks to you Devh, this has been remedied. You're insightful input and advice went a LONG way to addressing this issue. Youlre a good man!

 

No thanks necessary my friend and thanks for the kind words. I'm just relaying information that I have come across on other Toyota forums that where they have similar issues.
If that bottle of flush mentions VVT then it is definitive proof that Toyota knows about this issue and it it's probably why they are aggressively pushing synthetic oil.

 

I have a LS460 with right at 100k miles, and a semi-ok maintenance history (3rd owner). Not experiencing heavy hesitation, but figured I'd like to be a little preventative...just a question roadfrog, assuming you mean this toyota cleaner right?

DevH you're definitely the man on this topic I've read through this to know you wouldn't recommend Seafoam, but would recommend AutoRx or Rislone (in the engine) or Marvel Mystery Oil (in the gas tank) right?

 

AutoRx is the ultimate for varnish clean up but it takes the longest amount of time but that's a good thing. I would only recommend Rislone for a short term use in the engine a few hundred miles before an oil change or even MMO. You don't want to disturb the formulation of the oil but in the case of AutoRx it's just an organic ester so it would be perfectly fine for the duration of the oil interval.
If you don't have any hesitation or oil consumption then I would not use anything at all except synthetic oil because over time the synthetic oil will do all of the cleaning and will keep it clean.

The issue here is deposits left over from conventional oil are being stripped off from the cleaning properties of synthetic oil which is clogging the VVT filter screens.

 

No that's not it. What you want is the product seen in post #68 two pages back on this thread. It's called "Engine Oil System Cleaner". It's about 20-25 bucks a can at my local Toyota dealer.