Oil Consumption Poll
#61
2007 base model LS 460 - 105k miles - I'm running Mobil 1 5w20 (it's what my nearby Toyota dealer has in bulk) After 5,000 miles it was at the lower mark on the dipstick. I added a quart and it didn't quite come back up to the full mark, so I guess the dipstick range is about 1.4 quarts from bottom to top.
I'm estimating about 1 US quart per 4,000 miles. My plan is to do an oil change every 10K with Mobil 1 extended like I've done with my 2006 Sienna which still doesn't use a drop of oil after 190k.
My LS had the valve spring fix done by the previous owner under warranty.
I'm estimating about 1 US quart per 4,000 miles. My plan is to do an oil change every 10K with Mobil 1 extended like I've done with my 2006 Sienna which still doesn't use a drop of oil after 190k.
My LS had the valve spring fix done by the previous owner under warranty.
#62
My local shop works on everything expensive and has dozens of LS cars serviced regularly. His experience was to run 5/30 synthetic or 5/20 Dino oil. He mentioned a fully serviced LS something with 500k miles on the original motor, did not recommend the 0-20w. Too thin. Too much consumption.
Year: 2007
Current Mileage: 119,500 miles, just 2k since delivery from the selling dealership.
Oil Brand and Viscosity: The selling dealership installed Pennzoil Gold SynBlend 0w20.
Rate of Consumption In Your OCI: Too soon to say.
VSR done at 35,760 miles, January, 2011.
I plan to migrate to Mobil1 ExtendedPerf HighMileage 5w30 with OCIs under 5k. Vegas, baby! Just too hot for 0w20. No TGMO 5w30 in synthetic.
Earlier comments from Nospinzone, abs, Kennyr44 & Doublebase led me to suspect that this official 20 upper viscosity constraint was yet another Lexus Murica!-only rule … being tied to the US CAFE laws about auto manufacturers hitting fleet-wide MPG targets.
So I just spent an hour looking at Lexus LS460 Owner's Manuals from around the world. Only in the USA & Canada are the choices officially limited to 0w20 & 5w20. In Britain, Ireland & Australia, the owner is directed to choose the viscosity (appropriate to the operating environment) from among 0w20, 5w20, 5w30, 10w30, 15w40 & even 20w50. Even in ever-frigid Finland, Sweden & Norway, owners have access to all these viscosity options … and they were in fact all available in every Manual for the European Market that I opened.
As example, I've attached a copy of the relevant pages from the Irish-version of the 2011 Lexus LS460 Owner's Manual.
Very frustrating. Because of USA CAFE regulations that eternally increase MPG expectations, auto manufacturers are being forced to employ less viscous oil in order to gain greater fuel efficiency … at the expense of less actual engine protection. See https://bit.ly/3CtfrrM . The second graph at that website shows that a 30 upper viscosity oil (with a HTHS somewhat above 3.0) is maximizing engine protection … and at almost twice the rate of protection provided by an 20 upper viscosity oil (with an HTHS of about 2.5-2.7). And check out a few SAE Viscosity Temperature Charts; more than a few suggest that the protection of 20 upper viscosity oil begins to diminish after/around 75°F ambient, while the protection of 30 upper viscosity oil begins to diminish only after/around 95°F ambient. And Internet-searching on "5w20 5w30" brings up on-point many discussions, YouTube videos, etc. on this topic.
Perhaps if we had all been using 5w30 all along, those lower tension rings (also an artifact of CAFE standards) wouldn't be wearing out causing increasing oil consumption after 150k and such.
Best wishes & happy motoring!
Last edited by DrQuality; 08-10-21 at 06:30 AM.
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