lx470man

iTrader: (1)

i have about 66,000 miles on my 2000 lx470. I have always used conventional oil.
i was wondering if it was still ok to switch to mobil 1 5w30 full synthetic?

also if i do go over to full synthetic, do i have to use synthetic from now on? or could i go back to conventional oil later?

dougjohn

Should be absolutely no problem switching to synthetic at this point.
Also, contrary to what you might be told elsewhere...it's not a problem to go back to conventional after using synthetic -- but...aside from the cost, why would you switch back?

I am currently running my 450 on Mobil 1 10w40, but was using M1 5W30 until my last oil change.

tabraha

Check out my used oil analysis thread in the engine section of this board. It has a sample I drove on for 12,000mi on M1 5w30 and it looked great. For a normal oil change interval it is overkill but a security measure if something goes wrong I guess. If you want to run a long interval like I do I would suggest getting your oil analyzed afterwards to make sure your engine is a good candidate. The 2uz-fe loves this stuff though. Also, I didn't change mine over until 70,000 miles.

Bobhgd

Been running Mobil 1 synthetic in my LX470 for, oh, the last 30k miles or so; now up to 74k.

No problems. The only issue I found was that the factory-recommended 5W-30 causes cold engine valve noise, but switching to 10W-30 cured that, and the fuel economy is apparently about the same either way.

A nice thing that you also get with 10W-30 synthetic is that a typical synthetic does not need viscosity index modifiers for 10W-30, since synthetic has inherently better viscosity performance over a wider range of temperature, compared to conventional oil. Not having viscosity index modifiers is good because those polymer additives wear out in engine oil service over time, so no VI modifiers means one less thing to go bad in the oil over time, therefore the oil will maintain its viscosity properties better over the service interval between changes.

I change at the shorter 5k intervals. It's cheap in exchange for longer engine life, in my opinion - especially an engine like this one, probably fairly expensive to rebuild or replace. (I've rebuilt engines that failed rather early from people trying to save a few bucks by changing oil less often... nasty.)

lx470man

iTrader: (1)

wheres the oil drain plug?
is it the one in the black box? i am pretty sure its the oil but then wheres the tranny drain plug?

stanigu

Yup, that's the plug. First "uncovered" plug you'll find. I use Mobil1 5W-30 also--$3.95/qt at Costco!