lcc014

The oil light of my 1997 ES300 comes on from time to time. Took it to dealer and they said that the pan was so dirty to cause the light to come on. They clean the oil pan and told me that the top of the engine needs to be clean too. However, they said that the oil light may still come back in the future with all these cleaning.

I just took my car to another Lexus dealer, and they said the engine is bad, need replacement !!!!! Talking about $4000 - $5000 to rebuild. I told them it drives fine, just the oil light comes on once a while. They then said that there are too much dirt within the engine and I need to change oil every 1000 mile to keep the engine running.

I replaced engine oil 3 times recently because of the oil light problem, and I found no leak under the pan at all. Did the dealer just BS because they couldn't find the cause of the oil light problem ?? I prefer to change oil myself every 1000 miles rather than $4000 engine rebuild. Can I use engine flush product such that BG44K to try to clean the engine ?

I bought the car used form Lexus dealer at about 45k miles. Could it be that the previous owner didn't change oil at all. Dealer didn't give me any maintenance records, not even owner manual when I bought the car. :-(

Any suggestion is appreciated.

Ching-Ho Cheng

PERRYinLA

I suggest you see another dealer! Most dealers can give you a printout of the previous maintenance work done on the car (if it was preformed at Lexus dealers).

I have an SC and many owners see the same thing you and I do- sometimes, out of the blue, the oil light flashes on for a second or two. The sensor is just "having a bad day". We are certainly not running to get rebuilds!

On a healthy engine, the oil should look almost new when it is drained after only 1000 miles.

DaveGS4

iTrader: (2)

Something similar happened on my mom's old Camry and the oil pump had gone bad and was not circulating oil. The oil (or maybe it was check engine) only came on when we came to a stop coming down a hill or something stupid like that.

Lvangundy

There's an oil level sensor in the pan, supposedly sometimes it sticks with age and triggers the light.

Or, in my case, my car is burning 1qt of oil every two weeks and it comes on around then. Arg! re-fill..re-fill.. it started doing this around 145K miles.

gserep1

Hello,
This engine is also found in the Toyota Camry's and for some reason is plagued with some oil problems. This is especially true of the older 3.0L engine. The newest engine is the 3.3L. Just bored out bigger. I have a friend who has a 95 ES300 with only 80,000 miles, and she has also had this phenomenon. Part of the blame is her service history, and lack of proper usage. She is an older lady, and drives very little. She has had it since new, and it is almost 10 years old. She babies it while driving, but I'll bet it hasn't had regular oil changes. Judging by the 80,000 miles, I'll bet oil changes were few and far in between. Another friend of mine just traded in her 97 Camry with this engine because of engine oiling problems. Go figure.

This engine has had a valve job recently, and she still complains of a puff of smoke at start-up occasionally. Many dealers frown at rebuilding this engine..electing to replace it instead. I am just about ready to get a replacement japanese engine and swap it out. I will then be recomending using better oil tha what she has been using. The oil filler cap was caked with old oil and foamy looking stuff. Definitely oil breakdown caused by lack of use, or extended time between changes.

Toyota had a long-standing lawsuit against them about oil contamination on their V6 engines. They developed milky foam in the oiling system, and many engines failed as a result. Toyota replaced many engines to satisfy this lawsuit. I have heard of the same problems in the Toyota pickup trucks as well.

Strangely, nothing like this has ever happened to any engine except the V6 to my knowledge. Everything else is bullet-proof.

GSEREP1

lcc014

Thanks for everyone's response. I will try to use the engine flush :BG44K first and then keep changing oil every 1k miles. The oil sensor/switch was also replaced by dealer during the clean up of the oil pan. So, for now, oil is new, sensor is new, oil pan is cleaned but oil pump condition is not known. Dealer mentioned nothing about the oil pump condition. I hope that it is still working as it should be ...

Hopefully, the car be driven for as long as it can before I trade it in for another one ...

Thanks,

Ching-Ho Cheng

cuttingedg

Lexus was replacing these engines due to engine gel.(a.k.a. sludge).the 3.0 is very sensitive if the oil is not changed every 5,000 miles.i've replaced two engines for this condition and both were covered under warranty.

lcc014

Thanks for sharing your experience with us. I am constantly monitoring the oil and will change it at or before 2000 miles. So far, the oil light just came on once a while, not as frequent as before. I will keep an eye on it.

Ching-Ho Cheng

jonathancl

I'm surprised to hear this.
My mom's 1990 LS400 has 300k miles on it and burns no oil at all.
This stunning performance prompted me to purchase my GS430.

VSsc400

iTrader: (1)

the RX300 and ES300 engines have a 8 year unlimited mile replacement warranty. contact lexus for details. Some dealers are not aware of this since the problem is not wide spread but lexus HQ is aware and are honoring this warranty.

joshthorsc

It might be your oil pump. My 94' integra did the same thing. The oil light would come on and I asked my brother and he said it was a faulty sensor, but it was my oil pump that failed. I took his word for it, and it costed me my engine.

You should get the oil pump changed just in case. If you need another motor, just go to the junkyard and you should be able to find a use motor for a cheaper price than what Lexus quoted you.

lcc014

Dealer checked the oil pump and couldn't find anything wrong with it.

Ching-Ho Cheng

joshthorsc

If the dealer says there is nothing wrong w/ the oil pump, then it might be the sensor. There's gotta be something going wrong to cause the oil sensor light to come on. It's best to correct the problem asap, because it might cost you a motor. I had to pay $1200 from attarco for my integra engine( my old car) after my motor blew. It's better to be safe than sorry. I hope you find the problem!!

lcc014

They replaced the sensor first but problem still presisted. Then they checked the oil pump and found nothing wrong with it. Finally, another dealer told me that it was the dirt within the enigne causing the oil light to come on. The previous owner must not change oil per 3k or 5k miles and caused this problem.

They dropped the oil pan and cleaned the bottom part of the engine and then recommended me to clean the upper part of the engine too. I declined the cleaning of the upper part of the engine. They advised me to change oil more frequent (every 1k to 2k miles) to remedy this problem. After cleaning, the oil light had come on a couple times, not as frequent as before.

Ching-Ho Cheng

HarrierAWD

According to the letter I received from Lexus, the goodwill engine extended warranty is good for 8 years or 80,000 miles. Not much better than the original 6 years or 72,000 miles IMO. It says nothing about "replacement" warranty, so Lexus might try to repair the engine instead of replacing it.

Based on Consumer Reports survey, less than 2% of the RX owners reported engine problem for all model years. I change my oil every 5,000 miles, so I'm hoping to stay with the 98% camp.