Oil Filter And Spark Plug Access Advice

[Jon in Raleigh, NC]

Just bought a well-maintained 2000 RX300 for my wife this week. In my Jeep and Dodge SUVs and trucks, I'm accustomed to having plenty of room under the hood to get to oil filters, spark plugs, belts, etc. That's certainly not the case with the 2000 RX300.

The oil filter is on the front of the engine underneath the exhaust manifold. My conventional spanner wrench can't get to it, and even if it could, there's no room to get leverage to turn it. What tool is required to remove the oil filter, and how do I get to it to change it?

Also, how do I get to the three spark plugs on the rear of this engine? Again, I don't think that I'll have enough room back there for my conventional socket set and extension rods to pull the plugs out. Are special tools required for removing these three rear plugs?

Any advice from those of you who do your own routine maintenance would be much appreciated. I don't want to go to the dealer for what should be simple jobs like oil and filter changes and new spark plugs.

[Castrol]

Changing the oil filter on a RX 300 is somewhat of a pain. The dealer installed Toyota filter base is slightly undersized to use a standard oil filter wrench. The same fluted oil filter wrench that fits, say a Fram filter, won't fit the Toyota filter. Pep boys has an oil filter wrench made by Lisle that is heavy duty and will fit all these small oil filters. Don't know the Model #, but Lisle makes good stuff. It has a spring in it to let the heavy outside steel clamps adjust to the filter base. You might want to go buy just a Toyota filter at the dealer and take it with you to Pep Boys and match up the oil filter wrench with the clean Toyota filter you have with you. While there, also buy a Fram or whatever filter you want.

Now the fun part, I find it best to get an offset 3/8" drive rachet w/ a short (1-2 inch) extension and go in from the top when the engine is cold. There is very little oil spillage this way.

Can't help you w/ the spark plugs, still running the originals.

[Jon in Raleigh, NC]

Thanks, Castrol. I use NAPA filters (already have one for the RX300) so I'll take it into my local Pep Boys and look for this Lisle wrench that you mentioned. I have huge hands so I know I'm facing a difficult situation with the extremely limited amount of room that Toyota engineering has provided to access the area underneath the exhaust manifold. American engineering is much better these days for those of us who still like to do the simple maintenance procedures ourselves.

Now, has anybody out there tackled the three rear spark plugs? How did you get to them, and what tools did you use? Please let us know. Thanks.

[Jon in Raleigh, NC]

The oil filter wrench is a Lisle Part No. 63600, available at Pep Boys for about ten bucks. I bought one this morning, and it's spring-loaded and well-engineered just as Castrol said it would be. It is used in conjunction with a 3/8" drive socket wrench. Still not much working room underneath the exhaust manifold in the front part of the engine, but this tool should make the job at least a little more doable.

[Castrol]

If there is any good news on changing the oil in the RX 300, it's actually draining the oil. That's easy. Don't even need to jack the RX up in the air. I decided, since the oil filter is such a pain, to just change it every other oil change. The filter is pretty small and doesn't hold much oil anyway.

[Jon in Raleigh, NC]

I'm a firm believer in changing the oil filter every time the oil is changed. Even though it will definitely be a hassle with this particular engine. What a lousy filter placement - one of the poorest set-ups I've ever come across.

We've now had the RX300 a little over a week. My wife has been wanting one for a couple of years and finally convinced me to sell our 1998 Durango and replace it with a nicely-maintained RX300. She's very happy now, but she's not the one who will do the work to keep it in showroom condition. I must say that the more time I spend with this vehicle, the more disappointed I am with it. It's too small, too slow, and poorly designed for those of us who do our own maintenance. I'm 6'7" and I miss the headroom, legroom, and engine compartment room of my Durango, along with the speed and acceleration of the 5.9 litre V-8 powerplant. I do like the RX300's gas mileage and Nakamichi stereo, however. But nothing can make up for the loss of plenty of room and plenty of power.

Sometimes we all have to sacrifice to make others happy. I hope this vehicle can somehow grow on me. But whenever I drive the RX300, I know I look like a clown getting out of one of those little cars in the circus....

[tmastres]

Well now I just traded up from a Dodge Dakota to an RX 300 and I wouldnt go back for anything. Sure I liked to chirp the tires occasionally ( something the RX will absolutly not do ) but the Lexus is built so much better than the Dodge its shameful (conceding of course that the Dodge did cost less). You mention that you bought the vehicle for your wife so the fact you dont fit shouldnt be too much of an issue, a good friend of mine is 6'6" 315 and he fits reasonably well in the passenger side of my RX . Of course I havent tried changing the oil yet and I'm sure when I do my tune will change a bit . The Dakota did have excellent access to the oil filter through the passenges side wheel well. Anyhow I'm just ribbing you a bit as i'ts strange to hear anyone wishing they had a Dodge over a Lexus. Thanks for posting here though there was much, much more information out there in regards to working on Dakota/Durangos.

[Jon in Raleigh, NC]

Just because a vehicle is made by a supposed "luxury" manufacturer does not mean that it is superior in every way and every purpose to supposed "non-luxury" vehicles. One must consider how the vehicle is to be used, under what conditions it will be driven, and the size & build of the driver and occupants. There's no question that our Durango was larger, faster, roomier, and tougher than our Lexus. For the purpose of hauling our three Gordon Setters, or bags of mulch from the garden center, or my Little League coaching equipment, the Durango wins hands-down over the RX300 every time. But after all, it's my wife's car. So for the purpose of her being able to drive around in a small, underpowered, overpriced, pretend-SUV that she likes because of it's looks and styling, it certainly fits the bill.

But for practicality, power, room, function, and the ability to perform one's own maintenance with relative ease, I'll take my Durango back any day of the week.

Don't believe for a second that just because a car is a certain brand (Lexus, Infiniti, Jaguar, BMW, Mercedes, Ferrari, Rolls Royce, and Aston Martin included), it is automatically superior in every way to a domestic vehicle built for specific purposes. In my 30+ years of driving, I've owned Japanese, Italian, German, and American vehicles. My favorite? Good old American Big Iron full-size pick-ups with 4-wheel drive. They're easy to buy, easier still to maintain, and they go anywhere and do anything these days with superb engineering, power, and room. Add leather and a great sound system, and some of the upscale truck interiors are comparable to today's overpriced "luxury" sedans.

I may now be a Lexus owner, but I guarantee you that I'll never be a Lexus snob. Keep in mind what various folks need their various vehicles to do for them. Don't turn your nose up at a V-8 pick-up. You may depend on one some day to haul off that dead pine tree you just cut down to keep it from crashing though your roof....

[tmastres]

Whoa! I diddnt mean to come across as a "Lexus Snob" This is my first really nice vehicle after quite a few years driving used mustangs, bone stock compact pick-ups and lastly a Dodge Dakota that needed more than its share of maintenance from both the dealer an myself. I'm not trying to insult anyone here or pass judgement on the type of vehicle you want to drive. Obviously people drive vehicles according to their needs and wants and although I got rid of my Dakota I've still got a truck as well as a 68 Camaro. It sounds like you had a lotter better experience with your Dodge than I did and I'm just hoping that by spending the extra coin up front for a Lexus I can avoid some of the issues I ran into with that vehicle. Anyhow I got a lot of help and assistance with my Dakota from a Dodge group known as the "DML" hopefully we can all help each other here too.

[Roger1206]

An easy way to change the filter is to sneak a small oil filter wrench(the band type with handle) between the block and the exhaust manifold. Do this going from right to left as you're facing the front of the car and it shouldn't be a prob. Make sure the exhaust manifold is cold first! Coundn't figure out how to get to the sparkplugs between the engine and the firewall though. Any ideas or does the intake manifold have to be removed. I still haven't tried this with my smaller tools yet.

Rog

[azaytsev]

Hello there,

Check this out. This might help you to figure out how to change spark plugs.

http://www.clublexus.com/forums/showthread...&threadid=83257

:chairshot:

99 RX300

[Jon in Raleigh, NC]

Thanks for the tip - this information may turn out to be extremely helpful. I'm still dreading the job of trying to change those three rear plugs at 60,000 miles (our vehicle is sitting at a little over 50,000 miles now, so I still have some time to research it further).

If anyone else out there has done a spark plug job in their RX300 recently, please post here with your tips, tricks, and tools required. Thanks in advance.

[lexus01]

To reach the rear set of spark plugs, remove the strut brace, windshield wiper blades, and the windshield wiper trough (rain gutter). You many not need to disconnect the wiring harness from the trough; just rotate the trough out of position to get to the spark plugs.

[Jon in Raleigh, NC]

Thanks for the additional tips. Attempting to change these three rear plugs gets scarier all the time.

I remember in the mid-70s when Chevrolet sold a particular model (I can't recall which one, but I would bet it was the Vega) which required hoisting the engine from the engine mounts in order to change the plugs. I guess I should be thankful that it appears I'll be able to get to the rear plugs in our RX300 without having to go quite that far.

[SW03ES]

I remember when I was a kid we had an Aerostar van, I remember trying to change the plugs on it with my dad, 3 of them were only accessable through a panel on the interior underneath thew dashboard...