Where Is The Oil Warning Light? Why Does My Car Use So Much Oil?

[smooth1]

And resetting the light doesn't really mean an oil change occurred. It just means you reset the light.

[bartkat]

Well yeah.

[Rafiki]

"I was absolutely horrified when I twisted the oil filter and drained less than 1 quart!!"

Just a clailification question: Did you drain from the Oil Pan Plug or just from the Oil Filter port?

[SWheat]

A couple months ago I posted that my IS350 had run out of oil between changes and that I was running on less than a quart when I changed my oil. I also indicated that I had been checking the oil and I never had a cause for concern until I drained the car of oil and discovered I had run out.

I think that post has been deleted and I will not be surprised if this post suffers the same fate. This time however, I documented my finding with two videos I am uploaded to YouTube. Since my last oil change, I’ve been anal about checking the oil. I have even been carrying two quarts of oil in my trunk should I need to add oil. I typically check the oil in the morning before I leave for work. I have never gotten anything less than a full reading, just as you see on the video I posted so I have never attempted to add oil for fear of over filling.

What I did was drain my car of oil, wait about a half hour, and check the oil twice. On both occasions I cleaned the dipstick and both occasions I got a reading of full. The video on YouTube is actually the third time I checked the oil with the oil pan empty. As you can clearly see the dipstick comes out with oil above the full line. Why the dipstick gives this reading I do not know. Perhaps it rubs against the tube when it’s inserted?

YouTube video 1

After draining the oil and checking it, I turned the car on for about 10 seconds with no oil in it just to see if the oil light would come on. As you can see in the video, the oil light did not come on, nor did the check engine light.

Youtube video 2

Video Notes:

The car is parked in my driveway in the exact spot where I drained the oil. My driveway has a slight slope, however the place where the car is parked is almost level.

I jacked the car slightly on the drivers side and completely removed (and changed) the filter when draining the oil. If there is in fact any oil in the car it is a trace amount and should not give the reading the video shows.

My car has no oil leaks. As you can see my driveway is concrete. You can’t see all of it but I assure you it’s clean.

[bartkat]

Is this the "deleted" thread you were looking for?

[SWheat]

Is this the "deleted" thread you were looking for?

Yes it appears to be. I did a search of my name the thread did not appear. Was it deleted?

[bartkat]

Is this the "deleted" thread you were looking for?

Yes it appears to be. I did a search of my name the thread did not appear. Was it deleted?

No it was not deleted. I searched your name for your threads started and it popped right up with about 4 other threads. Please stop insinuating that your threads might have been deleted. It casts dispersions on the mods and makes us somewhat unhappy.

[SWheat]

Is this the "deleted" thread you were looking for?

Yes it appears to be. I did a search of my name the thread did not appear. Was it deleted?

No it was not deleted. I searched your name for your threads started and it popped right up with about 4 other threads. Please stop insinuating that your threads might have been deleted. It casts dispersions on the mods and makes us somewhat unhappy.

Please accept my apology. As I said I did a search and the thread did not appear. What am I supposed to think? Also in my post I said "I think" it was deleted.

I did another search right now and the thread still does not appear. Here is the link.

http://us.lexusownersclub.com/search.php?c...p;sa=Search#999

[bartkat]

Is this the "deleted" thread you were looking for?

Yes it appears to be. I did a search of my name the thread did not appear. Was it deleted?

No it was not deleted. I searched your name for your threads started and it popped right up with about 4 other threads. Please stop insinuating that your threads might have been deleted. It casts dispersions on the mods and makes us somewhat unhappy.

Please accept my apology. As I said I did a search and the thread did not appear. What am I supposed to think? Also in my post I said "I think" it was deleted.

I did another search right now and the thread still does not appear. Here is the link.

http://us.lexusownersclub.com/search.php?c...p;sa=Search#999

Aplogy accepted.

I'm not going to belabor this but the "this post may meet the same fate" suggests otherwise. At least that's the way I read it. We had a guy come in here accusing us all of working for the "dealer". We proved him wrong, but he never did accept responsibility or aplogize.

The new search feature leaves much to be desired as it's impossible to just search one forum, ie IS252/350 for instance. To search for your own threads, do it from your profile or click on your name and then click member's topics. That's what I did.

http://us.lexusownersclub.com/forums/index...ult_type=topics

[SWheat]

If I was to think you had any affiliation I would think that it would be with Toyota or Lexus rather than a specific dealership.

And that would not necessarily be a bad thing as long as you are fair. And apparently you are fair so its all good.

What is not good is my poor car. I tried to drive it to home depot and I looked in the mirror and it's blowing huge clouds of smoke! I turned around immediately and drove home.

I think the car is destroyed now. I don't know what to do. I don't have the money time or patience to fight with Toyota.

Clearly the oil pressure sensor system and dipstick tube are defective but I don't know what it will take to convince Toyota of that.

YouTube video 1

Youtube video 2

[bartkat]

You definitely have a problem but it's hard to say why. I know that when I first tried checking my oil and shoved the dipstick all the way in, it appeared to have too much oil. I even tried swabbing out the tube and that didn't help. Then I started just pushing the dipstick just down to the crown and I started getting good readings.

Why your car was/is using or losing oil is the big question. Years ago it was common for a car to use one quart per thousand miles, but that's long gone now. Any cars I've had since even before 1990 never showed any oil use at all.

Did you actually go the 15,000 mile oil change route in the beginning? People do it, bit I've always been a bit leery of that, no matter what kind of oil is used.

[SWheat]

>>I even tried swabbing out the tube and that didn't help.

It has never been my intent to go a full 15k miles between oil changes. I thought I was playing it safe at changing at half the useful life of the oil.

I think there are two problems:

1.) The dipstick tube is poorly designed (read: defective). The video clearly shows my car with zero oil and a dipstick reading of full. And that is after I checked it and cleaned the stick twice.

2.) The oil pressure system (sensor, light, or whatever) is defective. The low oil pressure indicator has never come on since I've owned the car. My video shows the car running with zero oil and the warning light does not come on.

I feel like an innocent man about to be sent away to prison. How will I prove this to Lexus? Will the watch my videos? Believe them? What do I tell the dealer?

I'm interested to know if anyone can reproduce the false reading I got. Next time you change your oil, drain the oil and check the dipstick. Does it show oil?