Oil Filter Location On 2012 Ls460L Awd

NoNoise · January 8, 2012

Hi Everyone,

I am a new member. I bought a new ES330 in the Fall of 2003, drove it for 8 years and logged 160,000 miles. I bought a new 2012 LS460L AWD in early November. We are keeping the ES as a second car. The only problem with the ES was the failure of the air conditioner relay at 100,000 miles which we replaced ourselves for $75.

Question: Where is the oil filter located on our 2012 LS460L AWD? The car has the engine area encased in panels both under the hood and underneath the engine. We've put 3700 miles on it and will be taking it in for free dealer servicing at end of January when it hits 5000 miles. I don't plan on changing the filter myself, but would like to know where it is to verify that it is being changed in the future by a garage.

We bought the car from a dealer located nearly 500 miles round-trip from our home. We have some Lexus dealers a little closer, but lack confidence in the quality of service. The oil drain plug is a cinch to get to, but the filter cartridge system used by Toyota/Lexus may tempt some service people to just drain the oil to avoid the messy disassembly.

We drive our cars until they begin to fall apart, and will keep everyone updated as to how our Lexi (plural of Lexus?) are doing. Looking forward to info on the filter question.

Regards,

RunSilent

1990LS400 · January 8, 2012

The oil filter location is the same as on all V8 engines made by Toyota - or at least the same location as the many I've seen. The cartridge filters shouldn't be any messier than the ones you are used to. Mercedes has used them on some models since at least the 1950's. I suspect Toyota is trying to "go green" by using cartridge filters - definitely uses few materials.

It shouldn't be difficult to remove the engine undercover to change the oil filter. I just calculated that I've removed engine undercovers about 78 times when changing the engine oil on Lexus LS cars over the past 22 years.

Edit: I should have mentioned that the LS460 oil filter housing has its own drain plug - cool. That should make it a lot less messy than oil filters with their own outer shell. Just be sure to lay in a good supply of oil plug gaskets if you arn't goint to have non-dealer garage change your oil. There is a gasket the sump oil plug too and both need to be changed to prevent that drip ... drip ... drip. I buy oil plug gaskets for cheap by the 10 pack -- same is probably available for your LS460.

NoNoise · January 11, 2012

The oil filter location is the same as on all V8 engines made by Toyota - or at least the same location as the many I've seen. The cartridge filters shouldn't be any messier than the ones you are used to. Mercedes has used them on some models since at least the 1950's. I suspect Toyota is trying to "go green" by using cartridge filters - definitely uses few materials.

It shouldn't be difficult to remove the engine undercover to change the oil filter. I just calculated that I've removed engine undercovers about 78 times when changing the engine oil on Lexus LS cars over the past 22 years.

Edit: I should have mentioned that the LS460 oil filter housing has its own drain plug - cool. That should make it a lot less messy than oil filters with their own outer shell. Just be sure to lay in a good supply of oil plug gaskets if you arn't goint to have non-dealer garage change your oil. There is a gasket the sump oil plug too and both need to be changed to prevent that drip ... drip ... drip. I buy oil plug gaskets for cheap by the 10 pack -- same is probably available for your LS460.

NoNoise · January 11, 2012

Guru,

Thanks for the info. on the location of the oil filter. The 2 attachments of the engine diagram and oil filter blowup diagram with part numbers really help. I spent about 2 hours on the web looking and not finding the info you sent before I posted on this site. I got the Toyota part number for the oil filter and o-rings. You mentioned getting the gasket for the oil plug and the one for the sump oil plug. Can I get these from a web based Toyota parts supplier? I found a parts supplier offering 10 Toyota filters for $45. I cross-referenced the Lexus oil filter for my car and it shares the same filter part number for the late model Toyota 4-Runner. My local garage will need all the needed parts in order to do the job right. I would really appreciate any info. on part numbers or sources for the 2 gaskets you described.

1990LS400 · January 11, 2012

You could try searching http://www.toyodiy.com/ to see if you can find a Toyota that uses the same oil plug gaskets/washers as your LS. I noticed that they are not the same as the ones Toyota used on almost all it's Toyota and Lexus vehicles for a couple of decades.

I buy oil filters and washers for our 98 Camry and 00 LS at a local Toyota dealer. I buy everything by the 10-pack which brings the unit price of a filter to right at $4 including the one oil plug gasket needed for an oil change on our cars.