monarch

Yes, but the "data" they supplied to debate with was just oil analysis data. A solid case could be made for synthetic oils and synthetic media filters if the promoters could provide the public with physical proof (in the form of actual pictures or actual measurements of worn parts) that conventional oils and conventional paper media oil filters are functionally incapable of preventing heavy mechanical wear and functionally incapable of enabling a Toyota engine / transmission last many hundreds of thousands of miles. But since that premise is false, the promoters have not and will not ever be able to obtain such physical proof, plus they have found many ways to pursuade the public to buy their products anyway without physical proof; e.g. via oil analysis scores, endorsement by an race car driver or engine rebuilder, an exclusive sounding name like 'Royal Purple' etc. or via subliminal advertizing techniques such as saying the synthetic "flows better" "cleans better" etc." As far as we know to date, there are no mechanical componets inside the RX AWD transmission that physcially break, stick or malfunction in some other way or suffer heavy mechanical wear because the owner failed to use a synthetic transmission oil or failed to use an aftermarket transmission oil filter. All the failures appear to be due to heavy and rapid mechanical wear that occurrs inside the transmission when owners drive along time with Toyota Type T-IV fluid that has become oxidized and lost much of its lubricating qualities. The preventive solution, therefore, is regular inspection of the fluid condition and to change it at the first sign of significant discoloration / deterioration which will vary depending on driving habits. Likewise, there are no mechanical componets inside the 1MZ-FE engine that are known to physcially break, stick or malfunction in some other way or suffer heavy mechanical wear because the owner failed to use a synthetic motor oil, failed to use a synthetic fiber oil filter or failed to use a made in Japan 90915-20004 OEM oil filter. All the 1MZ-FE engine failures are due to oil sludging and oil sludging will not occur if the owner uses conventional oil and changes it at least every 6 months or 5000 miles.

The "made in Thailand" 90915-YZZD1 oil filter is a Denso designed filter just like the 90915-20004 "made in Japan" oil filter. Denso is a Japanese company that has been a principal supplier to Toyota since the 1950's. Toyota now owns most of Denso. The Denso "made in Thailand" oil filters use a traditional pleated paper element design - a design that has a 500,000+ mile Toyota engine protection track record. The 90915-20004 uses a resin element design. However, there is no evidence available that indicates the resin design filters extends engine life beyond the 500,000+ mile track record of the paper element designs. TunedRX300 asked: "why go OEM when Toyota/Honda is going aftermarket, worse yet, not offering the better product to the US?". Well in the past when Toyota / Honda contracted Purolator / Fram to make some of their filters, they required Purolator / Fram to add some heavy duty design & construction features. So the genuine Toyota / Honda oil filters that are made by Purolator / Fram are not merely rebadged auto parts store Purolator / Fram filters. In any case, like I said before, there is no hard evidence available that indicates using genuine Toyota / Honda filters made in Japan vs. other countries "short-changes your oil filtration" as suggested by the youthful authors of these youth oriented websites: http://www.intellexual.net/faq.html http://mkiv.com/techarticles/parts/toyota_filter/index.html Or to put it another way: there is no evidence available that indicates owner failure to use "made in Japan" oil filters has ever caused any Toyota owner's engine to wear out earlier than 500,000 miles. The same pricniple applies to synthetic oil: there is no evidence available that indicates owner failure to use synthetic caused any Toyota owner's engine to wear out earlier than 500,000 miles (as long as the oil was changed at least every 6 months / 5000 miles) In summary, although nationwide, Toyota engines with far less than 500,000 mile wear out / blow up by the hundreds everyday, this premature engine destruction is not due to owner failure to use "made in Japan" oil filters or synthetic oil.

I agree with edwardh1 that avoiding sludge is extremely simple: simply change the engine oil at least every 6 months or 5000 miles and the engine will stay very clean inside, regardless if synthetic or conventional oil is used. Choice of oil filter is also extremely simple. Simply use the factory filters like the Toyota 90915-YZZD1 or 08922-02011 oil filters which can be found as low as $3.90 each at 1sttoyotaparts.com I've been using the Toyota 08922-02011 oil filter for the past 463,000 troublefree miles on my '92 Toyota pickup http://www.saber.net/~monarch/463.jpg The engine still has like new compression which means engine wear has been minimal using the 08922-02011 oil filter. Some owners worry about using the Toyota 90915-YZZD1 or Toyota 08922-02011 oil filters because of what they read on the internet: http://www.intellexual.net/faq.html http://mkiv.com/techarticles/parts/toyota_filter/index.html These youth oriented performance enthusiast websites recommend: "you do not short-change your oil filtration" by using the Toyota 90915-YZZD1 or 08922-02011 oil filters. The problem with these amateurish websites is that the youthful authors are just guessing when they suggest the Toyota 90915-YZZD1 or 08922-02011 oil filters short change engine life potential. The Toyota factory engineers, on the other hand, know 90915-YZZD1 or 08922-02011 are capable of minimizing engine wear for at least half a million miles http://www.saber.net/~monarch/463.jpg

The variable valve timing engines like your '99 ES come from the factory with a specially reinforced timing belt that's 50% more durable than the already durable previous design Toyota timing belts. So you could wait until 120-140K miles to change it (unless you or the former owner(s) have been frequent lead foot type drivers in which case it should be changed at 90K). The water pump, cam and crank seals can also wait until 120-140K, especially if the car still has its factory original Toyota Red coolant which prolongs the life of the water pump out to 150K - 250K miles. Toyota Mastertechs generally feel the cam seals don't need replacing except at every 2nd timing belt change. So I would spend money replacing: a) Coolant with a 50/50 mix of distilled water and toyota long life antifreeze B) thermostat and thermostat gasket c) spark plugs with exact factory original replacements d) spark plug wires e) exterior belts f) new genuine Toyota air filter g) new genuine Toyota 90915-YZZD1 oil filter h) drain and refill the transmission oil pan using the type fluid stamped on the transmission oil dipstick (don't worry about the tranny filter until 150K) i) new DOT 3 brake fluid, preferably Toyota Brand brake fluid j) scrub throttle plate clean of carbon k) new fuel filter using am identical genuine Toyota replacement (although you could probably wait until 120-150K) Get 28% off the price of all genuine Toyota parts at 1sttoyotaparts.com and have them shipped to your doorstep (you don't pay sales tax and that offsets most of the FedEx Ground shipping charge)

The factory repair manual recommends using a cap type oil filter wrench like this one http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y189/mastertech/cap.jpg that my local Toyota dealer stocked. The cap wrench shown in the picture fits the factory original filter and the 90915-YZZD1 factory replacement filter.

Everything boils down to a matter of risk. Owners who want to minimize the risk of premature transmission failure should: 1. Inspect the fluid condition every 5,000 miles and change it every 15,000 Change even more often if it appears to be getting dark and burned smelling inbetween changes. This strategy eliminates the inherent risk of extended fluid drain intervals. 2. Just drain and refill the 4 quarts in the transmission oil pan since this procedure is idiotproof, low cost, is the only procedure specified in the factory repair manual and has a 40 year / 400,000 mile Toyota transmission life track record. Flush flushing and other total fluid replacement procedures are aftermarket procedures and inherently more risky. 3. Use only the factory original fluid - Toyota Type T-IV. Using aftermarket fluids is inherently more risky. Although some synthetics claim to "meets or exceeds all manufacture specs." they have not been specifically tested and approved by Toyota as Toyota Type T-IV has been. Case in point: Mobil 1 systhetic gear oil "meets or exceeds all manufacture specs" yet nearly all Toyota owners who have tried it in their manual transmissions report increased gear clashing which means lots of metal gets chipped off the gear teeth. 4. Don't use auxillary transmission fluid filters*. The factory installed metal mesh filter screen has a 40 year, 400,000+ mile track record of providing excellent transmission protection. Auxillary filters sound fashionable just like synthetic fluid and fluid flushing sounds cool and fashionable, but some of the owners who push these filters as a means of preventing or curing transmisson problems are also some of the same ones who, at one time or another, admit using aftermarket fluids and fluid flushing. Had they followed steps 1 - 3, they wouldn't have ended up with abnormal amounts of wear debris in their fluid that caused their transmission problems to begin with. *an auxillary filter may help temporarily salvage a transmission that has already suffered or is expected to suffer, traumatic levels of wear and tear due to use of aftermarket fluids, extended fluid change intervals and/or street racer type driving. 5. Follow the factory repair manual procedure for checking the fluid level as this is the only way to guard against the serious consequences of under or overfilling. 6. As should be obvious by now, don't attempt to service the transmission without consulting the factory repair manual directions. Some transmissions, for example, have two drain plugs, not just one.

Hyundai Sonata's and Elantra's come standard with Michelin Energy MXV4+ tires. I rented these cars last fall in Texas and drove them widely around the State. They delivered a smooth and quiet ride for me on Texas roads. I think the root cause of owner complaints about tire noise is owner failure to get them rotated every 5000 miles. A poor man'a MXV4+ is the Goodyear Viva 2 available from Walmart. It's half the price of the MXV4+ and matches it in quietness and low rolliing resistance. The ride isn't quiet as glassy smooth, however, as the MXV4+.

Since about the mid-1980's Toyota factory orginal catalytic converters have been capable of lasting 500,000+ miles. Last December when my '92 Toyota pickup had 451,000 miles it passed a California smog test with room to spare. http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y189/mastertech/smog92.jpg My '89 Corolla also passed a smog test earlier this year at 239,000 miles as it also has the factory original catalytic converter. But I agree with you that the average owner may get only 100-200K miles of life from the factory original catalytic converter. I think that's because the average owner has a "lube, oil and filter every X number of miles" mentality about preventive maintenance of a Toyota - they won't take the car in for service of anything else unless the engine runs bad. Result? Elevated rates of gasoline consumption which in turn causes the catalytic converter to run hotter and fail sooner.

Toyota is gradually phasing out the #08922-02011 oil filter for the ES & RX V6's and replacing it with a 90915-YZZD1. There's nothing wrong with the #08922-02011. Either oil filter will work fine.

Toyota has used the threaded hole design successfully worldwide for 40 years. Understandably, the threads may rust in snowy winter climates like Ohio and Massachusetts where there is extensive use of road salt.

Walmart Stores carry white colored car covers made of Dupont Tyvek for only $39.95. The Tyvek does an incredibly good job of keeping the whole car cool on a 100 degree day (like we're having right now in interior California). Even the car's sheet metal stays cool when protected by the Tyvek.

There's no blanket answer and that's one reason why doing flushes is risky for a beginner. You risk getting dirt in the fluids, you risk starving componets of lubrication during the flushing process, you risk getting air bubbles trapped in the fluid and components, you risk damaging hoses and hose clamps and you risk not getting the fluid level precisely correct after all the flushing. Flushes are not only risky in all these ways, but there's no compelling reason to get rid of ALL the old fluids since they are not likely to be severely contaminated and degraded to begin with. A less risky procedure is to just do drain and refills every year or two instead of total fluid replacements every 5 years or so. Draining and refilling gives a beginner the opportunity to measure the amount drained so there is no guessing about how much new fluid needs to be added. Draining and refilling with factory original genuine Toyota brands of fluids also is less risky than experimenting with aftermarket brands. On the other hand, not taking risks is boring as hell for some owners so if you want to flush everything anyway then you'll need roughly 8 quarts of transmission fluid, 2 gallons of antifreeze, 2 quarts of power steering fluid and a quart and a half of brake fluid.

Most Toyotas / Hondas / Nissans are about twice as reliable and durable as any American car and that's one reason why their resale value is so much higher. This greatly superior reliability & durability capability does not happen by magic, but happens only because the Asian car makers use superior grades of metal, plastic and rubber, superior component design and fit tolerances, superior standards of finish and workmanship for all the parts, superior fluids, filters and lubricants, etc. With regard to transmission fluid, Toyota / Honda / Nissan all have their own in house proprietary formulations such as Toyota Type T-IV. Using these in house formulations helps assure the owners will achieve maximum levels of reliability and durability. With all that said, it appears the Toyota engineers did not engineer enough transmission fluid cooling capacity in the all wheel drive version of the RX300, particularly in congested city driving situations. So in congested city traffic in hot climates the fluid temperatures appear to soar into the 220 degrees+ range causing rapid oxidation of the fluid. The solution is frequent transmission fluid changes - approx. every 15,000 miles (10,000 miles for those owners stuck in bumper to bumper traffic on a daily basis) Toyota has used metal mesh transmission filter screens for 40 years in all it's automatic transmission and they have always done a great job - one guy on this forum has 438,000 miles on a '81 Toyota Celica equipped with an automatic transmission that has a metal mesh screen. The screens rarely become restricted because they catch only non-magnetic wear debris. Toyota puts magnets at the bottom on the transmission oil pan to catch particles of steel from gears and other metal component wear. No one on this or any other Toyota forum that I am aware of has reported longer transmission life after they installed an auxillary transmission oil filter. Frequent transmission oil changes is the best strategy, in my view, since it solves the fluid oxidation and fluid cleanliness issues at the same time. Auxillary fluid filters and coolers might or might not work, plus they might cause harmful restrictions in the fluid flow. And owners risk catastropic transmission failure if one of the aftermarket quality hoses used with the auxillary coolers developes a bad leak. Frequent fluid changes would seem to be the least risky choice of all.

The minimum recommended brake fluid replacement frequency interval is given in your Lexus Scheduled Maintenance Guide. Generally it's around 2-4 years or 30-60,000 miles. The factory fill brake fluid is genuine Toyota Brake Fluid http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y189/mastertech/fluidss.jpg available in 1 pint bottles from Toyota dealers for $3-4 a pint. A minimum of approx 4 pints are needed to replace the fluid in the system. The label on the bottle of genuine Toyota Brake Fluid says: it's "a super heavy duty hi-temp brake fluid specifically designed by Toyota engineers to give superior performance in all Toyota Brake Systems where DOT 3 brake fluid is recommended." (all Lexus brake systems use DOT 3 fluid)

I'm a little confused about the routing of the rubber transmission hoses. Did you bypass the transmission fluid cooler built into the car's radiator? If not, then it seems to me your would have had to buy more hose. If so, where did you buy the hose? Also, I'm curious to know if your '81 Celica with 430,000 troublefree miles has the 3-speed A40 transmission or the 4-speed A43D transmission? Thanks

Historically, front wheel drive cars owners who wish to obtain maximum tread life have needed to rotate their tires approx. every 5000 miles and rebalance every 15,000 miles. It's also a good strategy for rear wheel drive cars although isn't quite as critical.

The Dexcool is an organic acid antifreeze that protects aluminum better than the green coolant and it's also free of silicates. However it has new potential adverse side effects that the green didn't have. Namely if air gets into the cooling system via a low fluid level in the coolant jar or radiator or past a worn radiator cap, the Dexcool can begin to turn into a sludge like radiator clogging material called "Deathcool". Apparently this is only really a problem on engines with cast iron cylinder blocks like the early ES300 V6's. But LS400 V8's are all aluminum so this problem should theoretically not develop. The Toyota Red antifreeze is a hybrid organic acid antifreeze and also has a big dose of molybdenum lubricant that Dexcool doesn't have.

In 1987 Toyota came out with the Red Antifreeze and filled every new Toyota with it because by then nearly all it's engines had aluminum cylinder heads and other aluminum components and the green antifreeze was not providing good enough protection against aluminum corrosion. In fact, the borates in green antifreeze contributed to pitting of aluminum http://www.saber.net/~monarch/coolantb.jpg This aluminum corrosion problem with the green antifreeze was also causing the metal of the cylinder head coolant passages to erode away and compromise the sealing ability of the cylinder head gasket, especially on big bore engines like the Cressida 7M series engines and Toyota pickup 22R series engines. Other problems with the green antifreeze were that the silicates in then were abrasive to the water pump seal and would also tend to fall out of suspension and coat / partially clog the radiator core tubes http://www.saber.net/~monarch/radjunk.jpg causing the engine to run hotter than normal which in turn leads to other serious problems like heat warping of the cylinder head and subsequence head gasket failure. The factory fill 50% Toyota Red antifreeze + 50% distilled water coolant mixture solves all these problems. The insides of the radiator and coolant pipes stay clean as new for decades and unlimited miles: http://www.saber.net/~monarch/coolanta.jpg http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y189/mastertech/89rad.jpg http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y189/mastertech/89hous.jpg http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y189/mast...h/89drained.jpg http://www.saber.net/~monarch/463.jpg Why do some Toyota dealers sell and even use green antifreeze if it's so bad? Well it's a sensitive question for many reasons. Some owners, for example, wrongly think the Red antifreeze is just a gimmick (that it's just a green type antifreeze that was dyed red) corporate Toyota came up with to justify a $17 per gallon retail price dealers charge for it. Chemical lab analysis, http://www.saber.net/~monarch/titan.jpg however, reveals the Toyota Red is chemically unique. Other owners wrongly think using distilled water with the green antifreeze will solve all the problems the green has / creates. Since the serious problems created by the green don't usually show up until after 5-10 years of use, some owners don't care because they plan to sell / trade their cars anyway before then. For the same reason, dealers may install the green knowing only a very small percentage of owners will - 5-10 years down the road - link their engine overheating problems, blown cylinder head gaket problems, etc. with use of the green antifreeze. Why is it that no car care internet websites encourage Asian car owners to use genuine Toyota, genuine Nissan and genuine Honda antifreezes? Because car care internet websites depend on sales of aftermarket parts, fluids, filters, lubes, etc. to stay in business. Therefore they try to steer the public AWAY from using factory original parts, fluids, filters, lubes, etc. They need to convince the public the factory stuff is overpriced and not unique.

While radiator fin deterioration / disintegration is common in the rust belt Northeast states, I've never heard of it in interior California where you are located. None of my 11 - 32 year old Toyotas have suffered from it. What I believe happened to the radiator in your Previa and '90 LS400 is that aftermarket antifreeze was installed at one point or Toyota Red antifreeze mixed with tap water or the green and red antifreeze were mixed. In any of these scenarios the end result is mineral deposit buildup inside the radiator core tubes of the radiator causing flow restrictions and / or a heat insulating effect that deminishes the heat transfer capability of the radiator. Even if your Toyotas were serviced by dealers, dealers commonly use tap water instead of distilled water and sometimes substituting green antifreeze in place of the more expensive Toyota Red. My experience has been that if a Toyota cooling system is always maintained using nothing but the factory original coolant mixture (50% Toyota Red + 50% distilled water) the radiator will last for decades and not suffer any appreciable loss of heat transfer capability (except as noted above in the rust belt states where external fin corrosion is a problem)

In either '98 or '99 the ES300 engine got variable valve timing and Toyota variable valve timing engines do not need or have an EGR valve.

The factory advises replacing, not cleaning the EGR valve. However, you can clean the EGR piping out of accumulated carbon if there is significant buildup. The solution to avoiding EGR valve and system problems is minimize the amount of unburned hydrocarbons that are generated by the engine to begin with. That is accomplished by changing spark plugs and motor oil more often than the minimum frequency intervals called for in the owners manual and always using the exact same spark plugs that the factory installed. It also means changing the oxygen sensor about every 100,000 - 125,000 miles or so and cleaning the throttle plate of deposits about every 30,000 miles. Also means keeping the cooling system in perfect, factory orignal shape. I followed these guidelines and my factory original EGR system is still functioning well after 464,000 miles.

My understanding and experience is that mechanically, the Toyota (Denso) compressor itself is capable of lasting 40 years / 500,000 miles as long as it never runs low on refrigeration oil due to a severe refrigerant leak (the oil circulates with the refrigerant in the system) However, the magnetic clutch that's attached to the compressor may fail after 150-300,000 miles and is replacable without even discharging the system of refrigerant. Denso compressors may also develop refrigerant seal leaks if the owner neglects to run the system at least once a month throughout the year. In that case the solution is to buy a compressor reseal kit from a Toyota dealer and tear down the compressor and install new 0-ring seals. I don't know of any tutorials that cover any of this. I just know millions of Toyota compressors are prematurely replaced when all they really need are new seals or a new magnetic clutch.

Yeah, but those "long term" JD Power owner surveys are about just 3 year old vehicles - not hardly "long term"! Consumer Reports magazine owner surveys, on the other hand, provide reliability information on 6-8 year old cars. Toyota and the other Asian makes really pull ahead of the American cars in reliability after 6-8 years. In other words, although a Buick may match a Toyota in reliability during the first 3 years of ownership, by 6-8 years the Buick is troublesome just like all other American cars whereas alot of Asian makes like Toyota are doing great.

I'd say 15-50 would be OK to use IF you can come up with evidence that Toyota / Lexus approves of the use of oils thicker than 10W-30 in Lexus V8's sold in other troptical and desert climates of the world. Example: Do the owners manuals of Lexus V8's sold in Saudi Arabia state that oils thicker than 5W-30 or 10W-30 are OK to use? In any case, cooling system care is far more important to engine life in hot climates than choice of oil viscosity. Just look over this forum and you'll find dozens and dozens of posts from owners who admit driving with the temp gauge reading higher than normal and not getting seriously worried until the gauge needle rose to the Red Zone. These owners fail to understand how they are shaving tens to hundreds of thousands of miles off their engine life's potential by driving with even moderately elevated temperature gauge readings. They also fail to understand elevated readings are caused by negelected preventive maintenance of the cooling system and failure to use factory original parts and coolant when servicing the system. They also fail to understand the reason no car care websites emphasize the importance of maintaining the cooling system in factory original operating condition is because to do so requires the use of factory original parts and fluids, not aftermarket parts and fluids. Since car care websites are financed by sales of aftermarket parts, filters, lubes and fluids, it would be self defeating for them to stress the importance of maintaining the cooling system in factory original operating condition. So they don't and in this way the Asian car owners are kept dumbed down instead of educated by American car care websites.

Replacing the PCV valve won't cure the 30 seconds of start up smoke. Although replacing the valve stem oil seals wILL cure it, experienced Toyota techs know the start up smoke is not harmful so there is no pressing need to replace the stem seals. In other words, you could drive another 200,000+ miles with the brief start up smoke condition. To avoid breaking plastic and rubber parts like the PCV valve and hoses, remove them while the engine is warm to hot rather than stone cold. Old timers know from sad personal experiences that any debris that falls inside the engine - even soft debris like a rubber grommet - can potentially be dangerous - risks engine destruction not just from oil starvation, but also from binding up moving engine parts.