Toysrme

SOLAR PANELS!!!

define no compression. if it's NO compression, or low compression across all three cylenders then the timing belt probably jumped bigtime on the front cam sprocket.

I have checked the Amsoil site and they are recommending 25000 miles between oil changes in normal usage. Up from 20000 miles.

if you want such extended recommedations you also typically need higher oil capacity, regular 5-7,500-mile quality filter change intervals, and hopefully a block warmer/extended highway miles.

nothing extends oil intervals like simply carrying more oil... which if you notice, is why medium+ duty engines, and extended drain kits use gigantic filters in the first place, some of them haivng a two-three quart capacity of their own.

I have a 1994 camry I have been running amsoil in since 1994. I change the oil every 20000 miles and a regular fram filter every 3000 miles. 140000 miles and the engine is as clean of sludge and coking as the day it was built. It works for me but all else is personal belief and experience. Just my opinion.

id go alittle longer on the filters, and change filter brands. fram sucks, horribly. every personal experiance, every mechanical experiance, and every test of everything they've ever made all says the same thing... fram sucks.

nissan went so far as to void all warranties with fram maintenance items, citing them as inferior products.

By the way, one of the supporting race shops in the corvette forum commented that while they have tried various synthetic oils in their race cars and found at least one that couldn't hold up, Mobil 1 has never given them a problem. Among the big names in synthetic oil, it is the most readily available and in most cases, the least expensive. Why spend more for other oils if extended drain intervals is your goal?

That being said, I should mention that I have used Amsoil universal ATF and their severe gear differential lube. They do make great stuff; it's just that when it comes to synthetic motor oil, Mobil 1 is a better choice, IMO.

race shops... is alittle off-subject even when talking about oils.

AFA royal purple. its too expencive for any justification in a non race only engine, halfway to poorly avalible, and generally not that good in street oil blends. that's just how it's always been with royal purple... when guy's drag only GNx is topping out a dyno at 1500-1600whp and he's running 0-5 race royal purple, well by god it must be good in a street engine running 10w-40.

racing doesn't apply that well with street oils, less you want to talk about long-term lubricating a CHRA. which doesn't apply to Lexus anyways. lol no turbo

now if you want a 0 weight racing oil in tight tolerance racing engine. then yes royal purple has been a good choice for longer than i know...

MBurnickas,

You may or not be correct about how Lexus will handle a marginal warranty claim on a vehicle that has not met the recommended oil change intervals in the manual. But for several other manufacturers you are dead wrong. I have first hand knowledge of employees, neighbors, acquaintances, etc., that have been denied expensive warranty claims because of lack of proof of oil change intervals.

Tom

if you have a warranty and you're worried about it, run what the warranty says.

MBurnickas,

You may or not be correct about how Lexus will handle a marginal warranty claim on a vehicle that has not met the recommended oil change intervals in the manual. But for several other manufacturers you are dead wrong. I have first hand knowledge of employees, neighbors, acquaintances, etc., that have been denied expensive warranty claims because of lack of proof of oil change intervals.

Tom

Incorrect since #1, it is "recommended oil change intervals". That is not in stone since I know what recommended means. Just like Lexus recommendes you used Lexus parts, lexus air in tires and you take your car in every 3,000 miles for like $200. It is a money maker period. They recommend everything and anything too.

#2 per you beloved Lexus, I need to perfom at least 1 oil change per year. Per my sludge letter. That superceeds the manual.

There is no real proof of perfoming an oil change unless you video take it. You can show slips etc till you are blue in the fact but prove that that oil was installed in that car, that filter etc. Do many ways around it.

#1 pretty much... your car's maintenance IMHO is based upon what happens with very, very low quality items primarily found in southeast asia (especially oil... Toyota's own oil policy has been shifting around their needs for quite some time)

#2 for review to those that dont know. Toyota's official "proof of a reasonable attempt of maintenance" was a single oil change reciept in the last 1 year, or 10,000 miles of operation.

This person is trying to turn this post into a p!ss!ing contest. Too bad he cannot resort to the same standards as the rest of us.

I have used Redline oil for many years, and did so in my 3SGTE engine. Then again, I was developing in excess of 400HP at the rear wheels from a 2 litre engine, and you can bet that putting any engine oil through 21psi of constant boost with overboosting at 24-27psi you made damn sure to find the best oil out there. Did I take an engine oil analysis, no. Didn't need to. Did I change my oil at "recommended" change intervals, no, car was no longer under powertrain warranty due to modifications. Did I change often, yes, sometimes every 6 to 8 weeks, depending on driving. Then again I used common sense.

I do not change my oil based on "pulling UOA", and for that matter 99% don't either. Why? Because it's not practical and nor is it time or cost efficient. Common sense dictates over factual procedures. I don't need an oil analysis to tell me whether at 5000k my oil is still protecting my engine or not.

I do not drive (nor my wife for that matter) my 400h like I do my M5 or my previous vehicles the same way. This vehicle requires to be reliable and trouble free for myself and more importantly for my wife. I understand quiet well what is going on inside a passenger engine and am as reasonable as the next person. If you use a manufacture rated conventional or superior motor oil, and change the oil at the factory recommended intervals you will easily satisfy all aspects... it's common sense. Also, I bet a majority of 400h owners present here on the board will not own there vehicles in 3-5 years, now I am not saying they won't care for there vehicles, but c'mon get real. Pulling UOA's? What for?

Cheers

MadloR

LoL that's because 3s-gte's leak it out so fast it's a short change interval! hahahahahahaha (sorry that's a common 3s-gte joke, they're very leaky... worse than the notriously leaky rear bank's of the v6's by a mile)

A UAO will tell you what state the oil is in. Guessing at your own interval is nothing more than a guess. using the arguement of "this has always worked" is fine, but it has no bearing on discussing "how long is the oil good for", or "what kind of oil gives the least wear on the engine".

...

#2, no one has posted anything to why they drain rather then what they "think". No supporting data. Poor reasons since no one has anything conrete on there oil being poor and needs drains.

#3, I trust BITOG site like salesman since they are. Look at there ADD forum. Can you say a joke. Some threads have no basis either, removed for no reason other then $$$$.

#5, I dislike Mobil based on my own personal findings, NOT someone elses. Case in point, people are shooting in the dark.

To close, this thread is full of all kinds of poor reasons. Post some UOA's to support your OWN finds. Until then, this is a typical oil thread of mis-info and poor logic. Maybe I should change my oil since someone in another forum, 2 years ago, said I should at some time. Sounds like everyone else here <unreal>

2, see reply i made above. don't talk alot of think when you want alot of fact.

3, i agree, BITOG is where everyone should be when they want to find a pleathera of data in the forum, but over the last few years it has become heavily biased in favor of who fronts the server bills. So... use BITOG with a grain of salt, and stick to a gathering place, or a storehouse of testing data.

5, personal opinion. the differance in his and several others in this thread is that atleast MK is basing a prefferance on a reason. he doesn't like the contents of mobil oil, fine.

...If you don't want to pay the high price charged by Lexus for this service, find a reputable garage that you can trust, explain your anal retentive nature to the owner, get it done at half the cost, and save the receipt....

Jim

Hey! mrburnickass. That's how we say, getting "OWNED"!!! LFMAO!

Well said, JimsGX, BRAVO!

Cheers,

MadloR

P.S. it has nothing to do with understanding an analysis, but everything to do with good ol fashion common sense and logic.

owned by what??? what does *BLEEP*ing in a marble lined bathroom, charging a 6x markup on generic Toyota products with toyota labling, and product numbers. and using mexican bulk dino mobil1 5w-30, 5w-20, and 0w-20 have anything to do with a discussion on the factual basis of synthetic VS dino?

not needed

you should ahve never touched it; it's not a MAF, it requires no maintenance, ever.

now if you want, you can spin the cog about 5-10 clicks tighter to lean the engine out some & you'll pick up some horsepower.

AFA not runing correctly. change the plugs, cap & rotor & fix any vacuum leaks. the AFM has nothing to do with it...

3.0L 3vz-fe

2.5L 4vz-fe

The HOUSEING is cracked? how it's a 1/2-3/4" thick aluminum casting... Show me the crack.

If you can clean it entirely of oil & grime in the heat affected zone. You can grind off the sufrace oxide & MIG or TIG weld it back together.

most likely the valve stem seals are leaking.

make very sure you keep oil in it. the leak will only get worse, and it is rather expencive labor wise to fix.

if anything, keep it overfilled a quart.

when the engine is still warm, what's the compression read after about 6-7 turns? and the needle should move up pretty evenly on the strokes.

you may want to run that compression test with a different gauge. that one sounds dead. brand new & warmed up you'd never see 185psi on it, let alone 235.

it's keyed, it can only go one way without shattering the camshaft...

take a timing light & set the base timing in diagnostic mode to 15*btdc. thank me later.

me turboing your car will make it faster.

the average person could adjust the valves & fix the top-end oil leaks from rotting seals in a weekend with about 40 bucks.

the key is getting all the measuring done ASAP by sat afternoon. that way you can call a toyota deal while it's open & be sure to have the needed shims on-hand to put it back together.

it's not hard, it just takes some time. re-use shims where possible too.

BMW takes all the luxury out & spends most of the money on the unequal A arm suspension. Then whatever's left over goes to leather seats & navigation.

Adjust the valves. (check / replace the lifters)

It's *suppose* to be done every 60,000 miles.

Generally you let them go until they tick when cold, or they have sealing problems. Sometimes that's 60,000m, sometimes it's 300,000 miles.

Not that I know of.

can't do it.

It sure will. In fact you can swap seats from many Toyota's. MR2's, Celica's Camry's Corolla's. They use to all share the same mounting patterns. Wouldn't surprize me if it was universal to all of their passanger vehicles from say a corolla & larger.

(but only mr2 celica / seats are 100% to work)

mmmmm Some parts they can, but I have a sneaky suspesion the EGR valves wouldn't

The 96 uses the originally 3vz-fe / 1mz-fe intake manifold. The 97s uses the revised manifold from the avalon. Which is why they gained afew horsepower in 97. :)

try and see tho. no big deal.

stuck injector, or a bad main o2 sensor (or two)

probably wouldn't hurt to clean the MAF too. sk did a good post about it along time ago somewhere in here.

sounds like your battery is dead to me.

ditch the aftermarket system & reinstall it.

best to take the pleumn off. too much other maintenance is done at the same time not too. doesn't take long at all either.

not to sound as broke and in college as i actuall am, but it gets to the point where it's like jesus... why would someone spend $25,000+ to buy something that funcionally isn't really any better, will loose more in depreciation when the cheaper option sold 5 years ago would have been about the best car... ever....

you know to each his own, but eventually itll get rediculous.

like last night i walked by someone watching one of those money call in shows on CNN or whatever with the blonde chick. the guy was something like "i bring home 12k/m, i have a 150k morgage, another 30-40k 2nd morgage, a car payment on a 60-70k car. should i buy 23k worth of jet ski's". wtf!? dumbass take three years, pay your *BLEEP* off. lol!

oh and OMG bring the wood back. even if it's the seriously old mohagany they put in my old ES 300 where the acrylic is so thick you *think* it's fake but it's not. if i want fake wood ill spend $9.95 putting some that doesn't fit back in the F150... arg! 100% PERFECT for a camry/avalon, but keep that *BLEEP* out of the Lexus line. (except *maybe* the is250's cause they're all value based anyways...)

I got to poke around in a 350 today some... i completely agree. they've flip flopped. they went from that wierd former front end with a top notch interior feel. if they'd put the old interior of the ES/Camry's back with the new equipment, and keep the new exterior. they'd be hellaciously stylish!

sigh, maybe we'll see it at the 2.5y update! Q3 '08 baby! lol!

and yeah, the new ES/Avalon statistically is a better car than the old LS400's. IMHO Look way better (even in it's own time), has many more features, better powertrain, better economy, faster, handles & brakes better, 1 inch less head & shoulder room. (and the ES's have panoramic / moonroofs keep in mind!) To me here's the really amazing part. Lexus sold 41,901 LS400's in 1989 AND 1990 @ $58094.67 (2006 money) where-as they'll probably sell 80,000+ ES 350's @ $33,720. LESS money than the LS 400's were worth brand new originally! (base prices on both)

ES's, bloated camry's or not, are still the absolute best buy for the money in the Lexus line-up. The scareyest part... Is that if someone looks back over ES pricing VS inflation, every year they become much better buys...