Engine Oil

[LexusDriver2]

Hello everyone,i am new here and would kindly ask for your opinion regarding my troubles. I will post few pictures here for you to kindly comment on. To explain,we had our lexus serviced by dealer by the book,and what you see on pictures is not something we expected to see after 100000 kms and regular oil changes. To get this sorted has cost us lots of money and i suspect foul play by the dealer. I suspect those oil changes were not done properly,nicely said. Dealers explanation was,many short runs,cold start ups could easily cause this to happen. I call BS. Thanks for taking time to read this and i welcome any comments. Cheers.

[noby76]

OMG...

What type of oil were they using to service your car?? thats why i always buy my oil and filter take it to a trusted garage and stay they watch them do the oil change. I never leave my car at a garage and leave them to do the work..sad to say but i dont trust garages any more hence i stay there and watch them do the job no matter how small a job it is.. hope it gets sorted..

[Bluesman]

Hello and a warm LOC welcome. We are a very friendly bunch and a solution to problems that are often only a few hours away.

We don't mind dirty pictures but yours are beyond what could be considered as decent.

My car has done 130K miles and if you look under the rocker box covers apart from a film of oil everything is pristine and looking lovely and clean.

I have always had synthetic oils as had the owner before me but yours looks as though its been running on Marmite.

I cant help with what has happened to your car but I don't think its normal. Good luck with sorting it quickly. Mike

[brendangeorge]

Hi LD2

I have done 204K in 11 years- a lot of them on LPG - mixed driving with a lot of long distance at high speed in the early years - the last two years a lot of short running and my oil never ever looks other than brand new even at change time - just like Mike's.

It is hard to imagine that a Lexus dealer would put the wrong oil in your car because they would be using the same Synthetic 5W30 oil in most of their petrol engines (and probably Diesels as well). Had the head gasket blown? What needs to be fixed because at official dealer rates a head job will be £5K so good luck with getting them to sort it out at their expense.

Bren

[LexusDriver2]

Thank you guys for your imput,its exactly what i thought. The car is owned by Japanese govt. and such has to be serviced by Toyota itself,no chance to take it elsewhere. Dealer said they've always used oil from Toyota that comes in barrels. It was hard to prove them wrong,so co.payed the bill,to them! around 5000Euro to get it sorted. We are at the brink of buying new car from them,but i have my doubts about seriesness of this dealer. Unfortunately its the only dealer here we can deal with.

[messi]

I agree with Noby76

I would buy my own oil and take it to a specialist and stay and watch them do it. I know you went to a main dealer, but sometimes I dont trust a main dealer. They wanted to charge me £690 to replace a vsv on my ls430, they told me they put my car on their diagnostic machine and the problem code was for a vsv. It turned out that wasnt the problem at all, it was a lamda sensor. Also when i took it to another Lexus dealer, they advised to replace a vsv on my ls430 was £390.

[Bluesman]

I would be very surprised (and I am one of the worlds greatest cynics) if a Lexus main dealer used anything other than that which is designed for their cars. If it ever came out that this was not the case the damage would be irreparable and would damage the brand for years to come. One thing corporate business values above anything else is their brand image because if that is damaged lower profits follow and the slippery slope becomes impossible to stop.

I think the engine on your car tells a different story that you don't know about yet.

Where are you based in the world ? this might gives us a clue as to where to look.

I know if my car looked like that and had only been serviced by Lexus main dealer I would be asking some very uncomfortable and searching questions. Mike

[ManicMark]

Hi if the car is used mainly for very short trips in a city environment the dealer is right, the car runs rich so more carbon deposits & condensation which can cause this build up of sludge, a engine flush at every oil change would be a good Idea or much more regular oil changes.

[noby76]

Hi if the car is used mainly for very short trips in a city environment the dealer is right, the car runs rich so more carbon deposits & condensation which can cause this build up of sludge, a engine flush at every oil change would be a good Idea or much more regular oil changes.

I was under the impression this level of sludge build up should never occur If the dealer was using the recommended 5W-30 fully synthetic with the oil being changed every 12 months or 10,000 miles regardless of town or stop/start driving??..engine looks like it has never had an oil change done before based on the pics.. l am not pointing fingers but looks like the dealer might have been topping up the oil rather than doing a full oil change for this level of sludge to occur..

although this might not have contributed to this sludge build up, thats why i stay away from Supermarket fuels no matter how good people say they are, I use branded 5W-30 engine oils i can afford which includes cleaning additives, and run my car on high octane fuel for a whole month every now and again which also includes high concentrate levels of internal cleaning additives. tho some might say its a waste of money, i say it helps prevent these things from occuring which = money saved on engine repairs in the long run...

[black400]

Hi , i have read about this problem on vw and toyota engines plus Bmw its called sludgeing and is well documented. Manafacturers have known about the problem but? . a new engine would prob be cheaper and very suprised no mechanics had pick up the problem visualy, i always look in the oil hole just to check, caught in time a engine flush.Google it and go back armed with knoledge.

[black400]

i dont now how to at a link , but straight away i googled engine sludge/ toyota , got lots back, how its caused snd cases agaisnt toyota in the usa .realy hopd this helps.

[Maduggo]

Thank you guys for your imput,its exactly what i thought. The car is owned by Japanese govt. and such has to be serviced by Toyota itself,no chance to take it elsewhere. Dealer said they've always used oil from Toyota that comes in barrels. It was hard to prove them wrong,so co.payed the bill,to them! around 5000Euro to get it sorted. We are at the brink of buying new car from them,but i have my doubts about seriesness of this dealer. Unfortunately its the only dealer here we can deal with.

They use oil that comes in barrels..... Tell them it needs to be refined by a reputable company first, then put into a car, crude oil ain't going to lubricate nothing

[steve2006]

I also seem to remember similar reports of the same damage in the USA.

What puzzles me is when the sump was drained there couldn't have been 5 odd litres in the drain pan so I would be wondering where has the rest gone?

Just as a comparison the picture below is the oil from my 1994 LS having covered the equivalent of 130,000 KM.( the car not the oil of course)

[Bluesman]

Heres a link to a guy with same year and model as yours and same problem.

http://us.lexusownersclub.com/forums/topic/68515-ls-430-engine-sludge/

[LexusDriver2]

Heres a link to a guy with same year and model as yours and same problem.

http://us.lexusowner...-engine-sludge/

Thank you for the link,very interesting indeed. Its kinda good to know we aren't the only ones with this,but...I agree on oil changes done more often,watch the dealer like a hawk,cos those mechanics just don't give a flying gasket about someone else's car. Apology to the ones that do. By oil in a barrel i meant a toyota approved oil that comes in large barrels,fully syntetic Shell,or whatever brand they use,instead of gallon containers,not the barrels straight from the ship :-)

You guys have been very helpfull.

New car is about to by bought,the LS460 after facelift,so looking forward to that. Will def pay more attention to its maintenance.

This car is for sale,btw :-)

Cheers from Slovakia