DIY Oil Change Observations (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter ColoradoOutdoors
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Typical street engines are very tolerant of oil level. I'd guess one that specifies almost 8 quarts is pretty tolerant
Nearly all car makers specify a capacity that is typically 1/2 quart above the FULL line intentionally. Or you can look at it from the other perspective and say the FULL line is typically placed 1/2 quart below where the specified capacity shows on the dipstick. They do this so oil consumption appears to be less
I don't personally use them, but I think high quality magnetic drain plugs are usually pretty effective. Just make sure to get a decent one from a reputable brand, because I've had to fish a lost magnet out of my dirt bike crankcase and that sucked.
I like the idea of being able to track the magnetic debris over time and correlate it with changes you might have made to the engine oil or oil filter - or to know not to bring it on a 10k mile road trip to Dead Horse, but I simply cannot be bothered to go out and research a good one that I know won't accidentally get sucked into the pickup.
I'd rather just run known good oil & filters, buy 2-3 oil analyses, including analyses on bigger particles like Speediagnostix offers, and leave it there.
I'd rather just run known good oil & filters, buy 2-3 oil analyses, including analyses on bigger particles like Speediagnostix offers, and leave it there.
I don’t know your motivation for buying a magnetic plug. For a high mileage vehicle it wouldn’t be a bad idea. But I got a recall notice recently from Lexus regarding metal shavings not being properly cleaned away during engine fabrication of my 2024 Luxury. Whether these shavings were ferrous or nonferrous was not specified. Since any honing of the engine block itself would produce iron or steel shavings, a magnetic plug would probably let you know at the first oil change if anything was present.
From another perspective, I saw one comment saying to make sure the plug is good quality. I agree. First, it must have exact thread matching. Otherwise you’ll ruin your oil pan. Secondly, and perhaps even more importantly, ensure the magnetic field the plug has is strong, but not too strong. Some rare earth magnets are so strong that removing the plug could be a challenge if the oil pan itself is steel (which on a 4-WD should be standard).
The not properly cleaned explanation seems suspect given that the engines are from multiple factories. Here's an alternative hypothesis.
Did the recall state what Lexus was going to do to remedy the issue?
Not validating the use of magnetic drain plugs. But I do have gold plug's magnetic drain plugs in all my vehicles (S2K, sti, evo, 4runner). I installed the AP03 for the GX's first oil change @ ~1Kmiles. In the two subsequent oil changes later, there has been some minute debris (normal) that's been collected.
Did you know Fox News is not legally obligated to be factually accurate in its reporting because it argued "no reasonable person" would believe its content would be factual & accurate? Just reacting to the thumbnail.
Here's my understanding of facts:
- Toyota's factory processes are managed to a crazy degree of precision, meaning processes are mirrored exactly between factories
- This means that a process issue, like improper cleaning, would apply to multiple factories, because factory workers don't decide what to do - they simply execute the process exactly as specified
- Toyota did find unusually large amounts of machining debris in engines from both its Alabama and its Tahara engine plants:
- From an analysis of both failed engines and good in-service Alabama-built engines
- Toyota did not collect any failed or in-service engines from the Tahara plant and instead analyzed the factory's fabric swatch QA process which is designed to measure machining debris
- Toyota did change the cleaning procedure in its Alabama engine plant
- Toyota did notchange the cleaning procedure in its Tahara engine plant for upwards of 12 months
- Toyota did not state it has changed the cleaning procedure in its Tahara plant to my knowledge, but [my opinion] it would be reasonable to assume Toyota has done so since identifying that problem
- Toyota didchange the #1 main bearing design to "improve robustness"
- I'm unsure if all of the bearings were changed or just #1
- Toyota states that a recall is currently unnecessary for vehicles with either:
- Improved cleaning process in factories + original bearing design OR
- Improved bearings
- Toyota states that it is still monitoring vehicles with improved cleaning process + original bearing design, so these vehicles may end up being recalled in the future
- Toyota does notstate that it is monitoring vehicles with the improved bearing
- [My opinion]: This potentially implies that Toyota is confident the original bearing design is a major contributor to failures. It also potentially implies Toyota is confident the revised main bearing solves the problem, regardless of factory cleaning procedures.
That is reassuring. How did you reach this understanding? Any single source, or multiple sources over time?
Literally not true. News companies can have opinions, but if they report inaccurate information that's damaging to another party, they can and have been sued. Other than the thumbnail, I could see nothing in the video that involved Fox News. My guess is that the Fox News logo was simply used to lend credibility to the video. Fox News could sue the creator for misrepresenting the creator's product as being a Fox News product.
I agree. This leads me to believe that it's primarily an issue of the bearing design with the debris perhaps being a contributing factor. The debris could have also taken them in the wrong direction.
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Ugh, my DIY oil change thread turned to the debris/design debate, including posting crappy AI content. Please take it over the to the Tunda forums. Tons of debate and information there. Or at least create a new thread.
In my opinion if Toyota thought a magnetic drain plug would be helpful then they would use them. There's no big cost or supply chain issues in sourcing these, and no extra cost to install in the assembly line.
Toyota uses magnetic plugs for transmission cases (not certain about the GX550), so it's not like they just forgot about doing so for oil pans. The big mystery in this is why they do not use them.
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Nearly all of the info I posted is sourced from this document Toyota filed with NHTSA about our recall: https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/rcl/2025/RMISC-25V767-8528.pdf
GX550 Forum Photos
GX550 Forum Photos
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