Low mileage oil change intervals (2 Viewers)

[mulberry083]

We’ve had our GX OT+ since 07/24, and currently have less than 7k miles on it. Love the car, but are a 2 person, 3 car family so we baby it. My question is about oil change frequency wrt time vs mileage. I had the oil changed at 1000 miles (12/24), and then at ~5000 miles this past July. Should I wait until 10k miles (which could be 07/26), or do it in 01/26, even if we only have 7000 miles or so on it?

 

[Warrantero]

Car car nut recommends 5k or 6 months for turbo engines.

 

[RetiredSteelWorker]

^ Yes, he does.

Even though Car Care Nut (see his YT video on Totota/Lexus engines with turbos, the GX 550 has two), the correct answer is you should follow as a minimum, the specifications from Lexus for a GX 550. Those specs are: Change the oil and filter at 10k miles or 12 months, whichever occurs first. If you fall under "SPECIAL DRIVING CONDITIONS" then 5k miles or six months applies instead.

You can, a lot of people do, change oil and filter at lesser intervals -- time or mileage -- but you should never go over the intervals.

To directly answer your question, you'd satisfy the 12 months, 10k miles specification at either of 1) or 2): 1.) 15k miles, because your last change was at 5000 miles. 2.) on 07/26, one year from your last change done in July of this year. whichever comes first. Every time you change the oil you apply the 10k miles or 12 month rule to determine your next change.

You can, and a lot of people (i.e., many, many, many people) do, change at less than the minimum intervals. But you should never go over. So if you were to change at 7000 miles or 01/26 you'd be doing better than the specs. And you simply figure 10k miles or 12 months forward from that point.

My own approach, and I'm only a sample of one in the huge pool of people who will change more frequently than the specs, is: I'll have a dealer do the 10k miles or 12 month changes, and I'll do my own change at 5k miles or six months. That way a dealer always does the items on the recommended maintenance interval checklist, so no questions on 'was the scheduled maintenance performed' for any future warranty coverage questions. And I get peace of mind along with some satisfaction in having oil changes myself at 6 months or 5k miles.

This was a long-winded reply, if it doesn't answer your question reply back and we'll try again.

 

[Sixgun95]

My dealer says 10k mi, or 12 mo, whatever comes first. Anything more is a waste of money. I agree, QC and manufacturing is light years ahead of the past.