Toyota oil consumption problem - what about Lexus?

[Finn]

Greetings.

Toyota had a problem with their cars in late 90s to early 00s with excessive oil consumption. As I have read this resulted in a lot of engines being replaced under warranty and said warranty was even extended, as far as I can tell.

I tried to search the net if the same problem applied to Lexus of the same period as well but apart from some cases with I6 300 I found nothing.

Do you know if Lexus engines had the same problem as Toyota division? I'm mostly thinking of the LS-series V8 here.

 

[edwardh1]

seems it would , I thought most of the engines were the same

 

[KrisZ]

I berlieve Lexus never had any of Toyota's 4 cylinder engines. If those are the engines is question and I think they are, since I never heard of oil consumption problems on V6 and V8 engines, only sludge buildup on some of the V6 engines, then no wonder OP can't find anything about Lexus.

 

[Bebop367]

I believe these are the models:
Model year(s) Make/Model
1997-1999 Toyota Celica 4-cyl.
1997-2001 Toyota Camry 4-cyl.
1997-2002 Toyota Camry and Avalon V6
2001-2002 Toyota Highlander V6
1998-2002 Toyota Sienna V6
1999-2001 Toyota Solara 4-cyl.
1999-2002 Toyota Solara V6
1997-2002 Lexus ES300
1999-2002 Lexus RX300

 

[needsducktape]

I could be wrong but I think that list is incomplete-

The corolla as well and Rav4 should be added to the list

But I think a toyota enthusiast should chime in here...

 

[bepperb]

Not as much. The Toyota 3.0 V6 was the big problem engine. A lot of the Lexus 3.0 cars (the IS300, GS300) had an iron block inline 6 that was not at all related. So only the ES and RX had the same troublesome V6.

The V8 would also be unrelated.

 

[tig1]

My daughter had a 99 RX300 that she bought new and sold it with 90K. She used M1 10-30 doing 10K OCIs and never had an oil consumption problem with it. My grandson now has a 2002 Camry V6 and doesn't have a problem either, with the same oil and OCI.

 

[Doog]

The 3.0L Lexus/Toyota engine is the sludge monster and oil eater. The 3.3L and 3.5L are not.

 

[Finn]

Thank you for your replies.

When the Toyota/Lexus 6 cylinder engine is being referred to as sludge monster is the "bad" engine in question then the V6 or I6? The pre-2004 Lexus 6 cylinder engines were inline sixes, as far as I can tell, and the Camrys seemed to have a V6.

The Lexus LS series is interesting, very interesting.

 

[zloveraz]

Here is the list of models affected that Toyota settled:

http://www.oilgelsettlement.com/Documents/detailed_notice.pdf

The following Toyota or Lexus vehicles originally sold or leased in the continental United States and Alaska, equipped with 5S-FE four cylinder and/or 1 MZ-FE V-6 are included.

 

[tinmanSC]

I think you're referring to the 1MZ-FE engine that Toyota used for several years. It was a 3.0L V6 engine that had a poor PCV system. This caused build up of gasses in the crank case and head which lead to sludge. Toyota called this "gelling." The 1UZ-FE and 2UZ-FE engines that were in the GS400/430 and LS400/430 did not have the same system. Also the 2JZ-GE (the inline-6 previously mentioned in this thread, used in the SC/GS/IS300) used a different system and were not affected by the problem.

There was a law suit against Toyota for this, and it went class-action. I'm sure if you type in "toyota oil gelling "google will tell you all about it.

 

[javacontour]

Now some of the early 1.8L engines 1ZZ-FE IIRC had oil consumption problems. I think that engine came out in 1998 and the first few years some examples had higher than typical oil consumption.

Doesn't happen to all of them and my 2004 example in my Vibe if it's consuming, doesn't even register on the dipstick at 5K/6month OCIs.

 

[friendly_jacek]

The problem with this thread is that the OP and most people who replied confused SLUDGE problems with oil consumption problems. 2 different animals and different engines involved. The oil consumption was primarily in 1.8 and 2.4 engines, not used by Lexus as far as I know.

 

[KitaCam]

Originally Posted By: friendly_jacek
The problem with this thread is that the OP and most people who replied confused SLUDGE problems with oil consumption problems. 2 different animals and different engines involved. The oil consumption was primarily in 1.8 and 2.4 engines, not used by Lexus as far as I know.


...and it is not a UNIVERSAL problem...and many people erroneously consider putting ANY oil in the engine between OCIs as too much...