Oil recommendation: 1997 Lexus LS400 (1UFZE) 124k

cwlesq · May 16, 2012

1997 Lexus LS400 1UFZE Oil recommendation

Mother's Day brought wifey a "new" 1997 Lexus LS400 (1uzfe engine) with 124,xxx miles. The prior owner was...seriously...a little old lady that drove the car no more than 10 city miles at a time and no highway miles.
I took off the oil cap to find some significant vanish, but I can't see any sludge or know of any engine problems. My wife is pretty aggressive driver, but generally only drives around town (75% city/25% highway). We live in Jersey...hold the jokes..., so its congested city driving. The owners manual suggest an API 5w-30 with OCI of 6000-7500. I would like to run a 7500 mile OCI so I am considering the following:

Rotella T - 10w-30 (concerned about winter use)
Rotella T6 - 5w-40 (concerned about viscosity)
P Platinum - 5w-30 (will this address the vanish/sludge?)
Dino Max Life - 5w-30
Supertech 5w-30 syn

What are your recommendations? Thanks in advance! This is one of the most informative forums on the web.

dparm · May 16, 2012

If you switch to a decent synthetic or even semi-syn, the varnish will slowly go away (though probably not entirely).

I would go with whatever synthetic 5w30 is on sale at the time of your next change.

Oregoonian · May 16, 2012

Of the five oils mentioned in your post....my choice would be:

M-1 5w30....it has great cleaning abilities.... is a top-tier oil.... and can be used year round. Stick with a 5w30....or better yer...0w30. All the others, IMO....are to heavy. An OCI of 7k +/- should work, considering your driving habits.

The Purolator PureOne would be a great filter, if they make one for your vehicle.

Consider changing your ATF as well.

lexus114 · May 16, 2012

I`m not sure, but I think those motor`s are easy on oil. So at least that is going for you. Also a very,very smooth/powerful engine.

Lead Shoes · May 16, 2012

Somewhere I read that it took them over 400M in research and development to design that engine, I would run the rotella 10w30 in the summer and PP 5w30 or m1 0w30 in winter.

synthetic_crazy · May 16, 2012

My recommendation would be either Mobil 1 5w-30 or Pennzoil Platinum 5w-30. That engine does not need a 10w or a 40 weight oil.

I have to say I LOVE the Lexus LS cars; they are outstanding vehicles.

Do you have a picture?

By the way,

to BITOG!

Jocephus · May 16, 2012

Running 7500 OCI's in congested city driving in a Jersey winter...Of the choices you gave my #1 would be the PP with a PureOne filter.

SteveSRT8 · May 16, 2012

Great old car, one of the best built ever IMO. Should serve you well.

Consider almost any top tier synthetic in a 30w, watch it carefully for signs of usage. A couple of short OCI's should do you good.

cwlesq · May 16, 2012

Thanks. Pics coming soon. Still waxing the old girl.

cwlesq · May 16, 2012

Thanks for the replies. Sounds like a top quality synthetic 5w-30 is the right choice.

Lead Shoes · May 16, 2012

I just want to get my hands on a sc300 manual with the 2jz

bourne · May 16, 2012

If you want to go with a HM oil , I firmly believe Maxlife can hang up there with the best in that criteria , so my vote will be for the 5w30 full syn maxlife for HM oil. For everyday driving , PP 5w30 will be a good option. Or you can make a Toyota 0w20 + M1 0w40 weight oils and have an awesome 0w30 mix.

The possibilities are limitless .....

typ901 · May 16, 2012

I'd Stick to 5w-30 whichever brand you want. If you get a good deal on PP or M1 or Valvoline, run that. Get a couple of Denso filters from Rockauto, they are under $5 each and you are set.

cwlesq · May 16, 2012

Excellent..Thanks for the tip on the filters.

Moab · May 16, 2012

Originally Posted By: cwlesq
1997 Lexus LS400 1UFZE Oil recommendation

Mother's Day brought wifey a "new" 1997 Lexus LS400 (1uzfe engine) with 124,xxx miles. The prior owner was...seriously...a little old lady that drove the car no more than 10 city miles at a time and no highway miles.
I took off the oil cap to find some significant vanish, but I can't see any sludge or know of any engine problems. My wife is pretty aggressive driver, but generally only drives around town (75% city/25% highway). We live in Jersey...hold the jokes..., so its congested city driving. The owners manual suggest an API 5w-30 with OCI of 6000-7500. I would like to run a 7500 mile OCI so I am considering the following:

Rotella T - 10w-30 (concerned about winter use)
Rotella T6 - 5w-40 (concerned about viscosity)
P Platinum - 5w-30 (will this address the vanish/sludge?)
Dino Max Life - 5w-30
Supertech 5w-30 syn

What are your recommendations? Thanks in advance! This is one of the most informative forums on the web.

I know allot about these older Lexus cars. I once bought a 1993 Lexus LS400 with 293,000 miles on it with no rebuilds on the trans or engine. I asked the guy selling the Lexus if he did quite a bit of maintenance on it to keep it going and he said that he only had the trans service done once in ten years. The car ran fine.

I see lots of older Lexus cars for sale with bad transmissions around 240 thousand miles on all models. The engines in Lexus LS400's have been known to last 500K if really taken care of extremely well. The Lexus LS400 is an extremely nice car, so take care of it!

Go with a good full synthetic motor oil on that car, service the trans, flush the coolant/fill with new and replace the radiator/overflow cap. I use Pennzoil Ultra full synthetic, but I could just as easily use Mobil 1.

raytseng · May 16, 2012

I've had a 1990 ls400 until i traded it in under cash for clunkers.

The problems with 1Gen Lexus is less about the engine and oil than other things. Any 5w-30 should serve you well with 5k intervals.

What you have to worry about most is:

1) power steering fluid system uses the vaccuum system with a valve that gets stuck open; so you are losing PS Fluid (which inevitably is getting burned in the engine.
If you end up this issue, having this slow flow of dextron going into your combustion chamber is going to make more of a difference and make more of a mess with deposits and power than the fine tuning you are doing with the oil. So watch out for that. If you get hit by this, there are ways to plug the leak, then use fuel injector cleaner addditive to clean up the deposits. Google ls400 power steering leak if this happens to research the issue.

2) also watch out for trans fluid, drain and fill regularly.

3) Interior the LCD displays for your radio/AC will die out.

4) Suspension will need some replacement for wear parts. If it is air suspension, this will fail and be cost-prohibitive to repair, but there are retrofit kits to change this to a more reliable spring suspension.

There are a couple good lexus forums:
www.clublexus.com
http://www.lexusownersclub.com/

RISUPERCREWMAN · May 16, 2012

Change the timing belt as I believe its an interfearance motor.

Since1941 · May 16, 2012

NextGen Maxlife, or if you are concerned about the NextGen, regular Maxlife. P1 oil filters are excellent. I use both these combos listed, and it has been great. I know many others with the same setup having great results too.

Capa · May 16, 2012

Originally Posted By: synthetic_crazy
That engine does not need a 10w or a 40 weight oil.

+2

Personally, I would run a 0W-30 or a 5W-30. I have a 1999 GS400, which has a very similar V8 to yours, and I have run 0W-40 (felt lethargic), 0W-30 and am currently running 0W-20. Yep, I said 0W-20 and I'm getting my best MPG ever and the car revs so well and feels more lively.

fdcg27 · May 16, 2012

There is a member here who has the same gen LS400 who does 10K changes on "whatever" synthetic and has, I believe, 280K on the car.
Use any 5W-30 on reasonable drain intervals, and that Toyota V-8 should run for many more miles.
These were really good cars, from what I have seen and heard.
I'm sure that you and your better half will enjoy the car over a number of years and miles.

Oil recommendation: 1997 Lexus LS400 (1UFZE) 124k

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