Is anyone changing the oil on their LC250 after the 1000 mile break in period?

At the risk of starting a flame war on oil/oil changes etc..

Everyone on here 'knows someone who knows'. It would seem split on 'Yes, by all means.. do any early oil change' and "You are wasting your time and money'. Not here to deliberate who is right, but after seeing what came out at ~500 miles, makes me feel a whole lot better that shit is not floating around in the crankcase any longer. Certainly, doing an early oil change doesn't hurt anything. I'm not sending it in for any analysis.

Would it have made any difference if I waited until 10K? We'll never know for sure one way or the other, but If I started to have internal engine issues down the road, I sure would be kicking myself about not doing it.

RE: Video above

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“I dont care what the owner’s manual says!”
…
“I’m switching the type of oil because the owner’s manual says that’s OK.”

Just changed at 1080. Guy at dealer told me this not scheduled until 10K. Told me if they find something wrong at 10K, it’s on me. Holy shit!! I plan on 3K, then my first freebie at 5K, with rotation, etc. hmmmmmmm. Welcome any comments from LC owners that took to their dealer.

This inspired me to call a dealership nearby (I’m bored and it’s a sloooooooow Friday) to ask if an early oil change caused any issues going forward.

Nu-uh. Nope. No. Why would it?

Only thing is that I have to pay for it… ok then.

Thx for checking. I’m not worried, it’s a TOYO. I did, think it was weird. Have a super weekend, wherever you LC!!!

I did mine at 967 miles at my local dealership. It may be a placebo effect, but the engine and transmission seem a little bit smoother after the oil change.

LandcruiserNut said:

Just changed at 1080. Guy at dealer told me this not scheduled until 10K. Told me if they find something wrong at 10K, it’s on me. Holy shit!! I plan on 3K, then my first freebie at 5K, with rotation, etc. hmmmmmmm. Welcome any comments from LC owners that took to their dealer.

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That’s insane, I would find a new dealer ASAP. I changed mine at 3500 and the only thing my service guy said was “probably a good idea to get that break in oil out of it.”

I did a little searching on YouTube and could not find anything. Is there a video somewhere that walks you through doing the oil change + let's you know what you need in order to do it? I am at 900 or so miles and I want to do the 1k service on my own. I've been running electric for the last 7 years, so I haven't had to deal with this.

D-Train said:

At the risk of starting a flame war on oil/oil changes etc..

Everyone on here 'knows someone who knows'. It would seem split on 'Yes, by all means.. do any early oil change' and "You are wasting your time and money'. Not here to deliberate who is right, but after seeing what came out at ~500 miles, makes me feel a whole lot better that shit is not floating around in the crankcase any longer. Certainly, doing an early oil change doesn't hurt anything. I'm not sending it in for any analysis.

Would it have made any difference if I waited until 10K? We'll never know for sure one way or the other, but If I started to have internal engine issues down the road, I sure would be kicking myself about not doing it.

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I'm with you D-Train, I've had my LC ~ 50 days and am going to be driving from Santa Fe to Granby, CO with my dog ~ 18 hours round trip plus driving dogs all over a wide expanse for training daily. Took the LC to a shop that works on a lot of high end vehicles including Land Cruisers, the owner has a LC. 604 miles, the owner asked me if I would want to wait for oil analysis as the oil would likely be the dirtiest it would ever be and would likely not give accurate answers and I said I wanted to send regardless. I brought Pennzoil ultra platinum 0w-20 and new Ecoguard synthetic 10k filter to them. The oil was pitch black and the gas smell was through the roof. Part of that might be from me driving 80/20 city/hwy and being soft on the accelerator until almost 500 miles then intermittently short spurts of 2500 - 4k rpm. My point of reference on these small turbo engines is my wife's 2019 turbo convertible Beetle. She has ~ 30k on it and last oil change was 9 months ago at the same shop and has gone ~ 4300 miles and the oil is not remotely close to black. I'm probably going to go to 5k - 5.5k mileage before changing again.

Lutie D. said:

I'm with you D-Train, I've had my LC ~ 50 days and am going to be driving from Santa Fe to Granby, CO with my dog ~ 18 hours round trip plus driving dogs all over a wide expanse for training daily. Took the LC to a shop that works on a lot of high end vehicles including Land Cruisers, the owner has a LC. 604 miles, the owner asked me if I would want to wait for oil analysis as the oil would likely be the dirtiest it would ever be and would likely not give accurate answers and I said I wanted to send regardless. I brought Pennzoil ultra platinum 0w-20 and new Ecoguard synthetic 10k filter to them. The oil was pitch black and the gas smell was through the roof. Part of that might be from me driving 80/20 city/hwy and being soft on the accelerator until almost 500 miles then intermittently short spurts of 2500 - 4k rpm. My point of reference on these small turbo engines is my wife's 2019 turbo convertible Beetle. She has ~ 30k on it and last oil change was 9 months ago at the same shop and has gone ~ 4300 miles and the oil is not remotely close to black. I'm probably going to go to 5k - 5.5k mileage before changing again.

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Forgot to mention in my post that my oil was pretty damn black.. in addition to the glitter and few very small machining parts at the bottom of the drain pan. No gas smell that I could discern? I'll probably stick to a 5K OCI schedule moving forward.

erhall55 said:

I just made it to a 1,010 miles. Barely 19 MPG in the city. I'm concerned about waiting for 10,000 MI to change the oil. I'm thinking about doing a quick change and sending it off for testing. I use Blackstone labs.

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Changed mine at 700 miles.... Second one soon at 2,500 miles

Took the LC on a road trip and changed the oil today after getting back (1200 miles). I was surprised to find that the "transmission and transfer case protection" is a plastic shield. Seriously? I'll be upgrading the skid plates sooner rather than later. The oil flows out sideways from the drain pan. I thought I was prepared for the flow, but the oil came out so fast that it splashed out of the pan and onto the passenger side wheel. Not great. But, the oil filter design with the lip to help get the oil to drain into the pan instead of on the frame is nice

Here are some pics if you are thinking about doing the oil change yourself.
1. Rear skid plate...err...plastic shield that won't protect anything. Note the access panel which can be removed to drain the oil. I removed the entire plate - it's only four bolts instead of the three for the access panel.



2. Here's a shot of the oil pan. Notice that the drain plug is angled at about 45 degrees to ensure the oil shoots out way to the left. Nice - if you like oil everywhere.

3. Here's a pic of the oil cooler/oil filter with the front skid plate removed. You must remove the skid plate for access.

4. Here's a pic with the oil filter removed.

5. New and old oil filter. Note that the original oil filter was made in Japan by Denso, but the replacement was made in Thailand by Denso. Not sure why they have different part numbers, other than the country of origin.

6. A shot of the rear skid plate. I mean "transmission and transfer case protection."

7. A shot of the front skid plate. It's steel, but about 1 mm thinner than the upgraded skid plate on the FE.


I am sending in my oil to Blackstone for analysis. Given the recent history of Toyota - think Taco transmission issues and V6 Twin Turbo failures - I want to know if any debris is found in my oil. Plus, it'll give me a baseline moving forward.

My two cents on changing oil and intervals. I watch an engine teardown every Saturday (I Do Cars) and the biggest lesson is that keeping the oil changed is the single most important thing you can do to help maintain the health of your engine. Ask BMW how those 10K mile intervals worked out on the N20 (not great!) Spend time watching Gale Banks talk about engines and oil changes and he'll encourage you to test the oil at every change to have the actual data to decide how long you should go between changes. But, the cost of the analysis is almost the same as just doing the damn oil change. I'll keep on changing my oil every 5K because it's the cheapest and most effective way to keep my engine running well. Your engine might do ok with 10K mile oil changes, but Eric from I Do Cars has plenty of blown up engines on his stand to keep him busy. While not every engine blows due to an oiling issue, almost none of the engines that he sees on his stand are examples of well-maintained engines.

uraniumrich said:

I thought I was prepared for the flow, but the oil came out so fast that it splashed out of the pan and onto the passenger side wheel. Not great. But, the oil filter design with the lip to help get the oil to drain into the pan instead of on the frame is nice

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This might help..