Lexus IS 250/350: How to Perform an Oil Change

HOW-TO VIDEO NOW AVAILABLE ON YOUTUBE (1/27/21):

When I first bought my IS250, I took it into the dealer for the first several oil changes. It seemed somewhat reasonable: $45 would get me the oil change, a car wash, and a loaner vehicle. However, I soon learned that they were actually putting in regular oil and not synthetic. Quality is huge for me, especially when it comes to Lexi. I always put in 91 octane gasoline (I read that 91+ is preferred for an engine with a 12:1 compression ratio and can lead to better performance and mileage). Likewise, I want synthetic oil in my car to reduce the number of required oil changes and increase the longevity of my car's engine. :) When it comes to keeping my baby in good shape, I don't mind spending a couple more bucks, but even I have my limits.

To upgrade to a synthetic oil change at the dealer, it would cost me $120-$130, which seemed like way too much for an oil change. I then took it to a third-party, where I was charged $85 for the change. Fyi, my car requires 7 quarts of oil and most places will only give you 5 as part of the standard, so you have to pay for the extra quarts when you go over 5. Ugh.

I then talked to my friend Wayne who performs his own oil changes. I researched how to perform an oil change on my car and then we gave it a shot. After seeing how easy it was to do on my own, I bought my own equipment and now do my own oil changes. :D It's very rewarding and I know that it gets done right!

How-To Guide: Performing an Oil Change on a Lexus IS250/350
Note: My car is the 2006 IS250 Manual Transmission model, not sure if newer models are different.
DISCLAIMER: If you follow my guide to perform your own oil change, you do so at your own risk. I am not liable for any resulting damage, injury, or expense. I am not a professional mechanic in any sense and this guide is solely for informational purposes. 

EQUIPMENT:

One-Time Purchase:
-Set of Car Jack and Stands ($80 at Sears)
-Oil Drain Pan (shown here is the 15 quarts version, $10 at Checker/O'Reilly)
-Funnel ($1, get it anywhere)
-Oil Filter Wrench: TOYOTA 640 / 09228-06501 - 64mm ($15 at amazon.com)
Note: They have plastic oil filter sockets at Walmart for like $5, but I couldn't get the housing off with the plastic kind. The metal one works like a champ!

Used Each Change:
-Two 5-quart bottles of 5W-30 SAE Fully Synthetic Motor Oil (~$23 for 5-quarts at Walmart)
Note: I usually go with Mobil, but have also used Castrol and would consider Valvoline as well. Only 7 quarts of the 10 are used, so there will be some re-use of unfinished bottles.
-Oil Filter Kit: 04152-YZZA3 ($5 at irontoad.com plus shipping...I buy in bulk)
-Oil Drain Plug Gasket: 90430-12031 ($1 at irontoad.com)
-Latex Gloves (cheap, get anywhere)
-Paper Towels and Old Cardboard Boxes ('cause it can get messy)


EXECUTING THE OIL CHANGE:

***Wait at least 1 hour after driving before changing the oil!  Otherwise it may still be hot when it comes out of the vehicle.***

STEP 1:
Use the car jack and stands to properly jack up the vehicle.

On this car, you really only need to raise it about half-a-foot to comfortably access the drain plug and oil filter housing, which are located near the front of the car under the hood.

STEP 2:Place your cut-up cardboard box under the car around the vicinity of the drain plug and oil filter housing to help catch loose/spilled oil. No matter how many times you do this, it'll always be a little messy.

Locate the drain plug, which looks like this:

Place the oil drain pan under the plug and use a socket wrench to untighten the drain plug.

After the drain plug has been untightened, the messy part begins. Once the drain plug has been fully unscrewed, be ready to catch the oil in the drain pain. It's comes out quick!

STEP 3:

The oil will take a while to drain, so in the meantime you can change the oil filter. Locate the oil filter hatch, which looks like this:

This is where you absolutely need the Special Service Tool (a.k.a. Oil Filter Wrench). Use the wrench/socket to unscrew the oil filter housing. You may want to place the oil drain pan underneath (or a second one if the oil is still draining from the plug) 'cause there will be some excess oil in there.

Toss the dirty filter and old O-ring.

I like to clean the housing a little before putting in the new filter and O-ring.

Reattach the housing with the new filter inside and make sure it is tightened securely and then place the hatch back on. Also screw in the drain plug (use a new oil drain plug gasket if you like) once it is done draining.

STEP 4:

Open the oil lid and using a funnel, slowly pour the new motor oil into the engine. This car requires 7 quarts (6.7 to be exact, but I just do 7 to keep things simple).

After the oil has been poured in, close the lid and check for leaks underneath the car where the drain plug and oil filter are. Congratulations! You've just successfully completed an oil change on this Lexus! But wait, there's still one thing left to do...

STEP 5:

The car's computer is programmed by default to turn on the "Oil Maintenance Required" service light every 5,000 miles since last resetting it. 5,000 miles is how often I change my oil and I hear you can go several more if you are using synthetic, but seeing how dark and dirty that oil gets after 5k, I just decide to change it then.

To reset the service light, set the odometer to ODO (not Trip A nor Trip B). Turn off the engine. Holding the trip reset button down, turn on just the electrical components (the method that doesn't actually start the engine but the rest of the car) and keep holding the button down. When done correctly, you will see a bunch of dashes where the odometer mileage is usually displayed, the dashes will disappear one at a time and after about 5 seconds the service light will be reset.

And finally the car is as good as new!!!

So in conclusion, you can see that by doing my own synthetic oil changes, I had a one-time purchase of equipment that cost me about $105. Every change after that costs me approximately $38. I have yet to find a third-party mechanic that will do a synthetic oil change on my car for less than $85 (they usually charge a bit to get that non-standard oil-filter too). If you know of one, please, let me know. So after two changes I've already made up what it would've cost me to take it in somewhere! And thanks a bunch to Wayne who helped me through the first time I tried this!

MORE LEXUS IS250/350 GUIDES BY ANDY:
Lexus IS 250/350: How to Replace the Cruise Control Lever

The End of an Era...

Although Nate was the winner of the last blog entry, he chose my next blog to be about the weekend I come to visit him in Scottsdale (which is this coming weekend). So he'll get his blog eventually, but in the meantime, there's other stuff to fill you out on!

So sadly enough to say, my roommate and good friend Ben is moving out at the end of the month. He's headed back to Seattle to be closer to friends and family and hopefully have a little more success in the current job market than here in Tucson. On Friday, we threw him a going-away party; I guess it was more of a going-out night to see him off. He picked dinner at Guadalajara Grill, which I had actually never been to before. The restaurant is very festive inside and the best part was definitely the table-side salsa they make before you from scratch. I couldn't stop eating the chips and salsa and it spoiled the rest of my dinner, but hey, it was just that good!
After dinner we headed over to Chet and Kassie's since there were a number of people who are allergic to my cat and we just thought going to their place would be more convenient. This proved to be a very dangerous tho', as pregaming with Chet and Ramon can be a very bad idea. We ended up doing Sake bombs and most of you probably know how effed up that can get you in a hurry...and doesn't help when it's Chet pouring the drinks. :)
I was pretty drunk from pregaming and well before I got to the bars and all the guys got pretty smashed. It takes a lot for Ben to get hammered and there was no way I could keep up with him although I really tried, but I think overall the night was a success. I don't have pictures from the bars since I was in no shape to be taking them, :) but we ended up going to O'Malley's and it was a good look that night.So anyway, I wish the best of luck to Ben and thanks for being such an awesome roommate these past two years! I'll definitely have to go and visit him out in Seattle!

RIBS

"...and in honor of this momentous occasion...we're havin' ribs." Whoever correctly comments where that quote comes from gets to pick the topic of my next blog entry!

If you've been following along, you'll know that I'm slowly trying to cook something new every few weeks. Yesterday I made BBQ Ribs for the first time and I must say, I was pleasantly pleased. I didn't throw them in the grill though; I boiled them for a while and then popped them in the oven and they turned out great! Kinda surprised how simple it was. The only failure was that I couldn't finish off the full slab in a single sitting! Such a poor performance for the once Bottomless Box! :'( Probably should've passed on the chips and salsa appetizer...

Happy 4th!

For the 4th of July I got invited to my friend's townhouse in Dana Point, CA. We left by car on Friday morning and made it a 4-day weekend although I guess Friday and Monday don't fully count since we're traveling so much. Jeff's parents' townhouse is about 10 minutes away from the beach, which you can spot from the balcony. The entire weekend was pretty much what I expected when hanging out with Jeff and Mike: kick back, drink heavily at the townhouse, and just enjoy ourselves. So during the day we would mostly hang out on the balcony listening to music and enjoy a cigar here and there.While the guys would be hanging out at the house during the day, the girls would go down to the beach or to Laguna do to some shopping. Jeff isn't much for the beach anyway, and the point of the trip was to hang out with my buddies. I already got my beach fixing in a few weeks ago in Mexico. Plus, the weather in Dana Point hovered between 67-73 during the day, which was actually a little colder than one would expect (I thought the weather was great!). So anyway, I was totally happy just hanging out at the pad and doing stuff like playing Madden on the PS3.

I should mention that when I visited Jeff in Newport Beach, this is pretty much what we did all day long. We'd make ourselves several drinks and play Madden. :) Our style of play isn't head-to-head tho'; it's cooperative. On offense, Jeff calls nothing but passing plays and takes control of the quarterback while I take the running back and we have one play: I get open and he throws me the ball. There could be 3 defenders on me and we'd still throw the ball my way. It usually leads to 4-5 interceptions a game haha. And on defense, I call the plays and we do our best to not allow 50-yard touchdowns and such, heh.

On Saturday night the girls wanted to go out to Laguna and check out some of the nightlife they saw when they were there during the day. Jeff and his girlfriend Ashley decided to stay in since it was already 11pm by the time we made it out there (the bars close at ~1:30 for some reason). Mike and I joined the ladies and we hit up several bars in Laguna: The Saloon, Hennessy's Tavern, and some other place I can't remember the name of probably 'cause I was too drunk by that point. :)Most of the bars in Laguna are near Ocean Avenue which is right next to the beach and the girls had the "bright" idea to go play on the beach at like 2am in the morning. I honestly don't know how they didn't get sucked in by the massive tides...but knowing me, I probably would've jumped in to save them had they got in any trouble lol.

Sunday was the 4th of July and we had a killer BBQ. Actually, for the entire weekend all we did was barbeque and for some reason I was the chef of the house. I grilled burgers, dogs, steaks, brats, chicken breasts, skewers, you name it. And in the morning I'd also make ham, egg, and cheese sandwiches or omeletes.

But being the chef had one major disadvantage: it was an easy opportunity to set me up for an Icing. On one of the days right before I was about to go fire up the grill, Jeff set a Smirnoff Ice inside for me to nonchalantly stumble across when I opened it. ICED! Ahhhh, the humilation. We would continue to Ice each other at opportunte times throughout the entire vacation.

I honestly can't believe that Smirnoff Ice used to be one of my drinks of choice when I first started drinking liquor when I was 17. I guess that was all before I had discovered the greatness of beer. Drinking games were a plenty this weekend (you already saw beer pong above) but the funnest new craze is Fingers!

Fingers is a simple game where all you need is a cup. Everyone playing puts their finger on the cup and then everyone takes turns guessing how many fingers will be on the cup when it's their turn. For example, say it's my turn, so I'll say "1, 2, 3...2!" Right after 3 everyone can either leave their finger on the cup or lift it off. If the number I guess is the equal to the fingers on the cup, then I'm out of the game. That's a good thing because whoever's last has to drink the cup! So simple yet so addicting!

On the 4th, Jeff, Mike, and I all had costumes. Mike and Jeff wore patriotic shirts, but mine was a little different. We had kept my costume a secret up until the trip and Jeff thought it'd be hilarious if there was a villian at our party (only Jeff would devise something like this). So for the 4th, I dressed up as a Japanese Kamikaze Pilot from World War II. The outfit was actually pretty epic. I also made paper airplanes to bombard at people when I entered shouting "I'm here to ruin your 4th of July bitches!" LOL. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of the costume...only Jeff has one on his phone and CJ has the other on her camera, which I haven't seen yet. What I do have is the little toy plane I bought as part of the ensemble:

The fireworks show at night could be seen from our balcony and it was very entertaining. They also had music playing on the radio that was synced with the show, so that was pretty cool. Although our theme song for the entire song was Team America's "America Fuck Ya". :D Sunday night we also went out but this time went somewhere closer in Dana Point: another Hennessy's Tavern (I think they might be like the Maloney's of California?). Anyway, Hennessy's was a good look and they had 2-for-1 drink specials all night. And surprise surprise, wouldn't you know that the Fingers game followed us to the bar haha!
Another great thing Hennessy's had - besides plenty of dancing - was the Lobster Crane Game! It cost $2 to play and if you could snatch a lobster they would cook it for you on the spot. Needless to say, we were ultimate failures and ended up pouring $12 into the machine, we just kept thinking to ourselves that we could win a lobster!

After the night ended, Mike and Jeff decided to build a fort to sleep in. ROFL! This thing was pretty badass since you had to actually pass crawl through if you wanted to get from one side of the house to the other. And it was so well constructed that it conducted a lot of heat and Mike actually got warm while sleeping in it.

The weekend was a huge success and easily the best 4th of July I've had so far. The car ride home was even entertaining 'cause right around sunset we were able to perform a hilarious shadow puppet show for Ashley sitting in the front seat. :)

And finally, the best quote from the trip from Lindsey: "Andy is like Disneyland, except instead of being the happiest place on Earth, he's the happiest person on Earth." :P