What type of oil?

ultane · Feb 11, 2025

XTrooper said:
This is is the most expensive vehicle I have ever owned or will ever own. Folks here have been great about sharing their information. I really appreciate it. I’m sorry you don’t feel it’s a worthy issue. Thank you everyone who took the time to share their experiences.

I was being facetious, joking, as indicated by the laughing emoji.

I understand wanting to use the best oil possible, instead of Quaker State wax in a can. Toyota recommends Toyota 0W-20 (which is made and bottled by Exxon Mobil). The dealer I purchased Miss Daisy from does not stock it Toyota branded oil. They offered to sell me Mobil 1 instead, for $9.50 a quart. I told them I would by the same oil from Costco for about $6 a quart.

I am sure that as long as you use oil that meets Toyota specifications, your truck will be fine.

kmershly · Feb 11, 2025

Area 51 said:
The Fumoto for this vehicle was fitted today as well. This is the one you want, easy for oil changes and tucks up high. you wont be disappointed.

Granted, the Toyota stores in my area all suck, but when I brought my LC in for an issue, the tech noted my Fumoto valve, the service writer said that I have two choices, have them remove it or they will report to Toyota that I modified the oil pan and to invalidate the warranty.

They wanted $75 to put in a drain plug, I was not sure if they could invalidate my warranty or not (the Toyota stores in my area love to be confrontational with customers and I have never understood why), but pushed back a little stating that I had the drain plug at home and would put it back in myself and they could inspect it. The service writer said they would charge $50 for the inspection, I said $25, he hemmed and hawed and agreed to $25 (obviously a money grab).

So, probably a me problem, not a greater Toyota owner problem, but just a warning in case anyone lives in an area with crap Toyota stores.

ultane said:
I was being facetious, joking, as indicated by the laughing emoji.

I understand wanting to use the best oil possible, instead of Quaker State wax in a can. Toyota recommends Toyota 0W-20 (which is made and bottled by Exxon Mobil). The dealer I purchased Miss Daisy from does not stock it Toyota branded oil. They offered to sell me Mobil 1 instead, for $9.50 a quart. I told them I would by the same oil from Costco for about $6 a quart. The Motor Oil Geek used Mobile 1 for his daughter’s Toyota first oil change and has many videos on the subject.

View attachment 27143

I am sure that as long as you use oil that meets Toyota specifications, your truck will be fine.

A close friend of mine is a Powertrain Engineer for BMW in Munich, Germany and we have talked about oil as BMW seems to change its vendors every so often. For a while it was SHELL in most parts of the world, than BMWNA went with Castrol for the NA market and is still using Castrol while Europe and Asia are SHELL.

At some level he said that if the oil meets the manufacturers spec it will be fine, he always says that in his opinion more frequent oil changes are the most important thing.

He has three BMWs (E90 M3 V8, E50 M5 V10 and a G82 M4) and he uses Liqui Molly because he knows folks who work for them so he can get it for a good price, but he would be happy to use SHELL or BMW branded oil if he could get it for a good price.

Ditto his 2016 Discovery LR4 (soon to be replaced with a 2025 Land Cruiser Diesel), he puts Liqui Molly in it because he can get it for less than he could most if not all other good quality brands, otherwise, he would put whatever good brand was available for a good price.

ultane · Feb 11, 2025

kmershly said:
Granted, the Toyota stores in my area all suck, but when I brought my LC in for an issue, the tech noted my Fumoto valve, the service writer said that I have two choices, have them remove it or they will report to Toyota that I modified the oil pan and to invalidate the warranty.

They wanted $75 to put in a drain plug, I was not sure if they could invalidate my warranty or not (the Toyota stores in my area love to be confrontations with customers and I have never understood why), but pushed back a little stating that I had the drain plug at home and would put it back in myself and they could inspect it. The service writer said they would charge $50 for the inspection, I said $25, he hemmed and hawed and greed to $25 (obviously a money grab).

That dealer would NEVER get another 10 cents from me. Ever.

I’ve heard that many Toyota mechanics use Fumoto valves.

I would demand to talk to the general manager. If the GM PERSISTS, I would write a shitty review on Google, yelp, and any other place you could.

Just walk away.

jpto · Feb 11, 2025

In the past I've just used Motomaster oil from Canadian Tire, it's made by Shell and it goes on sale frequently. I'll have to double check if it meets the latest standards. The only downside with Motomaster/Shell is the colour is so light it's sometimes hard to see on the dipstick when new vs Mobil 1, Castrol and others that I've used.

kmershly · Feb 12, 2025

ultane said:
That dealer would NEVER get another 10 cents from me. Ever.

I’ve heard that many Toyota mechanics use Fumoto valves.

I would demand to talk to the general manager. If the GM PERSISTS, I would write a shitty review on Google, yelp, and any other place you could.

Just walk away.

Trust me, if I could go somewhere else for warranty work, I would but in my neck of the woods without driving 2-3 hours each way in any direction to get to another Toyota store, I am stuck with crap confrontational Toyota stores.

My Father had a serious issue with the other dealer group Toyota Store in my area and he had to get an attorney involved (my wife) to solve the issue with the GM blaming my Father instead of taking ownership himself and fixing the issue.

The attorney for the dealership was flabbergasted and said to my wife off the record that he was going to suggest to the GM to take care of the issue rather than fight it in court, but he was not hopeful as the GM loves to fight. In the end, he must have cajoled the GM enough because he did agree to take care of the issue, but he was never nice about it, including and up to telling my Father that the dealership attorney said to be nice, but if it was up to him (the GM), he would have cut off all communication and told my Father to pound sand.

That is the same dealership who threatened to call the Police on me for not being willing to pay a diag fee of $250 or $2,500 for new breaks to solve the squeal coming from my LC which should have been covered under the warranty.

ultane · Feb 12, 2025

kmershly said:
Trust me, if I could go somewhere else for warranty work, I would but in my neck of the woods without driving 2-3 hours each way in any direction to get to another Toyota store, I am stuck with crap confrontational Toyota stores.

My Father had a serious issue with the other dealer group Toyota Store in my area and he had to get an attorney involved (my wife) to solve the issue with the GM blaming my Father instead of taking ownership himself and fixing the issue.

The attorney for the dealership was flabbergasted and said to my wife off the record that he was going to suggest to the GM to take care of the issue rather than fight it in court, but he was not hopeful as the GM loves to fight. In the end, he must have cajoled the GM enough because he did agree to take care of the issue, but he was never nice about it, including and up to telling my Father that the dealership attorney said to be nice, but if it was up to him (the GM), he would have cut off all communication and told my Father to pound sand.

That is the same dealership who threatened to call the Police on me for not being willing to pay a diag fee of $250 or $2,500 for new breaks to solve the squeal coming from my LC which should have been covered under the warranty.

If your wife is an attorney, make use of her….

EnigmaOperator · Feb 14, 2025

ultane said:
The dealer I purchased Miss Daisy from does not stock it Toyota branded oil. They offered to sell me Mobil 1 instead, for $9.50 a quart. I told them I would by the same oil from Costco for about $6 a quart. The Motor Oil Geek used Mobile 1 for his daughter’s Toyota first oil change and has many videos on the subject.

View attachment 27143

I am sure that as long as you use oil that meets Toyota specifications, your truck will be fine.

This is the way

No15 · Feb 14, 2025

kmershly said:
So, I thought that I would give you all the epilogue to my drama with the brakes, I spoke with Toyota Corporate again today and the employee there said that she got nowhere with the Toyota stores in my area that she tried.

The Toyota employee was really nice and surprisingly honest, she said that while the dealers in my area are more extreme than many that she has dealt with, she said that unfortunately not enough dealers are customer service orientated. She said that even herself as a Toyota Corporate employee has received poor service from Toyota stores in her area, so when she hears stories like mine, she is sadly not surprised.

That in of itself is an argument for direct to consumer, but that will never happen as long as the laws protect the franchises and do not allow the manufacturers to pull away from dealer model.

I mentioned to her that I had spoke with the Service Manager at the local Lexus store in my area (which happens to be owned by a different dealer group than the Toyota stores in my area) and he was willing to preform the Lexus TSB on my LC and that his warranty specialist said that she can push it through the Toyota store (far away from my area) owned by that dealer group.

She said that she would reach out to the Lexus store and see if she could help them get paid for the work and a few hours later she called me back saying that she had arranged for the Lexus store to do the brake work for me, free of charge to me. She did add that this is a one-time courtesy as the warranties between the two brands are technically separate but her bosses were able to approve it this time.

So, my brakes will be replaced following the Lexus TSB, but the whole thing reminds me why the franchises make all the difference.