This video is about an RX350 oil change. Applies to 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019 models. I was able to use the same oil, parts and tools that I use on my Toyota Tacoma. This makes life so much simpler! It's lengthy as I wanted to cover all the steps of the oil change.

Overview:

• Lift car with ramps or jack and jack stands
• Drain oil from drain pan (14mm wrench)
• Drain oil from oil filter canister
• Remove canister cap with filter wrench
• Replace paper cartridge and replace cap
• Replace drain plug
• Lower car
• Fill with oil (usually will be 0w-20 and around 5.7 qts)
• Reset maintenance light and dispose of oil

Video Transcription

"Hey guys, it's Robert again. I want to say thanks for liking and subscribing to my channel. If you are new here, check out my videos. And if you like it, please subscribe below. And if you guys already are my subscribers, I appreciate you coming back.

Today we're not going to be talking about the hard shell taco. Today we're actually going to be talking about my wife’s RX350. And what I need to do today is an oil change. It's got about 18,000 miles on it. And I'm doing an oil change with that low of a mileage myself not just because I like to do my own oil changes, but because Lexus, which is part of Toyota, only gives oil changes at 10,000 miles. That’s right, 10,000 miles... but what's weird is that the Toyotas do 20,000 miles. So I don't get it... it's about the same amount of oil, it's exactly the same filter Toyota uses. There's no Lexus brand part yet they don't give you an oil change of 20,000 miles... so be it. So I am going to be working on this car.

So I got some tools from MotivX that I got for my Tacoma. And it actually will fit the RX350. So let's go over what items I’ve got here.

First of all I got some kind of ramp. So you can use jack stands and the jack but I happen to have ramps so hopefully I could drive up on it. Ihe reason why is because this is a little bit lower than the truck so it's gonna be hard to access the bottom. I mean I could probably work it, but I think with a ramp this is gonna make my life easier.

So besides the ramp you need some kind of oil container to catch oil. Now of course you need oil for these cars. I actually use synthetic 0w 20 and I choose Mobile One because Mobile One is just well known and hasn't given me any trouble.

Gotta have some rags, some gloves. You could use your bare hands if you want.

A ratchet and various sockets... I will put everything in a description as far as what you need.

Also these are the MotivX tools I got. So I really like this one... this is a forged oil cap wrench to get the filter out. It takes a lot of force to actually break it loose, so this is legit. This is my favorite thing and I think this is a must to own. Optional things you can get is this oil filler funnel. Yeah actually fits perfectly in the oil filler and you can fill it up very quickly because of the size of that opening. So I'll be showing you how that looks,

And also lastly, this here will help drain oil out of the cartridge and that way you don't have a big mess. One thing I totally forgot... you gotta have yourself the oil filter. So this is the oil filter. It's a paper element. It's got gaskets and everything built in.

Removing drain plug and replacing the oil filter

All right, looking at the front of the Lexus... if you look towards the passenger side you can see where the oil filter cartridge is. It’s just right behind the oil drain plug so it's in a nice spot. Very easy to access. They used to put a lot of plastic coverings on this and these Lexus’ did before Toyota, but I guess they don't want to do it now. So it's a pro and con. Now you'll be able to see the leaks easier if we have any issues it is kind of a good thing. So I think I'll be able to knock this one out hopefully faster than I thought. What I like to do - I forgot to add - is I like to find a piece of cardboard to use. Because chances are, oil will drip from here to here or pass here.

So let's go ahead and get some tools and start working on this. All right 14 mil - it's always lefty loosy by the way. While it's doing that I’m gonna go ahead and drain out a little bit so I can move the oil pan closer to here just in case I get some oil leakage as well. So we're gonna take off this bottom cannister... not much... that's good. And the reason why I shouldn't is because you're supposed to insert something in here to do it. Let me demonstrate we usually get in the box or the oil tree of the oil filter housing, you get gaskets and the oil filter. You get this little gasket thing and it's supposed to insert in here hard and then drip out oil. But MotivX came up with this little device which is kind of cool that I kind of like. It's supposed to help with being less messy. So it's got this tube - we're backing this out so it doesn't put any pressure on it and then we're gonna twist this on. I actually just finger tighten this... from my experience it never really leaked when I tried it before so I think it would be okay like that. So you can see it's kind of curved down where I might have to help it.

Now we're gonna twist this guy and you can see the oil is already starting to come out. I'll raise this up so you can see it as well so that helps reduce the mess. The wind caught this oil here and then went actually past the pan so now you can see it's dripping out here. So you have less of a mess and the reason why is because this canister - it's like a cup - and it's got oil on the bottom of this canister. And we're draining it, so when I remove this cup or this canister it doesn't just have a bunch of oil that'll pop off from the top like a full cup of water. So it's just basically us waiting for it to drain. All right, well this is done here. So let's go ahead and back this out.

First we'll take this. The reason why I didn't use a wrench is because I didn't want to make it too tight that would be more challenging to take this off. So as you can see it's not dripping too much, only a little bit from here. And now I'm trying to wait till that finishes before I plug it up. So again the reason why I like this thing is because it's all forged aluminum. It's got little openings here to kind of lock the cartridge and also these notches or these edges to kind of pop on there and you can use the socket or in here. But if you need more leverage you would use a larger you would use an extension or ratchet in here. But if we need a more torque you would use a... I think it's a 24 millimeter socket up here to have more force. See how tight this is... really tight. Now so much oil is gonna drip. Really not much... not much because we drained it already. That's good. So if we hadn't drained it here when I removed everything, it would have been a lot more oil. So this is something I suggested to do. You don't have to, but it gets it helps you with having less mess.

In this housing is plastic so usually I seen an upgrade that you can I should get this in metal or aluminum. I should... say yeah you can see there's an old gasket right there. We need to get it out. I like to use a pick so you don't mess up anything or damage anything in here. Because if you do damage it, you can cause leaks. So that's how easy it is get out. The other one came out pretty easy which be right here.

Put some oil on the new canister first... fresh oil of course... and then I'll stick it in here. Fits nice and perfect in there. I'm gonna finger tighten once I mount it. I'll make this a little bit tighter and I'll pull all the torque specs that you need for this. I just wanted to make sure they don’t fall out. All right, so now get that... then when I get a fresh oil and put them on this guy the reason why you put fresh oil is that first of all you don't want it to be dirty but second of all so that way it ends up making a nice seal. So now we're gonna stick it in here. Make sure it's even all the way around.

Now don't forget your paper element. Get any brand you want but I mean these are not that expensive. I think they're like seven bucks or less around there. Just get the paper the Toyota OEM ones just to be safe. Just insert it like that it's a little springy. Well what I like to do too is I like to fill it up with some oil so that way when it starts there's something in here to circulate immediately. So let's go ahead and do that. Make sure you pay attention to how much all you're putting in. Make sure you do it by hand... never use the wrench right away because that way you ensure you're not gonna cross thread anything. So that's pretty snug.

All right so here's the crush washer. It's cold on both sides get that through Toyota. It's not that expensive. You can see how it fits perfectly. So let's stick that back in there. Wipe everything, tighten everything up. Now like I said, I'll put the actual torque measurements in the description of the video so you can have your specific information. I'm old-school - I just make it snug but to be proper and to make sure I give you proper information I will give you torque specs.

Filling the RX350 with oil

All right so we got the MotivX oil filler funnel. It fits super snug. The one thing I notice about this funnel in the RX350 versus my Tacoma is that is actually almost vertical in Tacoma it was actually slanted out here at an angle. It still poured fine, but I felt that it could have spilled through the funnel, which it didn't. But it was fine. This doesn't have a tow package. My understanding is that the oil level is about 5.7 or 5.8 quarts. I bought this huge jug from Amazon and it's a 0w 20 synthetic oil and again it's 5 quarts. You guys will be amazed how fast this funnel works as far as not leaking and getting oil in there. So this is 5 quarts - I like to hold a head angle on the side so it doesn't go boom. If you notice that I go like this is more. I do I hold it sideways it doesn't gobble and now look how much or I can pour and how fast. See that I just dumped five quarts of oil...I had a little leftover oil from my other truck a little bit less than half a bottle so that should be under the 5.7 quarts.

What I want to do with the rest of it is actually want to get the SUV off of the ramps so I have a level of measurement. Another reason why I like to use the cardboard is because you can see it had a little bit of a spill here because the wind actually blew the oil a little bit on the ground. So I protected that. Not only that, you can see all my tools and everything's right on the cardboard and instead of getting underneath I simply just yank it all out the way and now I got less need to crawl underneath.

All right, it’s been about five minutes or so. I went and cleaned up all the oil and everything that I had on the ground for recycling. So always recycle. It was a little easier to read and see if I could get a reading in here for you guys. There we go. So now the oil is closer to it where my fingernail is. Still hard to read but it's above where you want. Do not go under the first dot which I'm not and do not go over. So I'm just gonna add a little bit more and then I'll check my oil but again do not overfill. Always try to keep it below.

Resetting the maintenance light

Last thing we need to do is reset this maintenance required reminder. They're gonna use these arrows here in the button. So vehicle settings on this cars - dirty oil - maintenance reset data - yes. You're using this middle button. Has been reset and you can do whatever you want. All right, there you have it. That's how you do an oil change in a 2017 Lexus RX350. It’s actually is one of the easiest oil changes that I've done recently. Not too messy because of the MotivX items that I've been testing. And it definitely is a winner as far as products. Make sure you dispose of your oil properly and I will put everything in the description as far as what I got and the torque ratings that you should set everything to.

So I want to say thanks again for watching this video and my channel. Please subscribe if you haven't. Peace out guys! "

About The Creator

Video content generously provided by Rob Daman and was re-published with permission. Check out his other helpful tips and tricks on his YouTube channel and other social media sites!

Due to factors beyond the control of Motivx Tools, we cannot guarantee against improper use or unauthorized modifications of this information. We assume no liability for property damage or injury incurred as a result of any of the information contained in this video or blog post. Use this information at your own risk. We recommend safe practices when working on vehicles and or with tools seen or implied in this video. Due to factors beyond our control , no information contained in this video shall create any expressed or implied warranty or guarantee of any particular result. Any injury, damage, or loss that may result from improper use of these tools, equipment, or from the information contained in this video or blog post is the sole responsibility of the user and not Motivx Tools.