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The Courier CT hits 300,000 miles

Discussion in 'Lexus Hybrids and EVs' started by Raidin, May 9, 2017.

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  1. Raidin

    Raidin Active Member

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    My 2014 F Sport has finally reached 300k

    [​IMG]
     
    #1 Raidin, May 9, 2017
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  2. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    yow! what kind of work do you do? congrats!(y)
     
    #2 bisco, May 9, 2017
  3. Raidin

    Raidin Active Member

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    Thanks!

    I do courier work, making deliveries to the same few places every day pretty much (same route every day, 6 days a week). 370 miles a day (used to be about 500 miles daily), so I do just over 100,000 miles a year (used to be about 130,000 annually).

    Oh and FYI to everyone: With regular maintenance, I can report that the only problem I've had in my 300,000 miles is that the low-tone horn died a little after 100,000 miles. That's it, nothing else.
     
    #3 Raidin, May 10, 2017
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  4. Aaron Vitolins

    Aaron Vitolins Senior Member

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    Wow that's impressive! Highway miles I'm assuming. How fast do you drive? Any oil consumption?
     
    #4 Aaron Vitolins, May 10, 2017
  5. Raidin

    Raidin Active Member

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    80% highway miles. I use my adaptive cruise and set it to 65 MPH. I sometimes drive faster, but mostly 65. I used to drive 60 MPH all the time, which is the sweet spot for the CT it seems (55 MPH for the Prius C I used to have), but I needed something a little faster for time reasons.
     
    #5 Raidin, May 10, 2017
  6. fotomoto

    fotomoto Senior Member

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    Just curious but not asking for biz names or specific addresses, what's your route? All Houston metro?
     
    #6 fotomoto, May 10, 2017
  7. Aaron Vitolins

    Aaron Vitolins Senior Member

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    Nice! 65 is a good speed for fuel consumption with this engine. What about oil change intervals?
    The reason I ask, there is much debate going on here at PC about oil change intervals and the correlation of oil consumption. Some say 10k is too long. I actually change my oil at 5k because I'm trying to avoid oil consumption as my engine ages.
    Does your 300k lexus consume any oil? Thank you for sharing your story with us btw!
     
    #7 Aaron Vitolins, May 10, 2017
  8. fotomoto

    fotomoto Senior Member

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    Let's do some math and compare the two oil change intervals (OCI) for a 4 qt engine.

    4 qts x 5k miles OCI=80qts/100k-->160qts/200k--> 240qts/300k

    4 qts x10k miles OCI=40qts/100k-->80qts/200k-->120qts/300k

    If the 10K OIC car begins using a qt per change at, say, 100k then by 300k miles it will have consumed:
    5qts x 10k miles=50 qts/100k=140qts/300k miles (40+50+50)

    Or even 2 qts consumed between changes
    6qts x 10k=60qts/100k miles=160qts/300k miles (40+60+60)

    Or a whopping 3 qts burned between changes:
    7 qts x10k=70qts/100k miles=180qts/300k miles (40+70+70)

    Finally, lets do a worst case scenario and say the oil burner really starts chugging down oil once past 200k miles and the owner needs to add another 5 qts between changes!
    First 100k: 4qts x10k=40qts
    2nd 100k: 7qts x 10k=70qts
    3rd 100k: 9qts x10k=90qts
    Even then, that's only 200 qts vs 240 qts for the 5k OCI car over the lifetime.

    Now there are certainly positives of not driving an oil burner like the catcon's lasting longer, smells, pollution, etc but trying to save on oil consumption is NOT one of them.
     
    #8 fotomoto, May 10, 2017
  9. Aaron Vitolins

    Aaron Vitolins Senior Member

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    I completely understand ^ the math. Saving on oil is the last thing I care about.

    I care about engine health, environmental health, AND not having to worry about adding oil all the time (peace of mind).

    Also oil burners kill the catalytic converter eventually...

    I myself do everything I can to keep my cars health top notch.
     
    #9 Aaron Vitolins, May 10, 2017
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  10. Raidin

    Raidin Active Member

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    @Aaron Vitolins : I'm sorry, I totally forgot about the oil question.

    First of all, no oil burning so far. I started out doing 5k oil changes up untill 80k miles. This was due to my mechanic telling me to be careful with sludge in the engine on long oil changes (like the 10k specified by Lexus and Toyota.)

    I eventually decided to risk it and switched to 10k OCIs (Oil Change Intervals, for those who didn't know) to see what happens, and saw no sludge issues.

    I then decided to try oil testing like a lot of folks do here, in order to investigate longer possible OCIs. I also looked into bypass filtration but found out it wasn't worth the cost.

    The reason was what I had found out through oil testing. It turns out that I put very little stress on the engine and the oil. Long story short, I am up to 26,000 mile OCIs. I can go longer but the filter I use starts to break up around there. I'm using a full synthetic one now and will see how that holds up once I reach 306,000, which is my next oil change interval.

    For people who drive the average 10 or 15k miles a year, one extra oil change per year is no big deal. 5k or 10k OCIs don't make a lot of financial difference. For me though, going from 5k to 10k to 20k is a huge bonus in saving money. 25k and 30k are just icing on the cake, so I won't go past 25k unless it's not much of a difference to my car.
     
    #10 Raidin, May 10, 2017
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  11. Aaron Vitolins

    Aaron Vitolins Senior Member

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    That's fantastic! Great job. My driving is all stop and go, or high speed and hills. 10k is pushing it for me in my driving. What a good vehicle! Good job Lexus/Toyota!
     
    #11 Aaron Vitolins, May 10, 2017
  12. fotomoto

    fotomoto Senior Member

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    No, that's not what you said. I was responding to:

    For those keeping long term, it can be. $75 for a synthetic oil change from a dealer is not out of the norm. Not that I would pay that but over 300k miles, that's $2,250 difference between 5k & 10k OCI's. DIY is, of course, less. When the time comes, you can buy a new, replacement HV battery with that kind of savings.
     
    #12 fotomoto, May 10, 2017
  13. mmmodem

    mmmodem Senior Taste Tester

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    26k OCI? Impressive. I used to do courier work as well driving 300 miles a day. I did up to 10k mile OCI on dino oil which equated to once a month. This is why I have no issue with 10k OCI on synthetic that so many here are squeamish about. If there was any oil burning, it was never enough to need a top up between changes.

    I did start with a 1992 Tercel that burned a quart every tank of gas. It was burning before I got the car but even then at my high mileage driving it was only a dollar a quart of the thickest 20w50. That's $300 extra a year. So even with an oil burner. Big deal.:rolleyes:

    I never made it to 300k miles though. Something catastrophic always happened on each one at around 200k miles with a repair cost that exceeded the value of the vehicle. 1992 Tercel got hit from behind 1992 Accord front axle failure. 1995 Integra got hit from behind. I wanted a Prius so bad back then but in the early 2000's my math showed little to no savings in fuel versus the salvaged clunkers I was driving. Today would be different, it would be nice to roll around all day in a Lexus.
     
    #13 mmmodem, May 10, 2017
    Last edited: May 10, 2017
  14. stephensprius

    stephensprius Active Member

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    Hi there. This is amazing! I have always loved the look of the Lexus ct200h but it's a bit too small for me. Can you take other photos of it? I am curious how leather (is it softtex?) has held up from so much sitting on - wear & tear, etc? Have there been any interior issues?
     
    #14 stephensprius, May 11, 2017
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  15. Raidin

    Raidin Active Member

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    @fotomoto: When I said 5k or 10k OCIs don't matter much to most people financially, I just meant that I don't think most people will worry too much about paying an extra $70 or so for another oil change per year. It amounts to about an extra $6 a month.

    I also forgot to answer your question about my route: I drive from Katy to Galveston, round trip, twice a weekday, once on Saturday.

    @stephensprius: Good question. I'll try to take a few pictures of the outside and inside of the car so you can see how it has held up. My CT is fully loaded minus navigation, so it's running real leather, not NuLuxe (Lexus' version of leather-like vinyl alternative).

    Also, no interior issues to report.
     
    #15 Raidin, May 11, 2017
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  16. markabele

    markabele owner of PiP, then Leaf, then Model 3

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    Did you ever change the hybrid transaxle fluid?
     
    #16 markabele, May 16, 2017
  17. Raidin

    Raidin Active Member

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    Yes; at 46k, 103k, and 186k. I plan to do it once every 100k now. I'm at 304k and am typing this reply from my mechanic's shop as they change it right now.
     
    #17 Raidin, May 16, 2017
  18. Aaron Vitolins

    Aaron Vitolins Senior Member

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    How often do you change the engine coolant? And have you ever cleaned the EGR pipe, or system?
     
    #18 Aaron Vitolins, May 16, 2017
  19. Raidin

    Raidin Active Member

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    I changed both coolants as directed in the manual, but my mechanic suggested that I probably don't need to change them every 50k miles because I drive gently and put all these miles on in such a short time, and instead suggested 100k mile intervals for both. Tomorrow I will be changing them both.

    Never had anything done to the EGR or anything related. Only factory recommended maintenance plus the transmission fluid.
     
    #19 Raidin, May 16, 2017
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  20. Trollbait

    Trollbait It's a D&D thing

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    The CT200 may not have the gen3's cooled EGR, and thus would avoid the carbon build up.
     
    #20 Trollbait, May 17, 2017
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