It's hard to "market" a product like this to consumers. Just like pre-Oil Life Monitors, the OEM's needed to make an envelope to cover most of the people most of the time. 3000 miles works out since any sooner, some think it's too hard to calculate the miles or too awkward in service points if they aren't changing their own oil ..or costs too much in oil. The best benefits are cleaning up rings and lifters ..or otherwise areas of forced/pressurized lubrication. If there's no sludge issue, that usually gets taken care of in the first 700-1000 miles. The rest is mostly cosmetic ..but valued as a "proof" of getting your money's worth. Now if there is heavy sludge, then there is a need for either a higher dose rate and/or longer miles to clean it up. Especially if it's a hardened tar vs. a softer pudding. Intermediate filter changes may be required for some.
If you're confident that there is no sludge condition, then go ahead. With hybrids the best measure of usage is mpg. As long as there is no plug in option for the chassis, all the workings of the internal combustion engine will be read in fuel consumed. This is sorta moot in your case since 5000 miles is your service point. I also believe that the Lexus hybrids, while efficient, aren't designed as dedicated fuel squeezers. They're more geared toward better performance via electric assist. That is, bigger engine performance out of a more efficient and smaller engine.
In short, Nick, YES. Use the Auto-Rx for the 5000 mile interval. Please use a simple oil and not an exotic one.
Please read this. It will explain why we lean toward conventional oils. Many synthetics are fine too, but some are not. geeaea
-- Edited by dbdeland on Friday 11th of February 2011 09:13:28 AM
