0w-8 in the new non US Yaris hybrid

[Popsy]

My mother recently got one. 3cyl 1.5 VVT-i (116hp).
She's claiming less than 4L/100Km average in her mountain/highway/city driving. I'm impressed...I know she's not exactly driving like grandma, as I bought the Colt Ralliart from her. Colt is making 8L/100 when it's a good day (1.5L engine too, from another era).

I don't know what oil the car is asking for..since it's leased this time, whatever poor oil there is will remain there a VERY long time

 

[JavierH19]

That's crazy! I'm into really thick oils, like 0w20, myself!

0w-20...Thick? The end is near.....lol

 

[RooflessVW]

The chart says 5W-30 so yeah...

I'd probably run M1 0W-40.

 

[sk_pete]

Today’s cars are super reliable.

advanced metallurgy & materials (dlc) does help a lot. (dlc coating will not live forever)
in our area it´s not uncommon the 2nd hand cars have oil eating problem.
or smoke like 2stroke (cold catalyser)... who to blame?? probably big-longlife oci; oils with weak addpack + tiny oil pans.
of course, mfg says "oil consumption up to 1l/1000km is ok..." no wonder they have to enforce lowsaps...
sometimes cars still in guarantee have to visit repeatedly the service.. is that super reliable?

after just 2 months i decided to remove "recommended 0w30" and put 5w40 instead.
because i don´t want listen to any noise.

 

[Barkleymut]

I trust Toyota's R&D over any board's peanut gallery.

I recommend 15w-40

 

[PimTac]

advanced metallurgy & materials (dlc) does help a lot. (dlc coating will not live forever)
in our area it´s not uncommon the 2nd hand cars have oil eating problem.
or smoke like 2stroke (cold catalyser)... who to blame?? probably big-longlife oci; oils with weak addpack + tiny oil pans.
of course, mfg says "oil consumption up to 1l/1000km is ok..." no wonder they have to enforce lowsaps...
sometimes cars still in guarantee have to visit repeatedly the service.. is that super reliable?

after just 2 months i decided to remove "recommended 0w30" and put 5w40 instead.
because i don´t want listen to any noise.

Which car do you have that is noisy on 0w30?

 

[haggler]

One thing that's dawned on me recently is that these thin oils generally are to bump the city epa test cycle. Living in the city where people short trip it makes sense. They can start out at an oil thickness closer to operating spec. Look at the kv100 numbers of all these grades. The averages are within 4 cst. Nothing to write home about. If I was going to the track I might pick something else.

 

[Kuato]

I think I would be putting 5w-30 in it.

Yup.

 

[SilverFusion2010]

I would hesitate, but not too much. This is a new engine design yes? It will be designed to run 0w-8 without excess wear. Specific alloys, heat treating, sacrificial coatings, wider journal bearings and other engineering "tricks" are utilized to make an engine ok with such thin oil.

Now, do I think this is how an ICE should be designed and built? Sure, it's meant to run an alternator/generator at a fixed RPM according to one post above. If that's true, then it's a fuel efficient design with an adequate lubricant specification. It's not something I'd want in a traditional ICE car. But we are not talking about a traditional ICE car.

ICE is on the way out Bitog. We are in the waning days.

 

[kschachn]

I would hesitate, but not too much. This is a new engine design yes? It will be designed to run 0w-8 without excess wear. Specific alloys, heat treating, sacrificial coatings, wider journal bearings and other engineering "tricks" are utilized to make an engine ok with such thin oil.

Tricks to make it run with the thin oil but in no way precludes the use of a thicker one. Engine mechanicals can be designed to tolerate thinner oils but damage will not occur from thicker ones. Science matters, all of this is to meet CAFE credit letter requirements.

 

[CKN]

I'm sure the engineers who spec the oil dont know what they are doing and it's likely to blow up soon. BITOGers know so much more than they do!

 

[kschachn]

I'm sure the engineers who spec the oil dont know what they are doing and it's likely to blow up soon. BITOGers know so much more than they do!

It provides an acceptable HT/HS and acceptable wear under most operating conditions.

 

[circuitsmith]

So what do y'all think.

After looking at the chart, I'd use 5w30.

 

[ka9mnx]

Which car do you have that is noisy on 0w30?

The noisiest engine in my fleet is in the F150 with it's ancient 300ci tractor engine. It was whisper quiet on 5w-40 M1, made a little more noise on 5w-30 and no different on 5w-20. So go figure...

 

[PandaBear]

So I guess they have the variable flow oil pump 2.0 in there? Something so bullet proof that maybe you can even run dish soap in there and it still won't have metal to metal contact?

For those who keep saying it is the alloy and ring and additive, nope, it is the variable flow oil pump since 0w16. With hybrid eliminating the low rpm lugging they figure they can push it further to 0w8 is my guess.

 

[SoNic67]

I trust Toyota's R&D

They can and will make mistakes. Especially when forced by politicians and mass media to lower the mileage standards.
There are numerous examples of lawsuits against Toyota because their design failures.

it is the variable flow oil pump since 0w16

Variable pump is there just to save more gas. The normal pumps will dump back a big quantity of oil via their by-pass valve, so that's a power loss.
The analysis for 0W-16 shows special additives, compared to the 0W-20. I am sure the 0W-8 has even more of those.
You know the ones that everyone before said they are "snake oil"? Now they became mandatory.

 

[jstert]

chasing better fuel economy with water-thin oil weights in a small, simple, humble, i.e. low environmental impact, car like a toyota yaris, is a fool’s errand. if you really want to chase great fuel economy just get a horse and buggy. my yaris gets -w30 because i want what good motor oil is designed to do: offer excellent lubrication to a hard working little engine in all types of driving. while a yaris could probably almost run on corn oil, i would have to be exceedingly desperate to feed it -w20. i prefer to see my car last longer than worry about saving a few cents at the gas pump. having to more often dispose of and acquire cars because of a worn out engine does more damage to the environment and my wallet.

 

[ZeeOSix]

For those who keep saying it is the alloy and ring and additive, nope, it is the variable flow oil pump since 0w16. With hybrid eliminating the low rpm lugging they figure they can push it further to 0w8 is my guess.

I'd bet that variable volume oil pump is sending less oil volume down stream than a good old fashioned PD pump of the same size would. Engineers try to cut back the pump flow volume as much as possible (without causing engine harm) to save a very small sliver of parasitic loss to increase fuel mileage.

 

[JavierH19]

I'm sure the engineers who spec the oil dont know what they are doing and it's likely to blow up soon. BITOGers know so much more than they do!

Bitogers > dum dum engineers when it comes to motor oil heh. But seriously the engineers say to run 8 to 30 because their sack and coins aren't being yanked on. The hippie bean counters say the thinnest and manufacturers try to make it work but brands like ford switched to a grade thicker now and I believe some have had tsb's to increase viscosity. Hmm... But muh engineers.

 

[PimTac]

We will have to wait for the mass failures of engines to see if 0w8 is not sufficient for lubrication.

I suspect we won’t see any.