2.4 toyota highlander

[gmh101357]

Hi, I was wondering if the engine I have is the "sludge maker"
The local dealer offers Mobil 1 or Mobil Dino lube
My first oil change I went with Mobil 1 for fear of sludge.
I hope to keep this highlander the rest of my life.

 

[Bill in Utah]

Nope. Your engine is fine with conventional oil since you have to change it every 5k or 6 months whichever comes first for the next 60k miles or 5 years. (Warrenty)

After that, you can do what you want. (I'm staying with the 5k miles for the life of the car, @ 90k right now for 2005)

Whats the cost for the oil changes?

Mobil 1 is $4 a quart and Mobil 5000 is $1.79 a quart everyday @ Wal-Mart. Both have a "warrenty" for 5k miles or longer depending on what Toyota states in the manual (see above for those requirements

)

Take care, bill

 

[JohnBrowning]

Nope that is an excellent engine. I use synthetic in my 2.4 but you do not have to. I will say this much in my environment if I was not running synthetic I would not want to be doing 6 month oil change interval. Dino or synthetic does not make much if any difference in this engine in term's of wear metal. It does make a difference though in how quickly the insolubles rise to unaccectable levels and how much get's left behind. The 2AZ-FE depending on the year has a small sump, run's kind of hot and has a very small oil filter. So if you do run a nice dino like Havoline,Chevron Supreme,Trop-Artic etc..... I would stick to 3000 mile oil change interval's. If you go to a synthetic you can easily do 6-9 month oil changes up to 10,000 miles with no deposit issues espcialy inyour warmer environment.

The winter temp.'s and short trip's I make increase the rate the insolubles build up. That is not going to be as big of an issue for you!

 

[JohnBrowning]

Oh I wanted to add bang for the buck especialy with shorter intervals then 6 month and not more then 5000 miles in that engine Trop-Artic at Walmart is a good value. You can get the quart bottles in 5W30 for $1.68 a quart. That is really a good deal. Chevron Supreme and Havoline both do great in most Toyota's as well and is usualy priced well if you get it on special at a part's store like Kragen's or Oriley.

Bill InUtah's 1.8 is a lot easier on oil then the 2AZ-FE interm's of oxidation. The 2.4 also does not use oil dureing the oil change interval enough to be noticed on the dipstick so you can not count on makeup to extend the change interval either!