2004 Camry Solara, 48,000 miles. Considering Redline Oil

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False seals do take place on used engines. A higher ester blend may clean this false seal causing a leak until the motor oil reconditions the seal if possible.
 
I'm a Red Line fan boy and I wouldn't alter the path you are on with the current oil. I agree that after the number of miles and years your engine has, the esters may well clean off the seals on the rear main and camshafts. Why risk it? If you have to go to a boutique oil then maybe Amsoil or Ravenol would be the better choice as they aren't as likely to have as much ester content depending on the product chosen and the Ravenol will have the manufacturer approvals.
 
I would just stick with the Mobil 1 and change every year or 10,000 miles. The first run I would change earlier. I researched Redline and found no significant advantage to running it over the Mobil 1 I use.
 
Why is it so hard to stay with one oil? I'm not making fun of you as I know how you feel. I'm the same way.

I have used RL in the past. It's a great oil and it made me feel good knowing I had what I felt was one of the best oils in my engines.
I quit after a few OCI's due to price. Like today, I would use Schaeffer but I have to order $400 at a time to get the best price. RL too expensive,
Schaeffer too large one time pop.

One thing I will l suggest is that you may find a great difference in how different manual transmission fluids work in your Toyota. IF you have
plenty of money, try a few different ones and you will see what I mean. Well, at least this has been my experience. In one of my cars I used
Amsoil and the other I used RL. The one I couldn't use RL as it was notchy from go start. The Amsoil was like butter. The other car was the
opposite. The Amsoil clunked and only lasted 20K until the clunking and scraping got bad. RL stopped the clunk and it lasted over 30K.
 
About the only leak spot on that motor is the valve cover gasket, and it's quite easy to change.

Use the oil that makes you happy.
 
Wrong forum to discuss real synthetic fluids, disinformation bombs liter this place anytime someone attempts to. You would get a much better discussion if you just agree that 6 qrt box oil is really the best oil on erf.
 
Originally Posted by Clubber_Lang
Yeah, I have M1 hm 5w-30 in there now. Engine runs like it has 10,000 miles on it


I'd stick with that, or go to a slightly beefier 10w-30 M1 HM - appropriate to SC climate better than 5w-30.

We had one of those Solaras w/that engine and it is not so picky as to demand the Redline IMO, and as others pointed out.
 
Whatever floats your boat. Me, I'd go Supertech (it's what it's in my engines) but if you're doing a change per year, then it's the smallest of expenses, really, to go high zoot on your oil.
 
Clubber
Sometimes the extra $25 for Redline pays off. Won't know for sure, unless you are last owner of that vehicle.
In the end, when the tow truck takes your vehicle to the junkyard years later, that's when you will know if the extra $25 yearly was worth it.

My opinion...... Redline is never a subpar gamble, unless you are selling the vehicle premature. Now the new SN PLus version of it?....... I dunno about that. That brew doesn't stand out, like the old recipes used to.
 
Originally Posted by camrydriver111
Very low miles for a 2004. Is it a V6?

No, it's the 2.4 four cylinder with a manual transmission. Surprising peppy for the power to weight ratio it has

Yeah, it was a 1 owner retirees FL car. Really clean and garage kept. 16 years old, and aside from the defective Toyota dash it's like a nice 3 year old car cosmetically...
[Linked Image]

My favorite thing about this car is how tall 5th gear is. It's about 2500 rpm or so at 80 mph. Which is really nice on the highway

I'm really having fun going over it. Injection cleaning, new denso plugs, (so far) Mobil 1 5-30 hm, in process of flushing radiator for new red coolant, soon to be new redline gear oil, going to turkey baster out power steering fluid, little interior bits, ect. Im a sucker for well preserved older cars, low insurance, low taxes, still nice (to me)
 
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You're a self proclaimed oil geek but only now are you considering trying different oils,? I'd have thought that maybe long before your 16th or whatever oci you would have tried something else. Leave well enough alone and stick with conventional oil like VWB. If you do switch to synthetic no need for fancy oil. A regular 5w30 synthetic will serve you well. ST, QSUD, VAFS, PP, CE are all good. At your mileage you can even skip the HM flavors, no need. Nice looking car by the way!
 
Well, ive always stuck with Mobil 1. I know it's a dead horse, but Redline is group 4/5 which is just bada$$

I've only put about 1,000 miles on the Solara since I bought it earlier this year. Just now getting around to getting it where I want it maintenance wise....thanks by the way, the car is an interesting blend of economy/sportiness/reliability. Kind of an old man's car but I'm still a fan
smile.gif
 
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No but you could use cheap oil and have that oil analyzed to convince you that cheap oil is good. I honestly used royal purple in the family mini van and ran that windtstar to over 300k when you could get 5qts and a K&N for $35 back in the day. Never had a "UOA" or even changed one ounce of fluid. I was younger and it rusted out before it ever broke down.
 
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