36,000 miles/year, which oil should I use?

[callawayc7]

Hi, I just found this great site a few days ago and this is my first post. I have to drive about 36,000 miles a year for work and I have a 2001 Toyota Corolla with 70,000 miles right now. The drive is probably 85% highway and currently I am using Mobil 1 5W-30 which I change at 6000 miles every 2 months. And I live in California so there is no snow. Are there any recommendations that I should do or change to keep my car in good shape (besides changing jobs

). Thanks in advance.

 

[caremd99]

I think you are a good candidate to use AMSOIL Series 2000 0W-30 if you want to try extended drain intervals.

 

[TSoA]

I guess you are aware of long-life oils in general. They come in 2 basic forms, diesel-rated 15w-40 (HDEO) and their synthetic cousins' 5w-40 Euro ACEA A3 oil, a few overlap into diesel service. The other long-life oils are more high-tech and contain extra esters and PAO basestock, they go MAD miles and carry European manufacture specs to go 15,000-30,000 miles. Some examples of the first type are: Delvac 1300 15w-40, Chevron Dello 400 15w-40 and 10w-30. Synthetic 5w-40s are Shell Rotella, Valvoline Synpower, Delvac-1, Belgium Castrol Syntec, Kendall. A newer ester-rich formula with mfg specs would be; Mobil 1 0w-40, German GC Syntec 0w-30, Saab Synth, and any 0w oil. All that being said, you live in warm Cali and could use the cheap HDEO 15w-40 up to 10,000 miles, easy. If cost is no object, I would skip the Euro-spec and diesel 5w-40s except Mobil 1 5w-40 SUV and go for German Castrol 0w-30. 10,000 miles is do-able.

[ February 01, 2004, 12:41 AM: Message edited by: TSoA ]

 

[Titanium_Alloy]

Amsoil is a great choice, but I don't think that it can go 25k miles. 20k miles might worth a shot. Mobil is a good oil. I personally use Mobil 1 10w-30. I suppose it "might" work a little better in Cali. Since you do 85% of highway driving I would keep Mobil 5/10w-30 for 10k miles without any problems (that's like 4 months for you, right?).

Regards,

 

[Santo Fontana]

You could try amsoil series 3000 5w30. I bet with regular filter changes it would go a year. TooSlick says he ran it for 2 years in his toyota.

 

[buster]

I have a 2001 with approx. 150k. (50k per year). Now I'm only driving 19k per year. I've used M1 and Amsoil on and off the whole time. I'd go with any M1,RL, Amsoil product with LC or AutoRx as a maintenace dose with periodic used oil analysis using Dyson. My car runs excellent and I don't push drains too far. I'm about to drain Amsoil ASL out with almost 7k miles on it. Amsoil is no more capable of extended drains then M1 or RL IMO.

 

[Patman]

There are a few good synthetics you could use, but for one, with the amount of driving you're doing, you can easily double your oil change interval, or more.

I'd suggest sticking with what you're running now, and getting an oil analysis done to help you determine how far you can safely push it. With the amount of miles you're doing, 6k oil changes means you are doing 6 changes per year. If you can get that down to just 2 or 3 oil changes you'll save yourself a lot of time.

 

[Pablo]

Amsoil or M1. 15-20K OCI would be super easy with the Amsoil 5W-30 HDD. I went 20K miles of similar driving with Amsoil 5W-30 ASL and zero issues in a 1996 Volvo 850.

Redline just has not proven itself for extended drains, but I have no doubt it's a fine race oil.

 

[buster]

Pablo good point, the Amsoil S3k would be ideal for him.

 

[MikeySoft]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Patman:
There are a few good synthetics you could use, but for one, with the amount of driving you're doing, you can easily double your oil change interval, or more.

I'd suggest sticking with what you're running now, and getting an oil analysis done to help you determine how far you can safely push it. With the amount of miles you're doing, 6k oil changes means you are doing 6 changes per year. If you can get that down to just 2 or 3 oil changes you'll save yourself a lot of time.

---

I agree. The driving you do is very easy on the oil. Do a UOA the next time you change. Maybe you should go to 7k-8k miles on the next oil change and see what the UOA reports. I’ll bet the M1 UAO will very good for your driving. M1 is easy to get so I would still with that.

Please post your UOA when you do it.

 

[Al]

You got lots of good advice. Whatever you go with-I would do an oil analysis at6 to 7 K miles and then go from there. Next step would be maybe 10K miles or so with a filter at 5K miles. Don't overlook the Delvac 1 .

 

[JohnBrowning]

Between the milage and the mild climate their are a lot choices. I think you could easily do 12,000 oil changes with a good synthetic. I would prefer you run something thicker then 5W30!
THe new SUV formula 5W40 or M1 15W50 would probably work better.

I am not a fan of 5W30 or even 10W30 for extended high way driveing. The 5W40 if it is a rebadged version of Mobil Delvac-1 is very shear stable and is about 26% ester base stock. The M115W50 has an incredable additive package and will not shear down past a low 40wt oil.

 

[tpi]

How is the Rotella synthetic 5W-40 for shear stability? I have a similar application, an '04 Camry 4 cyl. which does extended highway miles, frequently in very hot weather. I'm looking for oil change intervals of 8K or more.

 

[callawayc7]

Thanks everybody! I was planning on doing an oil analysis soon. Hoping to definately increase my OCI. I was thinking of maybe changing to Amsoil but didn't know enough about it until I found this site.

 

[TooSlick]

This is what i'd do:

1) install a "Fumoto" drain valve to make it easier to change the oil, and to take oil samples for testing ....

2) Use the Amsoil engine flush at the next oil change to get the engine really clean....Even with Mobil 1 you will get some minor engine deposits.

3) Run the Amsoil Series 3000, 5w-30 along with their SDF-10, extended drain oil filter

4) Sample the first batch of oil after 10k miles; prior to the filter change - mainly to make sure the engine is mechanically sound...

5) Determine you future drain intervals on the basis of this analysis, but don't exceed 20,000 miles between changes ....

Tooslick
www.lubedealer.com/Dixie_Synthetics

 

[Steve S]

36,000 miles per year? Calawayc7, a perfect candidate for a bypass filter ? one of those Amsoil remote filter,bypass setup with a huge full flow filter .This would allow a one year, 36,000 mile oil and filter change,no problem running Amsoil .

 

[PandaBear]

I am in the same boat as you. Commuting 100 miles a day and every other week 700miles between San Francisco and LA to see my girlfriend. I did 8.1k on M1 5W30 for a UOA and the result is great, you can search it under 97 Integra RS, virtually no wear.

Now I am doing 10k interval on 10W30, it seems to me that 10W30 didn't turn dark as easily and it makes the engine smoother at the end of the interval than 5W30. I check the fuel economy it is pretty much the same to me.

Thinking about doing 1 or 2 filter change in between to try 15k interval. Maybe I am a little too greedy. =)