5W-30 to 0W-20?

[fantastic]

Why is that? Technical reason please.

Just look at the back of the bottle. Other examples if you want to read up on it online. This is one example but I've read of several over the years. Perhaps there's more to the story but for now I feel pretty confident about its trueness.

@Glenda W. recently posted.
https://bobistheoilguy.com/forums/threads/pennzoil-platinum-euro-0w-40.401780/

 

[kschachn]

I’m so confused.

 

[kschachn]

The oil companies tell us so. There was a recent post on here that said their 0w protects the same as their 5w posted right on the bottle as an example. I would say to be clear from my perspective is that if it's the same type of product line then going from a 0w to 5w...no difference. Run that 0w you always wanted to...

And I do.

 

[samiamz]

The winter rating you want is determined by your expected starting temperature.

Grade illustrates the minimum HT/HS. I would not use an oil that has a lower. HT/HS then recommended. You can go up with no issue but going down is not a good idea. Film thickness protects against wear and a higher grade is beneficial.

Thank you for that explanation.

If I understand this correctly, in a warm climate as where OP is located, the winter rating does not matter much - he could use a 0W-x or a 5W-x (or even a 10W-x in the summer) without any harm.

There have been many discussions here where you can safely go up one grade from the recommended oil viscosity in owners manual if required.

The OP however is asking if there would be any harm (in the short or long term) in 'going the other way' for a few OCIs i.e. using a -20 grade oil instead of the -30 grade which is speced, primarily to use up some excess stock of xW-20 grade oil?

My 04 Camry (V6 3MZ-FE, timing belt, 210k, no consumption) specs 5W-30 in manual only but I also have a surplus of 5W-20 too.
If using xW-20 is inadvisable, would maybe mixing it with same brand of 10W-30 in some proportion be better? Just curious.

 

[samiamz]

I followed up by reading a few of the past threads on this "mixing" topic, and I now realize that it is likely not the suitable choice based on unpredictability of the final mix results, even if one were to use the same brand of oil in higher grade as there is no assurance that the additive pack are the same.

 

[Oliveoil2]

I’ve done it with no problems.

 

[kschachn]

I’ve done it with no problems.

Of course not.

 

[facility1]

if you have access to a good name brand 5w-30,like Pennzoil ,Valvoline Castrol etc, just use that viscosity ,and change out at 5k or so.

 

[lightrider]

If I was forced to use a really good 0w-20 like pennzoil ultra platinum or Mobil 1 ESP in my 5w-30 spec 5.3 I wouldn't panic. If it was cheap 0/5w-20 maybe.

5w-30 is minimum 2.9 hths and stuff like Valvoline conventional lists 2.9 for the 5w-30 but more for the 10w-30.

0w-20 is usually 2.6 sometimes 2.7. Not a big difference.

I'd rather buy some thicker oil like 20w-50 and mix it. I've done that before with 5w-20 I got super cheap.

Sir, I have 10 gallons of (2- 5gal. containers) in my garage. They are Pennzoil Ultra Plat. 0W20. Do you think I could use them in my '23' Hyundai Santa Fe/2.5 Turbo that calls for a 0w30 grade? I hear so many answers about 0w20. blah,blah,blah. Just don't want to risk damage & warranty. Area we live in during winter is in the 20's & 30's & sometimes in the teens. Thanks

 

[JavierH19]

Sir, I have 10 gallons of (2- 5gal. containers) in my garage. They are Pennzoil Ultra Plat. 0W20. Do you think I could use them in my '23' Hyundai Santa Fe/2.5 Turbo that calls for a 0w30 grade? I hear so many answers about 0w20. blah,blah,blah. Just don't want to risk damage & warranty. Area we live in during winter is in the 20's & 30's & sometimes in the teens. Thanks

Pennzoil Ultra Platinum is a great oil, great additive pack. 20 grade has a minimum hths of 2.6 and a minimum kv100 which is 100 Celsius or 212f of 6.9 cst but goes up to 9.2 cst. Pl

Pennzoil Ultra Platinum has a kv100 of 8.8 but doesn't list the hths though again 2.6 is minimum but it might be 2.7. 8.8 cst is high for a 20 though.

Hyundai doesn't specify any kind of specification that will dictate a minimum hths and a 0w-30 can have as little as 2.9 hths whereas a 0/5w-30 with a specification like acea c3, c4, a3/b3 or the far more common and newer a3/b4 will all dictate 3.5 hths to comply.

But Hyundai only says sp/gf-6 which is 2.9 hths. That 0.3 or 0.2 hths along with the 0.5 cst kv100 difference isn't going to make an honest to god difference.

I would use Pennzoil Ultra Platinum 0w-20 in that particular engine if I had 10 gallons worth without issue. If that engine did require an oil which did dictate a minimum hths of 3.5 then it would be a different story though I would still use it but I would mix it in with something like mobil 15w-50 to thicken it up.

Mixing oils isn't great but of course they're compatible since there's usually a quart of leftover oil when you change. Compatibility is one of the most important things with oil but it's best to not mix additive packages and bases in general though I still do a lot of the time just because I have leftover oil from a prior stash.

The only thing I would do is just change a little bit more frequently. Change it at no more than 5k miles. Preferably 3-4k. If you want to make an engine last keep the oil nice and clean. Rings, turbo bearings, timing chains, phasers all love fresh clean oil. It has been well discussed how even garbage engines which typically have a lot of issues before 100k miles can go several hundreds of thousand of miles without issue when the people that owned them were the religious 3K changers.

 

[altaylar]

The pitfalls of excessive oil hoarding…

Lets not shame that behavior, we all have that to a degree