Ron AKA what makes you think that 5W20 in general is "blanket statement" better then 5W30? What makes you think that there is going to be any huge gain in cold cranking performance with a 5W20 over a 5W30? I am not saying their might not be a difference but what makes you think it will make a huge difference. Most dino 5W30's shear to a 5W20 in 600-1800 mile of use especialy in inports. When was the last time you had an engine self destruct dureing the winter because someone was running 5W30? Even in cold Canada not everyone is running a 5W20,0W20,0W30 etc.... a good number of people are still running 5W30 with out mass engine failures.I do not mean to offend you but your recomendation makes no sense at all from a real world performance perspective.He already has the oil and it represents no harm at all to his vechile.
bemused, I say think criticaly about this and use what ever oil best suites your ambient temps. A 5W is a 5W especialy when the second digit is only 10 points away. Now if you lived in the artic circle and were asking about 5W40 instead of 5W20 it would be a much greater delta in cold cranking performance between the two. If you wanted to run 5W30 year round it would not hurt anything. If you wanted to run 0W30 dureing the winter and 0W40 dureing the warm months again you are not going to hurt a thing. Heck you could run 0W40 dureing the winter and not do any harm!!!Some people fail to understand the meaning of "Recomended" grade in their owners manual and think that one should only do as it instructs.
5W20's tend to cost more and seldom have discounts in my neck of the woods. You might try a 5W20 after you run out of 5W30 and see how it does. If it does not do any better or much better then 5W30 I would keep useing the 5W30. Chevron Supreme and Havoline usualy have disounts a few times a year.The one upside to most 5W20's is that a lot of them are synthetic blend. To date ever vechile calling for 5W20 has done just fine running 5W20 in terms of UOA.
bemused, I say think criticaly about this and use what ever oil best suites your ambient temps. A 5W is a 5W especialy when the second digit is only 10 points away. Now if you lived in the artic circle and were asking about 5W40 instead of 5W20 it would be a much greater delta in cold cranking performance between the two. If you wanted to run 5W30 year round it would not hurt anything. If you wanted to run 0W30 dureing the winter and 0W40 dureing the warm months again you are not going to hurt a thing. Heck you could run 0W40 dureing the winter and not do any harm!!!Some people fail to understand the meaning of "Recomended" grade in their owners manual and think that one should only do as it instructs.
5W20's tend to cost more and seldom have discounts in my neck of the woods. You might try a 5W20 after you run out of 5W30 and see how it does. If it does not do any better or much better then 5W30 I would keep useing the 5W30. Chevron Supreme and Havoline usualy have disounts a few times a year.The one upside to most 5W20's is that a lot of them are synthetic blend. To date ever vechile calling for 5W20 has done just fine running 5W20 in terms of UOA.
