5w50 oil

[2wheelsx2]

I've been lurking on here for a while, but due to a recent bonehead move, am motivated to write my first post. Canadian Tire had a sale on Mobil 1 a few weeks a go, and since both my cars had an oil change coming up (2004 Subaru WRX and 2003 Toyota Matrix XRS), I went ahead and got 3 4.4 L jugs. I put in a Fumoto oil valve after draining the oil in the Matrix this past weekend, and started pouring the oil into the engine, and thought that the flow was a bit slow. No big deal, it was a cool morning. After finishing up everything, pow, it hit me. I saw that the label on the jug said 5w 50. :shocked

I ran back inside and saw that I had bought 2 jugs of 5w50 and 1 of 5w30 (the recommended viscosity for both cars). Since I had everything buttoned up, I just left it.

I know my car isn't going to blow up, but my question is, am I going to have to worry about long term damage? Should I get that oil out of there, or can I run it until the next OCI (8000km). I live in Vancouver, BC in a moderate climate, so extreme heat and cold are not a concern here.

 

[98LSC32V]

The 5w-50 should be ok in the turbo WRX but I would drain it out from the Toyota.

 

[John K]

I wasn't aware they had a 5W50, but did a search and it is listed in Canada, but not on the USA website. I doubt it makes much difference though. Maybe don't leave it in for the full time you normally do. Interestingly I looked up the product sheet, and under the typical properties they had a typo in the heading where it listed it as 15W-50, then under grade they had it as 5W-50..... Used to be the wider the range the more additives and people were concerned about the quantity of additives being too high....

 

[sprintman]

5W50 fine in anything. The top selling synthetic viscosity (M1)

 

[sprintman]

Here that is

 

[Reg# 43897]

I wouldn't get all excited using it in the lower mainland... Never that cold.

John.

 

[Whimsey]

In my preBITOG days I decided to use 5W-50 in my Zetec Contour. It was spec'd for 5W-30. The only thing it did was hurt my fuel economy and it didn't rev as freely as it did with 5W-30 oil. It didn't cause any damage except to my wallet

.

Leave till your next oil change, you'll be fine. See if you return the unopened 5W-50 for 5W-30.

Whimsey

 

[2wheelsx2]

Thanks for the responses guys. I was thinking that it would hurt the fuel economy some, but seeing as the Matrix gets 40+ MPG, I am not too worried about it. I'll try to return the other jug of 5w50 and switch back to 5w30 next change.

 

[D189379]

UOA that stuff for the heck of it!!

 

[unDummy]

Don't worry. Most 5w50's will shear to a 40wt in no time. And, with the weather warming up, you should be able to use it for full length of the OCI. No early change out is needed and no damage will occur.

You might lose some mileage and offend the pro-MPG planet savers.
If either engine has any oil consumption, use a 20wt as the top off!

 

[2wheelsx2]

The WRX has 5w30 in it. Never uses a drop once I switched to 5w30 from 10w30. It used to go through a liter every OCI, but now it doesn't use any. I'll just return the other 5w50 jug to be on the safe side, since I can.

 

[Andrew]

We don't have Matrixes here but assuming it has the 1ZZ-FE 1.8 VVTi engine, in Aus these engines can use up to 50 weight oils as specified in the service manual (5W-30 recommended). It will be fine.

 

[2wheelsx2]

It's the 2ZZ-GE. Thanks for the info. I just checked my service manual and the only recommended weight is 5w30. Must be a climate thing that they recommend up to 5w50.

 

[jaj]

The latest version of the Lotus Elise uses the 2ZZ-GE engine - in Europe they call for 10w-60 oil and in North America a 5w-40. Your 5w-50 will work fine and the engine won't mind at all.

Cheers
JJ

 

[mdocod]

I ran 20W-50 ST and 2 bottles of STP in my Isuzu for awhile as an experiment. I'd estimate the viscosity was modified to somewhere around a 25W-60 with all the SnotTP in there.

it was summer, so I didn't worry much, drove it about 2000 miles on that if I recall. Nothing bad happened. Engine has 197,000 miles on it now.

 

[2wheelsx2]

Thanks for that info. Interesting that they spec different oils in different regions in different cars with the same engine.....