My car calls for a 5-30wt oil. A performance person said it would be good to run that for 30,000 miles. Then swith to a 10-30wt till 60,000. Then for 60,000 plus use a 10-40wt. Is that good? Or any reason that would be counter productive. What do you guys think? Thank you.
About different weight oils for higher mileage?
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You make it sound like your car is brand new. Don't worry, just use 5-30 until your engine starts burning a quart a day (had a friend who's car smoked up the whole area on startup). I would't mess with higher weight oils, only reason to do so is if you consume oil, but i'd buy a cheap case of bulk oil before changing weights.
I agree. If your engine doesn't use oil, just keep using whatever the manual says. If it starts burning/leaking, you can try bumping up the thickness to help, but there's no set mileage to start doing this, no matter what a "performance person" or the high-mileage oil industry would have you think. You should take a look at that recent thread about someone hitting 200,000 miles on 5W20.
Remember also that thicker oil will reduce your gas mileage a touch, so no sense using it earlier than needed.
Remember also that thicker oil will reduce your gas mileage a touch, so no sense using it earlier than needed.
I think it should take alot more than 60K miles to start needing to bump up the viscosity. I have personally never owned a vehicle that used any noticeable amount of oil during the oci regardless of mileage and have never even considered switching to a thicker oil.
Old think... In general the current 5W-30 oils are better built than the 10W-30. For instance 10W-30 Valvoline is primarily Group I Sub-94 VI (Basic Solvent Dewaxed Petroleum) and 5W-30 is primarily better quality Group II 94+ VI (Hydrocracked). The viscosity at operating temperature will be close to the same and the volatility will be no better if as good as 5W-30. Because of the better basestock it will need no more VII (Viscosity Index Improvers) than the 10W-30.
That advice came from someone still stuck in 60's or 70's thinking.
I agree with va3ux. This guy is stuck in the past. However I am finding that 40 weight oils give me the best results in my older car as well as my newer car. Seems to be very little difference in gas milage as well. I guess I am a high HTHS guy.
I personally believe it's whatever the car seems to like, run good on. If your's is new, I'd most definitely run what it calls for new, at least until you're warranty is up. After that, it's up to you.
But, I have a now 165k mile vehicle, my highest mileage one that I currently still own - had this truck since day one. When it was built in 1997, they called for 10w-30, that's what I ran for a solid 6.5yrs & 130k miles without issue.
Just in the last few years of moving back to Colorado - and colder winters, I have started running 5w-30 in the winter and 5w-40 or a mix of 5w-30 & 15w-40 in the summer.
Truck seems to prefer thicker oil in the summer, I did try to run 5w-30 in the heat of summer the first winter I tried it, but after pulling our boat for 1k miles with rpm's ranging from 2-4k, the idle psi dropped extremely low and truck starts to tick.
However, look at your owners manual and see what it recommends for different outside temperatures; mine specifically states not to use 30wt oils if the outside temp is above 90F - but I've never really had an issue.
I have not experienced any leaks, nor do I use any oil.
But, I have a now 165k mile vehicle, my highest mileage one that I currently still own - had this truck since day one. When it was built in 1997, they called for 10w-30, that's what I ran for a solid 6.5yrs & 130k miles without issue.
Just in the last few years of moving back to Colorado - and colder winters, I have started running 5w-30 in the winter and 5w-40 or a mix of 5w-30 & 15w-40 in the summer.
Truck seems to prefer thicker oil in the summer, I did try to run 5w-30 in the heat of summer the first winter I tried it, but after pulling our boat for 1k miles with rpm's ranging from 2-4k, the idle psi dropped extremely low and truck starts to tick.
However, look at your owners manual and see what it recommends for different outside temperatures; mine specifically states not to use 30wt oils if the outside temp is above 90F - but I've never really had an issue.
I have not experienced any leaks, nor do I use any oil.
Just thought to add that I had a 4-cylinder Toyota that called for anything ranging from 10w-30 to 20w-50; ran it on 10w-30 for 15yrs & 260k miles. Had just started to use 15w-40 when other areas of the truck started failing and getting too expensive to keep up.
Have a new to us '04 Tacoma 3.4L that calls for 5w-30; it will get 0w-30 GC for the life of it.
Have a new to us '04 Tacoma 3.4L that calls for 5w-30; it will get 0w-30 GC for the life of it.
Use 5w30 till warranty is up, then you can safely move to 10w30 if you want to. You should never have to move to a 10w40....
Patman
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There really is no logical reason to move to the 10w30 at any point in time though. As mentioned on here numerous times, the 5w30 version of an oil is usually better than the 10w30 version, at least in terms of it's base oil. And the additives between the two should be the same. So why pay the same price for the 10w30 when it's technically not the better oil?
Unless the 10w30 is syn...
I've run 10w30 syn in my car since 80k, i'm now at 208k - doesn't leak, burn or use oil.
I've run 10w30 syn in my car since 80k, i'm now at 208k - doesn't leak, burn or use oil.
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