That “noisy and thrashy” sound has nothing to do with motor oil. The 4 cylinder sound characteristic is because 4 cylinder engines are inherently hard to balance. For example, compare the same car model for instance take a Honda Accord, one with the 4 cylinder and the other with the V6 engine, the V6 is almost guaranteed to be a smoother running engine. Sure, 4 cylinder cars today seem very smooth when you rev them, thanks to better balancing methods used. And with today’s advanced engine/transmission mounts a lot of 4 cylinder cars feel silky smooth. Heck some engine mounts are electronically controlled.
CAFE and the USE of Lower Viscosity Motor Oils
- Thread starter AEHaas
- Start date
- Status
You’ve been here for a very long time, you should know that if metal banging against metal was truly happening then that engine wouldn’t last long at all. If metal to metal contact is happening and you can hear it then that engine is damaged and is about ready to fail.
Not always, depending on what is banging failure can take a long time, especially in the example ARCO referred to, "when pushed." Not everyone pushes their engines. The point I am making is simple. If bumping a grade quiets an engine down when the engine is pushed hard the oil was too thin. Most here will agree. @Trav and I had this conversation numerous times in fact.
Some, like me, own cars as long as they last.
Same. But here in New York, you'll never wear an engine or transmission out. The vehicle will rust out first.
Trust me, I’ve seen all the conversations in the past about this, but I have yet to ever experience an engine sound louder or “thrashy” from the use of a lower viscosity motor oil myself.
That will depend on the motor of course. I had a Mitsubishi 1.8 four banger that was sewing machine smooth. The Mazda SkyActiv 2.5 is right there as well.
The smoothest engines I’ve experienced were inline sixes. They don’t make too many of them these days.
Yep, your Skyactiv Mazda is blessed with all the latest advancements in technology to keep NVH to a minimum.
I agree with you Ken...some engines are definitely better suited for 20wt. than others despite what the manufacturer recommends.
PS: What are your thoughts on the EcoSport? I see you have less than 1K on it so I'm sure it's hard to give an opinion so early in it's life.
They are discounting them pretty heavily in my area but the MPG ratings seem poor for such a small vehicle.....I think they give it 29 mpg Highway...
I guess we'll have to agree to disagree then. I'll leave you with one example from my experience. I had a 93 Aerostar which was back spec''d to 5W20, this was during a period when 5W20 was the beginning of the rave here. I used it and endorsed it for a while. I tried it in the Aerostar which was mechanically sound. I noticed that as I got close to the end of the OCI, 3,500 miles give or take of a 5,000 mile OCI the engine made mechanical noises I never noticed before. Fuel dilution wasn't the issue, which most people would put the blame on. Switching back to 5W30 oil resolved the problem. I fooled around with it a bit more and determined the 5W20 was too thin my application. It also consumed 5W20, 5W30 was not an issue. The engine was smooth and quiet with 5W30, and went to the junkyard with over 212K miles on it. NY roads took their toll on it. Were those noises an early warning of a shorter engine life? Maybe, but when something as simple as bumping a grade ended the sounds I wasn't going to chance it.
manicrodder
$50 site donor 2022
Exactly. But the states that have visual inspection do you in.I may "know somebody" that ran an offroad H-pipe on their 5.0L Mustang and still passed emissions testingBut yes, even with a stock tune, the smell is different for sure.
I use about 40 gallons of gas a week driving other people around for ride-share.Mine and yours is definitely bigger...
We routinely cook and smoke meats with charcoal and hickory wood chunks or cherry wood chunks or mesquite wood chunks.
If I'm not mistaken, the automakers take that 0.5% improvement per vehicle and apply a formula for ALL of the vehicles they produce (their entire "fleet") so that 0.5% can be huge for them. Obviously it depends on how many units of each model they sell. They can use "credits" from vehicles with higher efficiency and apply them to their gas-guzzlers to reduce or eliminate penalties as well.
Ooops, that's what I get for not reading the entire thread before replying.... I see others have already answered this
Last edited:
While the automaker can just say "it's normal", they do this only for CYA purposes. They don't want to resolve what could be a design issue or poor manufacturing that allows this amount of loss so they tell owners, "live with it".
Exactly.
My first Expedition, or was it an Explorer, drank a quart of oil every 1,000 miles from day 1 through the 7 years I drove it. It had high milage and never changed the amount of oil it consumed. I always wondered where that oil went to. (?proper English?). No other car I owned drank any oil until my 812 Superfast came along. I am still experimenting on that one.
Regarding engine noises and oil viscosity I have a different experience. In at least two of our sports cars the noise level went down when going to a thinner oil. 'Don't remember the details though. Of course I have never gone up in viscosity so I do not know what would have happened in that event. I can think of reasons that a thicker oil may quiet things down but "better" lubrication is not one of them. I cannot think of reasons a thinner oil would quit things down.
AEHaas
Regarding engine noises and oil viscosity I have a different experience. In at least two of our sports cars the noise level went down when going to a thinner oil. 'Don't remember the details though. Of course I have never gone up in viscosity so I do not know what would have happened in that event. I can think of reasons that a thicker oil may quiet things down but "better" lubrication is not one of them. I cannot think of reasons a thinner oil would quit things down.
AEHaas
A noisy engine and an engine that vibrates are not mutually inclusive. I've seen engines that vibrate that run quiet, and I have seen engines that are smooth running and make noises.
Study on Engine Noise Level vs Oil Formulation
Thought this was somewhat interesting, especially the engine noise level vs oil formulation used data. We've all seen various threads where people say they can hear an engine noise level difference with different oils, and some say it's "all in their head" or "their ears aren't sensitive enough...
bobistheoilguy.com
Still my point is, in CAFE I assume that they look at whole MPG numbers, integers, 34 35 36, not 34.5000023219398. If that's the case why bother with 0w-16? Who cares if it gets a tinge better gas mileage, we KNOW it doesn't protect as well and if it's not gonna help with CAFE numbers there is no point!
No one seems to understand my point. My point is, speccing a thin oil helps with MPG, but only by a fraction of an MPG, and the real world results probably don't translate to a better EPA-estimated MPG, so therefore no CAFE boost to using thin oil, so what's the point???? My point is it's not needed.
- Status
Similar threads
- Locked
