Confused about which oil to use

[johnnyh55]

I have a 2007 mazda 3 gt with 2.3l engine non turbo and oil changes were always done at the dealer with dino oil and 5000miles OCI's, the car now has 150 000miles and i was going to do my own oil changes but I am afraid of picking the wrong brand and cause leak issues or other problems. I was thinking of buying Castrol Gtx dino oil since it's cheap but I have no idea if it's good. I seen the UOA but don't know how to interpret the results.

 

[69GTX]

Castrol GTX is a decent oil as would be any of the major brand oil companies with an SN oil. You can search the API certified oil VOA's if you like....they have dozens of them in each oil grade. But, you can't just compare VOA's to say one oil is better than another. Manufacturer specs/approvals would carry more weight.

 

[double vanos]

Castrol GTX in the proper weight will be fine. ANY conventional oil will do fine on 5k OCIs.

 

[JMJNet]

Any brand name oil should be good: Castrol, Mobil, Pennzoil, Valvoline, etc.

If there is no leak right now, oil will not cause any leak.
Lack of maintenance and/or age will cause leak.

 

[PimTac]

Any major brand will run fine. The Castro pardon, Castrol is a excellent choice.

 

[dogememe]

Originally Posted by PimTac
Any major brand will run fine. The Castro is a excellent choice.

That's my favorite too! It's really colorful with many rainbows and lots of cute guys there!

 

[PimTac]

Originally Posted by dogememe
Originally Posted by PimTac
Any major brand will run fine. The Castro is a excellent choice.

That's my favorite too! It's really colorful with many rainbows and lots of cute guys there!




Dog gone autocorrect got me again.

 

[BJD78]

Castro has the starburst, just like QS,Penzoil,Valvoline,NAPA, O'Reillys ,Supertech,Zecol, Mag 1, etc. any of them will do fine and the engine will likely easily go 300K plus on any of them with a 5k oci.

 

[dave1251]

Buy the SN or SN+ on sale and sleep well.

 

[oghl]

SL/SM/SN would all the ok in a 2007, wouldn't it?

 

[K23Turbo]

Castrol GTX would be a good choice. So would Castrol Magnatec for a few bucks more.

 

[johnnyh55]

I can get Valvoline conventional even cheaper than the Castrol GTX, for 4$ less for the 5GT jug, is Castrol worth the 4$ more or Valvoline should be fine?

 

[MRtv]

Originally Posted by johnnyh55
I can get Valvoline conventional even cheaper than the Castrol GTX, for 4$ less for the 5GT jug, is Castrol worth the 4$ more or Valvoline should be fine?



Valvoline will work just fine. Worth the $4 more? Maybe, maybe not. Whatever you find on the shelves at WM or any auto parts place is going to serve you well. Supertech Conventional will do a fine job too for even less than the Valvoline. Congratulations on doing the OCI yourself. I personally get a lot of satisfaction from doing them. Gives me a chance to look around and see if anything else needs attention on the vehicle.

 

[JC1]

Originally Posted by johnnyh55
I can get Valvoline conventional even cheaper than the Castrol GTX, for 4$ less for the 5GT jug, is Castrol worth the 4$ more or Valvoline should be fine?


Valvoline will be fine.

 

[johnnyh55]

So i was doing more reading on this site and it appeara now that pretty much all conventional oil in a 5w-20 grade are a aynthetic blend? I went to Walmart ans notice that the castrol gtx is gtx ultraclean and this is a blend according to the product sheet even valvoline daily protection conventional is a blens according to the product data sheet so i guess all dino oils are a blend now to meet the api requirements? There ia no problem in runninf these in a high mileage engine? No leaks will appear?

 

[johnnyh55]

Ok so it seems api sn and the ilsac standards are hard to meet without adding some synthetic ingredients to the dino oil in the 5w-20 grade so pretty much all brands of conventional oil in the 5w-20 grade are a blend? That's why you can get castrol gtx in the 10w-30 but in the 5w-20 you can only get castrol gtx ultraclean which is a blend. So i assume my mazda dealer was using a blend as well since they told me that they use dino oil. So i did my oil change with valvoline conventional daily protection 5w-20 and I will change it in 5000 miles.