Don't want to blame oil but I notice a trend

[ram_man]

Hey everyone we had a Ford F-150 in the shop today had 86,000 miles and the motor made a very audible ticking /clattering noise basically the tech diagnosed it as a cam lobe issue, it wasn't my vehicle to work on so I didn't get to involved but it was definitely not the regular chain noise which the 5.4 seems to be famous for.
My point for this post is I can't tell you how often I see fords spec'd for 5w20 rattling and ticking some with a lot of mile and some with not so many miles.
I also see a fair amount of Toyota /Honda and Hyundai spec'd for 5w20 or 0w20 also Rattling and ticking. However I see some Chrysler products come in not a lot honestly that are spec'd for 5w30 or 10w30 and the Engines sound fine as with Chevrolet's I rarely have any come in making an abundance of noise. I'm not saying it's oil related but I'm seeing a trend that xW20 spec'd vehicles seem to have worse engine noise and I don't mean a slight ticking I mean very audible noises that make you think "wow that things sounds like a piece of junk" I just don't see cars spec'd for 5 or 10w30 having the same issues.
I found this interesting and I actually wasn't the only one to notice a tech that works with me noticed it to. He's only school in his thinking and thinks the oils entirely to thin and you should change your oil every 3-5,000 miles but honestly seeing this trend kinda makes a person think twice about things. Anyway what do you guys think? Maybe im just crazy but I don't think so atleast not entirely

 

[Doc8404]

What year? I can't tell you the number of times people have said it's for a 2001 or before 5.4 L
That's not can love issues That usually exhaust leak

 

[Panzerman]

I saw that Ford is saying that you can run 10w40 in the 5.4 motor to quiet it down. Nothing wrong with heavier oil. My 46 Fords purr on 10w30. Too many people on here don't really know oil, they just use what the manual says and use a engine maker as their backup. If a lot more people actually experimented, I think a lot less would be using thin oil.

 

[loneryder]

I had a number of company Ford and Dodge vehicles that had 5-20 on the oil cap. I changed the oil every 3-5k mostly at Jiffy Lube since I wasn't paying. I always told them I wanted 5-30 but if I forgot, they would put 5-20 and the engine always made more noise especially after a couple thousand miles. It would remind me that I hadn't insisted on 30w oil.

 

[bullwinkle]

I had the same thing happen with my last E-250 4.6 2V powered work van-5W20 MaxLife changed religiously every 5K, rattled like a tin can at idle by 40K. Fortunately the lease was up at 100K, it's Enterprise's problem now!

 

[BrocLuno]

+1 on experimenting and actually listening to what the mechanicals say they want... Quiet is good. Rattles and bangs are metal hitting metal (maybe with an oil film ...). That is not good

Find an oil that will keep you engine quiet and run with it

 

[Eddie]

I also found it interesting that my 2014 Mazda US specs 0w20 but, 5w30 everywhere else. I wonder if the light oil craze (CREF) will come back to bit us. Ed

 

[robo339]

I very highly doubt it's an oil weight issue most likely a terrible maintenance schedule

 

[BrocLuno]

Light oil will come back to bite us ...

 

[oldmaninsc]

And yet my 2004 MGM has had 5W-20 every 5k - 7K of it's life (since about 30K - don't know what the previous owner which was a rental co. put in it) and at 141,000 miles is as quite as any other vehicle. I've tried 5W-30 in it, and I didn't really see any difference in noise, but I didn't think it had SLIGHTLY less get up and go, and no real noticeable difference in MPG.

 

[wemay]

No difference one way or the other in my applications.

 

[shiny]

My Crown Vic doesn't have ticking or anything, but I switched from a syn-blend 5w20 to PUP 5w30 and the engine became much quieter. Mileage is slightly improved but that might be from the new air filter.

 

[ram_man]

Originally Posted By: rsylvstr
What year? I can't tell you the number of times people have said it's for a 2001 or before 5.4 L
That's not can love issues That usually exhaust leak


This one was a 2011. But most are 04 and up really.

 

[OneEyeJack]

I thought 20 weight oil was use to meed CAFE standards, not long term ownership considerations.

 

[Nick1994]

Yeah those 5.4s are really noisy. When I would drive my dad's Duramax I'd sometimes pull up to an F150 with a 5.4 and could hear that truck over the Duramax!

 

[Mau]

All my 5w20 specd Honda/Acuras (3 of them out of 4) all get 5w30.

I've never used 5w20. Even running M1 5w30 I notice more noisy engines. My honda/acura's love SOPUS products (PP and QSUD) much more quieter.

 

[simple_gifts]

Quote:

I'm not saying it's oil related but I'm seeing a trend that xW20 spec'd vehicles seem to have worse engine noise and I don't mean a slight ticking I mean very audible noises that make you think "wow that things sounds like a piece of junk" I just don't see cars spec'd for 5 or 10w30 having the same issues.


Glad you are not saying its oil.

 

[Rolla07]

Not one person has shown any scientific evidence of anything over the oil weight argument. About as relevant as basing oil on color to decide when to change the oil. Ive used all sorts of oil and see no discernable differences.

 

[itguy08]

Originally Posted By: Rolla07
Not one person has shown any scientific evidence of anything over the oil weight argument. About as relevant as basing oil on color to decide when to change the oil. Ive used all sorts of oil and see no discernable differences.


^^^ This. My Ecoboost SHO specifies 5w20 and it sometimes will rattle like a box of rocks on a cold or warm start. Sometimes it's quiet as a church mouse too. Been doing it since 60 or 70k and now at 95k. No rhyme or reason - new oil old oil, overnight, 20 minute stop, 8 hour workday. Tried 5w30 and it made no difference. At idle it's as quiet as a GDI engine can be.

The wife's previous Escape, with the 3.0 had 160k on it, mostly with 5w20 and it was quiet as a church mouse on startup.

I put 0 faith in startup or even idle noises as long as they go away in 1-2 seconds. Engines will last a long and happy life making these noises.

 

[Merkava_4]

Why not blame the oil ? What else is gonna cause ticking/clattering ?

Allow me to say it for you: Thin oil don't lubricate.

Plain and simple.