Hey all. New here as far as posting but I have lurked a little bit.
Anyhow, my DD is a well-worn (to put it politely) 2000 Toyota Echo, 1NZ-FE 1.5l four with VVTi. Coming up on 252k miles. The car looks like [censored] but has been incredibly reliable.
As I'm not sure where I'm going with this, I'll give a bit of history. I "inherited" this car three years ago and it has been serving as my DD ever since. At that time it had mystery oil with some brand oil filter I have never, ever heard of. The car was in need of maintenance, namely new plugs and a MAF cleaning. I also battled water in the spark plug tube of cyl. no. 1. Not an uncommon issue in these.
Oilwise, I kinda ignored it for longer than I care to admit. In the summertime it leaks about half of a quart every month to two weeks; in winter the leak is more subdued. I was backfilling it with a hodgepodge of 10w40 conventional I got for free (some Castrol GTX, Exxon, and Peak brand oil) on top of the no-name stuff. As badly as the car ran before I sorted the maintenance out, I felt that the car would [censored] out before oil issues came to bite.
Now the car runs better than ever, and I finally did a real oil change. I started with Valvoline MaxLife 5w30 and a Bosch 3311 filter. Nothing wrong with that setup, except that 300mi into the change, my OCV went out. I ran motor flush despite a clean OCV filter and then filled with M1 0w30 AFE and another Bosch 3311 - didn't fix, had to replace the actual OCV.
I am still running the 0w30 and Bosch filter. I feel it is more quiet after a cold start, but I am also a hypermiler and see no real MPG gain vs. the sludge and oil cocktail which was in it before. The leak also doesn't seem to behave any differently.
I buy my oils for the car based on what's cheap; the car is worth, at best, about $1500. Trade-in value is $800 for rough condition, and although mechanically great the car would never show well enough for that. I don't intend to toss money at the car. The 10w40 was free, I got two jugs of the 0w30 AFE for $3 each on clearance, and I have stockpiled another 18qts of Pennzoil Ultra Platinum 5w30 as it's on clearance for $1/qt at the moment. I use the Bosch filters as they seem to be the best filter for the money where I work (employee discount FTW!).
Questions:
- Could the failed OCV be attributed to my lax oil changes before?
- Is there any way one could venture a blind guess as to how long the M1 AFE with the Bosch should last? Currently 3200 mi into this change.
- I gather the Pennzoil Ultra Platinum is a fine oil; I am about to leave my parts store job for a real career, is the Bosch worth the $6.99 or should I shop elsewhere for a Wix/PureOne/anything else?
- Any other general advice you'd give a pretty "scrappy" but by no means professional auto mechanic/enthusiast as far as oil goes?
Anyhow, my DD is a well-worn (to put it politely) 2000 Toyota Echo, 1NZ-FE 1.5l four with VVTi. Coming up on 252k miles. The car looks like [censored] but has been incredibly reliable.
As I'm not sure where I'm going with this, I'll give a bit of history. I "inherited" this car three years ago and it has been serving as my DD ever since. At that time it had mystery oil with some brand oil filter I have never, ever heard of. The car was in need of maintenance, namely new plugs and a MAF cleaning. I also battled water in the spark plug tube of cyl. no. 1. Not an uncommon issue in these.
Oilwise, I kinda ignored it for longer than I care to admit. In the summertime it leaks about half of a quart every month to two weeks; in winter the leak is more subdued. I was backfilling it with a hodgepodge of 10w40 conventional I got for free (some Castrol GTX, Exxon, and Peak brand oil) on top of the no-name stuff. As badly as the car ran before I sorted the maintenance out, I felt that the car would [censored] out before oil issues came to bite.
Now the car runs better than ever, and I finally did a real oil change. I started with Valvoline MaxLife 5w30 and a Bosch 3311 filter. Nothing wrong with that setup, except that 300mi into the change, my OCV went out. I ran motor flush despite a clean OCV filter and then filled with M1 0w30 AFE and another Bosch 3311 - didn't fix, had to replace the actual OCV.
I am still running the 0w30 and Bosch filter. I feel it is more quiet after a cold start, but I am also a hypermiler and see no real MPG gain vs. the sludge and oil cocktail which was in it before. The leak also doesn't seem to behave any differently.
I buy my oils for the car based on what's cheap; the car is worth, at best, about $1500. Trade-in value is $800 for rough condition, and although mechanically great the car would never show well enough for that. I don't intend to toss money at the car. The 10w40 was free, I got two jugs of the 0w30 AFE for $3 each on clearance, and I have stockpiled another 18qts of Pennzoil Ultra Platinum 5w30 as it's on clearance for $1/qt at the moment. I use the Bosch filters as they seem to be the best filter for the money where I work (employee discount FTW!).
Questions:
- Could the failed OCV be attributed to my lax oil changes before?
- Is there any way one could venture a blind guess as to how long the M1 AFE with the Bosch should last? Currently 3200 mi into this change.
- I gather the Pennzoil Ultra Platinum is a fine oil; I am about to leave my parts store job for a real career, is the Bosch worth the $6.99 or should I shop elsewhere for a Wix/PureOne/anything else?
- Any other general advice you'd give a pretty "scrappy" but by no means professional auto mechanic/enthusiast as far as oil goes?
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