Not so sure about that based on some of the comments and stories here. If there was an engine failure, even it not caused by the oil. I wouldn't be surprised if a dealership tried to deny the warranty if they found out the engine had 5W-30 instead of the recommended 0W-20 in it. They look for any excuse, even if the failure isn't actually related to the oil being used.
Looking for first person story: My warranty denied because of oil used
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The ones reinventing the wheel are the automakers that are spending millions of dollars in order to capture CAFE credits without causing unacceptable wear. Film thickness is not reinventing the wheel, you have it backwards.
There have been stories on the truck boards of guys having lifts on their trucks and warranty work being denied because of the lift even if the warranty work in question had nothing to with the suspension.
So yea.
One thing that needs to be mentioned-is that this can be Dealer Specific many times. If you have a long standing relationship with a dealer-then they can look the other way.
Yea-but I would agree this thread is pontification and hot air mostly-replying to some other comments by others above.
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I understand this totally and don't blame you and other service techs/managers. This is why I said it's a cat and mouse game. It is well known that the manufacturers don't always pay fairly for warranty work. Money rules the world and no one likes to take a hit. In a flat rate shop, the shop owner and the technician lose out, because it's difficult to do a proper job on something like a short block replacement within the hours given. In one bay you have a younger tech plowing through brake jobs and type C services with 150% efficiency making good money for themselves and their boss, and in another bay you've got a more senior tech doing more involved warranty work dealing with stripped and rusted bolts, riffling through their mystery bin of fasteners to find nuts & bolts to put the car back together so that the poorly paying warranty job doesn't plug up the hoist any longer than it has to.
In a case where the owner has done all or most of those Type A,B,C,D services at this shop or a couple of neighboring shops, the services manager will go up to bat for the owner and even turn a blind eye to a late oil change or two because they are a source of past and future profitable revenue, not just someone wanting to get their questionably maintained vehicle fixed for free.
Tell that to the guy staining his work clothes with motor oil and grime as he adds a quart to his 4yr old Subaru a couple times during the OCI and see what they say.
This brings me to my next point of why some would want to use a different spec/grade of oil early on within the warranty period in the first place.
They (CAFE motor oils) "do work", most-of-the-time for the warranty period and even beyond if you are driving under reasonable conditions and have average expectations in regards to how long an engine should last and how much oil it should burn as it begins to age. Some people have greater demands and expectations for longevity from their vehicle. Racing, towing, higher speed highway trips, high heat and possibly some combination of all of the above. Higher HTHS motor oils allow the owner to have their cake and eat it too, at the small cost of slightly more fuel burnt. Why should this owner that is looking after their car, putting in premium oils that are approved and recommended else where in the world, for good reason, be penalized for using premium motor oils when a design or build defect rears its ugly head?
They don't "blow up", but they do wear out. Starting early if not right away with a higher HTHS oil is done to avoid wear that leads to excessive oil consumption which manufactures have had to come out and now say is NORMAL.
That is illegal in the US and can and should be fought with a lawyer who understands Magnuson-Moss. In all likelihood that would be a couple hundred bucks for the lawyer to write a letter and the dealership would comply. I've seen this happen first hand and I've read more that few stories online about this exact situation.
Let me clarify. Customer comes in and says "I use 10w40 as 5w30 is to thin" then shows record of this at 7500 miles. Our dealer had signs saying 3k oil change recommendations. Royal Purple wasn’t approved at that time. I had to document everything and then declined although I knew manual states 7500 mile oil change but wasn't my call. Toyota lost in court over this. At this time synthetic oil was thought to harm engines not recommended for synthetic. We now have same thing going now with 20 grade doesn't protect but 30 grade is better.
OK-AS I have mentioned I tow a 5,000 pound travel trailer all over the Rockies many 1000's of miles over the course of the last 5 years. I recently completed two-1,000 mile trips this past summer. It's a 2018 5.3 Silverado running 0W/20. It has 51,000 miles on it. The last trip had an average temperature of 90 degrees.
When can I expect it to blow up? It uses ZERO oil between changes.
OVERKILL
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The Engineers don't really spec the oil, if they did, you'd arguably have a range of viscosities in the manual, like things used to be. I know I've brought it up many times, but we have several examples of where the oil recommendation changes significantly depending on the perceived usage profile. The Mustang GT for example, back when the Track Pack was available, the "regular" GT spec'd 5W-20, the "Track Pack" version with the same engine, but a less conservative thermal castration mechanism, and oil cooler, spec'd 5W-50.
Of course the "regular" mass produced HEMI spec's 5W-20, while its HD and high performance siblings spec 0W-40, despite sharing myriad components. Clearly, usage profile weighs in there.
Engineering recommendations are kneecapped by CAFE regulations which mandate a single spec oil grade.
You mean like the same exact engines used in other countries that show a whole range of recommended viscosities based on ambient temperatures?
OVERKILL
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LOL! Yup. IIRC, wasn't there a Toyota manual excerpt posted at one point that indicated that a heavier viscosity might be desirable if heavy towing or extreme use was being undertaken?You mean like the same exact engines used in other countries that show a whole range of recommended viscosities based on ambient temperatures?
The same statement is in all the Toyota manuals. Toyota's way of saying a thicker oil gives added protection - Toyota engineers still understand Tribology and how viscosity/HTHS related to added engine protection.
And it pretty much leaves it up to the owner to decide what higher viscosity to use. Whip that out on a dealership that wants to deny warranty because a thicker oil was used ... see what they say.
You missed another point.
Read the next paragraph after the red box.
It tells you in the event that 0w-16 is not available, you can use 0w-20. But at the next oil change, Go back to 0w-16
OVERKILL
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read the underlined bit, that comes after that.
I knew someone would bring this up, lol. It says to change it back to 0W-16 because of CAFE. So, someone could be running 0W-20 for a whole OCI ... you think Toyota would allow such a thing if running the thicker oil was going to damage the engine? And as Overkill mentioned, read the underlined part. Technically, someone could put 0W-40 in the engine based on that last underlined statement in the OM, and no dealership could say anything about it.
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Yes because as we’ve seen here the CAFE award letter requires the automaker to strongly discourage the use of any oil that was not the one used to obtain the fuel economy target. It’s not because of a technical requirement that the other grade is better, required for the engine or somehow that the engine was designed for that grade. The technical requirement is shown in the recommendation of a heavier grade for heavier use.
BINGO!
First off, congratulations on hitting 51K without burning oil!!
I had a 2000 Honda with an engine that revved to 8000 rpm and would turn at 4-5K RPM on spirited highway runs. It got 5w30 GTX (cafe oil) every 3000 miles since new because I definitely was driving it under severe conditions. At 51k miles it too used zero oil. It used zero oil until it did. by 100k miles it was using about a quart in between oil changes, and by the time 130k miles there was barely a need to do oil changes at all because it was getting topped up every few hundred miles. I was anal about top ups and never even let the dipstick get to half way in between the holes. I realize now my mistake in using the same kind of oil that granny in her automatic corolla used back then and would love to be able to go back in time and use something like a European synthetic 5w40, and maybe a 0w30 in the winter time.
I'm not saying that the 0w20 isn't going to serve you well long into your engine's life, because I haven't researched your engine and I'm not the one driving your truck or changing your oil. But to come out and say that 51K is some kind of accomplishment doesn't offer much of an argument for following the Owner's manual to a T in every scenario.
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