M1 - no noise?

[ScottB]

OK, not only did I change to M1 yesterday (10k miles) but I also took the leap of faith to go with the now recommended 5w20. That part was hard. I stood in Pep Boys for 20 minutes looking at the bottles before grabbing the 20. I'm so old-skool that anything less than 10w40 was hard for me to use, let alone 20! Anyway, my 2006 Scion tC seems happy so far. No noise, and it's very smooth. Time will tell I guess, and this is likely the batch I will run a UOA on.

 

[Chris Meutsch]

Believe it or not, you can choose a dino 5w20 as well and you probably won't notice any difference except in your wallet. And this comes from a strict synthetic believer like me! Seriously though, I've been using 0w5w20 since it came out in 2001 and my car is still on the road after 85k. No leaks, no noise, no nothing except reliability and good fuel mileage.

 

[ChromiumSteel]

Put M-1 5W-20 in our tC just yesterday. Seems to like it just fine.

 

[ScottB]

Well, here's an interesting point after driving 2.5 days. My temp gauge solidly lives here: C | 4.5 | H Now, it's been here: C | 3.0 | H The gauge has been solidly on the above point (top) since I bought it. Now, it's definitely lower and solidly so. I like it, but not going back to dinos Scott

 

[ALS]

I saw with my Volvo Turbo a good 20 to 30 degree difference between Dino and the M1 10W30. With the M1 the needle rarely moves above 180 degrees. With the Dino the gauge was always between 200 and 220 degrees.

 

[wavinwayne]

quote:

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Originally posted by ALS: I saw with my Volvo Turbo a good 20 to 30 degree difference between Dino and the M1 10W30. With the M1 the needle rarely moves above 180 degrees. With the Dino the gauge was always between 200 and 220 degrees.

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How do you explain this?

 

[ScottB]

Hmm. Maybe less friction? Less resistance in flow? Not sure. All I know is that my temps are lower now. I don't want to hear any ** (not saying you are) about how it's "our imagination" or anything similar. I've watched the temp gauge like a hawk since mile-one, and it is most definitely lower now - and stays lower since the M1 this weekend. Scott

 

[brianl703]

If you use a scantool, such as the ScanGauge, to watch your engine coolant temperature, you'd notice that it varies quite a bit, especially in stop-and-go traffic. These changes are not reflected on the temperature guage, which always seems to sit at the same place. My conclusion: Dashboard temperature gauges are not precision instruments.

 

[ScottB]

While I realize that those "gauges" are hardly accurate, they are usually pretty consistent. My gauge sat at one place until last weekend. Now, it's staying at a lower place on the gauge. I'm not stating HOW MUCH this translates into in °F/C, but it is a real dip in temps. Scott

 

[Clyde65]

quote:

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Originally posted by ScottB: I'm so old-skool that anything less than 10w40 was hard for me to use, let alone 20!

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I'm the same way, as everyone on this board already knows. I get a lot of strong backlash for my advocation of 10W-40. I'm thinking I should probably cool it for awhile before I get banned from this site.

 

[brianl703]

You don't know that it's a real dip in temps till you verify it with another instrument. Unless you want to take what the gauge says as the gospel truth. I wouldn't. EDIT: But then you have the problem of not knowing what the temperature was, from another instrument, before you changed the oil.

 

[ALS]

In my case I have a VDO aftermarket oil gauge. It has a 0-300 degree range. I have to agree on the factory coolant gauges they are marginal at best. My scan gauge was showing any where from 190 to 230 degree coolant temperatures last week on a trip. The dash gauge never moved from dead center.