The 5w20 oils seem to be put together fairly stout. Jury is still out, but my bet is that cars run on them will go the distance as well as the heavier oils and maybe better...just my opinion.
quote: Originally posted by Geoff: CAFE rules are a real threat to US car makers who rely on SUVs for most of their profits. The requirement now - 27.5 mpg - is pretty high for a company selling a lot of vehicles getting 16mpg or less. If I were Ford I would pull every trick I could to get the fleet average higher. Honda is also making most of their money on v-6 sedans and SUVs that get relatively low (18/23) mpg.
The vast majority of SUV's are considered TRUCKS because they have a flat load floor.
Truck CAFE is 20.7 MPG Average (55% City / 45% Highway) not 27.5 MPG! Also CAFE is figured using actual EPA lab test figures not window sticker figures (Figures seen on Window Stickers are 10% less City and 22% less highway than actual lab test figures).
What does this mean in the real world?
If you produce only one model truck with a window sticker that reads 15 MPG City / 20 MPG Highway (16.7 / 25.6 Lab) you will meet the 20.7 MPG CAFE.
Well bottom line in NHTSA's annual report Ford failed the CAFE passenger car AND light truck requirement in 2002. They only met the average through incentives earned by the sale of alternate fuel vehicles.
quote: I hate to ask a dumb question, but...why the concern about high weather temps? My Escape's operating temperature is somewhere around 180 degrees (considering that it has a 180 thermostate in it), and the coolant system keeps it in that range regardless of stop-and-go city driving or highway driving. My point is that the engine is always operating at much higher temps than the outside temperature. What am I missing?
The pdf from the government on the other recent thread mentioned the "graphic" in the car manual and a requirement that it be stated that 5w-20 be clearly identified, etc., etc.
The only time I saw a problem using lighter grade oils was about 15 yrs ago driving a Nissan 300ZX turbo near Big Bend, TX. The air temp according to the car's dashboard was 116 degrees F.
We lost oil pressure completely to something less than the usual hot idle psi reading (the guage just kept creeping down) while cruising about 80 mph. After the car cooled it went back up a bit. It was running 5w30. I don't know if the oil film actually broke down. We had no funny noises.
CAFE rules are a real threat to US car makers who rely on SUVs for most of their profits. The requirement now - 27.5 mpg - is pretty high for a company selling a lot of vehicles getting 16mpg or less. If I were Ford I would pull every trick I could to get the fleet average higher. Honda is also making most of their money on v-6 sedans and SUVs that get relatively low (18/23) mpg.
quote: Originally posted by moribundman: Your coolant gauge has most likely a dead zone around operating temperature. Car makers do not want to worry drivers unnecessarily.
I apologize. I seem to have made an error. The sump increase was only for the 6s 04's, not the 6i. I guess ford made a generic sump increase across the 3.0 duratec's, which of course effected the mazda 6s as well.
Its up to 6.0 qts in 04, while it was only had 5.5 qts in 03. Going to screw up the UOA comparisons **** it!!!!
I apologize. I seem to have made an error. The sump increase was only for the 6s 04's, not the 6i. I guess ford made a generic sump increase across the 3.0 duratec's, which of course effected the mazda 6s as well.
Its up to 6.0 qts in 04, while it was only had 5.5 qts in 03. Going to screw up the UOA comparisons **** it!!!!