Hey all,
First, I'm Tino. Nice meeting you all, as this is my first post to this site.
A little bit of background about my car, since I know it can have an influence on what goes into the thing: It's a 2011 Chevy Impala LT w/ ~32K miles on it. Before I had it, it was a part of Enterprise's rental fleet (with God-knows-who driving it doing God-knows-what with it). 3.5L V6 3500 Series engine. I live in Milwaukee, WI, so the seasons change. When summers are hot, they're hot, and winters are usually cold and kinda long. Most of my driving consists of short-ish trips within the city. I don't get stuck in traffic very often, just a good amount of stop-and-go driving.
I'm here asking you guys what kind of oil I should put in my car, and what would be a good filter to go with it. The owner's manual on my car suggests a 5W-30 oil that is dexos approved (0W-30 for bitter cold weather). From what I read in the Motor Oil University part of this site, it sounds like I could get away with a 0W-30 all the time, and have the same viscosity at operating temps, but take advantage of the reduced wear at startup. Am I understanding this correctly? Would it be safe to experiment with using, say, a 20 grade oil instead of 30? Should I use a synthetic, conventional, or blend?
As far as filters, do "performance" filters (i.e. K&N, Bosch, Mobil 1) really justify the higher cost as opposed to, say, Fram or ACDelco?
Sorry for all the questions, or if any of these seem dumb. Cars are something I'm just getting into, and I tried to cram all of MOU into one sitting, lol. Thanks in advance for your time.
-Tino
First, I'm Tino. Nice meeting you all, as this is my first post to this site.
A little bit of background about my car, since I know it can have an influence on what goes into the thing: It's a 2011 Chevy Impala LT w/ ~32K miles on it. Before I had it, it was a part of Enterprise's rental fleet (with God-knows-who driving it doing God-knows-what with it). 3.5L V6 3500 Series engine. I live in Milwaukee, WI, so the seasons change. When summers are hot, they're hot, and winters are usually cold and kinda long. Most of my driving consists of short-ish trips within the city. I don't get stuck in traffic very often, just a good amount of stop-and-go driving.
I'm here asking you guys what kind of oil I should put in my car, and what would be a good filter to go with it. The owner's manual on my car suggests a 5W-30 oil that is dexos approved (0W-30 for bitter cold weather). From what I read in the Motor Oil University part of this site, it sounds like I could get away with a 0W-30 all the time, and have the same viscosity at operating temps, but take advantage of the reduced wear at startup. Am I understanding this correctly? Would it be safe to experiment with using, say, a 20 grade oil instead of 30? Should I use a synthetic, conventional, or blend?
As far as filters, do "performance" filters (i.e. K&N, Bosch, Mobil 1) really justify the higher cost as opposed to, say, Fram or ACDelco?
Sorry for all the questions, or if any of these seem dumb. Cars are something I'm just getting into, and I tried to cram all of MOU into one sitting, lol. Thanks in advance for your time.
-Tino