Oil For Short Trips

I've been doing a lot of very short trips lately, and pretty much for the past 18-months or so. I don't see that changing much, if at all, in the near future.

I was curious to see if there's any oil more suited to such use, and I read several threads last night. I couldn't find any consensus of brand, spec, viscosity, or approvals, but it did seem that the best way to combat the deleterious effects of short tripping is to use good quality oil and change it frequently. I was hoping to find something that would inspire confidence when used for a year or so, but nothing jumped out at me.

My "official" change interval now is 5,000 miles or 6 months, and at 6 months that puts me at 3,500 miles. My next 6 month cycle will be next month, and the mileage won't even hit 3,000 miles, and I plan to change out the oil.

However, I thought I'd see if I've missed something. Most of my trips are 3-miles or less, and there are times when the water temp gauge doesn't even get up to normal operating range. I can't think of any solution other than frequent changes. For the foreseeable future, long highway drives are not in the picture.

Any thoughts?
You're doin' it right. You don't want a high vis oil 'cause your engine ain't warming it up. EP is a good oil at 8.6 vis. My Camry likes AFE better at 8.8 vis but what does my Camry know?. Southern Engineering; as long as you engine don't make more noise on an oil It's OK. Jmo
 
What will the 0W do for me that I'm not getting with 5W in my climate?
You'll still get slightly better mpg since it's slightly thinner at startup to the first 15 minutes then the difference between the two narrows a lot. kv40 is 104f which is a hot summer and 5w-30 is at 60-65cst at 104f which is about 4 times thicker than 10w-40 at kv100 or about 3.5x thicker than hot 20w-50. 0w-20 is about 45-50 at 104f. So it's still rather thick even at 104f let alone 50-60f in the morning which would probably be around 100cst or roughly 5-6x thicker than hot 20w-50.

But again that oil isn't reaching kv100 with either so it doesn't matter. An hour of driving with 5w-30 would be thinner than 30 mins of 0w-20. Your oil is pretty much never getting fully warmed up. it takes a some time unless you've got the latest and greatest twin turbo aggressive egr bmw which are known to fully heat the oil pretty quickly.
 
You're doin' it right. You don't want a high vis oil 'cause your engine ain't warming it up. EP is a good oil at 8.6 vis. My Camry likes AFE better at 8.8 vis but what does my Camry know?. Southern Engineering; as long as you engine don't make more noise on an oil It's OK. Jmo
But a thicker oil will warm up faster if that's what you want.
 
You'll still get slightly better mpg since it's slightly thinner at startup to the first 15 minutes then the difference between the two narrows a lot. kv40 is 104f which is a hot summer and 5w-30 is at 60-65cst at 104f which is about 4 times thicker than 10w-40 at kv100 or about 3.5x thicker than hot 20w-50. 0w-20 is about 45-50 at 104f. So it's still rather thick even at 104f let alone 50-60f in the morning which would probably be around 100cst or roughly 5-6x thicker than hot 20w-50.
Completely dependent on temperature and then on the specific brand. Above -25F or so the oil with the 0W winter rating may very well be thicker than the one with the 5W rating.
 
Need to consider what engines. MPFI engines are one thing. But some DI engines really fuel dilute on short trips. So a heavier oil may be needed to off set this, along with a shorter oci.

I don't want a 0w-20 oil diluted with a lot of fuel in my crankcase.
 
I run short trips all the time in Louisiana and am running 0w20 in my Caravan only cause I got it on sale. What I have found out is change oil at 200 hrs. I changed my oil last October and I have 100 hrs and 1700 miles on this oil change as of now. Looking like my next change will be around 3500 miles where as last one was 5500 miles.
 
Completely dependent on temperature and then on the specific brand. Above -25F or so the oil with the 0W winter rating may very well be thicker than the one with the 5W rating.
Yeah I know, M1 0w-40 has a thicker kv40 of 77cst using the d445 standard than pennzoil platinum 10w-30 which is 60cst with d445.

But I'm talking about what he's currently already using compared to what he could use (the 0w-20 version of EP) instead of his current 5w-30 fill since it could fit his use case. But a 0w isn't quarantined thinner than a 5w. No one's debating that.
 
But a thicker oil will warm up faster if that's what you want.
No need to word parse. I'm referring to the viscosity reduction, in the oil, that occurs as the engine runs or "warms up", the oil, on longer drives. The op is concerned re his short drives. My '17 Camry, with the same 2.5 starts more smoothly ( I assume it's the oil pump) with 8.8 vis 0w-20 AFE vs. 5w-20 EP 9.0 in cold weather, that's my experience. What's your experience in your 2.5 Camry?
 
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3000 miles in 6 months with 3 mile short trips. You actually do 1000 short trips in 6 months - an avg of 5 to 6 three mile trips a day - every day for 6 months? :unsure:
 
No need to word parse. I'm referring to the viscosity reduction, in the oil, that occurs as the engine runs or "warms up", the oil, on longer drives. The op is concerned re his short drives. My '17 Camry, with the same 2.5 starts more smoothly ( I assume it's the oil pump) with 8.8 vis 0w-20 AFE vs. 5w-20 EP 9.0 in cold weather, that's my experience. What's your experience in your 2.5 Camry?
Those oils are not anywhere close to 8.8 and 9.0 cSt viscosity at cold start-up.
 
I swear, my ’11 can have heat by the end of the driveway, and that is in my climate.

I’d run 0w20 and change at 5k, maybe 2.5k even, if I thought the oil felt thin or gassy on the dipstick, cheapest I could find. Maybe find a reason to walk some too, if it is that short of a drive.
 
No need to word parse. I'm referring to the viscosity reduction, in the oil, that occurs as the engine runs or "warms up", the oil, on longer drives. The op is concerned re his short drives. My '17 Camry, with the same 2.5 starts more smoothly ( I assume it's the oil pump) with 8.8 vis 0w-20 AFE vs. 5w-20 EP 9.0 in cold weather, that's my experience. What's your experience in your 2.5 Camry?
You have a lot going on there and I'm not sure about most of it.
 
I've been doing a lot of very short trips lately, and pretty much for the past 18-months or so. I don't see that changing much, if at all, in the near future.

I was curious to see if there's any oil more suited to such use, and I read several threads last night. I couldn't find any consensus of brand, spec, viscosity, or approvals, but it did seem that the best way to combat the deleterious effects of short tripping is to use good quality oil and change it frequently. I was hoping to find something that would inspire confidence when used for a year or so, but nothing jumped out at me.

My "official" change interval now is 5,000 miles or 6 months, and at 6 months that puts me at 3,500 miles. My next 6 month cycle will be next month, and the mileage won't even hit 3,000 miles, and I plan to change out the oil.

However, I thought I'd see if I've missed something. Most of my trips are 3-miles or less, and there are times when the water temp gauge doesn't even get up to normal operating range. I can't think of any solution other than frequent changes. For the foreseeable future, long highway drives are not in the picture.

Any thoughts?
Just curious, how well does 5w30 work in your Camry? We have the same engine and I’m curious about using 5w30.
 
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