I have a 2014 Mazda5 with the 2.5L NA Mazda/Ford engine and 5-speed auto that will be coming up on 60K miles. It has spent its entire life on 0W-20 religiously being changed every 7500 miles - usually Vavoline but I did a few OCs at Firestone and I believe they used Kendall at the time.
Here is the last UOA - Iron and copper are high - https://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubbthreads.php/topics/4797717/1
This is our basic local family hauler and because it’s small but seats 6 and is easy to drive (drives like a go cart) my wife loves it. When I think about how it’s used I do feel it falls under the severe driving conditions category . I live in central MA where the winters are long and cold and the summers are fairly warm. The engine is way underpowered and so you have to give it the beans all the time just to get up to speed. Want to do 75mph on the highway and the engine is humming at 3K rpm. It does lots of very short trips loaded with 4-5 people including going 200 yards down the road in sub-zero temps to drop kids off at the bus stop only to be driven home and turned off before the engine gets anywhere near operating temp. At other times it idles for long periods of time in the hot summer.
The plan is to keep this car as long as possible and hopefully keep it until my 13 year is ready to drive. If it died tomorrow I wouldn’t shed a tear but it runs well, it’s in good condition, my wife likes it, and it’s not worth much so why not keep it? I’d like to go to an extended drain interval just to simplify my life. Currently the car does about 12K miles per year so I’d be happy just changing the oil once every year. With the severe driving conditions and last UOA in mind while not an expensive or high performance car I’ve had good results with Amsoil and was thinking for $80 per year if I can only change it once and get those wear levels down then great. Question:
1. Since warranty is no longer an issue I was thinking of going to the 0W-30 or 0W-40 SS to try and get those wear levels down. When I look at the specs for Amsoil’s SS there are very few differences between the SS 0W-20, 0W-30, 5W-30 and 0W-40 as far as cold weather performance. Which would you choose and why?
2. I know Mobil has an extended drain interval oil that would be significantly less expensive but I’ve never used Mobil anything - wondering how everyone feels it would hold up in this application?
3. Any other EOI options you’d recommend?
Here is the last UOA - Iron and copper are high - https://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubbthreads.php/topics/4797717/1
This is our basic local family hauler and because it’s small but seats 6 and is easy to drive (drives like a go cart) my wife loves it. When I think about how it’s used I do feel it falls under the severe driving conditions category . I live in central MA where the winters are long and cold and the summers are fairly warm. The engine is way underpowered and so you have to give it the beans all the time just to get up to speed. Want to do 75mph on the highway and the engine is humming at 3K rpm. It does lots of very short trips loaded with 4-5 people including going 200 yards down the road in sub-zero temps to drop kids off at the bus stop only to be driven home and turned off before the engine gets anywhere near operating temp. At other times it idles for long periods of time in the hot summer.
The plan is to keep this car as long as possible and hopefully keep it until my 13 year is ready to drive. If it died tomorrow I wouldn’t shed a tear but it runs well, it’s in good condition, my wife likes it, and it’s not worth much so why not keep it? I’d like to go to an extended drain interval just to simplify my life. Currently the car does about 12K miles per year so I’d be happy just changing the oil once every year. With the severe driving conditions and last UOA in mind while not an expensive or high performance car I’ve had good results with Amsoil and was thinking for $80 per year if I can only change it once and get those wear levels down then great. Question:
1. Since warranty is no longer an issue I was thinking of going to the 0W-30 or 0W-40 SS to try and get those wear levels down. When I look at the specs for Amsoil’s SS there are very few differences between the SS 0W-20, 0W-30, 5W-30 and 0W-40 as far as cold weather performance. Which would you choose and why?
2. I know Mobil has an extended drain interval oil that would be significantly less expensive but I’ve never used Mobil anything - wondering how everyone feels it would hold up in this application?
3. Any other EOI options you’d recommend?
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