Safe to use 10w 30, in car speced for 5w 30?

[ziggy]

Wanting to know, if its actually safe to use 10w 30 dino oil, n a car thats speced for 5w 30? its a 1995 plymouth neon. I am wondering, becaue of the clearances ect. I wanna try using 10W 30 for spring and summer, and jsut use 5w 30 for fall and winter. I used mobile 1 10w 30 once, recently, and the car didnt dirve to well, and i saw some steam or smoke, coming outta the engine. I changed it back to 5w 30, and all went well again. That was during a hot humid new england summer, where temperatire was around a sweltering 97 degrees F, with humidity, made it feel about 105 degrees.
Mileage on car, is around 80,000 now. Ive read alot of people like to use 10w 30's for summer, because it protects better, ect, but you will loose some mileage.
what's everyones fact or opinions?

 

[CBDFrontier06]

I'd be hard pressed to believe that moving up a notch in viscosity was the cause of the steam / smoke you saw. Regardless of what oil you're using (within reason) smoke or steam coming from under the hood is an indicator of a cooling or electrical related problem. If your engine got hot enough to boil Mobil 1 or cause it to smoke, you may as well deliver the Neon to the wrecking yard now.

I've routinely used 10w-30 in numerous cars without any protest from the engine....my brand new Frontier is one of them. Recent arguments on BITOG suggest 5W-30 will provide you as much protection as 10W-30, so either will be fine, especially if it's synthetic.

 

[Al]

shouldn't be a problem

 

[rshaw125]

At full operating temp. the 10W30 is the same viscosity as the 5W30. The difference between the two is how they act in cold weather. Secondly the 10W30 is usually considered to stay in grade longer and not shear.

 

[Mystic]

It can get pretty hot in the summer where I live and I have often wondered myself if a 10W-30 can be used in the summertime. It says in my owner's manual that a 10W-30 can be used (in warm weather) if 5W-30 cannot be located. 5W-30 is the preferred viscosity and 0W-30 can be used in severe cold.

But I definitely would not want to use a 10W-30 in cold weather. In cold weather you want to use a 5W-30 or 0W-30 or a 5W-20 if your vehicle requires that viscosity.

 

[sifan]

Did the smoke/steam come out of the tail pipe? If so, you might overfill the engine with oil.

 

[N2OIL]

When you get a oil change at the dealership this is installed. 10/30 is the bulk oil used to give peace of mind to you.

 

[ziggy]

No, oil did not come out my tailpipe, it was coming form under my hood. I did my oil change, put mobile 1 10w 30 in, and immediatly took for a drive. The engine was sitll very warm, and the new oil was a little above room temperature. Maybe i din't let the oil warm up enough. It freaked me out.
My car book, dosnt say anything at all, about using 10w 30, jsut says 5w 30 preffered. But, thier is a oil chart, showing 10w 30 for warmer conditions, and 5w 30 for colder. Other than that, says it strongly recomends 5w 30 for economical purposes. Most people say, you shuld use what yor car book tells you, but sometimes others swear or say another type is good, lke 10w 30. I chatted with a guy, with his neon, he uses mobile 1 0w 40 oil, i guess because its supposed to be a full or near european formula, supposed to be a little thicker, and protect better.
IM guna try 10w 30 see what happens again, my gut instinct was telling me, the light white smoke i saw, was probably the oil didnt warm up enough to coat bearings ect.

 

[Zaedock]

To answer your question, yes, it is safe. I run 10W30, 10W40, 15W40, and even SAE30. Running 10W30 in your Neon would not cause it to smoke at the engine. 20W50 wouldn't do it either. More than likely, you spilled some oil on the exhaust manifold or something. If your bearings were dry, your engine would seize way before you saw smoke coming from it.
I would probably just stick with 5W30 all year. I thought this past summer was pretty mild except for those two hot weeks we had. 5W30 will protect just as well as 10W30 in your Neon.

 

[greaseball]

I have Neons and run them this way: 10w30 spring and summer, 5w30 late fall thru winter. Neon owners manual says you can use 10w30, as long as temp stays above 32. I also throw in a quart of Syn in the winter, but many folks around here don't believe there is any benefit to doing that.

 

[oldmaninsc]

Quote:

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No, oil did not come out my tailpipe, it was coming form under my hood. I did my oil change, put mobile 1 10w 30 in, and immediatly took for a drive. The engine was sitll very warm, and the new oil was a little above room temperature. Maybe i din't let the oil warm up enough. It freaked me out.
IM guna try 10w 30 see what happens again, my gut instinct was telling me, the light white smoke i saw, was probably the oil didnt warm up enough to coat bearings ect.

---

HUH? If the "oil didnt warm up enough to coat bearings" you would be here telling us about your blown engine. As the other poster said, you probably spilled a little oil when you were putting the new oil in. MOBIL 1 is good stuff - but there really isn't a whole lot of difference between 5W-30 and 10W-30 especially if you live in a mild climate.

 

[kboxvegas]

The 95-99 neons had one MAJOR problem besides the 95's ecu problem. The headgasket would go after 60k miles. This is a easy fix with a mls gasket (multi-layer steel)

 

[kboxvegas]

maybe your headgasket is done????

 

[LordAbbett]

Quote:

---

No, oil did not come out my tailpipe, it was coming form under my hood. I did my oil change, put mobile 1 10w 30 in, and immediatly took for a drive. The engine was sitll very warm, and the new oil was a little above room temperature. Maybe i din't let the oil warm up enough. It freaked me out.
My car book, dosnt say anything at all, about using 10w 30, jsut says 5w 30 preffered. But, thier is a oil chart, showing 10w 30 for warmer conditions, and 5w 30 for colder. Other than that, says it strongly recomends 5w 30 for economical purposes. Most people say, you shuld use what yor car book tells you, but sometimes others swear or say another type is good, lke 10w 30. I chatted with a guy, with his neon, he uses mobile 1 0w 40 oil, i guess because its supposed to be a full or near european formula, supposed to be a little thicker, and protect better.
IM guna try 10w 30 see what happens again, my gut instinct was telling me, the light white smoke i saw, was probably the oil didnt warm up enough to coat bearings ect.

---

Where under the hood? Did you pull the oil fill cap after a minute or two of cold start?

 

[ewetho]

My owners manual for the 2004 Neon SE with same 'Ol 2.0L engine call for either 5W-30 or 10W-30 depending on cold weather temps with 5W-30 preferred. No biggie.

Heck some of the 10W-30 were lighter viscosity wise than the 5W-30 of the same brand at temperature (all be it not by much). So that should not make a difference at all. When all the dino was Group I GM spec'd a lot of 10W-30 as it had less viscosity improvers to break down providing a more viscosity stable oil over the drain interval. Modern oil makes it pretty much moot.

Some of the guys overseas with their neon say they spec as high as 10W-40 in their books so I would not sweat a bump in the Winter rating of the oil other than in winter. In CT would definitely go with 5W-30 in mid-fall to mid-spring.