quote:
Originally posted by Kernel Potter:
I have a family member that owns a 2001 Mazda Tribute with a 3.0 litre V6, which uses 5w-20. The Tribute is mechanically the same as a Ford Escape.
As far as the 5w-20 being so bad; its 100*C viscosity is pretty close to Mobil1's 10w-30 and Ford's minimum specs for 5w-20 has been increased quite a bit over past vehicle manufacturers standards in many areas. So I really don't see an issue to be alarmed about wear until I see some proff in hard data. Sort of like all the Mobil1 SuperSyn bashers. That was pretty ugly.
I think one of the benefits of CAFE, is it leaves a strict guideline for not too little and not too much viscosity for most of the conditions encountered by todays vehicles. If there weren't warranty considerations, you could be quite sure there would be a lot of "armchair" engineers out there outguessing the real ones with the thinking that more is always better. Then putting in 40 and 50 weight oils that are eating into MPG, causing more cold start up wear while giving no added high temperature protection.
Despite the flaws, I'll take that trade off over a lot of the rest of the world's $4.00+/gal. gasoline prices.