Toyota Crown takes 0w8 oil

Keep in mind it’s a hybrid - and typically hybrid engines don’t see high loads or a lot of idling, but they do see lots of start-stop. A Toyota hybrid engine rarely ever sees redline, and there’s measures taken to ensure the ICE side warms up quickly to primarily reduce emissions but to get to operating temp quicker.

I care for a car that sees a lot of use as an Uber and while I can get away with 0W-20, I chose to run a thicker oil since it does fall into “severe” service, into Toyota’s wording that thicker oil can protect better for those use cases. Toyota does for the new Dynamic Force engines say thicker oil is A-OK for the rest of the world. The oil pump is not electric - the volute chamber is controlled by a PWM solenoid. it does leave their Japanese/Thai/Kentucky/W. Virginia engine plants with 0W-16/8 however.

In my opinion:
0W-20 is adequate, and you won't see any problems. 0W-20 is ok, if you will be selling the car within 5 years.
But 5W-30 is optimal, if you love the car and want to keep it for over a decade and go 200k to 400k miles.

If there is a bad accident on the highway a few miles up ahead, and cars are going super slow in the bumper to bumper traffic behind it,
with AC on and temperatures outside are in the high 90's, and the backup takes 1 to 2 hours with idling and stop and go traffic, and temperature gauge on dashboard is going past the half way mark even though cooling system is healthy, I feel so much safer having a thick 5W-30 oil in the engine with HTHS >= 3.2, with Fram Ultra oil and air filters with 99%+ efficiency @ 20 microns, and also knowing that my oil is < 4,000 miles old.
When I look around and see a new Toyota Sienna with the 0W-16 with the 10k oil change interval and low 50% efficiency Toyota fiIters,
I think about how much more protection my engine is getting than the other family's engine in the Sienna who is following the owners manual's oil viscosity, 10k oil change interval, and using OEM filters..

I know most of you will say it won't matter, but it does give me an extra feeling of safety and knowledge that my engins's wear and oil consumption will stay at 0 this year.

If you've followed Toyota vehicles from about 2007 until present day, you may have noticed that nearly all models all years suffer from oil consumption issues. My theory on that (totally unproven, but just a feeling), is that the 0W-20 + 10k oil change interval + low efficiency Toyota oil filters contribute to this chronic oil consumption. It's a big deal, because in most Toyota models, to rebuild these engines require the engine to be removed from the car, making the job prohibitably expensive. 0W-20 near 10k miles will be sheared down a grade to a 0W-16. The oil will have a lot of particles in it due to the low efficiency Toyota oil filter. The sheered down oil which is thinner than a virgin 0W-20 combined with the wear particles that get in between the moving surfaces with the sheered down thin oil not having enough film thickness will cause extra permanent wear in the high RPM high temperature piston rings, causing oil consumption.
It would be quite an interesting experiment to run same cars with 5W-30, with 4k-5k oil change intervals, and a 99%+ @ 20 microns high efficiency oil filter. Please take this feeling with a grain of salt, as it's unproven, but just a strong feeling I have.
 
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In my opinion:
0W-20 is adequate, and you won't see any problems. 0W-20 is ok, if you will be selling the car within 5 years.
But 5W-30 is optimal, if you love the car and want to keep it for over a decade and go 200k to 400k miles.


My car is five years old now running on 0W-20. Guess I’m pushing my luck?
 
In my opinion:
0W-20 is adequate, and you won't see any problems. 0W-20 is ok, if you will be selling the car within 5 years.
But 5W-30 is optimal, if you love the car and want to keep it for over a decade and go 200k to 400k miles.

If there is a bad accident on the highway a few miles up ahead, and cars are going super slow in the bumper to bumper traffic behind it,
with AC on and temperatures outside are in the high 90's, and the backup takes 1 to 2 hours with idling and stop and go traffic, and temperature gauge on dashboard is going past the half way mark even though cooling system is healthy, I feel so much safer having a thick 5W-30 oil in the engine with HTHS >= 3.2, with Fram Ultra oil and air filters with 99%+ efficiency @ 20 microns, and also knowing that my oil is < 4,000 miles old.
When I look around and see a new Toyota Sienna with the 0W-16 with the 10k oil change interval and low 50% efficiency Toyota fiIters,
I think about how much more protection my engine is getting than the other family's engine in the Sienna who is following the owners manual's oil viscosity, 10k oil change interval, and using OEM filters..

I know most of you will say it won't matter, but it does give me an extra feeling of safety and knowledge that my engins's wear and oil consumption will stay at 0 this year.

If you've followed Toyota vehicles from about 2007 until present day, you may have noticed that nearly all models all years suffer from oil consumption issues. My theory on that (totally unproven, but just a feeling), is that the 0W-20 + 10k oil change interval + low efficiency Toyota oil filters contribute to this chronic oil consumption. It's a big deal, because in most Toyota models, to rebuild these engines require the engine to be removed from the car, making the job prohibitably expensive. 0W-20 near 10k miles will be sheared down a grade to a 0W-16. The oil will have a lot of particles in it due to the low efficiency Toyota oil filter. The sheered down oil which is thinner than a virgin 0W-20 combined with the wear particles that get in between the moving surfaces with the sheered down thin oil not having enough film thickness will cause extra permanent wear in the high RPM high temperature piston rings, causing oil consumption.
It would be quite an interesting experiment to run same cars with 5W-30, with 4k-5k oil change intervals, and a 99%+ @ 20 microns high efficiency oil filter. Please take this feeling with a grain of salt, as it's unproven, but just a strong feeling I have.


so glad I don't have these phobia's .
 
Could this be the label on a jug of 0w8? 🤔

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https://www.sae.org/publications/technical-papers/content/2020-01-1423/

Engine oil with viscosity lower than 0W-16 has been needed for improving fuel efficiency in the Japanese market. However, lower viscosity oil generally has negative aspects with regard to oil consumption and anti-wear performance. The technical challenges are to reduce viscosity while keeping anti-wear performance and volatility level the same as 0W-20 oil. They have been solved in developing a new engine oil by focusing on the molybdenum dithiocarbamate friction modifier and base oil properties. This paper describes the new oil that supports good fuel efficiency while reliably maintaining other necessary performance attributes.
 
People can say what they want.. Regarding Toyotas specifically, I know Toyota's used to be lasting 300-500k miles... now with the 0W-20 people seem to be burning oil, or worse at 200k miles.

Sure they still last a long time, but i think it is hard to argue against the fact that Toyota is now primarily focused on fuel economy and has put reliability on the back burner. It seems to me that Toyota's viewpoint is that as long as they are as good or better than competitor's on reliability, then that's fine for Toyota. It did not used to be that way, they used to always strive to go above and beyond in reliability.

The days's of Toyotas lasting insanely long mileages like 300, 400, 500k seem to be numbered.

As for the 0W-16 and 0W-8 engines like the new Dynamic Force Toyota engines... they have not been out long enough to get a good grasp on a good pool of examples...

But before the M20A in the new Corolla, it was the 2ZR-FE which spec'd 0W-20 ONLY in the USA... the rest of the world got to use 0W-20 up to xxW-40 or xxW-50 on the SAME EXACT ENGINE. Shoot the new M20A dynamic force might be the same way but I don't own one so I have not researched it in depth.

Ever since I saw that I was like oh no... no way I am running 0W-20 in my 2ZR-FE engine. I do not advocate for running the 40 or 50 weights.. and I do think you can get 200 or 300k running 0W-20... But i think one thicker grade (I run 5W-30) should give good protection for someone, and make sure they can surpass 200 or 300k.

Running the 5W-30 to me is "giving my engine what the engineers wanted" not what the penny pinching executives wanted (CAFE tax incentives is what the penny pinching executives wanted)

This is just my opinion, maybe the engineers wanted to use a thinner oil.. but knowing the old school Japanese engineers and how they work, I highly doubt it. I've heard a few off the record statements from engineers from Nissan and Toyota and I do not believe for a second the engineers wanted to use these thin oils, and for 10k intervals.

I strongly believe Toyota is doing the best they can to maintain their track record for reliability but that the main focus is on fuel economy and not long term reliability..
 
Automakers recommend a grade, they don't require one. Despite the required fear-inducing language in the owner's manual or on a sticker. That language is the only part that is actually required.
 
Automakers recommend a grade, they don't require one. Despite the required fear-inducing language in the owner's manual or on a sticker. That language is the only part that is actually required.
You have been repeating those three sentences for the last few years and it appears to be your interpretation of the situation. Can you show us any documentation indicating that the recommended grade does not need to be used?
 
You have been repeating those three sentences for the last few years and it appears to be your interpretation of the situation. Can you show us any documentation indicating that the recommended grade does not need to be used?
The usual argument is RoW allows for thicker grades.

But the warranty is not administered by RoW
 
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