I drive up to 8,000 miles a year, mostly short trip with highway on the weekends. I picked up some Synpower on sale for my Corolla. I tried to find some UOAs on this oil but not much there. Is this really an "extended drain" oil? It's a full synthetic and that's what Toyota calls for in my application.
Valvoline Synpower 0W-20, 8000 mile oil?
- Thread starter Corollaman
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It will probably be fine for 8k 
Originally Posted By: Corollaman
I drive up to 8,000 miles a year, mostly short trip with highway on the weekends. I picked up some Synpower on sale for my Corolla. I tried to find some UOAs on this oil but not much there. Is this really an "extended drain" oil? It's a full synthetic and that's what Toyota calls for in my application.
Your fine to 10k.
Is your corolla the one that Toyota says can go 10k mile intervals?
Any full syn should do fine for 8k.
this guy went 11k showing wear of only about 7-8k miles.
https://bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubbthreads.php/ubb/showflat/Number/4634698/gonew/1/M1_0W-20_11,000_OCI_15_Corolla#UNREAD
The 2ZR-FE seems to be a very low wearing engine capable of extended drains.
Try out the valvoline and and see how u like it. It was cheap(er) anyway...
I have never tried Valvoline before and I'm fairly surprised in a good way.
Btw, doesn't the manual say 5w20 conventional is ok for 5k miles?
I'm pretty sure valvoline full syn could handle 8k no problem if Toyota says u can go 10k
I don't know why it wouldn't be, particularly in the pretty undemanding application that you have.
There's a member here who tears down engines for a living who has observed that Valvoline yields cleaner engines and lower wear than anything else, FWIW.
I don't recommend long oil change intervals. Don't have dirty oil in your car. I would change it twice a year if I was you.
Originally Posted By: FermeLaPorte
I don't recommend long oil change intervals. Don't have dirty oil in your car. I would change it twice a year if I was you.
The Toyota 10k recommended OCI in every UOA I've seen (or done myself) seems absolutely feasible and with plenty of safety margin,
Use a good filter and good fuel and you should be fine. A nice highway drive once a week would help also. Think 8k can be had.
It ok to continue to use 5w30 oil providing it is full syn,if 5w30 mineral oil is used it must be replaced at 5000 miles or 6 month interval with 0w20 motor oil.(2016 Toyota Camry warranty & maintenance guide pg. 56.
dnewton3
Staff member
You can guess, or you can "know".
Guessing amounts to asking people what their emotional meter believes, mostly based on marketing dribble.
Knowing means taking a few UOAs and finding out for yourself.
For reference, I continually run 10k miles in many cars on dino lubes. I see no reason that the syn lube you inquire about would not EASILY sustain 8k miles. TBH, there really isn't anything so substantially different about any API licensed lube (spec'd for the particular application) that any brand/grade/base will make a difference in wear control. Macro data just proves this time and time again.
But I recommend you first start with a 5k mile UOA, then 7.5k miles, and you can probably get to 10k miles, and so on.
Why guess when you can "know"?
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dnewton3
Staff member
Originally Posted By: zeng
Originally Posted By: dnewton3
You can guess, or you can "know".
Why guess when you can "know"?
Originally Posted By: Corollaman
I drive up to 8,000 miles a year, mostly short trip with highway on the weekends. I picked up some Synpower on sale for my Corolla. I tried to find some UOAs on this oil but not much there. Is this really an "extended drain" oil? It's a full synthetic and that's what Toyota calls for in my application.
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Define “short trips”...
I would frankly be shocked if a modern oil did not do fine for 1year and 8000 miles in a newer vehicle.
Guess requires no physical effort vs "know" (as per your take) requires not only effort but time and $ as well,
Exactly. Way too many bench racers around here. Too many people are not really looking to gain knowledge or improve their understanding of product selection and applications.
They would rather blabber on and hope that some group (presumably hoping for a majority of the answers) to echo their own "feelings", rather than put effort and cash into the quest.
Bob is rolling over in his grave.
I noted in another thread the elimination of the “general OT” forum had been discussed. That is one of the best ideas I have heard this year.
You want the content to improve, narrow the focus and eliminate everything that isn’t oil/filter/fluid related and then run it like the non-us owned 1911 pistol website and the content will improve immensely. You’ll lose at least half the users and 90% of the malarkey... but the content will be solid.
Originally Posted By: dnewton3
Originally Posted By: zeng
Originally Posted By: dnewton3
You can guess, or you can "know".
Why guess when you can "know"?
My favorite irony is that the Chicken Littles that are against extending OCIs (or dino vs syn, or cut ADBVs, etc...) can't point to ANY empirical data (from any test, UOA or otherwise) to justify their positions. They have plenty of personal opinion but no personal data to back any of their nannying up.
If you want to stick to 3k/5k/manufacturer recommendations, fine, no problem, your money and machinery. But don't discourage the other people here from experimenting and possibly finding helpful info out for people who ARE interested in these things.
While I don't always personally agree with some of the things DNewton says about dino oil, I certainly can't refute his DATA that validates his positions. However, I certainly agree with him that no one on this board has EVER produced real, verifiable, honest to goodness data that torn filter media has resulted in engine failures. Or that torn ADBVs have done the same thing, for that matter. I have my opinions which are subject to change based on the DATA that is shared here... not the nannying from the Chicken Littles based on feelings.
Oh, and to stay on topic... Synpower is a great oil regardless of the presence of UOAs... you will certainly be fine for an 8K OCI.
Get the oil hot regularly with a long drive-but I would do a UOA just to be safe-the xB in my sig sheared M1 AFE 0W30 down to the bottom of 20 weight range in only 7K due to the long timing chains & VVT-i, both of which your Corolla also has (if it's a newer one). Also, to the best of my knowledge, almost all 0W20 oils are full synthetic. There may be isolated examples of syn blend 0W20, but I haven't personally seen any.
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Originally Posted By: oilmutt
It ok to continue to use 5w30 oil providing it is full syn,if 5w30 mineral oil is used it must be replaced at 5000 miles or 6 month interval with 0w20 motor oil.(2016 Toyota Camry warranty & maintenance guide pg. 56.
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In most viscosity grades, Valvoline has long been notable for a high-sodium, high-calcium additive package. But as Valvoline changes its formulation to a presumably low-sodium, low-calcium add pack to meet Dexos1 Gen2 (and SN+ and GF6), it will become a pretty different animal from that used in the UOAs found here.
I have no doubt Valvoline will continue to be an excellent engine oil, but some of the opinions and results about its performance in certain applications may need re-validation. Other than Mobil1, the calcium reduction will occur in most every engine oil but Valvoline adds sodium to the mix so the change could be more pronounced.
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