After much input from the oil gurus here, I drained the factory 5W-30 out of my '04 WRX and moved to 10W-30 Mobile 1. Then temps dropped to the 20s... even after I moved down to DC from PA. Am I causing any extra distress to my engine due to temps that dip into the 20s at night?
Went to 10W-30... then the temps dropped... OH NO!
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Gut feeling is no, not at all, but your owner's manual will answer this question. I believe the 10w-30 cut off point for my 2002 Mopar is 0 degrees F (anything ABOVE that is OK).
The M1 10W30 is just fine at those temps. Don't worry about it just drive and be glad you have a cool car.
10w30 in my 98 crown vic year round.
Oh, and I have noticed what I would gues is about a 4-5% increase in milage, but the butt dyno has nothing for me... in fact, I get low-rpm (1500-3000) hesitation at heavy throttle.
The 10w-30 blend in our old car froze solid at -5*f here in PA. Had to push-start....a nice downhill run outside my driveway helped.
You shouldn't have any problems at all. I used M1 10-30 all winter in my car. It started fine in the 20'sF. It never saw anything below 10F. According to the Mobil site, it's good down to 0F.
I don't think it froze solid. It was most likely the battery was frozen. At those temps the current doesn't flow. Had that happen to my '89 F250 with 7.3L diesel. Temp was around 0F, if the thermometer was correct, and had to break out the boost charger. And that has 15w-40 supertech dino oil in it
I also did a little observation one evening with various fluids outside in a plastic cup. Some atf, 10w30 supertech syn, and 30-weight ND compressor oil. After a couple hours outside, the samples still moved around in the cup as normal, there were no signs of them solidifying.
Been running M1 10w-30 all thru the Winter. Coldest we had was about -20 f, but the Ford 3.0 V6 lit up just fine.
I run 10W-30 dino year round in PA... easy starts, even on single digit mornings. Even the car manufacturers have said for years that 10W-30 is good to 0 deg F.
Oh, it was quite frozen, It took a lot of coaxing and banging on the clutch to get the thing to spin.
Yeah, look at the stats for Mobil 1 10W30, it's great even in extremely cold temps.
No worries.
The mileage increase was from the car finally breaking in, I'll bet.
--- Bror Jace
No worries.
The mileage increase was from the car finally breaking in, I'll bet.
--- Bror Jace
If the oil was frozen solid, your oil pump shaft would have sheared unless your rear wheels lost traction. 10W-30 M-1 will pour down to -49 degrees F. Even a conventional 10W-30 (i.e. Chevron Supreme) will pour at -31 degrees F. according to the product data sheet.
I read on this board that M1's 10W-30 was almost a 5W-30 in the viscosity range anyway.
My Impreza 1.8 started just fine without any unusual noises even after sitting outside overnight in 0'F temps. I use Motorcraft 10W-30 in it. UOA results after this indicated very low wear metals. Lead was 0.
I would think Mobil 1 would be even better as far as low temp performance goes.
I would think Mobil 1 would be even better as far as low temp performance goes.
1 more vote for "don't worry". I used Chevron Delo 400 15w-40 down into the teens. Started right up.
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