What oil is best for YOUR car?

[oilnoob425]

What oil (brand, type synth/dino, viscosity) is working best for your car? It could be subjective personal feelings (car running smoothly and quietly, butt dino, etc) or/and objectitive (milege, Used Oil Analysis results).

P.S. Is Chevron Supreme Oil (1 qt blue bottle) any good? Local "Family Dollar" store sells it for $2.09/qt. I was wondering if should try it for my Civic?

 

[hominid7]

My previous car (VW) seemed to like Valvoline 20w50 best.

My current car (mazda) seems to only like 5w30 in motorcraft, and 10w30 in just about every brand i've tried.

 

[Quest]

If you are budget-minded, virtually most, if not all of the regular grade motor oil brands (not restricting myself to just the term "dino" here)then GTX, Pennzoil, Chevron Supreme, Supertech,QState,Vavoline, etc. are all excellent buys and serves there purpose very well given the rather conservative OCI practice.

All other stuff like syn-blend, so-called full sync, etc. are mood point unless you have lots of $$ to spare and you want slightly longer OCI and better resistance to heat and cold.

Fancy exotic brands such as Amsoil, Redline, etc. are good so long as $$ is not a factor in your case.

If you want somethign for your civic (assuming that your car calls for 5W20 API-SM/ILSAC-GF4), IMHO any so-called full syn are good. I would recommend wallymart's Motorcraft semi-syn 5W20 for best bang for the buck.

Q.

 

[PW01]

I've used GTX, Valvoline, and Mobil 1 (all 5w-30)in my truck. The Mobil 1 seems to yield the best fuel economy, quietest motor, and "smoothest feel'. Plus I don't have to change the oil as often.

 

[oilnoob425]

To Quest: Thanks for your knowledgebale answer, but my question was lying in the different field. I realize most oils will be o'k for my car, but it was more about what oil you personally think is better for your car. You can base it on any subjective or/and objective feelings. The reason I ask is that after I started doing my own oil changes, I noticed my car running a little bit more rough than before when I was taking it to the oil change places. So far I used M1 and Castol GTX (previous car was running incredibly smooth on it) 5W20, just like my car manual says. I don't know what attribute to this, perhaps those OC places were putting different viscosity in my car. They said it was 5W20 as suposed to, but who really knows. So far there is no problems with the car. Although I seem to do everything right,it's just this slightly rougher than usual noise I belive. I will keep experimenting with other oils, see how it goes.

 

[glennc]

Some of the synthetics can be run for truly long OCIs and can then represent an excellent value. There are some excellent UOAs running some of Amsoil's products beyond 20k miles, for example.

Chevron Supreme is a first-rate oil that has put up UOAs as good as any synthetic in the BITOG archive. It should be fine up to any reasonable conventional OCI. Sometimes you can get even better deals on it than $2.09/qt.

Other conventionals these days are also excellent. I don't know if there is a single SM oil out there that isn't, really, although I have my favorites. One of the best maintenance strategies, in my book, is to buy the cheapest you can find on sale for each oil change you do. MC is right in there.

 

[Quest]

I have 2 Hondas in my family currently, both bought new (01 7th gen civic bought in 00; 07 fit bought in late 06), both have been on different oil schemes: civic gets the usual treatment of regular grade motor oil (Shell Formula 5W30 or 5W20, sometimes Petro-Can 5W30/5W20. During it's first 3 yrs of life, it got Esso full sync 5W30 and it was pretty good, IMHO. Now with 129,000kms to clock,I'm using motorcraft 5W20 semi-syn. I do not perceive any major differences RE: smoother engine when using syn oil in this case, but it does feel rougher during acceleration as the oil accumulates a bit of mileage (just before the oil gets changed). As for my fit, it currently clocked 6950kms to clock since new and have been using Crrraaappy Tire's full syn 5W20 since 3000kms...no issues so far.

Bottomline: I would go with glennc's remarks RE: anything with excellent UOA would be a good starting point. To add a bit more into it: go with anything that is labelled ILSAC GF-4 certified and you are on the homerun.

Q.

 

[ARB1977]

UOA's will tell you that.

 

[addyguy]

Castrol GTX 10W-30 'seemed' to work the best in my 2002 Cavalier. Had the lowest oil consumption with that oil. I've run a lot of dino oils in this car, so I have had some others to compare against.

 

[Kestas]

Anything I use is fine for my cars with one exception - don't use a heavy oil on Ford Duratech 2.0L DOHC engines. Heavy oils, such as 20W-50 will result in sluggish variable cam timing (VCT) solenoid operation, stall your car, and trip a cam sensor code.

 

[MGregoir]

I really don't know. 5W-30 Pennzoil is the steady diet it gets, but I don't particularly like it, I am not sure why though. Good oil from everything I have seen.

Valvoline 10W-30 in the summer was great, smoothed it out on cold starts (I think it was bearing noise), ran quiet. Didn't help mileage by any means, though.

Right now it has 5W-30 Mobil 1 in it. It seems happier but that's as much the cold weather improvement or anything. It's never seen synthetic in warm weather.

Next up is a shot of AutoRX and Castrol GTX I think for the spring oil change interval, and for the summer interval in the rinse phase.

Then I think I am moving on to Esso Extra XD-3 0W-30. An SL rated, PAO synthetic HDEO rated as a heavy 0W-30...kind of a poor man's German Castrol. It's $22.86 Canadian for four litres at Wal-Mart in a country that five litres of Mobil 1 is $37.94. Cheap enough I don't feel guilty about short drains, good cold weather performance, good high temperature performance, extremely high TBN and an extremely stout oil overall.

I think I'll do some UOAs at that point to build a baseline for a couple of changes, and then maybe go onward and outward hunting for a favorite oil.

 

[dlafoy]

no lie in the last 30k miles I have tried these oils in this exact order:
amsoil xl
GC
valvoline AC
76 syn
GC
havoline syn
havoline dino
maxlife
mobil 1

my conclusion is the mobil 1 has provided more smoothness,response,and MPG out of any I have tried so far.

 

[BuickGN]

For my TL it has to be the Amsoil ACD 30wt. Living in a mild climate helps. Only on the coldest mornings do I notice a little more idle vibration but it smoothes out quickly. I do mostly long trips so cold starts aren't a big deal for me. Once warm, the car feels faster smoother, and quieter, especially in vtec territory than with the 5-20 or 5-30. Can't wait to do my first UOA soon. I've decided this is where my experimenting ends and I'll stick with this oil until the car dies.

 

[hooligan24]

my 2.4L turbo felt great, sounded quiet, and had great mileage on Amsoil TSO w/EAO Filter.

Amsoil SSO w/EAO filter - same thing accept for a noisy top end

Redline 10w40 - feels and sounds smooth, but its to early in the oils life to decifer if there is a MPG loss or not. it does feel more sluggish during start-up and acceration


If Amsoil still sold TSO, I would still be buying it. The SSO noise has turned me away from Amsoil for the moment, and I am trying new things

 

[jaredyost]

Originally Posted By: dlafoy
no lie in the last 30k miles I have tried these oils in this exact order:
amsoil xl
GC
valvoline AC
76 syn
GC
havoline syn
havoline dino
maxlife
mobil 1

my conclusion is the mobil 1 has provided more smoothness,response,and MPG out of any I have tried so far.


If you want a good amsoil ditch the XL and get the SSO 0-30. XL is only a base III stock.

 

[Badlees]

Hey fellas. First post but I love Pennzoil Dino and a Wix filter every 3k miles in my Toyota Tacoma. You can't go wrong with a fresh filter and 5 quarts of Pennzoil Yellow. It makes all the difference and keeps my truck running great. Just what I like for my truck but I know there are other great combos out there.

 

[bamorris2]

2005 F150 5.4 45,000 miles.

Here are the oils I've tried:

*Motorcraft 5w20 syn blend - Runs smooth, but has startup rattle, and a little noise when running.

*Syntec 5w20 - Similiar to the MC, but overall noisier.

*Amsoil ASM 0w20 - Even noisier than the Syntec. But also provided the smoothest running motor of all the oils.

*Synpower 5w20 - Similiar overall to the Syntec.

*Rotella T syn 5w40 - By far the quietest of all oils. Made the motor sluggish at operating temps.

*Maxlife syn blend 5w30 - Good all-around oil. Smooth engine performance, quieter than the MC.

*Pennzoil conv 5w20 - Currently in my sump for last 2 days. No startup noise yet (that's a first). Engine seems to be as smooth as Maxlife was. I may be jumping the gun here, but based on the last 2 days of driving, this may be my truck's "favorite" oil!

 

[Johnny]

Originally Posted By: Badlees
Hey fellas. First post but I love Pennzoil Dino and a Wix filter every 3k miles in my Toyota Tacoma. You can't go wrong with a fresh filter and 5 quarts of Pennzoil Yellow. It makes all the difference and keeps my truck running great. Just what I like for my truck but I know there are other great combos out there.

to BITOG.

 

[Badlees]

Johnny, just so you know, I drained the Royal Purple that I had in my truck after 1000 miles. I can't do extended drain intervals and I drive 500 to 600 miles per week. I like working on my truck and from what I've read, Pennzoil is a great product and got excellent reviews from forum members. I'm not into the synthetic thing but don't have anything against it. I'm doing my own thing and sticking with WIX and Pennzoil.

 

[Mr Nice]

Any cheap closeout API rated dino oil.