What's everyone's favorite 0w-20 these days?

[ARCOgraphite]

Glenda is a true gem of the forum!

Absolutely! I enjoy the contribution and enthusiasm.

But remember, we are all wrong now and then, here and there, LOL.
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[ARCOgraphite]

PDS stayed the same and was updated 04/2025. FYI> I check yesterday out of curiosity.

Hmm.
O.k. then I'll chalk it up to a base stock interchange allowance blend variation. Or Shell cut and paste carelessness.
Or that PP number being incorrect all along.

I may recall (incorrectly?) the 5W-30 FS had a higher pour point (Yes, I know, likened to Project Farm's cold oil soapbox races, LOL)

Maybe we need a prominent vintage displayed on the Jugs, like a fine wine!
If I owned better spectacles I could read those tiny date codes!

thx,
- Arco

 

[buster]

Hmm.
O.k. then I'll chalk it up to a base stock interchange allowance blend variation. Or Shell cut and paste carelessness.
Or that PP number being incorrect all along.

I may recall (incorrectly?) the 5W-30 FS had a higher pour point (Yes, I know, likened to Project Farm's cold oil soapbox races, LOL)

Maybe we need a prominent vintage displayed on the Jugs, like a fine wine!
If I owned better spectacles I could read those tiny date codes!

thx,
- Arco

You're right Arco about the interchange allowance. That is what they list for the 10w30 so you could be right. I'm not sure they all retain that -54F PP or low VI. The 5w30 does specifically show GTL.

 

[Revving2Redline]

You’re really trying hard on this, I’ll give you that.

Go read any of the EPA award letters I’ve posted. They are all the same in that there are specific and unambiguous prohibitions against recommending any grade not used for testing. It’s not that it’s “preferred” nor “better” nor “best”. It’s what the manufacturer used for the test and the minimum HT/HS they can recommend to avoid excessive wear.

In the end though it’s still a recommendation. It’s not tied to warranty (warranty is tied to damage), and no oil of a somewhat higher HT/HS is going to cause damage in and of itself. This is why I only use a VW 504 00 oil in my Tiguan that recommends 508 00 approval. The SAPS level is the same and I have the benefit of greater film thickness to counteract the fuel dilution in an EA888.

508 00 oil is not better for this engine. It’s acceptable since VW determined the engine could operate on a reduced HT/HS without excessive wear. But 504 00 oil is better. The amount of “better” can be debated as to whether you find it significant, but I do.

We really only find out what is better when the engine fails to the point that someone with the experience and knowledge can point out to a failure or breakdown in lubrication. I broke the wrist pins in my 9th generation Honda Civic that was around 380,000 MI. The joke was that the majority of those cars usually end up needing major major repairs by the time that mine decided to poop out and it probably didn't help that I had 20 horsepower in performance mods in which I did drive it and use those parts on a regular basis. Looking back i don't have any regrets but if I had it to do all over again, i probably would have ran Pennzoil Ultra Platinum with Liquimoly Ceratec 5w30 or Schaeffer's Moly EP 132 right after the free oil changes. I don't know, i never felt real comfortable with the 20 weight synthetics five quart oil capacities in the pan. At that time the new Honda Civic type R was out and it took a 20 weight but I believe it had a huge plus 6 quart. It just all depends on your driving. You would not put mud tires on a car to go drag racing and you surely would not put racing slicks on a car to drive in the middle of winter so I think there is a little bit of give and take the Unicorn tears that we pour in the crankcase

 

[Randy_R]

PUP Rebate was the clincher.

 

[nthach]

I’m debating which 0W-20 to get. There is another Prius(2017, 2ZR-FXE “improved” version) in the family fleet that will see hard taxi miles and I’m debating switching the RXh back to 0W-20 now that Uber is no longer in play and it’s now the road trip car(and me driving it once a week). 5W-30 was my go-to for the RX due to stop and go in city traffic but I’m having second thoughts for the Prius. I was thinking get the 3-pack of GTX FS from Prime Day, but standardize the cab and RXh on ESP X2, my car and the old van on VRP 5W-30 and the Camry on M1/TGMO/Eneos/Idemitsu 0W-8.

 

[ARB1977]

Amsoil SS 0W20 is pretty impressive in the last voa I saw. I ran that in my wife’s Pilot 95% of its life following the OLM. I may switch back to that and also run it in the Tundra. Keeping it a 5K intervals till my 75K warranty is up.

 

[rondhol]

In terms of base oil and additives, I would go with basic standardized method. Any oil certified by Dexos 1 gen3 for gasoline engines are better than simply API SP or ILSAC 6.
From that, everything is mainly marketing and running cost for advertisement. From the base oil side:

1. any group III Hydrocracked oil (Amsoil, Ravenol Warren distribution, Supertech, Kirkland, Amazon basic, Valvoline, NAPA, Castrol, Quaker State, Mobil1, Mannol, Motul, Fuchs, Adinol, Eurolube, Pennzoil ,etc.). Sometimes traces alkylated Naptha for better performance (Mobil1 Truck&SUV).

2. GTL gas to oil Shell or Pennzoil Platinum Ultra.

3.  PAO base, Amsoil Signature (not other), Ravenol Vollsynthetisch (not other). Usually it also contains Ester for solubility.

From the additives+ base oil side:

Find a better standard such as VW 508/509 certified oil, instead of vanila ACEA C3- C6, or DexosD, then select the base oil criteria again.

See the chart (attached). Lubrizol is the inventor of ZDDP.

 

[rondhol]

I am against any sporadic idiotic additives. Waste of money and destroy the excellent oil formulations and the chemistry from the standardized well tested additive formulation. (cost million of $)

Lubrizol
Oronite (Chevron)
Infineum (Shell Exxon)
Afton Chem ( BP Castrol use it).

Pennzoil, Amsoil, Kirkland, Ravenol, etc. just shake the pre-mix from those 4 giants with base oil of their choice and get the certified Dexos, API, or whatever already formulated. Certain additives requires certain base oil mix too.

Adding Ceratec, STP, etc will negate the excellent formulation. More Mo, ZDDP, or any detergents often 99% reduce the oil performance.

Mo-DTC is the one that work synergistically with ZDDP, but expensive.

Detergent and antiwear additives are competing on coating the metal surface. Balanced is needed.

 

[facility1]

I am against any sporadic idiotic additives. Waste of money and destroy the excellent oil formulations and the chemistry from the standardized tested additives (cost million of $)

Lubrizol
Oronite (Chevron)
Infineum (Shell Exxon)
Afton Chem ( BP Castrol use it).

Pennzoil, Amsoil, Kirkland, Ravenol, etc. just shake the pre-mix from those 4 giants with base oil of their choice and get the certified Dexos, API, or whatever already formulated. Certain additives requires certain base oil mix too.

Adding Ceratec, STP, etc will negate the excellent formulation. More Mo, ZDDP, or any detergents often 99% reduce the oil performance.

Huh??

 

[rondhol]

Now we are talking about triboligy science and giant lubricant sectors.

It is a long research and development that won't be easy for backyard chemist.

Yes, a lot to learn. PAO base oil are also limited produced by 3 companies:

ExxonMobil,
Ineos
Chevron Philips

Amsoil buy the base oil from Exxon. I am not sure what Aral BP and Ravenol use.

I used Ravenol VSE 0W-20, It is PAO base and very good, but expensive. I am now using OEM VW oil/Shell Platinum Ultra 508/509. It is easier to find and cheaper GTL base for my Toyotas.

 

[rstcso]

In my quest to find "the best" 508.00/509.00 spec oil, I sent several brands for VOAs. Ravenol VSE came back with almost 2095ppm Calcium and 203ppm Silicon, which puts using it at a higher risk for LSPI.

 

[rondhol]

@rstcso, thanks for sharing. That is probably the older batch, 2018 standard. The newer 508/509 (2023) also requires LSPI protection.
I am surprised that VW does not mentioned LSPI protection although they make direct injection turbo engines since 2010s. We know that many TSI gen 6 Golf engines were not reliable.
Fortunately, my Toyotas has no D4S system when I used older Ravenol VSE. I am curious how the newer VSE Ravenol Batch is.

 

[tired]

In my quest to find "the best" 508.00/509.00 spec oil, I sent several brands for VOAs. Ravenol VSE came back with almost 2095ppm Calcium and 203ppm Silicon, which puts using it at a higher risk for LSPI.

View attachment 289054

We need a compilation of the best posts on why you can’t use VOA or UOA to determine the quality of the oil. Then we can just link to it when people make the claim.

 

[rstcso]

@rstcso, thanks for sharing. That is probably the older batch, 2018 standard. The newer 508/509 (2023) also requires LSPI protection.

The oil was received from Blauparts on Mar 27, 2025, so shouldn't have been an older formulation. I even sent an email to Ravenol asking about the product based on the VOA sample results and received this reply May 8th. They didn't deny what the VOA showed.

 

[rstcso]

We need a compilation of the best posts on why you can’t use VOA or UOA to determine the quality of the oil. Then we can just link to it when people make the claim.

I was brand new to BITOG during this period and have since learned immensely. Even in emails with LSJr, he drove home this exact point, emphasizing VOA lets you know what a specific oil should look like from a specific lab so when you do UOA, you can start building a database for your specific application. The benefit from doing UOAs is trend analysis, not whether any oil is "best", perhaps catching increasing wear metals before catastrophic failure, as we've seen in others' posts.

This is Lake's actual quote in reference to my trying to find "the best" oil and sending a bunch of samples for VOA:

"Thanks for sharing that data. The Mobil 1 ESP is a PAO/Ester based oil. We see good results from that oil as well. I will say that virgin oil analysis does not predict actual engine performance. Motul may not look impressive on paper, but it tends to work well in actual engines. "

 

[rondhol]

Ah, I trust what Ravenol honestly replied to @rstcso , and thanks for sharing.
I also emailed cheapest oil in the europe, Mannol/Fanfaro and they admitted that their oil are mainly group iii.
However, their approval for some VW 504/507 or 508/509 were legit. I used them for 4 oil changes. It works well but only for 5k miles.

It costs less than €15 per 5L, as cheap as Supertech oil 0w-20.

The label on the bottle about Ester and PAO is purelu marketing that may contains 1 or 2 ppm.

 

[Learn Ya]

My commuter car drinks 0W-20, so I usually buy Valvoline EP or M1 EP from Wally World in the 5-quart jug. One of them is usually on sale. The Kirkland jugs from Costco are fine also, but I don't go there as often. I strategically minimize my Costco visits because every visit wrecks my bank account. LOL

 

[tired]

My commuter car drinks 0W-20, so I usually buy Valvoline EP or M1 EP from Wally World in the 5-quart jug. One of them is usually on sale. The Kirkland jugs from Costco are fine also, but I don't go there as often. I strategically minimize my Costco visits because every visit wrecks my bank account. LOL

Have you heard of Valvoline Restore and Protect?

 

[Learn Ya]

Have you heard of Valvoline Restore and Protect?

Yep. I have heard of it, but haven't tried it yet. Honestly, I haven't researched it yet either.