04 Pontiac vibe, driving from Los Angeles to Boston (3k + miles), will be there driving,etc for a month then driving back. Gonna replace the ST HM syn 10w30 in it now w 4500 miles on the oil. Your thoughts on which oil, these are my options
Given the increasing ambient temperatures, you might as well use the 5w-30 now. Save the 0W-30 for the tortuous "winter" cold starts in SoCal.
Agreed....and either should take you there and back easily, with all that highway in between.Highway driving is easy on oil. Either oil would be fine. Have a safe trip.
The M1 AFE 0W-30 is almost as thick at temp...
Bold added for emphasis.Given the increasing ambient temperatures, you might as well use the 5w-30 now. Save the 0W-30 for the tortuous "winter" cold starts in SoCal.
I am half way to Boston right now. Part of my trip so far has been far from lazy. The engine has seen plenty of between 4-5K RPMs going up the mountain passes and elevations in Utah and especially Colorado (Vail). She was screaming at some points. But the Vibe handled it and I’m sure the 5w30 did so as well. I’m currently in Nebraska now and the drive is a lazy 70-75 miles per hr on cruise control. I may go w 10w30 on th drive back which will be in late June / early July.Any modern fully synthetic oil is going to be just great. A long, lazy highway haul for hours on end with the engine at temperature and light throttle angles is as ideal as it gets.
Pick and use a quality name brand, filter of adequate specifications and launch it!
If you stand on the throttle on end for hours at a time and race it ragged and raw, plow snow with it, or short trip it under 30miles/minutes in stop and go traffic or gridlock?
Use the same good oil of known quality and filter, just check the oil level more often,treat it like it was on severe schedule and change it more frequently.
Flame suit on:The older I get and the more I read, it seems that the only salient points on car oil are to keep it changed on time and keep it full. That it is changed at all is far more important than what's in it.