Recommend me an oil for 03 Mitsubishi Diamante?

[Spetz]

Hi guys,

What kind of oil should I be looking at using, and what kind of OCI?

Car is a 2003 Mitsubishi Diamante, 3.5L 6G74 V6, 118,000 miles, with a slight valve seal leak.

I drive about 1,300 miles per month. Half the trips are very short (2-3 miles) and the other half range from 20-40 miles.

Temperatures are moderate (never too hot, never too cold).

Brands I can get my hands on:
Shell, Valvoline, Castrol, Gulf Western, Penrite, Nulon, Chief Oil and maybe some others that I can't remember right now.

Thanks

 

[cknight49090]

what have you been using ?

 

[Bandito440]

Is Valvoline Maxlife 10w-40 available to you?

 

[SatinSilver]

MaxLife is a good idea, I'd probably go with the 5w30 though.

 

[TrevorS]

What kind of oci's have you been running?

And is everything clean under the fill cap?

 

[dparm]

Hi Spetz,

Does the car leak a lot of oil? Does it consume much oil between changes? If not, I think any off-the-shelf 5w30 would be sufficient. Buy whichever is on sale.

If the car does have problems with leaking or drinking the oil, try a 5w30 high-mileage oil. I wouldn't use a 10w40 because the car was spec'd for 5w30.

 

[toneydoc]

Choose a good name brand, high quality oil in a 5w30 flavor and use it for 5k miles if you choose dino oil or 7.5 or 10k miles if you choose synthetic. Choose a quality oil filter and you will be fine

 

[Spetz]

I only recently bought the car and have only done 2 changes at 5K intervals.
Change 1 was with Penrite HPR 10 (synthetic 10w50)
Change 2 was Castrol Edge Titanium 5w40.

Everything under the cap is clean and motor runs smooth.

No leaks, but uses about 1 quart per 1,500 miles (valve seals I gather).

I was told due to the oil usage I am better of using thicker grade oil. Is this a good idea?

 

[Bandito440]

In Australia, I would imagine 40 weight oils were allowed originally.

5w-40, 10w-40, or 15w-40 of your preferred brand. I'd be using Valvoline Maxlife myself, although I don't know if that's available to you. The Castrol you already used is a fine choice too.