Oil for 100K+ ??

[vincentfox]

1997 Camry LE (4-cyl) with 178,000 miles on it.

Book says 5W-30 I believe. Should I use 20W-50 or something like that for older car?

I live in central valley California so it never gets really cold here, if that's useful.

[hassanbigboss]

I would not recommend 20w-50, it will make your car feel extremely under powered on lower rpm's specially in stop and go traffic. Use 10W-30 OR 10W-40 and it would help with the hig mileage. I do not know how your car has been driven over the time but if the car was driven by a spirited person, going with the thiker oil (10W-30 OR 10W-40) would yield better results. If you see that your car is not burning oil, that would mean that the cylinders are still in good condition and using 5W-30 would be the best preference. If you see that your car is using a quart or two of oil every 3000-5000 miles than the higher viscosity oils will resduce oil consumption.

[mandyfig]

5W-30 as recommended. Follow it.

[vincentfox]

Very helpful thanks!

My old gen-4 seem still in top-shape, I don't recall having to add more than maybe a half-quart between oil changes. I change oil and filter every 3,000-4,000 miles.

Actually recently have thought to start using the Fram "High Mileage" filter and maybe the Mobil-1 Synthetic 5W-30 on it. Want to take good care of ole Betsy since she's been so faithful. That Synthetic oil sure is more expensive than the big blue 5-quart jugs of reguler oil I have been buying at Walmart though.

[toyomoho]

10W-40 should work just fine with central valley temps. Especially when temps get into the 100’s as they have been.