5th & 6th Generation (2002-2006 & 2007-2011)Toyota Camry Discussion for years: 2002-2006 & 2007-2011
Topics of discussion range from fuel economy, safety, modifications, performance all involving America's favorite family car, the Toyota Camry.
The reason why they say that 5W-20 must be changed in 5,000 more miles is because 5W-20 is available in conventional oil as well as in synthetic oil. Toyota recommends the 10,000 mile oil change interval (OCI) when using 0W-20 oil only. You'll notice that the maintenance intervals are every 10k miles when using 0W-20 only, but they're every 5k miles for the V-6 engine and for the I-4 if not using the 0W-20 oil. Now, you COULD use synthetic 5W-20 and probably very safely run to 10k miles. But since 5W-20 oil is available in conventional, Toyota is recommending 5k mile OCIs for that grade, to be conservative.
If you want to run conventional oil, you could do it with 5W-20 no problem. If you're going to get synthetic 5W-20, you might as well get 0W-20, since you'll get a little better lubrication on cold starts (yes, even in SOCAL). However, not all synthetic oils are available in 0W-20 right now. If the synthetic oil you prefer is only in 5W-20, I'd run that for 10k miles.
The reason Toyota is pushing 0W-20 so hard is because they're required to. Why? The fuel economy data was developed with 0W-20 in the crankcase, and one of the requirements of that program is that the manfacturer has to do everything in its control to ensure that its customers use or have access to the same oil that was used during the fuel economy testing. In other words, the EPA wants to ensure that the customer has the opportunity to achieve the same fuel economy that the manufacturer did. So they can't put a super-thin 0W-10 oil in there or something like that and claim an elevated fuel economy number that most consumers could not achieve, because the oil is not widely available.
Bottom line: if you're using 5W-20 conventional, change it every 5k miles. If you're using 5W-20 or 0W-20 synthetic, change it every 10k miles.
The only difference in 0 or 5 in the viscosity or pour-ablility of the oil. 20 is the effective weight of the oil at engine operating temperature. There is almost no difference in the 2. And too there reason its written like that in book is the engineers think customers are stupid. This is from a quote from a FORD engineer.
And the analysis lab recommended extending his oil change another 2,000 miles based on the results.
Conventional oil, in addition to today's engine designs, make for MUCH longer OCIs (oil change intervals) than what most people do. Anything less than 5,000 miles with a good conventional oil in a relatively recent engine is usually a waste.
Remember that oil color is not an indication of oil condition. It's not a good indicator of anything, really.
interesting. Do you change every 5K njeezy? I change mine every 5K synthetic, and it still comes out black.
C'mon over and join us at Bobistheoilguy.com and check out our used oil analysis results. Oil color is largely meaningless in determining whether it's still protecting your engine. Diesels (yes, I know we aren't seeing many Toyota diesels nowadays...) and most of the new direct injection engines turn their oil BLACK almost immediately after it is installed. Anyway, the current crop of SM oils, even basic dinos, will do 5k without breaking a sweat. The soon-to-be released SN/GF-5 oils promise to do even better.
I do 5k right now ONLY to avoid the possibility of a warranty fight should the unthinkable happen. Once I go out of wty, I'll be doing 10k with an appropriate syn, without even losing a wink of sleep about it. And given the data I've seen, in most engines (unless you have one that's especially hard on oil), I'd do the same on any basic SM or SN oil.
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2009 Camry Hybrid, Black.
2007 Avalon XLS, Cassis Pearl (that Burgundy color).
2004 Prius Package 9, Black.
The Following User Says Thank You to ekpolk For This Useful Post:
And the analysis lab recommended extending his oil change another 2,000 miles based on the results.
Conventional oil, in addition to today's engine designs, make for MUCH longer OCIs (oil change intervals) than what most people do. Anything less than 5,000 miles with a good conventional oil in a relatively recent engine is usually a waste.
Remember that oil color is not an indication of oil condition. It's not a good indicator of anything, really.
I think it's a good idea so that you don't lose oil anyway.
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0W-20 or 5W-20
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