10w-40 Synthetic?

[anuthaCamry]

The camry reading material only recomends 5w-30 or 10w-30 oil. Penzoil hi-mileage -30 oil has a higher viscosity but not as high as their -40 oil, more like about -33 according to their specs.

Since my car has 149k miles on it and is a natural oil only car, would it - or similar cars - be able to accept 10w40 synthetic? Syn is lighter than natural and I've heard it suggested that whenever natural is changed to synthetic the viscosity should be increased, ie 10w40nat to 15w-50syn.

This would be a no-brainer if the car explicitly recomended a wider range of oils, and if it had a lot less miles. But the fact is is that the car has a lotta miles and the manual recomends only one single solitary type of oil (for this region): 10w30.

[Toysrme]

I've been running 10w-40 synthetic for over a year.(it's been a year and a half) No point donw here tos wap during the winter.
In our climate(Alabama) there is normally no problem running anything from 5w-25 through 10w-40.

[REAPER STRAIN]

FYI

Is it okay to mix synthetics and conventional oils?
Some of the first synthetics offered were formulated with high levels of ester that were incompatible with conventional oils. Today's modern synthetics are designed to be compatible with these conventional mineral oils. So, if you have synthetic oil in your car and would like to top-off with conventional oil, that's okay. SynPower is fully compatible with all conventional motor oils, as well as other leading synthetic oils.

http://www.valvoline.com/pages/produ...asp?product=19

[felkajamine]

i'm using valvoline max-life synthetic oil in my camry, from what i've heard using a pure sythetic oil for such a high mileage car is not good for it, but i dont really know for sure.

but im happy with my max-syn

[ralfp]

What about 0W-40 (Mobil 1 "European Car Formula")? Would that be okay?

I'm using this for a VW 1.8T and it starts beautifully, even at really cold temps.

[amerikim]

OW oils are usually for recreational or rarely used short run motors.
I read home brew mixing synthetics and dino oils is not recommended as it could cause seperation. Also its about mixing the different detergents and I do not want to gamble a hefty repair bill when I can do it the right way. I use Mobil1 Synthetics in both my 165K Cam and the motorcycle version in my bike. I have not tried the high milage oils but a good oil is important no matter what brand. Oil is a science not magic, it does not fix but is for wear prevention. Use the manufacturer's suggested weights.

[Toysrme]

Mixing synthetics and dino is fine. You won't see any reprocussions.

[anuthaCamry]

sometimes mfgr's suggested weights are politically motivated, one car company recomends 5w30 for it's engine in the US, but 10w-30 in europe where the environmental/ecomony laws are different. the lighter the oil the more fuel economy but the less it protects the engine. I think that bmw recomends like -50 or -60 for it's m series but i'm not sure

i've heard it recomended that the viscosity be upped when changing to synthetic, I just want something that is more stable if I wanna run the engine at high rpms for an extended amount of time.

[Toysrme]

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