I got a 2008 Corolla... I do my own oil changes... I usually put 3 Quarts of 5w30 and 1.2 quarts of 20w50... (to make it more thick than 5w30 cuz 5w30 is like water) I got a Mustang and a Boxster that I run 20w50 on all the time... (I BEAT THE LIFE OUT OF THEM so I figure it is a good idea) But do you guys think that I should switch to 3.2 Quarts 20w50 and one Quart Lucas or will that be too thick? Let me know what you guys think??
Book says 5w30 but it is so thin... I might just do a combination of both... Mix it up a little... Make me feel like I am making a magic formula... Sleep better at night... Honestly - i try and avoid the 20w50 during the winter cuz the oil will run thicker but in the summer, the oil gets so hot and thin anyway, i figure it can't hurt but will add a little protection... Hmmm...
What do you mean 5W-30 is "too thin"? How do you know this? You're entrusting your LIFE to the Toyota engineers by riding in a car they designed, and you don't even think they can specify the proper oil grade? You said the 20W-50 "can't hurt but will add a little protection." Negative.
20W-50 is way too thick for your engine. There's not a single good reason to use that oil in a 1ZZ-FE. Your Mustang and Boxter have completely different engines, with different tolerances, etc. Again, there's absolutely NO reason to mix your oil with a 20W-50. You're actually getting worse lubrication with that because the oil is so thick, it takes longer to pump and takes longer to get to those critical contact surfaces. Oil pressure is really the inverse of oil flow. You want oil flow to lubricate your engine. If you have too much oil pressure, you're losing flow and not doing the right thing. Again, Toyota spent way too much time and money on this engine to have specified the wrong grade of oil.
The proper oil to use is 5W-20 or 5W-30. I've used both in my car, and am running 5W-30 now. Brand really doesn't matter -- as long as you're using a GF-4 oil (API SM), you're getting complete protection for your engine. Modern 5W-20 and 5W-30 oils have proven themselves repeatedly. Do some research on www.bobistheoilguy.com and see for your self. There are TONS and TONS of UOAs that demonstrate the excellent performance of these oils.
I think JasonA pretty much said it, but also if you are still thinking about doing it, Toyota could use that as a VALID reason to void your warranty if anything went wrong. What the book says.
What about when you are driving for a while, the oil heats, runs even thinner... You guys still think it is doing a good enough job protecting the motor and everything???
Another thing that I do before driving, I always let the car run for a while usually until the needle is at operating temprature (sometimes I feel like Im wasting gas) but it brings me mental comfort knowing my oil is flowing well and isnt cold trying to squeeze through the motor...
I am looking forward to a remote start so that I don't have to walk outside and turn it on everyday... But that is in another 18K when my warranty is up...
Oh, and what do you think of Castrol GTX? Something better?
Last edited by 2008TRDCorolla; 02-06-2009 at 10:36 AM.
What about when you are driving for a while, the oil heats, runs even thinner... You guys still think it is doing a good enough job protecting the motor and everything???
Of course the oil is still doing a good enough job protecting the engine. Toyota designed and validated the 5W-30 oil for this engine (and recently, changed it to an even THINNER specification, 5W-20). The engine was designed for a 30W. The oil thickens when it gets cold...that's not ideal. Ideally, you'd have a motor oil that's as thin at 0*F as it is at 200*F. But even with the best synthetic technology, we just can't get there yet. The best we can do right now is 0W-20 and 0W-30. I have no doubts that in the next few years, we'll start seeing the equivalent to -5W-20.
Remember: there's no such thing as "too thin" of an oil on a cold start...even the thinnest available at a cold start is WAY WAY thicker than even a 20W oil at operating temperature. Don't think of oil thinning out when hot. That's where it's SUPPOSED to be...that's the designed viscosity at the specified operating temperature. Think of the oil as thickening when cold...which is not good.
Does that make sense?
Quote:
Originally Posted by 2008TRDCorolla
Another thing that I do before driving, I always let the car run for a while usually until the needle is at operating temprature (sometimes I feel like Im wasting gas) but it brings me mental comfort knowing my oil is flowing well and isnt cold trying to squeeze through the motor...
I would advise against letting the car warm up like that, for a number of reasons.
1) It wastes a TON of gasoline. You'll note that it will take forever for the car to warm up to operating temperature if you sit there and let it idle. But if you drive it, you'll warm it up MUCH quicker. Mine's to full operating temperature within about 3 minutes of easy driving. It'd take 10 minutes or more to let it idle its way to operating temperature. So yes, you're using more gasoline letting it warm up by idling than just getting in and driving it.
2) Because it takes so long for the car to warm up on its own, without driving it, the oil will remain very thick. Oil temperatures don't correlate to coolant temperatures very well. That is, even if your coolant temperature is at 180*F (fully warm) before you start driving, your oil temperature is likely MUCH cooler...like 100-120*F maybe. So your oil remains cold and not able to protect as well (too thick for normal operation). So yes, you're causing your engine more wear by letting it warm up by itself.
3) Because you use so much fuel at cold idle (engine runs real rich), you're getting a lot of fuel dilution into your oil. This is not good for an engine oil...it reduces its life and ability to lubricate. You change your oil every 3,000 miles, so it's not as critical for you, but if you're one to extend oil changes to 5,000 miles or beyond, this might be a factor for you. It's never good to get excess fuel into your oil, and letting the engine warm up by idling puts a lot of raw fuel into your oil. So yes, you're shortening the life of your engine oil by letting the engine warm up by itself.
Quote:
Originally Posted by 2008TRDCorolla
Oh, and what do you think of Castrol GTX? Something better?
Castrol GTX should be just fine. Really, any GF-4 oil (API SM) is fine. I've used a number of conventional oils in mine. I had the bulk Toyota 5W-20 in it when I bought it. I've also used Pennzoil Platinum (a Group III synthetic) 5W-20. Right now, it's got some Chevron Supreme 5W-30 in it that I got on clearance from Tractor Supply Company a while ago. Although Toyota has begun to use 5W-20 in these, the oil fill cap and owner's manual both call for 5W-30, so that's what I use in it. The owner's manual also says that you can use 10W-30 in a pinch, if no 5W-30 is available, but that the 10W-30 should be changed out as soon as you can. Anything higher than a 10W-30 (such as a 10W-40, 15W-40, 20W-50, etc) is really too thick and would not be supported by Toyota if you had a warranty claim on the engine that related to the oil.
I have never heard of anyone mixing oil weights.... As stated so well by Jason, do what Toyota engineers designed their engine to use. They know best, it's their product.
FWIW, I use Pennzoil 5W30 in my Rolla and 5W20 in the wife's Odyessy - with 5,000 mile oil and filter changes.
As far as warm ups go, in normal conditions, I find that if I start my car and then bucket the belts and check everything else, by the time I am done, it's run long enough. If I have to clear ice of the windows, the car is running then too. Unless it's 20 below zero (been there too) I don't see any added value to letting it sit and run. Especially if it get's jacked when you step back inside the house!
Hmmm. we learn something new everyday... I guess I'm just gonna stick to 5w30 and let the car warm up a little... (I def. overkill on the warm-up...) I grew up around a few guys who use to race in the past back in the muscle car era and all they use to put was 20w50 in their cars and they still swear by it... But even I would sometimes disagree with them... I'm gonna stick with the manual, I guess... However, I did feel like the mad scientist when i was mixing weights!
as far as extended idling, you are only making it worse for your engine - excessive idling IS NOT recommenced by Toyota - the manual says that you should not idle excessively.
old muscle cars could run on 20W50 but their engines were designed back in the old days when tolerances in the engines were larger and thicker oil was needed to lubricate. that's no longer the case so using thicker oil could only do harm and decrease your fuel efficiency after all.
Yeah, there's a reason why old guys used to run heavy weights in their engine and let the engine warm up completely before driving it. The engines had much looser tolerances back then. Manufacturing and metallurgy was no where near then what it is today. Also, the way the engine is designed internally plays a big factor on specifying the correct oil weight. You used to have straight-cut gear oil pumps and distributor shaft drive gears and flat tappet camshafts...all those really beat on the oil, and you don't have any of those in the 1ZZ-FE engine in our cars. Also, our cars have variable valve timing equipment, which is often pretty sensitive to oil viscosity. Too thick, and it won't operate properly. Just as a 1966 Chevelle wouldn't survive on 5W-20 oil, 20W-50 oil isn't the ideal oil for our cars.
And for warming up...you used to have carburetors on rather intricate intake manifold designs. Fuel atomization when cold was very poor, and you had a lot of fuel distribution problems when cold. You'd have choke valves on the exhaust manifolds trying to warm the intake manifold up quickly so it wouldn't puddle fuel on the floor of the intake. Trying to drive the car when stone cold was like trying to push a wet noodle...you just didn't do it. If you let it warm up for 5 minutes on a cold day, it'd drive much better. But again, we have none of those issues with our engines (and with ANY modern engine really). We don't have carburetion, we have sequential multi-port fuel injection. We no longer have "wet" intake manifolds -- the fuel is injected almost directly into the cylinder. Engine management controls are so much better today than they used to be...cars run nearly as good stone cold as they do when fully warm.
There's a lot you can learn from old gearheads, but unfortunately, some of them just don't understand the modern advancements. Most of them would rather live back in the '60s with their carburetors, and that's absolutely okay -- but it sometimes invalidates their advice because much of what they've learned over the years doesn't really apply to today's machinery.
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