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Clearing up all the oil info....


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Ok, so I have just spent the last few hours combing over all the past threads on oil and I have come to a few conclusions...

 

1) Dino oil is just OK for my LGT... I have run synthetic since 12k anyway

 

2) Group IV PAO synthetic oils are better than group III oils

 

Here is my question I have heard all of the different weights being thrown around... What is the best weight for my 05 LGT wagon living in MN?

 

It seems from what I have read a 0w40 or 5w40 (maybe GC 0w30 as it is close to a 40 weight) would be the best weight for my LGT. What do the cold weather oil gurus out there have to say about my thought on the weight? Thanks

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It seems from what I have read a 0w40 or 5w40 (maybe GC 0w30 as it is close to a 40 weight) would be the best weight for my LGT. What do the cold weather oil gurus out there have to say about my thought on the weight? Thanks

 

Which oil range you should use depends on where you live. The first figure is the low temperature viscosity of the oil (how thick it is at 0F/-18C) and the second is the high temperature viscosity (how thick it is at 210F/100C).

 

Essentially you want the first figure to be low and the second to be high, but if you live in a warm climate you can have a higher low number since your cold starts may not be THAT cold, but if you live in a cold climate you want to have the low number as low as possible. This can be important since if the oil gets too thick the oil pump can't handle it and you may either blow the pump or not get the oil into the bearings.

 

If you live in a very warm climate you may want to go for the upper range, like 20W50, in medium climate a 5W40 or 10W40 will do fine, and in cold areas a 0W30 or 0W40 oil is the best option.

 

It is important to recognize that even if the viscosity number is lower for low temperature the oil is still thinner at the high temperature.

 

Just watch out for single grade oils, you may find a bottle saying SAE50, and that's fine if you just do racing in warm weather (say NASCAR) since you don't do much cold starts, but it will be as thick as tar when you have it below freezing. Same goes for single-grade on the low-end, like if you find a SAE10 oil - DON'T PUT IT IN YOUR CAR - ESPECIALLY IF YOU HAVE A TURBO! You may use it in cases of extreme emergencies just to get home, but otherwise - use it in your lawnmower or lubricate the bicycle with it.

 

And when it comes to really cold weather I have even heard of people that drains the oil for the night and takes it inside to be able to start the engine in the morning. But this is for extremists.

 

And anyway - there is a graph in the owner's manual describing the recommended oil for each condition.

 

One other factor is also if you do a lot of cold starts and short driving. Then you may want the lower temperature figure to be a bit lower than normally specified since this will keep down the fuel consumption.

 

And when buying oil - there are also a set of other parameters to consider, viscosity is only how thick the oil is, but there are a set of API classifications too that are important. If you use an oil that doesn't fulfill the classification your engine needs you may ruin any chance of warranty.

 

Problems caused by "wrong" oil is usually caused by using an oil that fails the correct classification, and not really related to brand.

 

And finally - don't forget that some oils have additives that dissolves some rubber seals etc. This may be a problem with power steering and gearboxes and usually not engine oil, so watch out here! Wrong oil causing leaks can lead to costly repairs - even if the repair is to only replace a single seal.

 

Please notice that engine oils contains additives that makes it suitable for lubricating camshaft contact areas etc. This makes it unsuitable in gearboxes since it can mess up the synchronization in manual gearboxes or cause slippage in automatic gearboxes and require a gearbox rebuild (at least for auto).

 

You may also get some more information at these links:

http://www.autoeducation.com/autoshop101/oil-change.htm

http://www.aa1car.com/library/api_motor_oil_classifications.htm

http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/ Added November 26, 2008.

 

Added January 26, 2011:

5W30 is pretty thin when hot.

 

Too find out what's best for our (EU) turbocharged Subaru engines, here in Holland we had an engineer of Kendall Oil taken oil samples from 150+ car's.

(This fellow also works on the best oil for top-fuel dragsters)

 

The samples where taken to the Kendall labaratories for analysis, and checked on everything you can imagine. So traces of metals from all engineparts, but also dilution with gas, sand, etc.

 

 

According to the engineer turbocharged performance engines like our's should not use rather thin oil, cause the engine's produce pretty high torque at relatively low rpm's. An other item is, they can also run relatively high top rpm's.

These fact's plus outcome of the oilreport, the conclusion was:

 

All 0W.. and ..W30 samples contained more metal parts than average.

 

The range 5W40, 10W40, and 5W50 came out best, with 5W50 as the absolute winner.

 

According to this engineer, most car manufacturers prescribe thinner oils, cause of the cold start. In practice most people do not take the time for the engine oil to reach working temperature. Premature wear out could be an item then.

 

5W50 provides a healthy cold start, and a good lubrification on high temperatures.

Edited by ehsnils
Added http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/
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Which oil range you should use depends on where you live. The first figure is the low temperature viscosity of the oil (how thick it is at 0F/-18C) and the second is the high temperature viscosity (how thick it is at 210F/100C).

 

Essentially you want the first figure to be low and the second to be high, but if you live in a warm climate you can have a higher low number since your cold starts may not be THAT cold, but if you live in a cold climate you want to have the low number as low as possible. This can be important since if the oil gets too thick the oil pump can't handle it and you may either blow the pump or not get the oil into the bearings.

 

If you live in a very warm climate you may want to go for the upper range, like 20W50, in medium climate a 5W40 or 10W40 will do fine, and in cold areas a 0W30 or 0W40 oil is the best option.

 

It is important to recognize that even if the viscosity number is lower for low temperature the oil is still thinner at the high temperature.

 

Just watch out for single grade oils, you may find a bottle saying SAE50, and that's fine if you just do racing in warm weather (say NASCAR) since you don't do much cold starts, but it will be as thick as tar when you have it below freezing. Same goes for single-grade on the low-end, like if you find a SAE10 oil - DON'T PUT IT IN YOUR CAR - ESPECIALLY IF YOU HAVE A TURBO! You may use it in cases of extreme emergencies just to get home, but otherwise - use it in your lawnmower or lubricate the bicycle with it.

 

And when it comes to really cold weather I have even heard of people that drains the oil for the night and takes it inside to be able to start the engine in the morning. But this is for extremists.

 

And anyway - there is a graph in the owner's manual describing the recommended oil for each condition.

 

One other factor is also if you do a lot of cold starts and short driving. Then you may want the lower temperature figure to be a bit lower than normally specified since this will keep down the fuel consumption.

 

And when buying oil - there are also a set of other parameters to consider, viscosity is only how thick the oil is, but there are a set of API classifications too that are important. If you use an oil that doesn't fulfill the classification your engine needs you may ruin any chance of warranty.

 

Problems caused by "wrong" oil is usually caused by using an oil that fails the correct classification, and not really related to brand.

 

And finally - don't forget that some oils have additives that dissolves some rubber seals etc. This may be a problem with power steering and gearboxes and usually not engine oil, so watch out here! Wrong oil causing leaks can lead to costly repairs - even if the repair is to only replace a single seal.

 

Please notice that engine oils contains additives that makes it suitable for lubricating camshaft contact areas etc. This makes it unsuitable in gearboxes since it can mess up the synchronization in manual gearboxes or cause slippage in automatic gearboxes and require a gearbox rebuild (at least for auto).

 

You may also get some more information at these links: http://www.autoeducation.com/autoshop101/oil-change.htm

http://www.aa1car.com/library/api_motor_oil_classifications.htm

 

:icon_idea Awesome post. Very educational about oil weights.

 

As we have seen, someone else can't tell you exactly what oil to use. It is based on weather, driving style, driving conditions, mant schedule, etc. You have read that mobil1 5w-30 is a thinner 5w-30 than most. You have read that synthetics tend to consume oil when put in the car prematurely - yet they tend to be better protection for your engine. Also that you should still maintain a proper oil change interval even with synthetic or it could be worse than proper OCI with dino. You know what brands are good - redline, motul, royal purple, amsoil, mobil1, Castrol, etc.

 

It's funny, I always make a joke about the Cingular (AT&T) cellular commercial. They say "We have the fewest dropped calls". My running joke is, 'well that's because you have the fewest customers'. lol, I am a verizon customer. True or not, I feel that the same thing applies to mobil1. More people complain about mobil1 that it consumes oil, but that is because around 75-80% of people running synthetic USE mobil1, so it is only logical for it to have the most complaints. That's just my feeling on the matter.

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Thanks to all who replied to my original post. After doing more research on the web. I finally decided on Mobil 1 0W40. Being that I live in MN the 0W is important. The 40 came from a report I found ...

 

http://www.performanceoilnews.com/oils_against_oils.shtml

 

Being that I really believe in synthetics this seems like the Best compromise ... Grade IV base stock, cold temp and proven performance.

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Thanks to all who replied to my original post. After doing more research on the web. I finally decided on Mobil 1 0W40. Being that I live in MN the 0W is important. The 40 came from a report I found ...

 

http://www.performanceoilnews.com/oils_against_oils.shtml

 

Being that I really believe in synthetics this seems like the Best compromise ... Grade IV base stock, cold temp and proven performance.

 

You would be perfectly fine using a synthetic 5w30 even in a Minnesota winter.

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Yeah, I have used the 5w30 before and after reading some questionable things about it being thinner than other oils the same weight I started looking at 40's. Everyone raved about the GC 0w30 due to it being thicker. Finally, once I read that OW40 was one of Mobil 1's newest formulas I decided to give it a try. I just changed my oil today, so we'll see if I notice any differences.
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so 5000 miles is a bad bad thing even with synthetic in my 06 LGT? and im going to burn oil now that im using synthetic? I was at school and didnt have the tools or place to change my own oil and had no idea when it was last changed since just got the car from stealer and they only had it on the lot for a few days, so i went to valvoline and paid out the ass for a synthetic oil change (70+ bucks) to at least know i had fresh oil in the car, and i have to change it in 3000 miles? I ran dyno oil at 5000 mile intervals for 105,000 miles not a single engine trouble. pickup truck still running strong close to 120,000 miles on 5.2 v8 with same oil setup. what makes these cars so much more finiky?
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pend on automobile

 

toyota has 5000 mile intervals since 99

 

what u dont know is there is a moc addative added every so often as well

 

i dont trust running none of my cars till 5k oil cange and i used to be a tech

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And when it comes to really cold weather I have even heard of people that drains the oil for the night and takes it inside to be able to start the engine in the morning. But this is for extremists.

 

 

While I don't doubt it's true, it's one of the most ridiculous things I've ever heard of in my life. Can these people think of no other option than to drain their oil every night? :lol: . Not the brightest bulbs out there, are they? :rolleyes:

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The turbo.

 

Quality oil and filters with severe duty OCI and you should be good to go for a long, long time.

 

i have a dealers discount with amsoil oil products that is soon to expire, i should buy some more oil from them soon eh? anybody else lookin for a decent deal let me know ill see what i get the oil for

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While I don't doubt it's true, it's one of the most ridiculous things I've ever heard of in my life. Can these people think of no other option than to drain their oil every night? :lol: . Not the brightest bulbs out there, are they? :rolleyes:

 

Actually - it's sometimes done by the outback pilots in northern Canada and Alaska during winters with extreme cold and where no electricity is available. :p

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  • 2 months later...
Do you think it is really the best idea to start changing oil grades? If you don't like Mobil1 5w-30, then you switch to mobil1 0w-40 because it's a better formula? What about a different brand 5w-30? From all of the articles I have read where the experts are speaking about oil, I can't recall a single one that doesn't practically have in bold letter, "Always use the factory recommended weight oil". Unless the car is being modified or something, I have enough faith in the engineers that they chose the appropriate weight oil for the car ahead of time regardless of warmer temps (TX, FL, AZ) or colder temps (MN, AK, ME).
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5W40 is OK with our engines per the user manual :) 0W40 is basically less viscous at cold start. Manual states:

From -35F to 100F use 5W30

0F to 120F 10W-30 or 10W-40

We get triple-digit temps here sometimes.

Why 40 instead of 30? Because it seems that per my last UOA the Mobil 1 5W30 still allowed some higher than average wear [had higher readings of iron, amongst others]

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No, I don't track my car. I'm pretty sure now that I will be switching to 5W40 after hearing that even other brands also feel too thin for this turbo boxer at the 30 viscosity.

I will post every UOA that I do from now on.

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........Why 40 instead of 30? Because it seems that per my last UOA the Mobil 1 5W30 still allowed some higher than average wear [had higher readings of iron, amongst others]

 

I think your fundamental problem is not that a 5W30 is inadequate, but that you have fuel and antifreeze in the oil. Solve the fuel and antifreeze contamination problem, and your wear will go down.

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