Dealer Using 5W20

I had the leaf spring TSB done at the dealer in Thomasville. Ga. recently. I had no problems at all. They even detailed my truck for free and I didn't buy it from them. While talking to the service manager, he told me that they used fully synthetic 5W20 in all of thier oil changes and that Tacomas are seeing a 60-70 Mi. per tank increase in milage, with no wear problems and that Toyota reccommended this. I do my own with Mobile 1 0W30, 20 wt oil seems a little thin, especially with the 100+ deg temps we have been having. Have any of you heard of this practice? What do y'all think?

 

Mine came with 0-20 new, and we recently had it changed, again using 0-20. Does fine. Don't know about more miles per tank, but averages 22-23mpg, and recently got 26mpg coming home from Dothan Alabama (254 miles). We have the 4-banger/auto in an access cab.

Tim

 

I have used regular dino oil in 5w20 since the truck was new. 50k miles later and no issues.

 

With the 20 wt oil you will get better oil flow, less drag from friction, and slightly better fuel economy. Oil flow is just as important to protecting your engine as viscosity. Your engine should see zero ill effects from using the slightly thinner oil. If you have time, you may want to read this extensive write up on oil. It has been posted many times on TW and is full of great info.

http://ferrarichat.com/forum/faq.php?faq=haas_articles#faq_motor_oil_basics

 

Even 0-20 syntetic is not too thin. Go read the oil 101 at bobistheoilguy.com

 

subbed for link

 

I was a diesel mechanic in the Coast Guard, 22 years and I thought I knew all about lube oil. This sight opened my eyes.

 

Any chance that Toyota would deny warranty coverage on the engine if you run 5w20 instead of what the book says it's supposed to have?

I wouldn't want to have a bearing spin or something happen to the VVTi system and have Toyota tell me it's not covered...

 

I doubt they would deny it especially if it was changed at the dealership.

 

you two have 4 cyls. 5w or 0w 20 is the recommended weight. the recommended oil for the 6 cyls is 5w30

 

x2

 

You know that's interesting because I had my 1st oil change at the dealer two tanks ago, and both of those tanks have given me an extra 2mpg. I'm going to have to ask my dealer if they made the switch to full synthetic too.

 

You and I both know we just drop in whatever they order and keeps the boats running at the required PSI

 

Searching at BITOG theres several people who have asked Toyota about the 1GR-FE. Toyota says use what the manual says, no 20 weight.

 

The 1GR FE engine you have to run a thicker oil since the bucket style valve lifters.

 

I read the Dr Haas report a while back. It's very informative and it makes sense. That's why I'm using 0W30 instead of 5W30. He says that oil temp doesn't change much as ambient temp changes. I disagree with this. I have an oil temp gauge on another vehicle. The warmed up running temp varies by 30-40 deg from summer to winter. Load and rpm has an effect as well. After reading the article, I wanted to go to a 20w oil, but decided to stay with 30w because of what the manual says and the fact that I'm in the deep south. The reason I posted this is that if a local dealer is using 20w, I am reconsidering my choice. I wanted to know if any of you guys were using 20w in the V-6. The funny thing was that when the service guy told me they were using 5W20, I asked him why not 0W20, he said that this was way too thin.

 

I just traded my 08 4wd for a 10 prerunner for a whole list of reasons. Anyway the dealer told me Toyota was toward all synthetic for everything and that everything comes from factory all synthetic now. And that the oil was 10k oil. I got the Free Maintenance Program and it says on paperwork that oil is 10k. my manual still says 5k and 5w-30.
I don't know what will actually be put in my truck and if its right.

 

Or what? Its noisy...

 

Thicker oils have a greater load carrying capacity on metal to metal surfaces without being pressurized like the thinner oils. Hence the reason why the diff oil is 75-90w. The whole trick with oil is to create a gap between the metal surfaces so you have the least amount of friction. In basic terms you are going to create more wear on you cam lobes and non roller lifter buckets with thinner oil then what the engine is designed for, but if you use too thick of an oil it will not move through to engines tight tolerances in bearings like it should. Then valves will get noisy sooner than normal especially since there is no hydraulic lifters or followers to adjust automatically for the increased gap.

 

Also, according the the Dr. Haas article, if you want to try a thinner warmed-up oil, i.e., 0w-20 vs 0w-30, then you should have an oil pressure gauge to ensure adequate pressure at several rpm settings. Wish Scanguage could read oil pressure.....