Mixing Oil Grades

I posted the link to the full manual straight from the caballo's mouth. Have a read.

 

I wouldn't be mixing weights or grades of oil. Especially in today's engines with cam phacing, variable valve and cylider reduction technology. The easiest way to explain oil Viscosity is simply thinking of it as ball bearings. The weight or grade listing is what size the "ball bearings" are in the oil. These need to be correct for proper oil flow and pressure for cam phacing and variable valve timing. You should not have the wrong "ball bearings or different size ball bearings mixed together running through the oil system. I hope this helps and I am sure any knowledgeable tech would agree.

 

Crikiey man, are you trying to blow us all up!

 

If you go over to the oil guy forum and search they all agree it’s a non issue. Send it.

 

I have a '16 Taco that uses 0W-20, an Acura that needs 5W-20, and a 98 Taco that uses 5W-30. Life was simpler when everything was 5W-30, but now I'm usually swapping in a quart here and there as everything uses something and a half quart so I always have a half quart of something left over. As long as I'm moving no more than 1 step to a higher number I put it in. Have done this since my first at home change of the Acura more than 12 years ago and haven't run into any issues yet.

 

I do know the answer. Oil at the factory is made the same way.
My engine is high miles, looks new, and runs mixed oil.
If you want to toss yours let me know, I'll take it.

 

Do this. Put it on Craigslist Free postings, guaranteed you'll get eight people who can use it, ... just meet them at the corner gas station.

 

This is interesting to me because now that a Jeep Wrangler has become part of the household and uses 5w20 while the US manual foe the Tacoma Says 0w20 I was wondering if it would really hurt anything if I would run the same in both. Seems like 5w20 would be fine in the Tacoma. Both are 20 at operating Temps.

 

Yikes some of these answers.

 

I have a 2010 jeep wrangler jk in the driveway that my 16 year old daughter drives and I’m driving a 2017 Tacoma In summer heat of Tennessee and I’ve used 5w-30 (198k miles) in the Jeep and 5w-20 in the Tacoma (162k miles) and 5w-20 in Jeep and 0w-20 in Tacoma during colder months with absolutely no issues whatsoever.

 

It’s your truck do what you want!

Personally I would find a gen 1 and give the owner the whole oil change including the filter. Karma you know.

I had filters left from my 4.0 and gave them to buddy who’s dad has the 4.0.

 

Put the 6 quarts of oil at the end of your driveway with a sign that says "free".

 

The first number denotes the oil's viscosity grade when cold. You can always go lower than the mfr's minimum specification. It does no harm and can be better for cold starts. That means you can use 0W20 whenever 5W20 is called, and use 0W30 whenever 5W30 is called.

The second number denotes the oil's viscosity grade at operating temps. You shouldn't go lower than the mfr's minimum specification. Don't use 0W20 or 5W20 if the manual calls for 5W30 (like 2nd gen V6).

I just use 0W30 across all the vehicles in my family, Honda-engined lawn mower too.

 

Do you buy your engine oil based on politics?

Mobil 1 - Exxon Valdez
Castrol Syntec - Deepwater Horizon

 

I'm pretty sure there is no independent verification of oil viscosity so how do you know that your oil is even what it states on the label? It really isn't that exact.

 

I was considering using 5w20 in both year round once the supply of 0w20 on hand is used up. It would be more simple to have one type of oil on hand.

 

I know what the numbers mean.. just would like to use one oil that would work well in both engines. From what you're sayin 0w20 in both might be a better choice than 5w20 especially for the colder months.

 

with the 3.5 you can use up to 15w-40. with the 2.7L it says 0w-20 only. not sure what the difference is.

 

There’s not enough difference between 0w20 and 5w30 for any of this to matter. At 100C, 0w20 is ~8.8 cSt and 5w30 is ~10.5 cSt. That’s a tiny difference considering both start out well above 40 cSt when cold.

If the truck can run cold with 0w20, it will be fine with 5w30, which has the same operating viscosity as not-quite-fully-warned-up 0w-20. The only reason you might want to stick with 0w-20 is if you are in very cold temps.

Mixing 1 qt of 0w20 with 6 qt of 5w30 won’t be an issue, especially if it’s the same brand.