0W-20 or 5W-30 oil...

A friend of a friend is a pro BASS fisherman sponsored by CASTROL and gets a lot of free CASTROL EDGE motor oil. Part synthetic 5w30 only.Long story short, I've been given five, five quart bottles of the stuff. I've been offered a lot more. My 2010 Yaris calls for 5w30. However, both my 2009 Tacoma and 2013 SCION XB call for 0w-20 or 5w-20. I know that this is for fuel mileage and colder weather, mostly. The weather this time of year is around 80-90 degrees and hotter stuff is ahead. I'm ready to use the 5w-30. I have a case of factory Toyota filters for each vehicle and this would save me hundreds if not thousands of dollars in the long haul. Any other gearheads want to point out something that I've overlooked? I'd appreciate it. I've done a search or two and see that most of us seem to believe that the 5w-30 would be fine. The Tacoma has 26K and the Scion is sitting at 2K miles.

 

Are you still under warranty? If so, you should be maintaining recommended weights. If not, then the cold weather startup difference between 0W and 5W is probably not significant unless you are getting to below zero temps. The difference between 20 and 30 then come into play. What I don't know is if the oil passages support a thicker oil (i.e., will not clog up or slow down (wouldn't think so, but....).

Personally, as long as I was out of warranty, or did not care about warranty proof, I would have no problems running 30 over 20. mpg's may be affected, but by how much, good question.....

FYI, I run 0W-30 in my 4.0 over 5W-30 to gain some extra cold startup flow.

 

Whatever your manual calls for.

 

The manual says 5W-30 is ok. That is what I use in mine.

 

I love oil questions. I always refer people to this site:

http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/motor-oil-101/

 

I read the first five chapters already. Very good information. Thanks.

 

You're welcome. One of my friends steered me to that site. Excellent info.

 

40 miles North of you...5-30 since first oil change. It has been years since I looked in the manual to check, but I believe it is what they recmmend since it does not get cold here.

PK

 

I've run 5w30 for 277,XXX in my 95.5. Not any problems. We get way below freezing here and the truck starts with no noise. I've heard other people start their vehicles and they tick. That mobil oil stays thin enough even at 8 degrees. Of course it has to be changed at appropriate mileage.

 

Another thing that I've noticed is that manufacturers started recommending 0W-20 and similar once the new(er) mileage standards started to be required. My guess is that this came about due to tighter tolerances or reduced drag by using a "thinner" oil. Mines a 2004 and still recommends 5W-30.