What oil should I use for winter?

What oil weight should be used in the winter for a 95 Tacoma? I don't know what I'm running now but it's time to change it so which weight number is better for winter?

 

Same as the summer weight

 

Whatever the owners book says 5w30

 

Well like I said I don't know what I'm running now 10/40 10/30 5/30 5/40? What's best. 200,000 miles

 

Look in your owners manual.

 

5w30

 

Don't have one that's why I'm on here

 

5w30. It shouldn't get cold enough where you live to need anything else.

 

Well what's the difference in oil numbers? What affect does it have on the engine using different types?

 

So does it matter by the numbers in summer time and winter time? It's about to snow a couple inches and the tenperature has been drooling this month. Average in 30s and 40s what does the oil numbers specify or do for the temperature?

 

The numbers refer to the viscosity of the oil. For where you live it does not make a difference. Put the factory recommended oil in it

 

Yeah just stick with the 5w30. It dosent matter whats in there now, though im sure its the recommended 5w30. Unless the previous owner was a complete moron and used diesel engine oil er some shit, which still wouldnt matter as far as you're concerned, just use the right stuff, synthetic or dino or anything in between.

Fyi if you did want to run a summer and a winter oil you would run the 5w30 in the winter beings its a thinner oil to resist the colder temps causing it to thicken. Then for example when it getts hotter than hells arm pit in the summer a guy could run 10w30 for example. Its thicker to resist thinning out real bad cause of the super high heat. Where thinner or thicker oil really helps though is on start up. Thicker oil in summer to help keep cylinders and such a lil better lubed and thinner oil in winter to circulate better and maybe aid in an easier start due to there not being thicker oil on cylinders and moving parts. Highly doubtful a lil thicker oil really does anything as far as creating a "harder start" but does certainly flow much slower in extreme cold which isnt ideal as one could imagine.

With that said i hope i answered your question. But really just use what the engineering guys at toyota said to use. They are much smarter than us and are paid very well for what they do. So until you and i are building engines from scratch we should put in the oil that they printed on your oil filler cap! Not calling you a nucklehead there, you know what i meant though. If they wanted us to change oil weights for the seasons we would know and it would be a common thing us vehicle owners would do across the board. Now if you lived where it was routinely way way below 0 all the time then maybe go thinner. But hell even at that if you used a synthetic 5w30 it would still be completely sufficient! Maybe you know maybe not but a synthetic oil of the same weight will have a much better flow at extremely cold temps. If youre really wanting that cold weather protection just get yourself synthetic and not dino oil (conventional).

Also i say "weight"when referring to oil but the "w" in the oil numbers dont actually mean weight even though it has become common place to use the wording like that. Just a nifty oil fact for ya there lol!

 

Random question for anyone...why do i see sometimes that user names have a line through them, like crossed off so to speak lol?? In this thread for example there are two members with a line through their names, the OP and another fella.. just curious, I've noticed it here and there in the past. Always used to kinda think maybe they were banned er something but it dont seem to be the case.

 

Synthetic Oil any Brand as long as 100% Full Synthetic Oil the weight that owners manual requires !

 

Both members are temporarily banned. Things got way outa hand between em last night in this thread.

 

Lol ah, i thought possibly it was a banned thing....

Dang i missed the action. What the heck could have gotten outta hand in a thread like this, haha. I guess it dont take much for some peeps though to get a lil crazy...

***actually now that you say that i guess i did sorta catch the beginning of a lil pissin match last night in here. Seemed someone popped off and was a lil insulting/rude. Must have gotten heated after i split though...

 

No manual of course, but if he were to just look at the filler cap its printed on it. That is unless it was lost with the manual lol and replaced with a generic one...

 

Tried posting last night but thread was locked.

This thread will probably (hopefully actually) get locked so if you haven't already found out the lower the number the "thinner" or less viscous the oil is. The the "5w" in 5w30 is the viscosity at a winter rated temperature (cant remember what) and the "30" is the viscosity at 100C. 5w30 is the recommended oil but it isnt the end of the world to use another weight (that isnt Completely different anyways)

In real cold climates some people switch to a 0w30 or 0w40 but like already said you shouldn't have to worry about that.


I looked up after and -25C for 5w30

 

5w-30 should be good for nearly all of the USA. If you live in the deep south where it can get hot for long periods of time, then switching to a 10w-30 in the summer, especially if towing, is recommended.