Using 0W40 oil instead of 5W30 oils

[*** Car Guy ***]

My 2002 Camry LE V6 and 2001 Buick Century both recommend 5W30 grade oil.
What problems or benefits would I see if I use 0W40 grade oil? The Buick
has about 18,000 KM on it (11,160 miles) and the Camry has about 3,200 KM
(1,984 miles)

The 2 products in question are as follows:

Mobil 1 5W30 http://www.mobil1.com/supersyn/vis_5w30.jsp

Mobil 1 0W40 http://www.mobil1.com/supersyn/vis_0w40.jsp

[Steve Elmore]

If your owners manual says something like "don't use" or "only use", it will
possibly void your warranty.

"*** Car Guy ***" <ac...@nospampleasehotmail.com> wrote in message
news:GZEv8.3318$Gpn...@news02.bloor.is.net.cable.rogers.com...

[Joe Friday]

use what you are told by the owners manual.
"Steve Elmore" <sel...@one.net> wrote in message
news:ubu8gcf...@corp.supernews.com...

[Four Weis]

Here is another question. The Owner's Manual recommends 5W30, but what is
the real difference between Mobil1 5W30 and Mobil1 10W30? I drive in a
moderate climate where the temperature is above freezing almost all of the
year.

[Anonymous]

mobil 1 5w30 is more than adequate for those vehicles. your body or maybe
your own health would wear out before your engine does. if your engine does
let go, you can bet it's not due to bad oil if you change it as recommended.

people would assume that 0w40 is better than 5w30 because it can better deal
with wide temperature differences. the reason why manufacturers often
recommend 10w30 or 5w30 is because the stuff that makes an oil a 0w40, in my
understanding, causes the oil to break down faster and start damaging engine
parts sooner. correct me if i'm wrong, but i understand that the things
that make an oil change its weight with changing temperature, a multi-grade
oil, is microscopic polymer coils. as they get hot, they expand, thereby
changing the weight of the oil. to make an oil more tolerant to temperature
changes, you add more of this stuff. these added oil impurities cause the
oil to break down faster.

just saying that if you don't really need a 0w40 (like if you don't live in
the dessert where you experience -20 to +40), stick with a 5w30. synthetic
oil is really resistant to breaking down, so you're doing your cars a great
favor already with the synthetic 5w30.

yofa - yof...@hotmail.com

[*** Car Guy ***]

Well the 5W30 is better suited for environments that have more temps below
0. If you live somewhere where the temp rarely goes below 0, then 10w30
should be fine.

The owners manual says 5W30 as an all season oil since the cars are sold in
various parts of North America and some parts i.e. North, experience
temperature in Winter of -30 degrees. 10W30 oil would be pretty much
useless since it would not flow well at that temp. 5W30 would flow a bit
better. Synthetic oil 5W30 would be well suited for this.

By the way, where are you from?

"Four Weis" <mw...@rcn.com> wrote in message
news:3CBF4DC8...@rcn.com...

[Robert Hancock]

As far as I know, GM does not recommend the use of any oil other than 5W30
or 10W30 at any time. I wouldn't use the 0W40..

--
Robert Hancock Saskatoon, SK, Canada
To email, remove "nospam" from hanc...@nospamshaw.ca
Home Page: http://www.roberthancock.com/

"*** Car Guy ***" <ac...@nospampleasehotmail.com> wrote in message
news:GZEv8.3318$Gpn...@news02.bloor.is.net.cable.rogers.com...

[Bob Gross]

Uh, my 2002 Buick Park Avenue owners manual says 10W30.
The exception is in low temperature, and it is then 5W30.
Since I am in the US, and I am in a temperate climate where I never drive it
colder than -10 or so F, then 10W30 is a winner.

---Bob Gross---

"Robert Hancock" <hanc...@nospamshaw.ca> wrote in message
news:amLv8.57833$Kq4.2...@news2.calgary.shaw.ca...

[Tony Hwang]

Hi,
Unless he lives in arctic zone year round.
tony

[Michael Cerkowski]

Four Weis wrote:
>
> Here is another question. The Owner's Manual recommends 5W30, but what is
> the real difference between Mobil1 5W30 and Mobil1 10W30? I drive in a
> moderate climate where the temperature is above freezing almost all of the
> year.

The difference, in my experience, is that with a good
engine with more than 75K miles on it, it will use some oil
with 5W-30, but not with 10W-30. I use the former during the
coldest months, then switch to the latter. With these mild
northeast winters we now have, though I may just go with
10W-30 all year round.

(...)
--

http://www.albany.net/~mjc1/index.html

[Corollafan]

Read that also a month ago, the closer the numbers the better the oil
lubricates over time. Like a 5w-30 would be better than a 5w-40 or
5w-50. That base don't really thicken the oil that much when at
operating temperature. Think it said the 5w would move up to 10 at
operating temp. but would lubricate as good as the last number.
5w-30 at operating temp would be about 10 weight. At that same temp
the oil would perform as good as any 30 weight oil. Synthetic?
Im not sure if they said synthetic or not.

On Thu, 18 Apr 2002 23:03:06 GMT, "Anonymous" <som...@microsoft.com>
wrote:

[Stephen Bigelow]

Corollafan <rbu...@zianet.com> wrote in message
news:EE1C4BF52A9A3B81.63A698C1...@lp.airnews.net...

> Read that also a month ago, the closer the numbers the better the oil
> lubricates over time. Like a 5w-30 would be better than a 5w-40 or
> 5w-50. That base don't really thicken the oil that much when at
> operating temperature. Think it said the 5w would move up to 10 at
> operating temp. but would lubricate as good as the last number.
> 5w-30 at operating temp would be about 10 weight. At that same temp
> the oil would perform as good as any 30 weight oil. Synthetic?
> Im not sure if they said synthetic or not.

A closer weight number spread indicates less VI added to base oil.

"W" number indicates weight when cold, last number indicates weight when at
operating temp.

So, 5W-30 is a 5 weight when cold at startup...good for initial pumping, and
a 30 weight when hot.
A 10W-30 is a 10 weight when cold, not *quite* as good for cold pumpability,
and ALSO a 30 weight when hot.

I've successfully used 0W-30 all year round in Ottawa, -30C to +35C.

[xxxxxxxx]

*** Car Guy *** <ac...@nospampleasehotmail.com> wrote in message

news:LkIv8.6324$Gpn....@news02.bloor.is.net.cable.rogers.com...

> Well the 5W30 is better suited for environments that have more temps below
> 0. If you live somewhere where the temp rarely goes below 0, then 10w30
> should be fine.
>
> The owners manual says 5W30 as an all season oil since the cars are sold
in
> various parts of North America and some parts i.e. North, experience
> temperature in Winter of -30 degrees. 10W30 oil would be pretty much
> useless since it would not flow well at that temp. 5W30 would flow a bit
> better. Synthetic oil 5W30 would be well suited for this.
>

Agreed I use 5w 30 Mobil 1synthetic in winter and 10w30 Walmart Tech 2000
dino oil in other seasons and this regimen works well for me

ed/ontario

[Chris Jones]

This is how multi viscosity oils were explained to me: Oil is made
multi-visc by adding polymer additives to regular single visc oils. The
wider the viscosity separation, the more polymer additive is required.
That is 5W30 has more polymer and less oil than 10W30. The catch is that
the polymers are not as good at engine lubrication as the base oil.

My 1999 cavalier Z24 says on the filler cap to use 5W30 oil, but if you
look in the manual you find that 10W30 is allowed if driving above freezing
conditions. So I use 10W30 where possible for increased engine
lubrication.

*** Car Guy *** <ac...@nospampleasehotmail.com> wrote in article
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