5W-30 Ok to use if me and my car are outside US/Canada?

[ctbale]

My owners manual says 5w-30 is the recommended oil if I am out side usa or canada? (oh s***, yes another oil thread) england? norway? iceland? telling me the 0w-20 is just for the CAFE stats, and the engine will be just as happy (happier?) on a bit thicker oil. all comments welcome!! (how do I download a "beating a dead horse" emoji?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_Average_Fuel_Economy

 

[yrwei52]

Yeah I'll say using the 0W-20 instead of 5W-30 oil mainly is for fuel economy purpose and is trying to get better EPA estimate rating and meet the CAFE standard. Everybody is doing it so I don't blame it on Mazda. I saw some articles criticizing that the 0W-20 oil has caused many premature failures on Toyota's timing chain. That's why I use the best 0W-20 oil available and recommended by Mazda, Mazda moly oil!

 

[Dersulzola]

Problem with 0w20 in North America is that it is synthetic and mineral oil that is available in other parts of the world can fall in to the specks of 0w20 not available in North America. There fore manufacturers recommend in order to be safe to use other grade as 5w30 or others that are compatible.
CAFE standards advise to use 0w20 to obtain certain fuel economy. You just have to understand that any product on the market in north America is made to squeeze as much money out of the end user as possible. Oil companies pay governments to pass favorable laws for them. CAFE is one of them.

 

[ctbale]

Love the dead horse emoji!!! need to get me some cool emojis like that!!! excellent replies. and its not just the oil companies, my farmer friends (born in mn) pay big $$$ to lobby the gov to write the laws forcing us to use ethanol. I think we should have a choice at the pump on that one! I think the 0w-20 is the best thing right now (0w-12 coming) for the CAFE standards, but it may not be the best thing for my cars engine.

 

[SoulArmored]

You could run the Euro Spec oil 0W40. The Mobil1 is pretty thin even in this grade and provides excellent protection on both start up and operating temps

 

[Unobtanium]

My owners manual says 5w-30 is the recommended oil if I am out side usa or canada? (oh s***, yes another oil thread) england? norway? iceland? telling me the 0w-20 is just for the CAFE stats, and the engine will be just as happy (happier?) on a bit thicker oil. all comments welcome!! (how do I download a "beating a dead horse" emoji?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_Average_Fuel_Economy

This is a huge can of worms.

My father has driven millions of mines. He used to drive for a living. He ran Mobil 1, Amsoil, Pennzoil, Castrol, and probably some that have gone out of business since then.

I am also not prone to following my father, just because he is my father. That said, I did learn a few things from him.

Pennzoil crapped up an engine badly. Sludge everywhere (He tore them all down when they failed or drank too much oil. 302ci Fords usually went around 200-300K miles or so (variable), and the 281ci Fords (4.6L SOHC) would be good for around 225-250k miles or so.)

Anyway, he began running Shell Rotella 15-40, because it is a diesel oil, and it prevented sludge. Torn down engines looked GOOD! Very clean.

When I got my first car, I just did as my father had. I got 170K miles out of my LT1 Trans Am with narry an issue, running 15-40 Rotella T in it.

That said, upon further research, it is my OPINION that thicker oils do not protect better. They only flow slower. Now, this is a MODERN engine opinion. If you have a diesel or a flat tappet cam, disregard. Oil provides boundary film lubrication. Which is to say, parts "float" on an oil cushion and do not have metal/metal contact. Ergo, the faster you get oil to the parts, and the better it flows, the better it will protect the parts, so long as the tolerances of the engine are such as to retain good pressure across the bearings (with your oil weight) and so forth.

Now, this "10-30" crap. Stop. Just stop using that measure. It's like me saying "put gasoline in the car". Well, if it's a Z06 Corvette and you put 87 octane in, your life will suck. So I say "Put "XX octane in".

This is the same with oil. Most 10-30 is thinner than most 0-30, for example.

If you want to accurately discuss the viscosity of oil, use centistokes @ 100*C (operating temp). That will allow you to intelligently compare viscosity of two or more products.

Now...back to your question, OP: Follow the owner's manual. use what it says to use. Because why not?

 

[TheMAN]

0W20 is also used in Europe and Japan

If you really wanted to use 30 weight, use 0W30 instead of 5W30 as it flows better on cold starts, plus it's synthetic anyway
as for Rotella, why 15W40 instead of 5W40? It's far better and synthetic

 

[Unobtanium]

0W20 is also used in Europe and Japan

If you really wanted to use 30 weight, use 0W30 instead of 5W30 as it flows better on cold starts, plus it's synthetic anyway
as for Rotella, why 15W40 instead of 5W40? It's far better and synthetic

He ran 15-40 because he used a lot of it, it was cheap, and he figured saving a buck on his fleet was the way to go, and never had any issues from it. He was based in the South US, but drove to all corners of the US and up near Canada, so environmentally, the oil got plenty of a work-out.

As to 0-30 and 10-30 regarding cold viscosity, the 0-30 is BARELY more pourable at 40*C than the 10-30, and is BARELY thicker (but by a larger margin than it is more pourable) than the 10-30 is at 100*C.
Comparing the 0-30 to the 5-30, the 5-30 is thinner than the 0-30 at 40*C, and nearly the same at 100*C, being only 0.1 centistoke thicker.

This is why I urge people to forget that crap about "X-XX" weights. It tells you nothing. Also, you have to understand the base stock, and what modifiers are being added, etc. this plays all the role in the world to the thicknesses when cold and warm, of the oil, etc. Oil is not a simple topic.

Comparing 15-40 Rotella T to the 5-40, at 40*C, it is SIGNIFICANTLY thicker at 40*C than is the aforementioned products in the first part of my response, by a value of roughly 2x, and significantly thicker at 40*C than the 5-40.. I think that this is likely to compromise flow over the bearings during start-up, and this is where I differ from my father. I prefer to run thinner oils than thicker. However, one must tailor the oil to the engine, and it's entirely possible that until the 4.6L SOHC motors, that the 15-40 was quite sufficient due to larger tolerances between the main and cam shafts and the bearings, etc.

My point is...disregard the large numbers on the bottle and go look up the REAL viscosity of your product. Because as I've shown with Mobil 1 0,5,and 10-30, the 10-30 is actually the THINNEST at operating temperature (by almost 10%)...the 5-30 is the thinnest at 40*C (by an academic margin).

 

[ctbale]

I drank the kool-aid ........ got a 5qt jug of castrol 0w-20 edge full synthetic, never would have thought .......

 

[CX-5um]

I drank the kool-aid ........ got a 5qt jug of castrol 0w-20 edge full synthetic, never would have thought .......

Should've drank Crystal Light, it has better viscosity numbers!!!

 

[ImVKool]

If you really wanted to use 30 weight, use 0W30 instead of 5W30 as it flows better on cold starts, plus it's synthetic anyway

0W-30 original Mazda oil supra I have right now in my engine-that's the one I recommend and the one wich Mazda use and request us to use if we not want to loose our warranty.

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I order it online and bring it to the service that Mazda can use it and I save some money.

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