5W30 In ‘20 Corolla 1.8L ?

The main reason for thicker oils being specified overseas is because people over there simply haven't accepted thinner oils (like a lot of people on here!) and they simply aren't readily available to them.

And I disagree about Honda not being what they were twenty years ago. I have a 10th gen Civic (2016-2021) and in the groups that I belong to there are quite a few of these cars with insanely high mileage on them (one in particular that's over 700,000 miles) My Civic has been flawless, I haven't spent a dime in repairs. So I see no evidence that they've lost any quality or reliability whatsoever.

And Hondas and Toyotas aren't rusting out like they used to in the 70s and 80s, so we're definitely seeing more of them going on and on and not going to an early grave with a perfect engine. We're getting to see just how long those engines really can last when the body is more durable.
IMO one of the reasons that oils such as 0w-20 aren't widely available in some overseas markets is the lack of necessity. They don't have CAFE to deal with to begin with...
 
It might be "fine" but I would certainly rather be running 0w20 in mine.


It is fine… The SAE testing for W temperature performance proves that… CCS and MRV are done for that exact reason.

However one should be mindful that those oils are allowed to slip a W rating while in use… So a 5w can be a 10w later on in a change interval. Or obviously a 0w can become a 5w has well.
 
Wouldn’t thicker oil have higher drag? harder to pump, sliding parts then have more friction.

I’m noticing my new corolla is a bit slow on heating up, actually. I don’t trust the idiot gauge that much, but it can take quite a bit of driving to get it to the normal mark. It’s pretty strange, and unexpected.
Well the goal of these auto manufacturers is for vehicles to get up to operating temperatures quicker mainly for the sake of emissions. My wife’s Sentra takes awhile for the temp gauge to get to the normal range yet my rogue warms up rather quickly.
 
would a 0w-30 be a good choice,taking into consideration the ccs test & mrv in most situations,,like amsoil ss-0w-30 as a example, part of the idea is instant pumping lubrication of the engine when cold startups while having decent hths results when warmed up
 
would a 0w-30 be a good choice,taking into consideration the ccs test & mrv in most situations,,like amsoil ss-0w-30 as a example, part of the idea is instant pumping lubrication of the engine when cold startups while having decent hths results when warmed up
Have you read the rest of this thread? Or just wanting to make yet another advertisement for a particular brand?
 
I agree with you. You live in Ontario. 0w-20 probably is the optimal viscosity for you. Where I live 10w-30 is an awesome choice.

Reasonable people should easily realize while vehicles do come off the same production line, vastly different climates are a factor in optimal viscosities. Not the only factor, but a factor.

I'm not going to completely disagree with you there, as there are definitely factors that can necessitate a thicker oil. If I lived in Arizona and I was going full throttle a lot, I would definitely want something a little bit thicker for the better HTHS. But my main point is that there are a lot of people here who simply refuse to use a 0w20 oil under any circumstances, even though that recommendation is going to still give their engine a very long lifespan. I mean we're talking about a Toyota Corolla here, it's probably not going to be driven super hard so it really doesn't need the higher HTHS of a 5w30. If this was a GR Corolla that would be a different story.
 
Have you read the rest of this thread? Or just wanting to make yet another advertisement for a particular brand?
no mr. kschachn,i dont sell amsoil,just it would be a possible viscosity to use 0w-30,that by the way maybe a solution to some lower viscosity issues as stated.in above conversations,and to mention Amsoil does makes a very fine engine oil form what i learned on this site
 
Lower HT/HS oils always cause more wear as has been discussed here many times in the past. Whether that's important or significant to you is another question but the physics of film thickness and wear don't change.

But under what kind of operating conditions? I'm not going to argue the fact that oils with a higher HTHS will protect an engine better under harsher conditions (high oil temps, full throttle) but I still maintain my strong belief that for the average person with a non high performance engine like this Corolla in most of the US and Canada's climate, the HTHS of a 0w20 will protect that engine more than enough to get it well past 300,000 miles, and quite likely even further than that.

That being said, for my Corvette, I chose right from the beginning to stray a little bit from the norm, with most people going with the regular M1 5w30 with an HTHS of around 3.1, I instead decided to go with M1 ESP 5w30, with it's higher 3.5 HTHS. I did this for a few reasons, one is because I know that when driven hard this LT1 engine can heat up it's oil (230-240F after a little bit of spirited driving) and also because I do oil changes according to the OLM, so I'm usually at around 7500 miles. I know that's not a lot, but in previous Corvettes that I've had, regular M1 5w30 was thinning out a little bit on my UOAs with those kind of intervals. The ESP 5w30 has proven itself in my UOAs to be rock solid in it's viscosity on those slightly longer than typical interval (for a Corvette owner anyway) Even though I don't beat the Corvette super hard every time I drive it, there are some days when I like to push it harder (like yesterday when I took it out for a rare December drive and had some fun with it on the highway for an extended period)

So in a nutshell I'm not disagreeing with the fact that higher HTHS can reduce engine wear in some applications, I'm basically saying that the HTHS of a 0w20 is more than enough to get a solid engine like the one in this Corolla to a very high mileage.
 
But under what kind of operating conditions? I'm not going to argue the fact that oils with a higher HTHS will protect an engine better under harsher conditions (high oil temps, full throttle) but I still maintain my strong belief that for the average person with a non high performance engine like this Corolla in most of the US and Canada's climate, the HTHS of a 0w20 will protect that engine more than enough to get it well past 300,000 miles, and quite likely even further than that.

That being said, for my Corvette, I chose right from the beginning to stray a little bit from the norm, with most people going with the regular M1 5w30 with an HTHS of around 3.1, I instead decided to go with M1 ESP 5w30, with it's higher 3.5 HTHS. I did this for a few reasons, one is because I know that when driven hard this LT1 engine can heat up it's oil (230-240F after a little bit of spirited driving) and also because I do oil changes according to the OLM, so I'm usually at around 7500 miles. I know that's not a lot, but in previous Corvettes that I've had, regular M1 5w30 was thinning out a little bit on my UOAs with those kind of intervals. The ESP 5w30 has proven itself in my UOAs to be rock solid in it's viscosity on those slightly longer than typical interval (for a Corvette owner anyway) Even though I don't beat the Corvette super hard every time I drive it, there are some days when I like to push it harder (like yesterday when I took it out for a rare December drive and had some fun with it on the highway for an extended period)

So in a nutshell I'm not disagreeing with the fact that higher HTHS can reduce engine wear in some applications, I'm basically saying that the HTHS of a 0w20 is more than enough to get a solid engine like the one in this Corolla to a very high mileage.
Especially if the engine is short tripped in cold weather. Where the oil never gets to operating temp.
A lower viscosity will flow and protect better.
 
States right in the owners manual, 0w20 or 5w20. Not 5w30.

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Really? Rehashing this old thing that has been argued on hundreds of posts?

I will say I have had engine that didn't run "right " after installing a heavier grade oil - and that was a Toyota VVT. Currently the cam phasing is monitored and controlled more closely than it was 15 or so years ago when the retard position of the intake cam - at any "X" rpm - is controlled by solely the oil pressure and coolant temp.

I say the OP could run the 5W20 in Georgia vs a 5w30 - with the off chance that oil will have less VM loading and be less prone to varnishing and ring sticking. Though I see now Chris other two vehicles are running a 30 grade.

In my Ford 2L the 5W30 Advanced ran so close to a 20 grade I could not tell a difference. That engine has been "hurt" by fuel dilution and it GREATLY prefers the Quaker State 10W30.
Just waiting for it to blow.

If it wasn't for nosey CARFAX I would be camping out at the dealer to get the motor fixed,
I do not want "Customer states engine is making a loud knocking noise when warmed" plastered on my CARFAX maintenance section. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot on a potential trade!
 
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Especially if the engine is short tripped in cold weather. Where the oil never gets to operating temp.
A lower viscosity will flow and protect better.
How cold is cold? From my understanding, especially in GDI engines, cold weather leads to more fuel dilution, meaning the oil will likely drop one grade. Not to mention that thicker oil heats up quicker.
 
OK, how about this, show me some evidence that shows that thinner oils are causing engines to wear out sooner.
But under what kind of operating conditions?

So in a nutshell I'm not disagreeing with the fact that higher HTHS can reduce engine wear
I feel like you're moving the goalposts here and we're going in a circle now.

The reality is that all of us are making what we feel is the best choice for our given applications based on the information that we have.
 
You’re claiming you can use an uncontrolled $30 spectrographic analysis to determine which winter rating produces less wear?
No. Absolutely not. I should have said “see that there’s no meaningful difference” or “compare” instead of “see which is better.”

The reason I suggested this is because some people may think there would be a difference, but there would not be. The UOA would just be to prove that for those people.

I can’t imagine how thick an oil would have to be before showing a statistically meaningfully different UOA from 0w20. Perhaps if you go thick enough it could happen (if you think of grease as an end member), but at that point the fact that viscosity is problematically high is probably obvious through other detection means.
 
Especially if the engine is short tripped in cold weather. Where the oil never gets to operating temp.
A lower viscosity will flow and protect better.
Lower HT/HS oils never protect better. As long as the winter rating is appropriate for the expected starting temperature then flow is irrelevant here.

And has already been mentioned, if you want the oil to get up to temperature faster then use one with a higher viscosity.
 
How are 0W-20 oils not readily available to the rest of the world by now if the trend toward thinner oils is decades old? In decades they haven't been able to justify thinner oils on shelves somewhere?

People in the US aren't/weren't ready to accept 0W-16 either, but here we are, because the OEM recommendations drive what hits the shelves, not what the customer thinks.
Because of CAFE!
 
Remind me again, when was 0W invented and when was 20 invented? Then when did the fires of Mordor bring forth the unholy concoction of 0W20?
I was there...

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Because of CAFE!
The US is the largest consumer of oil by a long shot…almost 1/4 if I remember correctly. The reason we have to deal with CAFE is because we consume the most. China is second but they have no issue raping the environment for financial gain.

I’m perfectly fine with demanding manufacturers help to reduce fuel consumption so we don’t continue down the same path of overconsumption. Doing this makes way more sense than the current push for electrification of all vehicles.
 
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