5w20 users over 150,000 miles, speak up!

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Patman

Patman

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Now that 5w20 has been the specified viscosity on a lot of Hondas and Fords for around 8 years now, I'm curious as to how many BITOG readers we have who have run nothing but 5w20 and are now over 150,000 miles? A lot of people out there still seem to fear 5w20, thinking it's too thin for long engine life, but this topic is to prove them wrong!

Tell us about your driving habits as well, I'm especially interested in hearing from Ford truck owners who might've done a lot of towing while using 5w20 as well.
 
What's the matter Patman, don't have anything better to do than start another argument?
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We have a 2002 Ford Focus Zetec owned since new that my three sons have handed down and used while attending university. It has over 160,000 with no problems, no oil consumption. Almost straight diet of various name brand 5W-20 synthetics with a few labeled blends thrown in. Mostly 5,000-6,000 mile OCI's

BTW other than timing belt at 100,000, shocks, brakes and two sets of plugs, the car has been flawless.
 
My brother's 01' F150 has 180,000 miles, runs really well. Sometimes he does use 5w30 but mostly 5w20 and he is terrible when it comes to oil changes(every 8-15K) mostly blends, sometimes syns.
 
I just posted on the "3K oil change" topic my 0W20 Mobil 1 experience:
3.1 litre Lumina Minvan, 250 K miles, 20 K OCI's Mobil 1 0W20, extreme towing vehicle, 4880 boat towed by commercial schedule 4 days a week.

Engine seems like new, no oil consumption, quiet.

Escort Commuter car (no towing) same OCI, same miles,seems perfect.

I have never done an UOA on either vehicle.

Come on, fess up, who else uses very long OCI's? All in the interests of science, of course!! (Not because we are lazy!!!)
 
Originally Posted By: Johnny
What's the matter Patman, don't have anything better to do than start another argument?
grin2.gif



I've got a lot of free time now that I'm "retired" :)
 
Well, I was just thinking, at one time in this sites history you were the posting king. Now you have time to catch up with Pablo.
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All you need is another 18,048 post to catch up.
 
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Yeah I'm ahead of Patman now and "retired" also.

I have 114k on the Accord. All 20 grade oils. I think there is more than enough data out there now that suggests there are no issues with 20 grade oils when called for by the manufacturer.

Most people don't keep cars more than 200k miles (not sure what the exact number is) anyway so if there are differences, it's not being picked up.

It's also important to realize that engines are more reliable now. Modern engines don't have wear issues. Engine durability and maintenance has come a long way.
 
Good friends little brother and his 02 Focus, with nothing more than MC 5-20, with a bit over 180k on it now...


No engine issues at all either...good little car...
 
I don't think enough people give the OEM engineers enough credit into the testing they do. Some of the quality control testing Chrysler did with the Hemi engine was impressive.

A QC engineer that formerly worked with Toyota was hired by them to help test the durability of the engine. Many of the real world testing they did was so extreme that it would be very unlikely a consumer could replicate it.
 
Dunno about Ford, but Honda hasn't been "recommending" 5W-20 for "at least 10 years." It's more like seven years for Honda, and the only engines for which Honda has been recommending 5W-20 has been the non high-performance engines (if that's an apt discription). But I take your point. However, the 5W-20 era coincides almost day-for-day with the period that a small but not insignificant percentage of Honda owners have also been reporting (or learning they have) pitted or galled camshafts. More to the point, those of us who have more than a cursory understanding of lubrication science stuck with 5W-30 weight oil, and we avoided the problem entirely.
 
My car is only up to 42,000 miles, but my father's 2001 F150 is up to 140,000 something IIRC. I know guys with Mustangs and F150s that are in the 150,000 mile to 200,000+ miles range running factory Motorcraft 5W20 syn-blend oil.
 
Originally Posted By: Gurney
Dunno about Ford, but Honda hasn't been "recommending" 5W-20 for "at least 10 years." It's more like seven years for Honda, and the only engines for which Honda has been recommending 5W-20 has been the non high-performance engines (if that's an apt discription). But I take your point. However, the 5W-20 era coincides almost day-for-day with the period that a small but not insignificant percentage of Honda owners have also been reporting (or learning they have) pitted or galled camshafts. More to the point, those of us who have more than a cursory understanding of lubrication science stuck with 5W-30 weight oil, and we avoided the problem entirely.


Is that so-called "pitting/galling" observation from you or hearsay?

Also: yes, Honda didn't officially go into 5W20 or lower viscosity grade until (or at least after) 1999 where they released a SAE paper on the said subject.
 
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Originally Posted By: Gurney
Dunno about Ford, but Honda hasn't been "recommending" 5W-20 for "at least 10 years." It's more like seven years for Honda, and the only engines for which Honda has been recommending 5W-20 has been the non high-performance engines (if that's an apt discription). But I take your point. However, the 5W-20 era coincides almost day-for-day with the period that a small but not insignificant percentage of Honda owners have also been reporting (or learning they have) pitted or galled camshafts. More to the point, those of us who have more than a cursory understanding of lubrication science stuck with 5W-30 weight oil, and we avoided the problem entirely.


Not bashing Honda but I think they had some bad cams, and failures with 30 grade oils as well. I worked in 2 different Honda dealerships and still have contacts with friends I made who still work for Honda. The 30 grade wasn't the silver bullet in all cases.
 
Originally Posted By: Gurney
However, the 5W-20 era coincides almost day-for-day with the period that a small but not insignificant percentage of Honda owners have also been reporting (or learning they have) pitted or galled camshafts. More to the point, those of us who have more than a cursory understanding of lubrication science stuck with 5W-30 weight oil, and we avoided the problem entirely.


No camshaft problems with the Fords. Maybe Honda just hasn't figured out how to manufacture a camshaft properly yet?
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