Synthetic or Dino oil in a 2000 Toyota Corolla

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Hello,

I know this question has been debated here over so many threads and I apologize for the repetition, but, I am new to synthetic oils and I was wondering if anyone can help me with my questions?

I have recently purchased a 2000 Toyota Corolla with 34K original miles on it. The previous owner told me that he just changed the oil to a full synthetic oil (don't know what brand it is offhand) and he recommended that I continue to do the same. I am new to the synthetic oil thing. I've always used cheap dino oil in my cars, simply because they were usually older, high mile beaters. The questions I have are:

1). Is it okay to mix synthetic and dino oil in the engine? Say your down a quart and there is synthetic oil in the engine and all that is available is dino oil. Can you mix it in the engine???

Also, can you go from dino to syn and back without any kind of major engine troubles resulting??? Is it bad for the engine and the seals???

Lastly, what brand of syn or dino oil would be recommended for this kind of car???

Thanks for any and all responses!!!!

timkedz
 
Hi,

First of all,
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I have a 2005 Corolla with the same engine as yours!
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(it has only 46k miles on it!)
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I've done tons of UOAs on it and the best UOA to date has been a 5k run of Pennzoil Conventional 5w-30.

I've run Mobil 1, Castrol Syntec and my UOAs were better with the Pennzoil.

Gas mileage is the same with Syn or conventional on my car.

You can change back and forth as you want.

You can mix syn and conventional (though I'd stay with the same brand).

I'd say Chevron, Pennzoil, Castrol GTX, Havoline all are excellent oils for your corolla and change it out every 4-5k miles or 6 months.

Take care, bill
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I like Pablos perspective on this.

Sometimes the choice can be a practical one. I don't have a garage and would rather have a wide berth on when I have to change the oil. It could be 7K, 8K, 9K, 10K. Synthetic allows we to wait for a warm sunny day. Dino oil change in February? Not.
 
Simple, what kind of a man are you !!
There's nothing like shoveling some snow out of the way in the driveway in the middle of Winter to do an oil/filter change. That's what builds character !!
timkeds...I have a '98 Corolla with about 100k miles on it, all on dino, changed at about 4k mile OCI's.
Runs great...Bill proved it, those little 1ZZFE motors will work with most anything.
Enjoy your ride.
You can always slip over the border and get some Esso XD-3 in Canada. Stop in for a brew while you're here.
cheers.gif

P.B.
 
You can do what you like as often as you like. I would recomend though that you do a treatment of Auto-Rx.
 
Why would you spend the money on an ARx treatment for a car with 34K miles? Seems like a total waste of money...
 
While Bill does post some exceptional UOA's, your options are a little more open than he indicates.

First of all yes you can switch back and forth and all around. I've been doing it for 30+ years with zero issues.

Most important is driving style, miles per year using that style, engine condition, previous service history (used car), etc. In fact the tune and mechanical condition of an engine wreck havoc on on any motor oil, much more than the stuff we haggle about daily here.

I imagine your car gets a few cold starts per year. I'm not saying a dino oil will fail you in WI, but man I know what oil I would choose - one with the best cold cranking ability at -30°C or -35°C.

Then I would evaluate what kind of OCI I would want to do. With my commuter Volvo I change the oil once a year. Amsoil of whatever flavor from 5W-30 to 15W-40 have served me quite well over 10 years. Engine in good shape, no issues. The new Honda Odyssey now goes by the OLM. I am using the Amsoil API XL 5W-20 - because I know that oil will go wherever the OLM leads it. I'm not saying a dino oil won't hold up....but if the OLM is going to 7000+ miles, the way my wife drives - I'm not sleeping with a regular dino oil in the crankcase.

My cars have excellent UOA's with synthetic oils so if there is some kind of feeling that dino oil gives better UOA's let's get that out of the way right now. It doesn't. At best it's a tie for 3-5K oil changes, and then as OCI's increase synthetic begin to show their stuff.
 
You can safely run service intervals of 15,000 miles/1 year in this engine with either Amsoil or the Mobil 1, EP and get 250k+ out of it. Using conventional oil and changing it every 5000 miles will get you similar results.

Your choice....

TS
 
What Bill in Utah said x2

The only thing i would add is one oil to his list of recommendations, Exxon Superflo. An excellent oil at an excellent price.
 
quote:

Originally posted by vronline:
Why would you spend the money on an ARx treatment for a car with 34K miles? Seems like a total waste of money...

While I realize that products like Auto RX and LP are GREAT products and whose sellers happen to be SPONSOR's of this SITE, and I would use the products myself, if I had warrant or want or need to; (long sentence I know) the reasons for needing it might be inherent in the tendency of conventional oil to SLUDGE; and the corresponding doubt it places in the consumers minds.

This I have NEVER felt using synthetic oil (Mobil One in my case with over 781,000 miles) AND with 15,000 mile OCI's.

In one application I am using 25,000 OCI's. (the 2003 car is still young at 74,000 miles)

I have also had the valve covers removed (3 times) and inspected and checked by ASE mechanics at the (Toyota) dealer (who have absolutely NO financial incentive to tell me this) that the 2 vehicles' engines were absolutely SPOTLESS and DID NOT need valve adjustments (at several hundred dollars each) THREE times!! (60k between adjustments is normal) Another needed app 15 valve adjustments and even at the 250,000 mile mark the same mechanics told me how spotless the innards were. They all about died, when I told em 15,000 mile OCI's whether I needed it or not!
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Yes I know I should have shut up.

[ May 28, 2006, 11:19 AM: Message edited by: ruking77 ]
 
quote:

Originally posted by timkedz:
Hello,

I know this question has been debated here over so many threads and I apologize for the repetition, but, I am new to synthetic oils and I was wondering if anyone can help me with my questions? I have recently purchased a 2000 Toyota Corolla with 34K original miles on it. The previous owner told me that he just changed the oil to a full synthetic oil (don't know what brand it is offhand) and he recommended that I continue to do the same. I am new to the synthetic oil thing. I've always used cheap dino oil in my cars, simply because they were usually older, high mile beaters. The questions I have are:

1). Is it okay to mix synthetic and dino oil in the engine? Say your down a quart and there is synthetic oil in the engine and all that is available is dino oil. Can you mix it in the engine??? Also, can you go from dino to syn and back without any kind of major engine troubles resulting??? Is it bad for the engine and the seals??? Lastly, what brand of syn or dino oil would be recommended for this kind of car???


What oils did the prior owner use & how often did he change it?
 
Hello,

As an answer to the previous poster, I really don't know what was used before I bought the car. All I really know for sure is the previous owner had the oil changed very recently just before I bought it and THAT oil change was synthetic.

As another update since I first posted this; I have had the oil changed at a local GM dealership and I believe they used dino oil. Since it was a coupon special of only $19.99 I guess I can assume that it is not synthetic oil!

As of this writing, the car is running fine, with no leaks!!!

By the way, sorry, guys that it took mw so long to get back to my original posting. I had computer troubles for a while and when they were finally resolved, I kinda forgot all about getting back to you all!!! My apologies!!!!

I have some interesting happening with this car that I will share with you all in future posts!!!

Thanks, all, for the help and advice!!

Regards,

tinkedz
 
Last year, I bought a 92 Corolla LE to use as deliver car and started putting M1 in it right away. Luckily I rolled the dice and came out winner as it consistently get 36 mpg on highway and about 32 mpg in mix driving. The odometer read 64k miles but I couldn't tell if it is the kind that goes back to 0 after 100k, so I went with what the seller said; 64k on the title. It has an extra 0 in front so I figured it did indeed have low mileage. Anyway, it drive like a dream with M1 synthetic and the oil get changed 10k with fresh filter at 5k.

It doesn't burn oil but I do notice a little oil get pass the ring and stop after the oil collect the dirt and dry up. If I clean the area, then new oil will get leak out again and stop once the new coat of dirt is applied. Therefore, it is true that M1 does indeed clean out the engine and will leak if it is in poor condition. Luckily this car is in good mechanical shape.

I would definitely use synthetic in your 2000 Corolla.
 
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