Castrol Syntec Blend 5W30, 2005 Toyota Matrix 1ZZFE, 4160 miles

[Cicero]

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Engine felt sluggish to me with the GC in it....also got a really bad ammonia smell out of the exhaust...I know people have jumped up and down saying that there is no way that oil could cause that and maybe it was a coincidence but when I changed out to Chevron dino the smell stopped

Luckily I was able to return all 90 dollars worth of the GC I had to AZ

FWIW the engine is pretty noisy...like a clacking metallic noise when giving it the gas.....maybe belt tensioner? Have had it in for service regarding it and they replaced a motor mount under a TSB but did not solve the noise issue. Still get great UOA's and almost 37 mpg so hopefully it can't be anything too bad...

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FWIW and in case others have this too, I got that smell from a Toyota 4X4 using GC. Right at start up. I sold that truck and have no idea if it's still doing that.

 

[JohnBrowning]

I had nothing but trouble with Castrol Syntec Blend. It was the only oil my Dodge 4.7 would consume like crazy! I tried it when new and the engine drank the stuff. It was the only oil that my engine never liked. I put the stuff in my Toyota 4Runner wich had never had a consumption issue ever and it too burnt the Castrol Syntec Blend like crazy. I am preety sure it was 5W30 but it could have been 10W30 as well. So I took the second case back to Walmart and got a different oil and never had a problem again. Now I will say that I ran Castrol GTX for years and never had any consumption issues at all and I ran Castrol Syntec 5W50 for a long time until they went from GIV to GIII and never had an issue with it.