2003 Accent, might need winter oil change?

[joel96]

1. 2003 Accent, 1.5 L 12-valve SOHC Alpha I4; semi-automatic transmission.
2. In the 2003 accent manual, section S030B01A-GAT, there are seven temperature categories for oil. I'm not going to list them all. I bought the Accent last week; the owner had recently changed the oil. I'm going to assume any oil in the car would be fine, since the temperatures around Louisville, KY average -9F to 65F from early January to June, which fits within the range of all but the 5W-30 (it tops out at 50F). 5W-30 was the recommendation I got from hyundai-forums (I'm a registered member on that site under the user name "joeybuddy96" with some posts referencing this forums' posts). The manual: "SH, SG, or SG/CD (API) multi-grade and fuel effecient oil is recommended."
3. Louisville, KY.
4. I drive hard (fast acceleration, fast decceleration), and fast (20 mph above the speed limits if I can get away with it; 20 mph above posted limits feels fast to me; 75-80 mph is a comfortable top speed).
5. Commuting back and forth from Hillview, KY to Jeffersonville, IN five or six days a week. On the interstate for about 13 miles at around 75-80 mph, stops and starts for about 2 miles at around 40 mph, winding hilly roads and stops and starts for 7 miles at about 45-60 mph.

I prefer whichever oil (synthetic vs. conventional) is going to suit the above application; maybe try to figure out if the oil currently in the resevoir will work for the six months I'm going to have the car (long story--hopefully going to end up with a modded manual Honda from the mid-2000s). I've no idea what pricing is aside from buying a gallon of oil for a Grand Caravan at Walmart once. I don't plan on changing the oil aside from maybe this one initial change if it even needs it; might help to change the oil before I sell it to help with marketing it on eBay (yes, eBay; Craigslist has been a pretty discouraging series of experiences). I'm going to put probably 6,292 miles on the Accent by June (I put 500 miles on it this week due to having to get it back home from Cincinatti and a from a few non-commute errands). I buy from places based on price--I'm fine with buying from stores as long as the price of going to the store is less than it would be with buying it online and paying for shipping.

 

[Nick1994]

Go to Walmart and grab a jug of Mobil 1 0w30, it's about $25 for a jug.

Go to the Hyundai dealer for the oil filter, Hyundais can be picky with their oil filters and the Hyundai OEM filters are great, and only like $7.

Use this and forget about it while you own the car, it'll work great for the 6,300 miles you plan to put on it.

 

[rhondas]

any brand name synthetic oil with a Hyundai filter you good to go far

 

[sicko]

Originally Posted By: Nick1994
Go to Walmart and grab a jug of Mobil 1 0w30, it's about $25 for a jug.

Go to the Hyundai dealer for the oil filter, Hyundais can be picky with their oil filters and the Hyundai OEM filters are great, and only like $7.

Use this and forget about it while you own the car, it'll work great for the 6,300 miles you plan to put on it.



If you want to do it right, the above would work perfect. Or you can use any synthetic oil of your choice (Pennzoil Platinum, Quaker State Ultimate Durability, whatever Castrol is calling their synthetic now, etc).

If you want to save a few bucks, wait till you put 2.5k-3k miles on it, then do an oil change with 5w-30 conventional. Any conventional will do, so grab whatever's on sale, or most affordable. Mobile Clean 5k is usually one of the lowest priced conventional oils, and yet it's a high quality conventional oil.

Either one will work, and both will protect your engine just fine so if you end up keeping the car you don't have to worry about any potential damage that might've occurred due to the oil.

 

[joel96]

@Nick1994: I didn't see 0W-30 listed in the manual. Mobil says 0W is compatible with heavier weights. I don't know what weight oil or whether its conventional or synthetic is in the resevoir now; should I just pour it in if and when the levels get low, or spend $28.29 and do a full oil change and filter replacement. The owner said the car had gotten an oil change within a month of the time I bought it if that makes any difference.

Didn't look like the filter could be replaced without emptying the oil.

http://www.accent-club.ru/club/accent_manual.pdf
J080A05A-GAT
Says the quantity is 3.49 quarts. Means a 5 quart jug is going to be the most cost effective for an oil change, maybe a second one for as needed fills.

S030B01A-GAT
"SH, SG or SG/CD (API) multi-grade and fuel
efficient oil is recommended."

J080A05A-GAT
The full recommended oil chart.

Mobil 1™ Extended Performance 10W-30 would have a wider temperature range as shown in the manual. It's only a couple dollars more.

I found some OEM Hyundai filters on Amazon for the $7-8 range if the dealership ends up being a problem.

@sicko: pennzoil has platinum and ultra platinum. Ultra worth the extra $3? Castrol has two synthetic products: Edge/Edge Extended Performance and GTX Magnatec. I couldn't find any retailers for GTX Magnatec; Edge Extended Performance is the only one listed in the spreadsheet.

Price comparison between oils discussed in this thread:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1NlL7kjfLhnmjDWDf1eJLfMwGvDemxvKSeVVZMVNza04/edit?usp=sharing
It's page 4 that has the relevant info.

Aside from the Mobil 1, the other brands don't carry 0W-30.

Sounds like sicko's plan is to wait until I put 2,500 to 3,000 miles on it (adding conventional 5W-30 oil as needed; just my guess as to what the previous owner had in it; if not that, the most common is 10W-40 or 10W-30--unknown if mixing viscosity is okay), then do a full oil change with Mobil Super (If I understand correctly, that's what Mobil 5000 is) 5W-30.

Is it okay to mix synthetic and conventional? E.g. I go out and get a 1 qt bottle of Mobil 1 OW-30 and add it as needed.

I'm doing this partly to keep the car in good enough condition to resell, and partly to start learning how to shop for oil once I get a manual of a different brand. I'm not going to mod this car for performance, but eventually I'm going to get a car or some form of transportation that I will be trying to keep in top repair (though if it ends up being too different, the information won't be as applicable).

Thanks for the pointers up until now!

 

[donnyj08]

you drive fast in that thing? my buddy had a 2000 accent and it topped out at 88mph... lol. He used PYB 10w30 every 5k in that 1.5l beast. He sold it at 140k and it burn't a quart every 1k miles. the thing that killed that engine was cold starts and immediately getting on the highway.

I remember him starting it up in the winter, throwing it in gear and running it to 5k RPM in every gear up to 55mph... that poor car.

BTW i live very close to Jeffersonville, IN. Welcome to BITOG!

 

[bigt61]

If you're only keeping the car 6 months, just buy a quart of SuperTech 5W-30 at Walmart and keep that baby topped off. Letting it warm up a minute or two before you put your foot in it wouldn't hurt.

 

[joel96]

"4. I drive hard (fast acceleration, fast decceleration), and fast (20 mph above the speed limits if I can get away with it; 20 mph above posted limits feels fast to me; 75-80 mph is a comfortable top speed)."

SuperTech isn't significantly less expensive than the Mobil 5W-30 conventional; I could try idling it for a few minutes before getting out of the driveway. Every morning for the last week I've poured water on the windows to get enough visibility to make it to work; idling might help defrost faster. I've been driving it at around 2K RPM; at around 70-80 RPM, it's between 3K and 4K RPM.

 

[Yah-Tah-Hey]

.I hope you are single with no dependents and have adequate coverage for medical and/or funeral expenses.

 

[joel96]

What, because of the low visibility/high speeds thing? That, or I guess you could be a hitman or something. Funeral expenses are usually covered by life insurance, memorials are not. Don't happen to know which forum I should ask about what insurance levels and areas of coverage are appropriate for the 2003 accent; wouldn't necessarily account for driving habits.

Now that discussion has apparently died down regarding the OT, I think I'll go ahead with the Mobil Super 5W-30 from Wally World and move on to posting a new topic on the rest of the fluid varieties.

 

[live_to_hunt]

My 2004 Accent gets PYB every 3000 miles it has 169,000 miles and rolling

 

[joel96]

I've read a little more about motor oil on 540rat's blog.
https://540ratblog.wordpress.com/
I asked 540rat about which oil is best for daily drivers, and about the differences in weight, viscosity, brand, and additives, and why certain
high-ranked oils would be not be suitable for daily driver application.
https://540ratblog.wordpress.com/about/comment-page-1/#comment-88
"I read “Tech Facts, Not Myths.” I’d like to see more people adopt the repeatable testing methods you employ. Now I’m trying to figure out if I’m starting to get a rough idea of the concepts and results. I’m trying to figure out which oil is best for daily modern car commuting. I see that you use Castrol GTX for your modern cars (I can see why you’d use it over Motul’s based on the expense, but I’m still interested in the results of the testing).

Thinner oils are better. 0 first number oils are available. The lowest second number is 0. Therefore a 0W20 oil should be expected to be the best.
Oils with higher thermal breakdown rating are better. Therefore, the expected highest rated thermal breakdown should be a 0W0 aka 0W oil. But it isn’t. “0W Mobil 1 Racing Oil, synthetic = 210* F, and this is NOT a typo” There were no 0W20 oils listed in the thermal breakdown ranking. The highest ranked in thermal breakdown at 0W30 is Mobil 1, API SN, AFE, synth at 290F (Syntec is also in the list, but it ranks even lower on the wear protection than Mobil 1 AFE synth).

Improvement potential is superior with Oil Extreme Concentrate compared to Prolong Engine Treatment.

Oils with higher wear protection rankings without additives are better. Therefore, one should expect the highest wear protection to belong to an oil without additives. But it doesn’t–the highest wear protection belongs to a relatively heavy oil with the inferior additive that performed 10* F worse than the 0W30 Mobil 1 AFE: “Prolong Engine Treatment added to 5W30 Pennzoil Ultra, API SN synthetic = 136,658 psi.” The highest ranked non-additive oil is the same heavy oil in the top rank, 5W30 Pennzoil Ultra, API SM synthetic (115,612 psi), above Motul 300V Racing Oil. Pennzoil changed the formula, and the wear protection got worse, dropping it about 20 lower in the ranks. It’s a moot point with the oil and is disqualified due to not being in stock (should be removed from the list; it’s trivial now). This puts Motul 300V Racing Oil as the top performer in non-additive oil. One should expect it to do better than Castrol GTX, API SN conventional–it did 5* F better than Castrol’s in thermal breakdown, and Castrol’s is inferior without additives (and is using Prolong, which is inferior to Oil Extreme Concentrate), and additives do not increase performance as well as an oil with a high wear performance starting point. But it didn’t–Motul’s is inferior by 17,902 psi in wear protection, an 8% difference.

It seems to me that the next set of testing should be on the thermal breakdown of a 0W20 oil (manufactured or formulated by Motul, if possible), and run through wear protection testing three times: without additives, with Oil Extreme Concentrate, and with Prolong Engine Treatment."
540rat didn't specifically address each thing I pointed out, but recommended against oil additives and gave specific reasons why not to use them: "additives can create undesirable changes to an oil’s carefully Engineered additive package."
I'm going to take a look at his test results again, and see if I can find more patterns of oil that seems to perform well in wear tests, is low viscosity, and has high thermal breakdown. Forget what the manual says, I'm going with test results. I wish 540rat would post pics or give more details on his test bench though; research should be repeatable in matching test conditions. He's only able to wear test some oils, and hasn't posted a complete list of thermal breakdowns for every oil that has been wear tested--thermal breakdown tests can be done with simpler equipment, if I've read his description correctly.