TGMO 0w-20 6000 Mi Lexus LS430

[airchompers]

Hey Everyone

First time poster, long time lurker.

I live in Minnesota and have always been worried about my engine's health through our cold winters. I park my car in an attached garage overnight (15 - 32 degrees) and park it outside during work (-10 to 20 degrees). I commute about 20 miles to work and back home. I don't usually run trips fewer than 5 miles. It's all freeway driving for me, usually, unless there's traffic, then it's stop and go on a freeway.

And I've heard great stuff about the TGMO 0w-20 so I decided to run it over winter!

My car had 87,500 miles on it when I drained the oil. 6,000 miles on the oil (roughly). I don't really let my car idle to warm up, I think the fuel in the sample is because I only drove my car ~5 miles to warm it up for the oil change.

I'm a little split on what to do for OCIs. I drive my car much more in the winter than the summer ( I ride a 2003 SV650s), I probably put 10-12k miles per year on my car. And I'd rather not drive on 0w-20 for 12k miles, so I'm willing to pony up the cash to change my oil twice a year.

If you guys think it'd be worth it, I'd be willing to get NAPA platinum filters when they're on sale and run Mobile 1 0w30 on once a year oil changes.

But I'm willing to leave the money on the table to go with Toyota 0w-20 since I get such good milage with it.

Without much ado, here's my report. Apologies in advanced if its formatted bad. I'll edit it and/or post a photo!

It looks pretty typical of the Toyota *UZ engine, but I think this if the first published report of a 1/3UZ on TGMO 0w20. Let me know what you think!


Html:


OIL TGMO 0w20

MILES IN USE 6k

MILES 87.5k

SAMPLE TAKEN 4/1/15



ALUMINUM 4

CHROMIUM 0

IRON 8

COPPER 0

LEAD 0

TIN 0

MOLYBDENUM 95

NICKEL 4

MANGANESE 0

SILVER 0

TITANIUM 0

POTASSIUM 2

BORON 10

SILICON 13

SODIUM 17

CALCIUM 1893

MAGNESIUM 39

PHOSPHORUS 646

ZINC 774

BARIUM 0



INSOLUBLES 0.2%

WATER 0

FLASHPOINT ºF 360

SUS VIS 210ºF 50.8

cSt @ 212ºF 7.50

Fuel % 1.3

Antifreeze 0

 

[gregk24]

Looks good to me! I don't think I have seen a bad UOA with TGMO 0w20. Its whats on deck for my Accord. Nice wearing engine BTW, Toyota knows how to build them right.

 

[doublebase]

I use it in my LS460. Right now I'm at 7k miles with it, so I'm due for an oil change. I just bought some Mobil 1 EP that was on sale, so I'm going to give that a try and let it run a little longer, but the TGMO is good stuff.

I wonder what your tbn was at that mileage?

 

[Pesca]

Originally Posted By: airchompers
Hey Everyone

I'm a little split on what to do for OCIs. I drive my car much more in the winter than the summer ( I ride a 2003 SV650s), I probably put 10-12k miles per year on my car. And I'd rather not drive on 0w-20 for 12k miles, so I'm willing to pony up the cash to change my oil twice a year.

If you guys think it'd be worth it, I'd be willing to get NAPA platinum filters when they're on sale and run Mobile 1 0w30 on once a year oil changes.

But I'm willing to leave the money on the table to go with Toyota 0w-20 since I get such good milage with it.


If you want to do annual changes, you'd better go with M1 0W20 EP oil than 0W30. It will do a better job, being a weight 20 oil, and the EP version will take care of the time and mileage.

But nothing wrong with doing twice a year with TGMO either.

 

[Brons2]

Fantastic results, I would get a TBN next time though, that would help you gauge the life remaining in the oil.

Might be able to do once a year on M1EP 0w20 as others mentioned.

 

[wi11iam]

pretty good results, suprised at such a low flashpoint though.

Interesting side-note - I was looking up MSDS for different Mobil 1 oils on their website and TGMO 0w20 showed up on their database.. Looks like TGMO oil is potentially made by mobil 1?

 

[147_Grain]

Welcome to the Forum.

You have a winning formula with TGMO and a twice a year OCI. Stick with what you're doing. Personally, I use TGMO in the winter and Mobil 1 EP 0W-20 in the summer. Either product is fine for your application and a twice per year OCI is appropriate as fuel dilution is starting to creep-up, even though problems with increased wear are still in check.

 

[webfors]

Good report. Watch the fuel. I wouldn't be happy if the viscosity drops & flash drop much lower.

 

[airchompers]

Thanks for the warm welcome!

I probably won't be posting too much, I don't have a lot to add, but I really enjoy reading through the forum.

The viscosity isn't great, but I drive pretty gently so I'm not super worried. My car goes over 2,100 rpm about once a week, maybe.

I think there are two issues occurring -

1) I didn't really warm up my car before I drained the oil. I just drove around until the coolant heated up.

2) My car burns a ton of gas before it reaches operating temperature, I'm sure I was just dumping a ton of gas into the oil whenever I had a cold start. I don't think these engines seal the best when they're cold (check out the chromium wear numbers, they're a tish high).

I think I'm comfortable with twice a year oil changes, I might switch over to mobil 1 in the summer and save a few bucks. I really like the long life properties of Mobil 1, my only qualm is that I wouldn't really use it. I'll probably put 3000 miles on my car during the warm months. Maybe I'll figure out a way to get the Toyota 0w-20 to last a year (new filter, and top off oil?)

Thanks a ton to everyone who commented! You guys rock, and I'm glad to throw this oil report in the face of all the haters who told told me that 0w20 ain't right for my car. But if 5w30 dino does the job, I bet good 0w20 synthetic is fine.

@Webfors,
Thanks for the tip. I see you also have a Suzuki SV*650. I have a 2003 SV650s. It kicks [censored]. I run Rotella T6 in it because I ride when it's freezing. I'll probably mix Rotella T6 and regular to help with the shearing issues.

 

[Nate1979]

There is a Mobil 1 rebate going on right now. Grab it and you can save some money.