Hello folks,
It dawned on me pretty late that I should take care of my cars by myself than depending on the mechanics.
In the past, the mechanic used to use some in-house oil, never told me the brand or if it was synthetic. I used to pay $40 for 3qt of the oil change. The oil change suggested was once a year as I drive less than 4000miles a year, 90% short trips in stop and go traffic. The vehicle has 103,000 on the odometer (acquired in 2010 with 77,000 on the odometer). We were considering trading in this one for another car but now have decided to take it to the ground.
I changed the oil for the first time 2 months ago with SuperTech 5W-30 high mileage synthetic blend oil. Since I don't know if the mechanic used synthetic or conventional and wanted to avoid the much-reported leaking issue, I didn't go for synthetic high mileage but high mileage blend. So far so good.
Since acquiring the car, we noticed the car is very sluggish in winter, very slow acceleration, struggles a lot to go up the hill. I barely get 22.6mpg (Fuelly shows the average of 28mpg). The mechanic never thought these things as an issue as its not a sports car. I was dumb enough to accept this reasoning. But now that I am reading more and more of BITOG, I am ready to play around with various fluids. I thought of changing the viscosity of the oil for winter.
Nissan recommends using 5W-30 in QG18DE engine. I am toying between 0W-20 and 5W-20 high mileage synthetic blend oil for winter. Which viscosity is a better choice?
Thanks in advance.
It dawned on me pretty late that I should take care of my cars by myself than depending on the mechanics.
In the past, the mechanic used to use some in-house oil, never told me the brand or if it was synthetic. I used to pay $40 for 3qt of the oil change. The oil change suggested was once a year as I drive less than 4000miles a year, 90% short trips in stop and go traffic. The vehicle has 103,000 on the odometer (acquired in 2010 with 77,000 on the odometer). We were considering trading in this one for another car but now have decided to take it to the ground.
I changed the oil for the first time 2 months ago with SuperTech 5W-30 high mileage synthetic blend oil. Since I don't know if the mechanic used synthetic or conventional and wanted to avoid the much-reported leaking issue, I didn't go for synthetic high mileage but high mileage blend. So far so good.
Since acquiring the car, we noticed the car is very sluggish in winter, very slow acceleration, struggles a lot to go up the hill. I barely get 22.6mpg (Fuelly shows the average of 28mpg). The mechanic never thought these things as an issue as its not a sports car. I was dumb enough to accept this reasoning. But now that I am reading more and more of BITOG, I am ready to play around with various fluids. I thought of changing the viscosity of the oil for winter.
Nissan recommends using 5W-30 in QG18DE engine. I am toying between 0W-20 and 5W-20 high mileage synthetic blend oil for winter. Which viscosity is a better choice?
Thanks in advance.