I just picked up a 2004 Mecury Sable with the 24V 3.0L engine. The manual calls for 5w20, I was doing some research and some say 5w20 is too thin. The owner's manual calls for 5w20. If I stick with 5w20 do I risk damaging my engine in the long run? My second question is the car has 12400 miles and I was thinking of switching to synthetic oil. I was leaning towards Pennzoil Platnum because Pennzoil conventional oil has always treated me right. Would Pennzoil Platnum be a good choice?? If I use synthetic could I continue using 5w20? Thanks in advance for all advice.
Need Advice On Which Oil To Use
- Thread starter roadman1977
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First off,
Yes, yes, yes, absolutely use 5W-20. It is NOT too thin...ignore the people who are scaring you with that argument. They do not know what they're talking about. It has given excellent performance, longevity, and UOA (used oil analysis) reports, plus better fuel economy. There are many examples, but one in particular was a policeman who used nothing but Motorcraft 5W-20 on his patrol car (lots of hard use, idling, high speeds, etc.), had over 200K and it was still going strong.
If you want to switch to synthetic, now is a fine time and Pennzoil Platinum is a great oil that can be had for a great price on specials (like now at Advance Auto it's BOGO - buy one get one free). But depending how you plan to drive your car and how long you want to keep it, any good brand name dino oil or blend (like Motorcraft is excellent, but so is Pennzoil, Havoline, TropArtic, Quaker State, Exxon Superflo, Formula Shell, etc.) will serve you just fine.
IMHO, synthetic is only "necessary" for severe service, like high-revving, racing, towing, turbo, lots of stop and go, short trips, etc. or longer drain intervals. Or if you're like me and you just want to be anal and use what you think to the be the very "best" to squeak out as much as is humanly possible out of your engine. For the average driver who may keep his car 100K to 150K and has normal driving conditions, synthetic may be a waste (unless you want extended drain intervals).
Yes, yes, yes, absolutely use 5W-20. It is NOT too thin...ignore the people who are scaring you with that argument. They do not know what they're talking about. It has given excellent performance, longevity, and UOA (used oil analysis) reports, plus better fuel economy. There are many examples, but one in particular was a policeman who used nothing but Motorcraft 5W-20 on his patrol car (lots of hard use, idling, high speeds, etc.), had over 200K and it was still going strong.
If you want to switch to synthetic, now is a fine time and Pennzoil Platinum is a great oil that can be had for a great price on specials (like now at Advance Auto it's BOGO - buy one get one free). But depending how you plan to drive your car and how long you want to keep it, any good brand name dino oil or blend (like Motorcraft is excellent, but so is Pennzoil, Havoline, TropArtic, Quaker State, Exxon Superflo, Formula Shell, etc.) will serve you just fine.
IMHO, synthetic is only "necessary" for severe service, like high-revving, racing, towing, turbo, lots of stop and go, short trips, etc. or longer drain intervals. Or if you're like me and you just want to be anal and use what you think to the be the very "best" to squeak out as much as is humanly possible out of your engine. For the average driver who may keep his car 100K to 150K and has normal driving conditions, synthetic may be a waste (unless you want extended drain intervals).
Lou Dawg, why is syn needed for high revving? Short tripes would be better with short oil changes .Towing ?only if the oil temps get too hot. Turbo? What about all the over the road trucks that get up to and over a million miles on petro oil?
P.S.my gut feeling about the xw/20 oils is they are too thin but there are so many running it with great results that I am running it per tsb in my 2006 Toy 4 cyl pick up.
These are not radical or new ideas...they've been widely recommended applications for synthetics for quite some time.
Turbos on over the road trucks using petro oil is a completely different animal than turbos in cars. It's an apples and oranges comparison...much larger sumps, filters, maintenance schedules, HDEO oils are different, etc. You can't apply that to passenger car turbo applications.
I totally agree that PP 5w20 is the way to go for you. It is a great oil and not too expensive.
I use Motorcraft 5W20 in my 01 Escape (same engine as yours) and Pennzoil Platinum 5W20 in my 06 Mustang GT. I think either is a great choice for your car.
5-20 is all good. Conventional for 5K OCI's and Synthetics if your going longer. Keep a clean air filter/fuel filter in it. Good quality oil filter. Live long a prosper man.
I have rebuilt Cummins and Perkins engines engines and worked on others before I retired from the dealership .Explain to me the differences? I know even more about maintenance schedules .Care to explain ?
5w-20 is fine for that 24v dual overhead cam engine. If it were the 3.0L 12v vucan pushrod engine I would run 5w30. PP and MC are very good oils.
Nope. I'm not going to get into a lengthy debate over why synthetic oils are almost always recommended for passenger cars with turbos and superchargers. They just are, and there are a lot of pretty knowledgeable people behind those recommendations. My original comment was based on those recommendations.
why not mix have PP 5W20 and have 5W30? fair balance.
you must have stock in crude. lol..
lets break it down...
because it flows a little better, I guess... race engines use thin synthetics (5 weight) for faster flow.
most passenger cars don't have oil temp gages, only coolant temp gages, would you want to take a guess at your oil temp while climbing a long hill with a trailer? or just run the synthetic and not worry.
take a look at a VOA of an HDEO, compare it to a VOA of a PCMO. Then take into count that a simple oil analysis doesn't even tell the whole story, many HDEO "petro" oils are sold as dino, but actually contain a lot of hydrocracked base stocks. The soot capacity and oxidation fighting capability of an HDEO is WAY higher than a regular "petrol" oil. But the reasons these oils are designed like this has very little to do with the engines being turbo. It has to do with long drain intervals. 50,000 miles or more is not uncommon. The turbo of an over-the-road diesel is not subject to the same heat problems that small gas cars have, they have huge oil lines and cooling jackets on those turbos, and the engine computer monitors exhaust gas temps to keep the turbo healthy and cut back the output before risking the stability of the turbo or the oil in it.
sorry, /rant off
Motorcraft 5w20 will take that engine further than the rest of the car will go.
Quote:
Motorcraft 5w20 will take that engine further than the rest of the car will go.
You think I should use MC for OCI round #2 or just hop on the PP bandwagon and do that for about 5 more bucks? My OCIs well I wont go over 5k with MC and I have gotten excellent performance results from MC. I have been holding out on going full synthetic just to see how my car runs with mineral oil + some synthetic and it seems to like the MC real good..more so then the Mobil DC dinos I broke the car in with and that surprises the #@$%! outta me. Anyone else get this from going to MC after something else non-full-synthetic? Wow, hard to put MC oil down for 5k OCIs even with PP breathing down its neck. Performance like this they say, the proof is in the pudding. Don't use an oil unless you know you gonna get something in return for buying and putting it in shouls be the golden rule. Guaranteed. The MC did that for me and others as I can see here. I got 200 more miles till I hit 5000 with MC so I'm pretty sure I am going to put it in something this weekend. Will it be the MC, one more time atleast, to see if I can get more "something" more to eek out of it since this would be round 2. Any thoughts?
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