oil for short trips

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blank1

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I would not go to a 0W40 unless your owners manual recommends a 40 weight oil. All the oil you suggest will be fine. The oil has almost nothing to do with reaching operating temp. Thats all to do with engine design, thermostat, oustside temp.

The best oil for short trips is a good but inexpensive oil you can change more often. You are likely to get fuel dilution with short trips and no oil can really deal with that. You will need to do a UOA and determine the fuel dilution and when to dump the oil. Going 30-60 minutes on a highway once every week or two will help greatly, but I would not suggest an hour trip just to deal with fuel dilution.
 
I agree 100% with Donald. Fuel dilution will be your main problem and changing the oil will be the best answer. BTW - what kind of car?
 
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Yes, some models suffer excessive fuel contamination. If your model does not, you don't need to take any precautionary measures. Search your model in the Used Oil Analysis forum for this info.
 
my car is unkown to USA.
it is a Seat Cordoba 2003 1.4 107hp.
it is based on the VW polo.
thanks for the answers.
The manual states vw502 and has OCI of 15.000km or 1 year.Due to the fact i do so many short distances i change it every 8-9000km.
I am using castrol 5w40 which is 'light'but i need something lighter.
Because i cant choose can u help me decide which of the above is the best oil for the situation i describe in the first post.
(p.s.
1.i recently rebuilt many parts of the engine due to oil consumption and know 3.000miles after the rebuilt i have zero oil consumption.My car has 130.000km.
2.I also have noisy a bit of noisy hydraulic tappets even with the engine warm..
3.I live in Greece and summer temps go up to 45celcius and in winter never under -3celcisus to the area i live.
4.the manual allows 5w30,10w30,5w40,10w40 for temps for -30c to +50c)
 
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Constantly doing 2-mile trips is amongst the most severe operating condition for an oil. It will never get warm enough to evaporate water or fuel and will quickly get in bad shape. Your engine will spend its whole life in the 'warm-up' phase, with clearances being wrong, fuelling being enriched and oil viscosity being high. This is considered 'severe' service and should mean a reduced oil change interval.

Or, seriously, why not consider other means of transport?
 
sorry for the confusion.
the car is not used exclusively for trips of 2 miles..i take the car to half an hour driving on highway at least once a month.the 2 mile trips are daily because i go to work.There arent any public transportation to that area and is uphill all the way from my home to work.everyday i do 2 miles to go and 2 miles to come back.sorry for the confusion,the car is not exclusively used for this short runs.I do long journeys of 150miles 3-4 times every year.I ran the car hard quite often(dont imagine anything extreme) but this engine is not hard on oil due to its small output..
So which one do you consider the best for my case?
(Sorry for bad english.)
p.s. never seen moisture or mayonnaise on the oil cap.
 
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Originally Posted By: Donald
I would not go to a 0W40 unless your owners manual recommends a 40 weight oil. All the oil you suggest will be fine. The oil has almost nothing to do with reaching operating temp. Thats all to do with engine design, thermostat, oustside temp.

The best oil for short trips is a good but inexpensive oil you can change more often. You are likely to get fuel dilution with short trips and no oil can really deal with that. You will need to do a UOA and determine the fuel dilution and when to dump the oil. Going 30-60 minutes on a highway once every week or two will help greatly, but I would not suggest an hour trip just to deal with fuel dilution.
Or simply dump the oil early and not waste cash on UOA when you know fuel dilution under this sever service driving is bound to happen.

Donald,
Do you believe it is possible NOT to have high fuel dilution problem on a From your experiences are you suggesting a 30 wt or a 20 wt , and what OCI to the OP ?
 
hello,
i want your opinion on my thoughts.
3 questions.
1.The oil that i will choose will be in the engine from this month until christmas,so that includes the summer,so that leads me to my question.In the summer where i live we see daily temps of 45celsius.In the summer my car does the most miles of the year and the use is severe.Everyday trips of 20miles on highway with constant speed betwen 90-110 miles per hour,stop and go city driving(traffic) and the trips to my work daily 2 miles to go and 2 to come back.
So in this case do i need 40weight or a 30weight.Is 30 weight too thin for this temps or it doesn affect the engine..?
2.from TDS i cant understand which of the three is lighter on start up and which is lighter at operating temperature?
3.i know due to short trips fuel dillution makes the oil thinner.So from what i understand M1 0w40 after 6.000miles it will be a 30weight oil and the 5w30s will be 5w20 after 6000miles..Am i correct?Do these 5w30s have special additives to resist at thinning out due to the fact that they are intented for longlife use compared to 0w40??(20.000miles+)?
i dont think this engine is tough on oil.Maybe a little and this is due to the fact that it is a small capacity engine with a little high output for 1.4l engine.
i itend to leave the oil for 6.000miles or 1 year.
sorry for bad english..
the manual allows (5w30,10w30,5w40,10w40 for temps for -30c to +50c)
as long as they meet vw 502.
 
Originally Posted By: blank1
hello,
i want your opinion on my thoughts.
3 questions.
1.The oil that i will choose will be in the engine from this month until christmas,so that includes the summer,so that leads me to my question.In the summer where i live we see daily temps of 45celsius.In the summer my car does the most miles of the year and the use is severe.Everyday trips of 20miles on highway with constant speed betwen 90-110 miles per hour,stop and go city driving(traffic) and the trips to my work daily 2 miles to go and 2 to come back.
So in this case do i need 40weight or a 30weight.Is 30 weight too thin for this temps or it doesn affect the engine..?

I don't think you NEED a 40weight. You need an oil with HT/HS of 3.5cP minimum, and the 502.00 spec assures that already, regardless if it's a 30weight or a 40weight.


Quote:

2.from TDS i cant understand which of the three is lighter on start up and which is lighter at operating temperature?

The differences will be minimal. I wouldn't worry about it.

Quote:

3.i know due to short trips fuel dillution makes the oil thinner.So from what i understand M1 0w40 after 6.000miles it will be a 30weight oil and the 5w30s will be 5w20 after 6000miles..Am i correct?

Not necessarily. An Xw-30 oil meeting VW 502.00 spec will be on the thick end of the 30weight range, which means that even if it's subject to some fuel dilution, it may still remain a 30weight.

Based on the driving patterns that you describe, I don't think you'll have much fuel dilution at all to worry about. Alas, a UOA could help verify that.
 
Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
Originally Posted By: blank1
hello,
i want your opinion on my thoughts.
3 questions.
1.The oil that i will choose will be in the engine from this month until christmas,so that includes the summer,so that leads me to my question.In the summer where i live we see daily temps of 45celsius.In the summer my car does the most miles of the year and the use is severe.Everyday trips of 20miles on highway with constant speed betwen 90-110 miles per hour,stop and go city driving(traffic) and the trips to my work daily 2 miles to go and 2 to come back.
So in this case do i need 40weight or a 30weight.Is 30 weight too thin for this temps or it doesn affect the engine..?

I don't think you NEED a 40weight. You need an oil with HT/HS of 3.5cP minimum, and the 502.00 spec assures that already, regardless if it's a 30weight or a 40weight.


Quote:

2.from TDS i cant understand which of the three is lighter on start up and which is lighter at operating temperature?

The differences will be minimal. I wouldn't worry about it.

Quote:

3.i know due to short trips fuel dillution makes the oil thinner.So from what i understand M1 0w40 after 6.000miles it will be a 30weight oil and the 5w30s will be 5w20 after 6000miles..Am i correct?

Not necessarily. An Xw-30 oil meeting VW 502.00 spec will be on the thick end of the 30weight range, which means that even if it's subject to some fuel dilution, it may still remain a 30weight.

Based on the driving patterns that you describe, I don't think you'll have much fuel dilution at all to worry about. Alas, a UOA could help verify that.

thanks for the reply,the only thing that worries me is the fuel dilution,but only for the months after the summer.I say this because the daily 20miles on highway will occur only on summer..
 
In that case, as Donald said earlier, I would buy the cheapest 502.00 oil you can find and just change it more frequently if you're worried.
 
thanks..
just at of curiosity,based on the 3 TDS i posted at the first post,which is lighter at start up and normal operating oil temp?
 
It depends on how you define "normal operating temp". The specs only list temp at 100C, but your engine may not necessarily run right at 100C. However, as you can see from the specs, Edge would be the lightest at 100C since it has a viscosity of 12.0 cSt. M1 ESP 5w30 is at 12.1 cSt, which is practically just as light. There can be more batch-to-batch, bottle-to-bottle variation in viscosity among the same oil than between these two different oils. And even M1 0w-40 with its 100C viscosity of 13.5 cP isn't all that much thicker.

As for start-up, you need to define the temperature at which cold start-up will occur. Obviously it will be different during winter and during summer. During summer, your cold start-up temp could be 40C. The 40C viscosity numbers have been provided in the TDS. From those, you see that Edge 5w30 would be the lightest, but again, the difference between 70 and 72.8 is insignificant. Once you get down to start-up temps of 0C and below, M1 0w-40 would be the lightest there, but still very close to Edge 5w30. Once you get significantly below 0C (which doesn't happen in your climate), M1 0w-40 becomes the clear winner, at least based on extrapolation given the 40C and 100C viscosity numbers in the TDS. This extrapolation has its weaknesses, so it's only a rough guess. Manufacturers add pour point depressants to oils to allow them to flow more easily at very cold temps - something that you cannot account for just by looking at the two viscosity data points.
 
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