Newbie here. LOTS of info on this site and LOTS of opinions. Looking for some help on my 1997 4Runner 4x4 3.4L v6 5spd. I bought it 2 years ago with 152,XXX miles and am now at 199,XXX. I change the oil every 3k-5k miles (average 4k OCI)...been using only high mileage Dino oil (GTX HM, Pennz HM, Valvoline HM, etc...mostly GTX HM though) and Fram filters. I've seen the disections on Frams and will quit using them next time I change the oil. My driving is probably 50/50 hwy and city. I live in Texas.
1) I hear lots of people on this site to stay with 5k OCI's and stick with dino oil if no problems exist, while others here seem to insist on switching to Synthetics. Should I be using Synthetics on this car? And if so, what would that increase the OCI to?
2) Am I wasting money on HM oils? I currently have a valve cover gasket leak, but I'll be fixing that this weekend. Since this car has almost 200k miles on it, I didn't know if I should be putting the cheap stuff in it to keep my maintenance costs down, or if that would nullify some of the life of this vehicle.
3) I changed the oil this past weekend and have a sample for UOA. How do I go about doing this?
4) Would a different weight oil improve fuel economy?
Thanks in advance!
1) I hear lots of people on this site to stay with 5k OCI's and stick with dino oil if no problems exist, while others here seem to insist on switching to Synthetics. Should I be using Synthetics on this car? And if so, what would that increase the OCI to?
2) Am I wasting money on HM oils? I currently have a valve cover gasket leak, but I'll be fixing that this weekend. Since this car has almost 200k miles on it, I didn't know if I should be putting the cheap stuff in it to keep my maintenance costs down, or if that would nullify some of the life of this vehicle.
3) I changed the oil this past weekend and have a sample for UOA. How do I go about doing this?
4) Would a different weight oil improve fuel economy?
Thanks in advance!
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