I maintain 3 vehicles: 09 Civic R18, 05 Matrix 1ZZ-FE & 05 Lexus ES330 3MZ-FE
The Matrix was acquired about 2yrs ago /w ~135K KM and I got the fluids changed after the first week. Pretty sure it's been on bulk dino its whole life so it was idling rough. I put in M1 5w20 to start cleaning it out and surprisingly the rough idle smoothed out quite a bit. I chalked it up to an overdue oil change even though the old oil didn't look too bad.
The Civic was bought new and initially was on 5w20 PYB, then I tried valvoline synpower 5w20 once which actually made the engine louder so I switched to idemitsu 0w20 in Honda/Subaru bottles for the last few years. There was never any excessive noise with all the different types of oil, but there was a tiny bit of vibration @ idle felt through the steering wheel which is normal for 99% of all cars.
Last week I switched to M1 0w20 AFE @ 15% OLM for the first time /w 85K KM on the OD and surprisingly that idle vibration went away! I could not feel any difference in my hands between the car idling vs turned off. I could still hear the engine but that was it, no vibration through the wheel at all.
I will do this experiment again on the ES330. It currently has 187K KM on it and has been on PP 5w30 every 8-10K KM for half of its life, everything is original so it's starting to idle rough. I can actually feel more vibration through the wheel in the ES over the Civic. For the next oil change I will put in M1 5w30 and see if it affects idle vibration.
So far from what I've experienced, M1 is the only oil that has made a noticeable difference to engine behavior. I don't really care about the extra 1% MPG that M1 0w20 might provide but I do care about a smoother running engine.
The Matrix was acquired about 2yrs ago /w ~135K KM and I got the fluids changed after the first week. Pretty sure it's been on bulk dino its whole life so it was idling rough. I put in M1 5w20 to start cleaning it out and surprisingly the rough idle smoothed out quite a bit. I chalked it up to an overdue oil change even though the old oil didn't look too bad.
The Civic was bought new and initially was on 5w20 PYB, then I tried valvoline synpower 5w20 once which actually made the engine louder so I switched to idemitsu 0w20 in Honda/Subaru bottles for the last few years. There was never any excessive noise with all the different types of oil, but there was a tiny bit of vibration @ idle felt through the steering wheel which is normal for 99% of all cars.
Last week I switched to M1 0w20 AFE @ 15% OLM for the first time /w 85K KM on the OD and surprisingly that idle vibration went away! I could not feel any difference in my hands between the car idling vs turned off. I could still hear the engine but that was it, no vibration through the wheel at all.
I will do this experiment again on the ES330. It currently has 187K KM on it and has been on PP 5w30 every 8-10K KM for half of its life, everything is original so it's starting to idle rough. I can actually feel more vibration through the wheel in the ES over the Civic. For the next oil change I will put in M1 5w30 and see if it affects idle vibration.
So far from what I've experienced, M1 is the only oil that has made a noticeable difference to engine behavior. I don't really care about the extra 1% MPG that M1 0w20 might provide but I do care about a smoother running engine.
