Stepping it up a grade for high mileage

SR5

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The tradition here (Australia) is not to run high mileage (HM) oil, but rather step it up a grade after something like 10 years / 100,000 miles. Eg from a 20 to a 30 grade, or a 30 grade to a 40 grade oil as the car ages, and it now carries a small amount of wear.

In fact they hardly sell any HM oils in Australia, plus all oils contain seal conditioners, and I don't believe seal conditioners do much for modern viton seals anyway.

Anybody else do the same?
 
I am still running 5w30 in my car SR5... And my car is nearing 300,000 miles
smile.gif


My car hardly ever has burned much oil in the time I have had it. And o got the car with 39,990 miles when I got it. So far... So good.

Hope you have been doing good. Always good to see you on here.
 
Having 225K on my Tacoma now, I've considered going to a 40W, but haven't done it yet. The truck uses zero oil, and the M1-EP 5W-30 seems to be doing fine in it.

I am a believer that heavier oils do have the potential to reduce wear, however.

It's something I've gone back and forth with. Whether to change up what I'm doing. Because, what I've done so far with my truck, has worked quite well. Only things under the hood I've had to change in almost 13 years have been batteries, air filters, spark plugs, and, I did have to change an idler pulley because the bearing started making noise.

Not even a check-engine light yet.
 
Originally Posted by SR5

Anybody else do the same?


Yes, for a slightly different reason. I have two vehicles under warranty. Due to CAFE, they both call for 5w-20. As soon as the warranty is up, I switch to 10w-30 in hot Texas. By that time the engines will have some wear on them, and tolerances will have increased incrementally. It works out.
 
Originally Posted by SR5
The tradition here (Australia) is not to run high mileage (HM) oil, but rather step it up a grade after something like 10 years / 100,000 miles. Eg from a 20 to a 30 grade, or a 30 grade to a 40 grade oil as the car ages, and it now carries a small amount of wear.

In fact they hardly sell any HM oils in Australia, plus all oils contain seal conditioners, and I don't believe seal conditioners do much for modern viton seals anyway.

Anybody else do the same?

If you have a high mileage engine that means it was probably mfg some years ago and there's a good chance it has some NBR seals or a combination of NBR/FKM (Viton) seals. Even in newer vehicles NBR may be used in certain places because of it's better performance at very low temps (Viton hardens below -25c) or where the part isn't static; NBR has better resistance to tear/abrasion. While FKM (Viton) is, by design, very resistant to plasticizers/chemicals, there are some esters that will react. Whether or not that's in your HiMi formula is beyond me. You might be more apt to find them in specialty products like AT-205.
 
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I'd hold off until I had an issue that needed to be addressed. Having said that I run either 0W30 or 5W30 grade oil in all my vehicles.
 
In the old days that was common. I haven't had the need to step up in many years. I have also never used HM oil.
 
Brothers early HSV Maloo ute has over 500k Klms on BP Vanellus 15/40 all its life. He also runs Castrol Edge 10/60 in his other twin turbo LS2 powered ute since the turbos went on 10 years ago.

I did step up from Mercury 25/40 to Penrite Racing 15/50 Poa Ester oil for the 8.1 Mercruisers in my boat and noticed no top up oil was needed between annual changes compared to tops with the 25/40. Fourteen year old motors with 650 hours.
 
Originally Posted by hatt
I stepped up from CAFE oil the first oil change.

I did that with my Rubicon. I ran my Liberty on the "CAFE" oil for a few years and decided 5W30 was the better suited "for me."
 
I have never had to go to a thicker oil. If your vehicle is not burning or leaking oil I would keep running the recommended oil. If it's not broke don't try to fix it.
 
Originally Posted by joekingcorvette
I have never had to go to a thicker oil. If your vehicle is not burning or leaking oil I would keep running the recommended oil. If it's not broke don't try to fix it.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ THIS^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

If your vehicle is showing signs of needing high mileage oils, first try the same viscosity numbers as prior. If after a couple OCIs the leaks and/or consumption plague does not improve, kick the viscosity grade up to the next numbers..... ie..... 5w20 to either 5w30 or 10w30.

Are there any 0w40 or 5w40 high mileage oils?..... I haven't looked for - nor seen any.
 
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Ha-ha....I walk into a competent auto shop and buy 40W for my 45 year old Sensation lawn mower with a Briggs "rotating valve" engine.

"I'm moving up from 30W because the engine is so old", I said.

The counterman said, "If you've been taking care of it, it should still do OK with 30W. Remember, you're not a commercial operator. That engine has fewer hours on it that you think".

DANG!
 
You do realize that most of these engines requiring 0W-20 grade engine oil are "world spec" engine oils not "CAFE oils", right? The California state legislature has nothing to do with it. This has been shown again and again repeatedly, by someone actually looking at the owners manual for Japan, Europe, Asia, Oz etc. for the same make/model of car and posting it. Same 0W-20 for all of them.
 
I'm running 10w-30 in my Suburban with 290K miles just because the only remaining jugs of 5w-30 at Walmart looked like they had been run over by a truck. But it does not leak or consume any oil. I'll be switching to 5w-30 next time.
 
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Originally Posted by wdn
You do realize that most of these engines requiring 0W-20 grade engine oil are "world spec" engine oils not "CAFE oils", right? The California state legislature has nothing to do with it. This has been shown again and again repeatedly, by someone actually looking at the owners manual for Japan, Europe, Asia, Oz etc. for the same make/model of car and posting it. Same 0W-20 for all of them.


You can find just as many examples of conflicting oil grade recommendations in different markets.

Subaru FB20 engines spec 0w20 in the US and 5w30 in euro markets.

Toyota 4L v6 1GR-FE specs 5w30 ONLY in the US. Australian manuals have a range up to 20w50! in appropriate temps.

CAFE is real, and it's effects are real. Anytime a market that makes up a large percentage of the industry imposes specific requirements you will feel trickledown affects into other markets. Economies of scale at work. It doesn't mean that 0w20 is the second coming.
 
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