switching from 10w30 to 5w30?

I can't think how using the recommended weight would be a bad idea.

 

lift the front of your car first (jack or ramps) while the engine is on, then turn the car off, immediately remove drain plug and get your hand out of the way really fast, the oil will be very hot and will flow out of the car faster and more completely. If possible lift the back of the car so the car is level and let it drain longer than usual, this is my procedure for switching oil weights or switching from regular to synthetic.

 

You don't give us the most important data and thats where do you live.
The first value is the oil's viscosity when its cold. That will be the thinnest it gets at a certain very cold level.

So if you live in a cold climate thinner oil in the cold is very good so you have oil flow when the car is freezing and it will be possible to turn the engine over easier.

The other value is when the oil is hot.
I live in Florida so I do not need a 5-XX weight oil. I run a 10-XX.

If I lived in maine I would run a 0-XX weight oil. And outside of these parameters it doesn't matter if you bounce every other oil change.

Do yourself a favor and don't bother changing the oil when its hot or tilting the car.
You can burn yourself real good and its a moot point anyway as there's pockets in the engine where you could let it drain for a month and not get the oil out completely.
Just dump it. Remove the filter. Clean the filter mount area. Fill the filter half full with new oil. Put filter back on and tighten it. Fill it up with new oil.

 

I'm sure if he's run 10w30 the past 5 oil changes he lives down way south. I'm just wondering why he wants to go to 5w30, whether he has moved north or is trying to get better fuel economy, or for some other reason.

 

There is no impact in switching back to 5W30 other than you will probably get slightly better mileage and the car will shudder less when shutting off the engine.
You don't need to do anything special when changing the oil. The two grades are so close anything you do will only satisfy -your- idea of what is right.
5W30 is fine anywhere in North America. I'd recommend synthetic if you're in a northern border state or Alaska, but even that is overkill. It's kind of like "what fuel should I use". If it's called gasoline and burns you can use it. If the oil is labeled 5W30 with the correct API rating and called engine oil or motor oil you can use it.

We're not driving a racing car here.

 

No. Do it.

Why did you start using 10W-30?

 

Yes we're not racing so we only need 87 octane, but don't tell us there's no difference b/t gas stations. TopTierGas.com will tell you which gas stations in America and Canada offer a sufficient amount of detergents in their gas through extensive scientific testing. Buying gas from these retailers yields better mpg and a cleaner running engine.

Where I live I have to buy Shell or BP, I can only achieve 51mpg in the summer when I buy from these gas stations. When I lived out west I was able to get over 52mpg but only after I discovered Chevron gas, which in my opinion is the best gas you can buy for your car in America. When I buy cheap gas I can only achieve 49mpg in the summer . . . so as with many things in life you get what you pay for with gasoline.

 

Ugh, I read somewhere, don't remember where, since I've been all over the internet reading about the car I just bought. Aren't you suppose to use this stuff?

Toyota SAE 0W-20 Synthetic

 

There are other's who are more authorative than me. My understanding is that Gen II should run the 5W30 and the Gen III should run the synthetic.

Synthetic's tend to last longer, give better mileage, and also cost more.

In the wife's car, we use the standard 5W30 that the stealer put's in it. Yeah, I am lazy, but I am also disabled. Besides that, they will rotate the tires and check everything for me while it is there.

Ron

 

Don't worry about it unless and until you notice that the car is burning oil. Otherwise you're just pointlessly increasing wear and reducing fuel economy.

 

Several here (even us Gen II holdouts) on PC switched to 0w-20 before it was popular ... much less before the manufacture gave permission, on a limited scale. There's always someone who'll read about us 0w-20 users doing just fine ... for years and years of care free 0w-20 oil use, plus better mpg, and feel they need to immediately counter - "no, don't do it" ... and so that's why I don't bother trying to win folks over.


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...when the time comes that you are losing oil, you may want to switch to something like Mobil-1 5w_30 High Mileage formula. But I am at 100K not losing any oil, so now using Mobil-1 0w-30 Advanced Fuel Economy to get better MPG in northern climates.

Price check at Walmart the other day was $26.48 for 5-qt Mobil-1 bottles. I only need 3-qts to refill.

 

Oh god don't use that oil. Thats dealer dinosaur vat oil. Most people here use synthetic as you can go 10,000 no problem and its much better than dino oil.
Just bring the dealer 3 quarts of Mobil 1. Then when you get home add another 3/8th's of a quart. if you give the dealer 4 quarts they'll throw them all in and you'll be overfilled.