xBino

I just took my girlfriend's car in to get an oil change, but I noticed that they didn't service with 5W-30 grade oil. I asked the attendant if they would for my box, but the guy said that they could fill it with 10W-30 and my car wouldn't know the difference.

I'm not sure whether to believe him, but I'd hate to stop getting oil changes there. He charges $19.99, takes about 30min, and I can walk home to take care of things if need be.

Any mechanics know the skinny on oil grades and whether 10W-30 will wreck my xB?

Thanks!

djct_watt

Unless you live in a very cold climate, you don't really NEED 5W-30, but I personally prefer it. 10W-30 won't kill your car if you live in mildly cold to hot climates.

Ashe_WCM

Heres the problem I have with that....
For some reason, you have engine trouble and the dealership notices you have 10w-30 instead of 5W30 they can void your engine warrenty.
On a side note I got my oil changed at a dealership here and the maintence man used 10W-40, I didn't watch and the recipt didn't say what type of oil , but when I got the vehicle back it felt sluggish. I pointed this out to the Service Dept. and after they did a bit of investigating they discovered the wrong oil was used, and replaced it with the correct oil.
No issues after that, other than I'm never going back to that dealership.

LavaBox_v1

Toyota reccomends 5w30 ... The only different is that a 5w30 that oil will act like a 5 weight is cold weather and a 30 weight in warm weather. With a 10w30 in cold weather the oil will act like a 10 weight and in warm weather it will act like a 30 weight. There is no big difference in the oils. The 5w30 is a little thiner of an oil in cold weather but nothing that will be noticable unless you live in a climate where its below 0 all the time ... Running a 10w30 is no problem.

Just by looking you can NOT tell the difference between 5w30 and 10w30 ... it will NOT make your car perform any different. As I stated above the only difference is the cold weather weight of each oil. You will not lose performance and you will not gain performance.

Toyota has OEM 5w30 Toyota Oil and also OEM 10w30 Toyota Oil. Both oils are Branded Toyota and meet the Toyota Spec. They use the 10w30 on the higher milage, older cars. Mobil makes the Toyota OEM oil for Toyota. If you go to your dealership and they use the Toyota 10w30 it will not void any warranties. Sometimes they will use the 10w30 if they run out of case goods 5w30.

Hope this helps!

Daemon1313

lavabox has it dead on. The only way you would ever even be able to notice any difference is if you were starting your car in sub zero climate.

Cockpit_XB

you live in Ca. so use 5w-30 or 10w-30 all day long bro, it really wont hurt the car.

HIN_tC

It depends on the dealer as some service and parts dept will order oil in bulk from a distributor where they order one grade of oil and it stored in a large tank and when the mechanic goes to parts dept for the supplies needed for the oil change the parts dept has a control to dispense the amount of oil needed for your vehicle at the bay your mechanic is working at. At other service and parts dept the parts dept will hand the mechanic separate quarts of oil to complete your oil change.

LavaBox_v1

The company I work for in Staten Island is the OEM Toyota Oil distrubtor. All Toyota dealerships buy OEM Toyota 5w30 and 10w30 in Cases ... The bigger Toyota dealership have 5w30 and 10w30 in bulk tanks ... Some of the smaller ones have only 5w30 or 10w30 in bulk ...

Now here is where it gets tricky ...

Not all Toyota dealerships are on the Toyota OEM BULK Motor Oil Program .. .which means if they are NOT on the program they have crap 5w30 or 10w30 in their bulk tanks ... If they ARE on the program they have Toyota OEM 5w30 or 10w30 in their bulk tanks. Toyota does NOT require each dealership to buy the OEM BULK 5w30 or 10w30 but they will not warranty the engine if OEM 5w30 or 10w30 is not used on cars still under warranty.

Pimpe_Ok

im in utah and my diller buys chevron oil in 5 30 and they even told me....

xBino

It helps very much thank you! I love learning new things.

Scott17

This is absolutely incorrect. Many dealers use local suppliers like Mobil, Pennzoil-Quaker State, Amalie,Castrol,...etc These are not necessarily "crap" oils. My dealership happens to use Quaker State 5W-30 synthetic blend. Nowhere does it say you have to use OEM oil for any reason. You only need to use oil the meets the minimum specifications outlined in your owners manual. I actually dont know of any dealer that uses "crap" oil. Why would they?

Pimpe_Ok

true but if they were to use it, its cuz they are a shisty place and they want to sell cars!!!

LavaBox_v1

Alot of dealership use crap oil becuase of the price ... They won't tell you, but I have delt with alot not just Toyota but Honda, Ford, GM and yes 2 or 3 Mercedes dealerships were using crap oil in their bulk tank. Oil is getting expensive and people don't want to pay it ... Not all dealerships want to pay for quality product.

Quaker State along with Castrol and a few other comapnys do NOT make their oil ... they buy the oil from all the bigger companys at which ever one has the best price for a few million gallons at a time and they package it and market it.

LowProMofo

LavaBox is right. My dad has owned and run an oil business for over 40 years. A lot of dealerships will buy the oil in bulk and the lowest price they can get. But that doesn't mean it's crap oil. All oil is the same at the start of refining. It's the additives that companies add to it. If Toyota uses Mobil then it's a good oil. It's Exxon oil cause they bought them out some years back. But you don't need to buy "Toyota" oil because you can save money by just buying Mobil.

LavaBox_v1

Its the additives and to what extent they refine the oil. Mobil uses a Group 4 base stock which is the most refined oil you can use. They are the only company that uses this process because they invented it. All other companys use a Group 3 base stock or less.
Yes Exxon bought Mobil but they still have alot of different products. Since Mobil went to their new line of oil they don't have anything Motor Oil wise that is the same as Exxon ... Some of the ATF's are a little same but Mobil still uses different additive packs then Exxon!

shangtsung

Actually with 10W-30 your fuel economy will go down. 5W-30 is rated as "energy conserving" whereas 10W-30 is not.

LavaBox_v1

It will not be a noticable difference ... maybe like 1-2 mpg ... nothing like 5-10 mpg ... It also depends on if its Conventional, Semi-Synthetic or Fully Synthetic ... There are a few factors that go into gas mileage also ... but you are right that 5w30 is the "energy conserving" oil!

djct_watt

Most of the difference will be at start up. . . once it gets heated up, the difference gets real small.

UnFocused

yeah, it even says in our owners manual that you can use 10W30, but the next oil change needs 5W30


on a side note. my dealership in my town is a Toyota/Dodge dealership. they do not sell Scions ( closest scion dealership is 100 miles away!).

They pump in PENSOIL oil into all the cars they service!

Needless to say, I hand the guy who changes my oil 4 quarts of 5W30 Toyota Oil, and a Toyota oil filter, and they only charge me 10 bucks!

I bought toyota oil off line cheap!

jmiller20874

^^^^ If you have the oil and filters, then why not just do it yourself?