Whitey, I’ve never quite “bought into” the planned obsolescence theory.
I am not sure what I said that you are responding to. I don’t think manufacturers are recommending 0W-20 oil because of planned obsolescence. Personally, I subscribe to the “tighter tolerances” theory, and the fact that as refining standards and additives improve, oil doesn’t need to be as thick as it used to be to do its job.
Your cars must be 20+ years old. I haven’t seen any manufacturer recommend two different weights for summer or winter driving in 20+ years.
Second…5w-30 will give you the same protection as 10w-30 during the summer heat. The top end in both of those oil ratings is 30…So you must be reading something incorrectly.
I think the first vehicle that we owned that recommended 5w-30 was my wifes 96 accord…My 98 Pathfinder did too…98 Pathfinder is still running strong after 400k miles…Last I knew the 96 Accord had over 300k miles one it and still going strong.
You need to stop being old fashioned, and understand that engine oils today are way better than they were many years ago. Earlier in the thread I posted this:
In fact, if you look up the PDS from just about any oil company you can pull up, just about every 0W-20 and 5W-20 oil will have a higher flash point listed than the identical oil in 5W-30. Boggles the mind that a thinner oil can endure higher heat than the next oil up the ladder, doesn’t it?
Here’s proof of that too:
http://www…uper.aspx#
Click on the tab for Tech Details, and look at the Flash Point for Mobil Super 5000.
The flash point is higher for the 5W-20 than it is for the 5W-30, and the 10W-40.
Click on the link, and see the temp differences that there are for these oil weights for flash point. There’s no reason to switch oil for summer or winter use, at all.
BC.
I have worked on autos for 28 years, parts are smaller and tolerances are smaller. As for the planned obsolescence comments, it would be far easier with todays computers that talk to every module on the vehicle, to allow the vehicle to detonate occasionally, than to rely on oil viscosity to kill the engine. Even Door window switch modules are on the can bus. Have read on some sites that some full tilt race engines sometimes use 0 weight oil only. And which oil do you think will be more easily wiped from the cylinder wall by the oil rings, 0-20w or 20-50w? And if you read enough you find that oil in the combustion process, meaning not cleaned away by the oil rings, promotes detonation! A very distructive process. So use what you want to. As for all the cams people mentioned being destroyed by new oil. There is a question, were the cams original, what condition was the engine in, poor or freshly restored, or new cams not broken in properly. Flat tappets are notorious for failure with poor breakin procedures. Pointing fingers is pointless unless you have destroyed several engines and can say we did it this way and it failed again and again. GEESH people. For everyone else use the weight reccomended for your engine, or use synthetic like I do in everything including my lawnmower, the lawnmower loves it and uses less fuel.
Billy