5w-30 too thin?
 

alright so i got lazy and i decided to take my car to the dealer for an oil change they put in 5w-30 and said it would be fine.. i live in southern ca where night temp drops to 50ish no where close to 0c... but yeah do u think it would be fine if i just replaced it every 2500 miles?

what car and what setup?

turbo or not, mods, mileage on motor, what are your daily temps?

its 87 stock na with 130 on the motor

I think u will be fine but to be honest I would be running a 10W40 or higher

if u really dont feel good about it or you have some reservations toward it just chenge it out or if it were me I would bring it back and explain to them u perfer something a bit heavier with a better protection range

yeah thats the heaviest grade that have there tho...maybe i'll just wait until the next change and put something heavier?

The heaviest a dealer has is 5w30? :scratch:

From the FAQ...

In starting and operating temperatures below 20F, use 5W30
In starting and operating temperatures between 0F and 80F, use 10W30.
In starting and operating temperatures above 30F, use 20W50

yeah i'm thinking of bring it back to them and showing them the FSM

so 10w-40 is better than 5w-30, should i go with royal purple then? mine is a 88 gxl

I dont like royal purple. I think it is a "gimik" oil but its up toyou just remember royal purple is a synthetic oil

..... look what i started another oil war......... i just hope that the 5w30 doesn't cause any harm due to the upgrades in oil standards...

it wont cause harm just driving it normally. but i would go with a heavier weight next change.

10w30, not 10w40, people

yep 10w40= crappy. Sludges faster due to a higher concentration of polymers in the oil.

dpf22

i would prefer 20w50 i use it in a tII an works just fine for the past year or so.......

i have an 87 n/a and my shop gave me 10w-30 but im pretty positive "all data" tells you that not that everyone just has all data but hell autozone could tell you what oil you need (because they use all data to)

well i called up the dealer they said that have an updated oil chart and it sounds like bs to me and they said that it shouldnt cause any damage...

I use 20w50 year round. Regardless of what Autozone or whomever says, I'm going to go with what's printed on my hood and in the Owner's Manual. :)

AMEN

I change weights based on temperature, according to the FAQ we have in this section. I'm currently in between 5w30 and 10w30. Once it starts hitting 80F again, I'll switch over to 20w50.

I honestly will always use a 20w50 or something close (15w40 etc)

Im guessing that being in FL, I should just go w. 20w50 year round eh?

personally.. I would however this is one of those "to each their own" deals

yup, read all the information you can and make the choice that works for you.

I switched to Royal Purple 5W20 because people here said I shouldn't! After learning about oils and how/why they work the way they do, I decided to switch. I'm not scared. It's been over 5 years, 50,000+ miles and still going strong! Synthetic oils are fine and as long as your engine has oil in it, it's fine. Tons of bad info going around when it comes to oils (among other things) and rotaries.