[Senna]

My dealer insist that the correct oil for the GT86 is 5W-30, not 0W-20 like it says in the manual???

Please can someone confirm what is the correct lubricant for my car in the UK climate?

Edited by: Senna

 

[Ade]

manual says use 0W20 but you can use 5W30 if 0W20 cannot be found.....

 

[Senna]

OK, - but why would the dealer not know, - you wouldn't ideally want to mix them ?

 

[Ade]

No idea. The service department probably dont want to pay for expensive 0W20.. of course they will still charge you £65 for it though....

 

[Stu]

It's an interesting point. We sell a car here which on one of our systems (the online service stuff, with diagrams etc) explains the engine requires 0w20, yet our parts system (which the dealers use) specifies 5w30.

Ultimately a 5w30 oil is going to cause more drag than 0w20 in pretty much any scenario, so will hamper your fuel economy to a degree. It's hard to actually see the difference without some kind of a controlled test though (driving the same route each day does not qualify!).

 

[keelerad]

See riceburner's post here he's the after sales manager at RRG Toyota in Macclesfield and has their Red demo as his company car.

He also suggested checking it every 1000 miles as it does burn some

He sold me a 5 litre container of the official Toyota 0w20 at cost as I couldn't find anywhere that stocked it locally, so try your dealers they might surprise you

Alec

 

[Senna]

See riceburner's post here he's the after sales manager at RRG Toyota in Macclesfield and has their Red demo as his company car.

He also suggested checking it every 1000 miles as it does burn some

He sold me a 5 litre container of the official Toyota 0w20 at cost as I couldn't find anywhere that stocked it locally, so try your dealers they might surprise you

Alec

My dealer did surprise me, - he didn't have a clue !

 

[Ade]

he didn't have a clue !

No surprise there!

 

[Senna]

No surprise there!

Fair point !

 

[keelerad]

Maybe I'm just lucky in that my dealers after sales manager has an '86

Alec

 

[Keethos]

It's an interesting point. We sell a car here which on one of our systems (the online service stuff, with diagrams etc) explains the engine requires 0w20, yet our parts system (which the dealers use) specifies 5w30.

Ultimately a 5w30 oil is going to cause more drag than 0w20 in pretty much any scenario, so will hamper your fuel economy to a degree. It's hard to actually see the difference without some kind of a controlled test though (driving the same route each day does not qualify!).

But would it be fair to say that using 5w30 would last a bit longer than 0w20?

 

[en8wall]

Just found Toyota 0W20 on ebay. Quite a lot of it on there.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/GENUINE-TOYOTA-0W20-STOP-START-ENGINE-OIL-5-LITRES-/300705750445?pt=UK_CarsParts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM&hash=item4603759dad

 

[Stu]

But would it be fair to say that using 5w30 would last a bit longer than 0w20?

No, the viscosity grade has nothing to do with how long it lasts. The 'specification' of the oil, e.g. A1, ACEA stuff, that can dictate longevity. For example, BMW do LL-01 and LL-04. The latter is designed for less frequent oil changes, however it's not as good for your engine. You're better off using LL-01 and changing more frequently. Unfortunately things like oil choices very rarely come down to the engineers behind the engine - they're forced to do certain things by the marketing teams, e.g. fuel economy and service frequency, to try and help sell cars. It's often not the best thing for the vehicle itself.


Talking about specifications, I need to get hold of the datasheet for the proper Subaru/Toyota oil and compare it to other 0w-20 offerings on the market (including the Toyota stop/start oil advertised on ebay). Not all 0w-20 oils are the same, which is why when you walk into Halfords you may see the same grade of oil, same manufacturer, but some say "For BMW" and others "For Ford". It's not just a marketing thing in this instance - when you compare the actual datasheets for the oils they can be quite different.


I would recommend choosing an oil as close to the OEM recommended if you wish to retain OEM performance around fuel economy, emissions and wear. Once i've got the datasheet I will create a thread discussing it and comparing it to other oils out there on the market. I'm not 100% sure, but I believe that you don't HAVE to use an OEM oil to retain your warranty, but it has to be of OEM-spec, which should be easily achieved.

 

[Guest]

Kewlio. I'll keep an eye open for that thread. Thank you.

 

[Senna]

That's great. The more factual data we can get, the better.

In the meantime, I am going to return the 5w-30 to my dealer...Edited by: Senna

 

[Guest]

Isn't it likely to be a Subaru spec 0W20 oil anyway?

 

[Stu]

Isn't it likely to be a Subaru spec 0W20 oil anyway?

I've just spoken to a technical chap at Subaru UK and he does not have the actual specification of the oil, only the general spec it must adhere to. He also didn't know who supplies the oil to Subaru, although he did mention Shell does for some of them, but couldn't confirm if the same for the FA20.


The requires specs are API SN or SM, or ILSAC GF-5 or GF-4.


I think the best I can do at the moment is take a selection of oils which have such specification and compare the real data to see if there's much variation between them.

 

[keelerad]

This is what my dealer sold me

Is that the spec info in the 3rd photo ?

There was nothing worthwhile in all the text on the back of the bottle, just don't get in your eyes or drink it in every European language

AlecEdited by: keelerad

 

[Stu]

Alec

Thanks for posting that up. No it's not the spec, however searching around for that product (part number08880-82653) shows it is API SM/SL & GF-4 compliant. Trying to find some proper data on it now.

 

[Ade]

I think I will be putting in mobil 1