Engine Oil

I'm using Amsoil 0w-30 (severe service) in the crankcase and Amsoil 75w-90 in the manual transmission.

Mobil1, and definately synthetic... its well worth it.

Thanks for sharing, Mr. Ed / fishexpo101 / polo708.

Happy Motoring !!

I know that it's human nature to want to put the "best" oil in your car, and I've been guilty of doing this on other cars as well. Mobil 1 is an excellent synthetic motor oil. The benefits of all of the other synthetics are pretty close to Mobil 1, so you can't go wrong with any of them.

But conventional oils have improved dramatically over the last few years. They're far better than the oil your parents used in their 2-ton rust buckets. I've been using cheap conventional oil in my '95 Corolla (primarily Super Tech - the cheap stuff) and I now have 211,000 miles on my car.

So you have to ask yourself how long you plan on keeping your car, and whether the added cost of synthetic is worth it. If you had a high performance car that saw some track time or if your engine was going to see sub-zero temps before the next oil change, then that's a different story. In my opinion, it's better for the engine to have frequent oil changes (3-4000 miles) and keep the oil level topped off than spending the extra on synthetic oil.

Maintaining your new vehicle on a regularly scheduled basis is the best insurance towards long vehicle life. Follow the factory recomendations carefully. I recommend using the sever schedule for oil & filter changes. I've only used regular oil on my 1987 Camry. It's a daily driver with over 253,000 original miles. It's never had an engine or transmission rebuild. I don't really think it matters if you use synthetics or dino oils as long as you make certain you change on at regular mileage distance and do not go over. You decide if that distance is 3,000, 5,000, or 7,500 but stick to it and your new car will last for a very long time.

I think the best advantage of synthetics is the longer change intervals. You can go as long at 15,000 miles on synthetic oil. I personally would go 10,000 for mostly highway driving and 6000 for mostly city driving. UI belive the Toyota manual recommends 7500 miles.

The old 3000 interval was for big pushrod enignes with poor tolerances, crappy rings, poor air filters, leaky gaskets, low quality gasoline, and teh oil broke down relatively quickly.

IT's not hte 1970's onymore, you donlt need to change eht oil so often. The oinly ones telling oyu you should shops and oil ocmpanies because they make mor emoney if you change it more often.

In my '03 Corolla LE automatic I am using Mobil 1 5W30, changing it and the genuine Toyota 90915-YZZA2 oil filter (Filtre a Huile) each time. My driving is almost totally short-trip city driving, and this "super severe" service requires more rigorous maintenance, IMO. I'd consider extending my oil change interval to 4,000 miles if I were on an extended trip and couldn't change right at 3K, but always try to change it as close to 3K as possible.

So Synth oils the same filters are used? (don't konw much about synth's you might have noticed ;-/)

You still change at 3K with Mobil 1?

I'm using 10W-30 Valvoline with good result...however, I'm getting 1 to 1.5qt oil burn-off at every 3000-4000 miles.

I just purchased:

Castro 10W-30 High Mileage - 6 bottles

Castro 10W-30 Synthetic - 6 bottles

I will use my 10W-30 Synthetic first...then switch to 10W-30 High Mileage.

The Castro oil is on sale this week at Pep Boys (well, in Southern California locations, anyway). for $1.79 per qt....that's a STEAL!!!!!

- uchok00