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5w30 In 2009 Corolla S

by alex38, February 5, 2009 in Toyota Corolla (2009 until 2018-19 “TNGA”)



Hi guys, just a quick question, and I admit I may be thinking too hard about this... Anyway, the recommended viscoscity for the 2009 Corolla S is either 0w20 or 5w20. However I have 45-50 quarts of 5w30 left over from my previous car. It's all full synthetic, mostly Valvoline Synpower, but also some Pennzoil Platinum and Castrol Syntec. Any reason I shouldn't use this stuff in my new Corolla? I figured that a full Synthetic 5w30 should be about as thin and provide as good or better protection than a 5w20. Please advise, as this is my first car that's called for 5w20 or 0w20. Thanks!

Hello and welcome to the forums.

The 5w-30 should be OK to use, as long as your ambient temps are above freezing and because they are synthetic oils. Don't expect super, stellar fuel economy though, as I suspect the change to thinner oils was for CAFE fuel numbers. But honestly, it probably won't make much of any change in fuel economy in the long run. Toyota also back spec'd the later 9th gen Corollas to run a 5w-20 motor oil. Those were spec'd to run 5w-30, according to the manual and on the fill cap.

Thanks! Just wanted to make sure I wasn't overlooking anything, and that I wouldn't do any damage to the car. This forum is AWESOME! I've found a ton of very good information on here. Thanks again!

Guest Maddman

Alex,

DO NOT use the synthetic in the car unless you are planning on using synthetic from now on. You can't go back to regular oil after that. Just to let you know I build the Corolla in Canada and we use a semi-synthetic in the motor already. You need to use the 5W-20 or the 0W-20. It might void your Powertrain warranty if you change the oil. Not many people know that but if you put the wrong oil in the car that not is recommended if could damage your engine.

Dose your car have the flash mod for the oil consumption?

Alex,

DO NOT use the synthetic in the car unless you are planning on using synthetic from now on. You can't go back to regular oil after that. Just to let you know I build the Corolla in Canada and we use a semi-synthetic in the motor already. You need to use the 5W-20 or the 0W-20. It might void your Powertrain warranty if you change the oil. Not many people know that but if you put the wrong oil in the car that not is recommended if could damage your engine.

Maddman, you are an idiot.

 

1. switching between types of oil will not cause engine damage execpt in the rare instance that one additive package from one brand does not react well to another add pack from another brand, running M1 full syth and running M1 extended drain conventional will not cause problems.

2. yes, you should use whats indicated in the manaul, however changing your own oil will not void the warranty. 10points of weight difference (20-30) will not kill the engine. if he was going to put in a change of 20W-50 then yes that would cause harm.

Alex,

DO NOT use the synthetic in the car unless you are planning on using synthetic from now on. You can't go back to regular oil after that. Just to let you know I build the Corolla in Canada and we use a semi-synthetic in the motor already. You need to use the 5W-20 or the 0W-20. It might void your Powertrain warranty if you change the oil. Not many people know that but if you put the wrong oil in the car that not is recommended if could damage your engine.

Maddman, you are an idiot.

 

1. switching between types of oil will not cause engine damage execpt in the rare instance that one additive package from one brand does not react well to another add pack from another brand, running M1 full syth and running M1 extended drain conventional will not cause problems.

2. yes, you should use whats indicated in the manaul, however changing your own oil will not void the warranty. 10points of weight difference (20-30) will not kill the engine. if he was going to put in a change of 20W-50 then yes that would cause harm.

Hey Bitter, you gotta switch to decaf.

I will say that you are correct. Switching from dino to synthetic oils and back will not harm an engine. What do you think a semi-synthetic is made of anyway.all that discussion was of older engines that may have seals loosen and leaks occurring from switching to synthetic oils ,not engine wear.

Changing the viscosity of an oil will not hurt either unless you go extreme and put way too heavy oil in. remember that most of today's oils have a wonderful additive package. As long as your oil does not get old and crushed by wear , the viscosity will remain constant. If anything it will lower the viscosity over time.A 5-10 point difference in viscosity will do no harm.

Yes , the gas mileage will be slightly lower. I have proven that myself by using 10-40 high mileage to fill in when I burn a quart. My mileage goes down a point or 2.

No warranty will ever be voided by improper oil .The only warranty voids I see are for letting the car run on low or no oil. Who the heck is going to find out unless you put gear oil in and some dealership mechanic sees it.

default_laugh sorry, just get soooooo tired of hearing that misinformation day in and day out and all day long.

the whole 'synth oil makes you leak' was from WAY back when synth oils were new, rubber seals were made of the same stuff your tires were, and additive packages consisted of tossing some sulfur into the oil mix. back then synth oils did make seals leak, but with the new fangled nitrile of about the last 20 years its not really a problem anymore, with modern adpacks its also not really a problem anymore, and not to mention it was iirc it was one specific type of synth oil that dried seals, i can't remember which one it was off hand, pag, pao, ester...i'm sure fish knows...i'm too young to know any of this stuff.

Hey thanks for all the info guys! The consensus seems to be that I'm ok with the Synthetic 5w30 in the engine. I realize it's not exactly what the factory recommends, and I'll be switching to synthetic 5w20 in a few oil changes when I've used up the 5w30. If it was just regular 5w30 dino oil instead of full synthetic, I wouldn't worry about it going unused, but I've got quite a bit of money's worth of full synthetic 5w30 sitting around that I'd hate to have go unused. I also find it troubling that no Toyota dealer in the area has the correct filter wrench available. What exactly are they using on people's cars that are brought in? As a former dealer employee, I'm not surprised. People would be shocked at some of the careless acts that go at at some places.... Anyway, as suggested elsewhere, the 65mm 14 point wrench works perfectly, the 65/67mm could end up rounding off some corners of the cartridge cap.



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