Re: Maintainance Change To Fully Synthetic Oil. When?
Posted: Tue Sep 06, 2016 1:28 pm
I'm definitely no expert when it comes to oils, I have just looked into it extensively. I do agree that there is little point on using the expensive synthetics (such as those that cost $100), but I do believe spending say, $55 at 15,000 km service intervals for a good quality fully synthetic oil is a good thing. Oils can be very much a preferential thing as well, some people will recommend certain brands that they personally favour. Alternatively they'll just recommend whatever is cheap, which is fine if the product is any good.
The manual does say you can use a 10W-40 in Melbourne. Probably the most basic way of looking at the numbers is that the first number is the thickness of the oil (how well it flows) at cold, with the upper number the hot thickness (and it scales with different temperature). A 10W oil will be thicker at lower temperatures than 5W oil, which is an important consideration in really cold climates. You wouldnt't want to use a 15W- oil in temperatures where it is -20 C, it would probably be like jelly inside the engine.
There won't be too many times in Australia where a 10W oil is too thick with the temperatures we have. The issue in a modern engine with thicker oils is that tolerances are much less (less distances between moving parts), so you need a thinner oil to get into those areas to lubricate properly. The other issue with a thicker oil is that you will use more fuel in order to pump it around, as it has a higher fluidic resistance.
So basically, the concept is to use the lower first number oil suitable for you car, and only go from that once tolerances have increased slightly due to wear. For the Lancer the manual actually suggests as low as a 0w-20, although that is 'pretty extreme'. I would go for a 5w-40 myself. A 0W oil is pretty thin to begin with, and the 20 means it would become very thin when the engine is warmed up. In this sense though, it's purely a fuel economy thing, a higher second number would actually provide better protection in hot weather. Taking into account all aspects of temperature, wear, and not being fussed about that possible 0.1 L/100 KM fuel saving of using a lighter weight oil, I would go for a 5W-40. If you don't mind spending a bit of extra on oil you could also use a 0W-40, but they're pretty expensive. For example, Mobil 1 0W-40 is $99.75 for 5 litres at Supercheap Auto. The Valvoline 0W-40 is just under $60, however it is only SM rated. You should really only get an SN/GF-5 or later (like GF-6A when they come out, but NOT GF-6B). You can find the basic benefits of SN in different places on the net, like here:
http://www.oilspecifications.org/articles/api-sn.php
I would recommend a 5w-40 personally. There's nothing wrong with a 0W-30 which the car can use, however that may be favouring more on the side of fuel conservation. It's about $63 for 5 litres of Penrite HPR 5 at Supercheap. If you can get hold of Gulf Western Syn-X 6000 5W-40 I'd go for that. You can only get the Syn-X 3000 semi-synthetic at Supercheap which is for older cars, although you may be able to order the Syn-X 6000 5w-40 (fully synthetic) from there, or get it from Autobarn (listed as $54.99 on their website).
The reason for them being a little cheaper is part of the company's philosophy is being competitively priced where you're not just paying for a brand name, or paying more just to give the illusion that the product is better (like happened with Tater Tot pricing in America in the 50's).
The manual does say you can use a 10W-40 in Melbourne. Probably the most basic way of looking at the numbers is that the first number is the thickness of the oil (how well it flows) at cold, with the upper number the hot thickness (and it scales with different temperature). A 10W oil will be thicker at lower temperatures than 5W oil, which is an important consideration in really cold climates. You wouldnt't want to use a 15W- oil in temperatures where it is -20 C, it would probably be like jelly inside the engine.
There won't be too many times in Australia where a 10W oil is too thick with the temperatures we have. The issue in a modern engine with thicker oils is that tolerances are much less (less distances between moving parts), so you need a thinner oil to get into those areas to lubricate properly. The other issue with a thicker oil is that you will use more fuel in order to pump it around, as it has a higher fluidic resistance.
So basically, the concept is to use the lower first number oil suitable for you car, and only go from that once tolerances have increased slightly due to wear. For the Lancer the manual actually suggests as low as a 0w-20, although that is 'pretty extreme'. I would go for a 5w-40 myself. A 0W oil is pretty thin to begin with, and the 20 means it would become very thin when the engine is warmed up. In this sense though, it's purely a fuel economy thing, a higher second number would actually provide better protection in hot weather. Taking into account all aspects of temperature, wear, and not being fussed about that possible 0.1 L/100 KM fuel saving of using a lighter weight oil, I would go for a 5W-40. If you don't mind spending a bit of extra on oil you could also use a 0W-40, but they're pretty expensive. For example, Mobil 1 0W-40 is $99.75 for 5 litres at Supercheap Auto. The Valvoline 0W-40 is just under $60, however it is only SM rated. You should really only get an SN/GF-5 or later (like GF-6A when they come out, but NOT GF-6B). You can find the basic benefits of SN in different places on the net, like here:
http://www.oilspecifications.org/articles/api-sn.php
I would recommend a 5w-40 personally. There's nothing wrong with a 0W-30 which the car can use, however that may be favouring more on the side of fuel conservation. It's about $63 for 5 litres of Penrite HPR 5 at Supercheap. If you can get hold of Gulf Western Syn-X 6000 5W-40 I'd go for that. You can only get the Syn-X 3000 semi-synthetic at Supercheap which is for older cars, although you may be able to order the Syn-X 6000 5w-40 (fully synthetic) from there, or get it from Autobarn (listed as $54.99 on their website).
The reason for them being a little cheaper is part of the company's philosophy is being competitively priced where you're not just paying for a brand name, or paying more just to give the illusion that the product is better (like happened with Tater Tot pricing in America in the 50's).
