Engine oil brand name

Hi Vanne, what brands of 5w30 can you get locally? If not 5w30, what about 10W30?

Kendall makes some good oil, but so do most of the major brands. Castrol, Shell, Valoline and Mobil

 

Hello, Vanne.

I've heard several folks say good things about Kendall oil, so that would be a good choice.

I also see that Valvoline is being sold in Cambodia. Valvoline is a good name, and has a good product.

I'm unfamiliar with oils from your area, but your temp spread shows that 5w-30 would be a good choice. 10w-30 would be as well. I wouldn't think a 40w would be all that beneficial, but it could be used in the hot season if anything lighter was unavailable.

Have fun with your new ride. Good luck!

 

Hi Vanne. What brands and viscosity (eg 5w30, 10w30 etc) can you get locally?

 

IIRC Pat Wong uses straight mineral oil on a relatively frequent change interval, perhaps every 3 - 5k miles.
Just another option if nothing better presents itself.

 

Actually, I use 5W30 full synthetic oil (Mobil 1, Castrol, or Valvoline brands, whatever is on sale at Walmart) and change at 7,500 mile intervals.

The Prius is not a Ferrari or Porsche, any reasonable 5W30 oil that is certified to meet API (American Petroleum Institute) standards (SN is the current standard) would be fine.
http://www.api.org/certifications/engineoil/categories/upload/motor_oil_guide_2010_120210.pdf

 

Apologies for the misrepresentation. For some reason I have this memory of a picture of pristine looking engine valves, and you telling Jay mineral oil was the agent.

 

Your recollection is correct and I posted that photo several years ago. However, recently there isn't much difference in price between brand name mineral oil vs. synthetic oil and I decided to move to synthetic oil around 4-5 years ago.

 

What Patrick said...

 

Personally I think that a good name brand mineral oil will still lubricate fine, provided that you're careful not to leave it in too long. A good additive pack is the most important thing. Full synthetic seems to be more beneficial where you really need a low cold viscosity without sacrificing high temperature viscosity stability. I'm guessing that in Cambodia Vanny is never running at less than about 65F anyway.

In Australia the price of full synthetics is a bit ridiculous, like Mobil-1 at about $90 for a 5L jug. So I've been using Valvoline Durablend 5W30 as it's about half the price of Mobil-1 here. I haven't had any problems with this choice, the engine always sounds smooth, not even a single rattle at start up, and the oil always looks good when I drain it. .

 

That's good, make sure you keep the oil topped off so that it stays between those two dots, that's the most important thing.

Yes the Valvoline Durablend is quite a good oil. It's "dexos1" rated, which is more stringent than the basic required API ratings. The 5W30 is a fairly thin oil (for optimal fuel economy), but in your climate it wont really matter if you can only get 10W40. http://www.yellowpages-cambodia.com/listings/kh44289-vhk-business-group-co-ltd

Most of the Castrol lubricants we get in Australia are blended in south east Asia, mostly Malaysia or Singapore. So you may also have good access to Castrol lubricants. Is so, Castrol Magnatec and Castrol Edge would be also good options. Here the "Egde" is more expensive and available in 5W30, while the "Magnatec" is less expensive, but most readily available in 10W40.

 

The transaxle needs 4 US quarts of Toyota ATF WS. In the US, four US quarts will cost around USD40.

The transaxle ATF should be replaced at 60K mile intervals. This is a simple drain and refill procedure. There are many posts about how to do this simple job. Basically, you need a 24 mm socket to remove the drain and fill plugs, and a funnel with a ~3 foot long flexible tail to make it easier to add the new ATF. Tightening torque is 29 ft.-lb.

If you find out how much Toyota ATF WS costs in your area, that will help you to judge how reasonable a USD120 price is.

 

The Prius transaxle definitely uses Toyota ATF WS as lubricant fluid, not motor oil.

I don't know what "wheel are a bit tight" means.

 

If the steering wheel feels tight, that has nothing to do with the transaxle.

 

Mobil1 is an excellent oil. It's a bit pricey here in Australia though, which is why I normally use Valvoline or Castrol.

The "gear oil" they're referring to is actually the ATF (automatic transmission fluid). As Patrick said, make sure they only use "Toyota ATF WS". Price should be somewhere in the region of about double what a normal engine oil change costs. The fluid is a bit more expensive, and there's slightly more labor (though not really that much).

The "tight" steering sounds like a problem. The Prius has power steering and the steering wheel should be very easy to turn. It sounds like there may be a problem somewhere with the power steering.