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Any appreciable gain with 0w-20 oil?

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Fuel Economy' started by PriusGuy32, Dec 13, 2012.

  1. 2007blueprius

    2007blueprius Member

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    if you reffering to mine is 45k, as for the hystory , I looked it up it was done at the dealer, so I assume oem spec oil,
     
  2. 2007blueprius

    2007blueprius Member

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    12k december 08 $26.95
    25k december 10 $26.95
    26k march 11
    30k july 11,

    oddd, looks like it changed hands, on this note, I had noticed when I first saw it, a bit of valve noise, it was cold, looked like fresh oil, 43k at that time, had some recent work done, fendebender, looked like they just changed the oil. noise went away as it warmed up, I also noticed it since on cold startups, especialy when my wife was flooring it up to 45mph, imediately after a february cold startup, but what do you expect, I figured the atkinson may sound a bit different than what I am used to
     
  3. frodoz737

    frodoz737 Top Wrench

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    Sorry...kind of put you and PriusGuy32 together. Same logic...used motor.
     
  4. 2007blueprius

    2007blueprius Member

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    if you don't mind what did you have to pay for the car? just asking because we live in the same area, have simmilar cars and we purchased them at about the same time, I thought they were a bit overpriced when I was shopping the resale value was considerably more that similar conventional cars
     
  5. wjtracy

    wjtracy Senior Member

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    Toyota (in a letter to one Prius Chatter) has said the 0W-20 was OK for the Gen-II as long as you maintain the 5000 mile drain interval. However, I am sticking to 0W-30 (winter) and 5W-30 (summer) as per Frodoz. I use Mobil 1 synthetic, and I will go usually 6000-7000 miles between filter and oil changes. If I want to stretch it further I will go with Extended Drain interval Mobil-1.
     
  6. uart

    uart Senior Member

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    Wow, trying to read all of that "comma separated stream of consciousness" nearly made my brain bleed!

    Anyway, I'd make the point that any effort to reduce your oil "footprint" is going to be in vain if you end up with a smoke blowing oil burner in a few years. Particularly as you've said you want to keep it until the wheels fall off. In terms of the environment and your own wallet, you can't really beat just sticking to a good maintenance schedule.

    The oil change interval that you can get away with depends a lot on type of duty that the oil is under. With a good quality synthetic you can certainly get away with nice long drain intervals if the duty is mostly long trips, particularly long but easy cruising. If you drive more short trips, particularly under 20 min where the oil generally wont warm up adequately, I wouldn't recommend pushing any high mileage drain intervals.
     
    Merkey likes this.
  7. frodoz737

    frodoz737 Top Wrench

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    The Prius engine starts and stops frequently "by design" in effort to reduce fuel consumption when not in cruise mode. Though I am willing to have faith the engineers made some compensation for this, that is still "severe duty" or "city miles" to my thinking. Actually I consider most metro driving "severe duty", but that's me.
     
  8. PriusGuy32

    PriusGuy32 Prius Driver Extraordinaire

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    Sure! Private message sent :)
     
  9. css28

    css28 Senior Member

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    As I understand it, the engine is being spun up to speed (950 RPM?) before fuel and spark are administered, so some of the conventional badness (delay in oil pressure, power impulses at low cranking speeds) probably don't apply.
    More troubling to me is the extent that the oil never warms driving in colder climates. I have a 20 mile commute (each way) and this time of year my coolant doesn't even reach the thermostat setpoint until 12 miles into the drive (when I enter the freeway) because much of it is coasting at 40-50 mph before that point. I guarantee you my oil isn't even reaching 150 ° F, day in, day out. I am, of course, running synthetic oil and that probably helps save the day.
     
  10. uart

    uart Senior Member

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    I agree css28. In of themselves I don't consider these repeated warm starts to cause severe duty on the oil. It's only in relation to the low duty of the engine under low speed driving conditions (so indirectly related to the ICE stop start) that can cause "severe duty" for the oil - if it results in the oil not reaching adequate operating temperature.
     
  11. uart

    uart Senior Member

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    Whoops, double post.
     
  12. 2007blueprius

    2007blueprius Member

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    yes I'm funny like that, my ears smoke if I think too hard.
    you do make a good point, most our drives are 20 min or less, its a good Ideea just not sure if its for me , those extended intervals may be better suited for such that log 30k /year, weve always averaged 10k or less, at 15k woukd take me year and a half.

    thanks for your input
     
  13. Britprius

    Britprius Senior Member

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    In the Uk where the change interval with 0w20 synthetic is 10,000 miles it is also time limmited to one year, so for those that only do low milages the time limmit for change would come into force before the 10,000 miles.

    John (Britprius)
     
  14. uart

    uart Senior Member

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    You're probably best to stick with 5k to 6k max then. There's still no problem with using full synthetic, but you might get better value for money with a regular oil or part synthetic. Modern API SN oils, even ones that aren't full synthetic, still do a great job of protecting and cleaning over a standard drain interval.

    You mentioned Valvoline Nextgen before. Their Maxlife Nextgen 5W30 is 50% recycled and meets ILSAC GF5 and Dexo1 specification. These are more stringent than the basic required API specs in terms all the categories "engine wear" and "cleanliness/deposits" and "fuel economy". If you're interested in recycling I wouldn't hesitate to use it.
     
  15. frodoz737

    frodoz737 Top Wrench

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    Any appreciable gain using 0w20 on a GEN II? Not likely. Any added risk? Maybe depending on your cars history, mileage and duty cycle.

    If I owned a GEN II, I would use 5w30 or 5w40 if nearing 100K miles. Cold winter season, 0w30 or 0w40. Would always use synthetic and change with filter every 5K miles.

    You asked, but like I said, what do I know. Wait...or do I? Respectfully, ya'll decide for yourselves based on your own conditions and desires, because it is your car. (y)
     
  16. 2007blueprius

    2007blueprius Member

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    i've been using the next gen highmileage for some time now, can't complain, and its a syntetic blend, I know my prius is only 45k thou those highmileage additives can't possibly hurt it, its been mentioned before, good maintenance makes a difference, that beeing said its easyer to maintain valveseals and such, rather than trying to restore them after 75k/replace, maybe thats a proper choice this time, go for 5k, also i belive last time i checked it was $15 for a jug, also I have been using supertek, wallmart generic, for some time now, they are supercheap and better built than some upscale fram, I read about them years back, better media, backflow valve absent in most frams, forgot all the details, saw a thread with cut filters of different kinds, made a choice to use them than and they never gave me any trouble since, just a thought each make their own choices
     
  17. 2007blueprius

    2007blueprius Member

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    here's another thought thou, guess the prius is more of a userfriendly car, one thing I miss is a full set of gauges like oil pressure in this case, a tack and watter temp would not hurt, I read about these scangauge, thou I believe they are pricey, I haven't read through the owners manual, I dont even have one,
    What are ones options to monitor such readings, it would be nice to have them displayed on the touchscreen, I know its not so much related to this topic but if you're going to experiment with oils some gauges would be nice.
    so 5w30 is the factory spec, and otherwise recomended for the summer, lesser weights are best in the winter if anything, am I making any sense?
     
  18. Britprius

    Britprius Senior Member

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    My gen2 is at 90,000+ miles uses no oil between 10,000 mile changes and has used 0w20 synthetic oil from the first change. I do not know what oil it was shipped with, but I assume it was Toyota spec 0w20 oil as this is listed as the oil of preferrence in the 2008 handbook. So I do not see there can be any "added risk" using this oil.

    John (Britprius)
     
  19. Britprius

    Britprius Senior Member

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    There is no mechanism in the Prius to measure oil pressure appart from the simple oil preesure switch, so that a scan gauge or any other OBD device will not register oil pressure. Water temp and revs can be displayed.

    John (Britprius)
     
  20. 2007blueprius

    2007blueprius Member

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    apreciate your feedback, I'm seriously considering it myself, I believe they all would do the trick and lubricate the motor, if anything its a performance thing, and if you consider the price diference from europe to states, everylittle bit helps therefore toyota makes diferent recomandations based on region, personaly I am interested in beeing as efficient as can be, even if gas and oil are afordable in my area, doesn't mean I should be that ignorant, and burn more than I need, its an engineering and principle thing