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Camry -- uses about 3/4 quart every three months -- Cure?

Discussion in 'Fred's House of Pancakes' started by cyberpriusII, Jul 31, 2014.

  1. Troy Heagy

    Troy Heagy Member

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    Car manufacturers advise against using additives, since oftentimes they cause more harm than good (like dumping crud in the oil pan & then blocking the oil pickup) (oil starvation).
    I don't see how pouring slick 50 teflon Particles will cure anything..... there's a reason he FTC fined them several million dollars. More likely the particles will clog the passages & starve the downstream areas of oil.

    best ideas:
    - Get used to changing your oil every 4 months. A problem engine should have more frequent changes to always keep clean liquid inside of it.
    Try switching to SYNTHETIC 5w-30 to help remove crud left by inferior natural/conventional oil (it leaves behind wax and viscosity index modifiers). Mobil 1 diesel oil 5w-30 would be a good choice, because the oil is designed to capture & hold contaminants in suspension.

    - If the leak persists a year later, then go with Mobil 1 oil at 0w-40 (same stuff used in Porsches and other factory fills). It's slightly thicker but not thick enough to block passages. I ran my 90s-era car 360,000 miles on this stuff.
    - I think 20w-50 would be a bad idea, especially when starting the engine on a cold morning. I run 5w-50 in my Beetle TDI, which is thinner at startup, but I don't recommend that for a gasoline car. I think 0w-40 or 5w-40 is the maximum I would go in thickness.
     
    #21 Troy Heagy, Aug 15, 2014
    Last edited: Aug 15, 2014
  2. GregP507

    GregP507 Senior Member

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    STP and all the other oil thickeners has been around for ages, and they are made for unscrupulous people who want to sell a car that was excessively burning oil. It temporarily slows down the oil consumption, but it also hastens the inevitable destruction of the engine.

    The "W" refers to "Winter grade" oil. For most engines, the range for 20W50 is about 15°F to 105°F. 15W50 goes -5°F to 90°F, 10W40 goes -20 to 40°F, and 0W30 goes to -30°F. Using a block heater basically makes these low-temperature numbers irrelevant. Here in Canada, I haven't used a block heater for years, since I started using 0W30.
     
  3. Troy Heagy

    Troy Heagy Member

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    A block heater doesn't solve the problem of 20W oil too thick for the pump to pull it from the pan. You wouldn't want to use a 20W or even 10W in Canada or the neighboring states. The W rating is still relevant.
     
  4. GregP507

    GregP507 Senior Member

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    It depends on the time left plugged in. Eventually, after a few hours the oil pan warms up also. It's quite common here to leave your vehicle plugged in around the clock in cold weather.