Ready for oil change. Is this oil ok?

As long as the oil specs meet the requirements listed in the owner's manual you're ok. I doubt the service stations or dealers previously used anything as good since they would not routinely use a blend. I use the same weight (5w30) Mobil I all year for my cars and have always gotten good service.

 

It meets the American Petroleum Institute's SL/SM grading, and ACEA A1, which is pretty tough. It looks like a good one.

 

All depends on what Toyota Australia uses, which can be different from what we use here in North America

I haven't been to Oz in over 7 years, last time there I stopped in at a Toyota dealership in Sydney to look at models not sold here, such as the diesel Landcruiser

I casually asked the service fellow what sort of oil they used, he replied "15W-40"

Given your hot temps, especially in the interior, that makes a lot of sense

 

Synthetic BLEND is a waste of money. Most blends are only 30% synthetic...

Either go full syn or regular dino.

 

Gotcha.. that's bizarre. Most of the Pep Boys/Kragen/O'reillys/Family stores here carry the full line of dino (from Penzoil to Mobil1 regular), very few blends (mostly Valvolines) and tons of full synthetic (from Mobil1 Extended to Royal Purple, some stores even have Amsoil, Redline, and other JDM oils).

 

Perhaps you should continue using what most others use in your country. The last thing you probably have to worry about is a "cold" start in temps < 0 C

If even the dealership refills with a 10W-40, 15W-40, etc, there is probably a good reason why they do so

Uart lives in Australia. I have been to Oz a few times on business (Petrochemical consulting), in addition to the Mid East, and some African and South American nations

The tendency is to use either a 10W-40, 15W-40 (Same oil used in a diesel motor, which is much more commonly used in those countries), and even a 20W-50 grade

A 5W-30 would be either impossible to find, a very expensive special order, and/or perhaps unwise to use due to the extreme heat in those countries

 

Ah, you connected the dots for me...that makes sense.

 

Hard to imagine its much worse than Death Valley in southern CA, the NV desert, or even here in southern AZ during the summer months...

 

Yes, I recall my 1976 VW Dasher and 1988 BMW 325i convertible used 20W-50 oil; it's pretty amazing that 20 years later, 0W-20 is the standard in the latest Toyota engines.

 

Different locales have different standards. If I lived in a locale that used 15W-40, I would probably do so too.

Even when other markets specify a "light" oil, like a 0W-30, it tends to be "heavier" than the oils sold here. For example, the 0W-30 used in the EU market to satisfy VW's oil change interval of up to 2 years or 30,000 miles

It will test around 12.1 cSt at +100 C, compared to a regular 5W-30 sold here that tests around 10 cSt at +100 C.

Obviously, to meet the extended drain interval, VW and Castrol felt a heavier oil was necessary. Especially driving conditions that may include autoroute speeds near redline

The only way to know for sure if a given oil and viscosity will work for you is to perform used oil analysis. My Prius had good results with either Mobil 1 0W-30 or Mobil 1 0W-20, so I chose to run the 0W-20 year round.

My FJ had quite dramatic differences with oil, having quite poor results with 0W-20, but excellent results with either Mobil 1 0W-40 or the made in Germany Castrol Syntec 0W-30.

 

Good stuff, BMW recommended oils. Had both on my 330, liked the Castrol 0w30 from Germany because of smoother engine and came out pretty clean every 7500 miles.

 

I'm currently running a 5W-40 synthetic in the 4 litre V6 of my FJ Cruiser - same motor as the Prado sold in your country

No difference in fuel economy, motor is very quiet. Running a 0W-20, my FJ motor sounded like a bunch of marbles in a coffee can.

I'm running Mobil 1 Turbo Diesel Truck, and the only way I will know for sure if this oil works well is in October, when I do a used oil analysis

If your temps rarely dip to 0 C, you can pretty much run whatever you want. When the temps dip to -40, you have to use a lot more care in choosing a proper viscosity