10w30-->5w30

Gonna change my oil sometime next week when the weather gets warmer than 36 degrees. I'm considering switching to 5w30 due to the weather, as the manual suggests. Do you guys do this...notice any difference? I've never switched before, so I'm just wondering if you even notice a difference.

Can't say that I ever noticed any difference (I kept the 94 running in the winters when I had her).

Which manual is that? isn't the specified oil 20W-50?? and you should switch to 10W-30?? (I don't have the car manual)

I'm going by memory, but I'm 95% sure that's what it says in my 96 vr4 owners manual...
Yours may be different due to no turbos...just a thought

I was just wondering that exact same thing. Ok i am putting 5w30 into my car right now and i know that is thicker oil right? ok so should i put thicker or thinner oil in my car for winter?

Ive always ran 10w-30 in my car.. then i checked with the automotive store and they said it called for 5w-30. so i got that and i havent noticed a difference

As long as you let your car warm up in the winter its all good.

I was just wondering that exact same thing. Ok i am putting 5w30 into my car right now and i know that is thicker oil right? ok so should i put thicker or thinner oil in my car for winter?

5W-30 is the thinnest automotive oil you can buy lol, little mixed up there. As far as the autostore saying that, better go back and make them look it up on the computer because you CAN run 5W-30 in any car, but that's not the manufacturer's recommendation. Too thin of oil means it won't lubricate the engine as well, leading to more wear (depending on the application). I remember the first time I went to buy oil for an oil change, I asked the guy which weight I should get, he said "5W-30 or 10W-50 will work fine", and I was like, "are you sure I heard something about it uses a different kind of oil". And sure enough when he looked it up it was 20W-50. But if you're going to have to deal with cold weather, i'd recommend 10W-30 and once warm weather hits again back to 20W-50.

5W-30 is the thinnest automotive oil you can buy lol, little mixed up there. As far as the autostore saying that, better go back and make them look it up on the computer because you CAN run 5W-30 in any car, but that's not the manufacturer's recommendation. Too thin of oil means it won't lubricate the engine as well, leading to more wear (depending on the application). I remember the first time I went to buy oil for an oil change, I asked the guy which weight I should get, he said "5W-30 or 10W-50 will work fine", and I was like, "are you sure I heard something about it uses a different kind of oil". And sure enough when he looked it up it was 20W-50. But if you're going to have to deal with cold weather, i'd recommend 10W-30 and once warm weather hits again back to 20W-50.


just freaking great i just got my oil change today and put 5w 30 in it the mechanics there said 5w 30 is no different but i know it is which pisses me off cause these guys are supposed to know these things and help us out.

I don't think theres much of a difference unless you run in extreem temparatures.

Wait, is the 10w-30s just for the VR4s or any model? Because I have a '94 SL and have been putting 10w-30 in there because I thought that was the factory recommended oil. Which one is it for an SL?

20W-50, I thought it was that for both SL and VR4, but I only know the SL for sure. If you want to check, call up your local Mitsubishi dealer they'll have the right stuff. And Thorun is right about extreme temps, but in a high performance engine you're gonna want thicker oil.

y do u put a thinner oil in during the winter?...so its not good to put 5w-30 in SL's?

thinner warms up quicker in the winter, easier to move the engine parts, 20W-50 in cold weather would take a long time for the engine to warm, and make it difficult to start. I would say its not good to put 5W-30 in an SL if you do any hard driving. Grandma probably could, but theres a HUGE difference between 5W-30 and the recommended 20W-50. In winter 10W-30 will be fine, because of the temp. outside. I'm not saying you can't put any of them in, but it's the life your car you're talking about, you're gonna want what the makers suggest.

5W-30 is the thinnest automotive oil you can buy lol, little mixed up there. As far as the autostore saying that, better go back and make them look it up on the computer because you CAN run 5W-30 in any car, but that's not the manufacturer's recommendation. Too thin of oil means it won't lubricate the engine as well, leading to more wear (depending on the application). I remember the first time I went to buy oil for an oil change, I asked the guy which weight I should get, he said "5W-30 or 10W-50 will work fine", and I was like, "are you sure I heard something about it uses a different kind of oil". And sure enough when he looked it up it was 20W-50. But if you're going to have to deal with cold weather, i'd recommend 10W-30 and once warm weather hits again back to 20W-50.

hi geoff,

0w-30, 0w-40 and 0w-50 is the thinnest oil available on the market at present.

the difference between 5w-30 and 10w-30 is minimal, you wouldnt know the difference in any way shape or form.

oil viscosity is recommended depending on your whereabouts in the world and the climate your car is in.

in the uk the spec on oil for a 3000gt is a 15w-40 mineral based oil which is used all year round.

changing the oil from 20w-50 to 10w-30 is a good idea for you guys in the winter as tech auto man suggests but personally i really do think that a 5w-30 oil should not be used in our cars. it is just too thin for our infamous tappets and i feel long term use with this oil could actually cause the tappets to fail completely.

ive been in the motor trade for nearly 20 years and its all very well this new oil coming out with higher specs than ever available for us but you must remember that our engines were produced and built from 1990-1991 and oil specification then was far lower than what they are now.
the tolerences in our engines are far wider than an engine is that has been produced in say 2003 hence oil being refined much more and thinner

the specs on oil for our generation of engine is acea a2 and is available in 10w-40 10w-30 20w-50 and 15w-40. any higher spec than that is good for our engines i.e fully sythetic oil etc but i personally would not go for a spec that is thinner than the ones above

what exactly do the numbers mean?

Okay, not to sound super ignorant or anything but BB, I'm using Mobil 1 10w-30 synthetic oil on my '94 SL. So if you say that's good, I'll just stick with it....so good or not? Hehe Thanks. :)

hi geoff,

0w-30, 0w-40 and 0w-50 is the thinnest oil available on the market at present.



Hmm, never heard of or seen those here in US...learn something new everyday.


in the uk the spec on oil for a 3000gt is a 15w-40 mineral based oil which is used all year round.



So isn't your braking system completely different from the US DOT fluid-based system, meaning the brake line/hose material, etc.?



personally i really do think that a 5w-30 oil should not be used in our cars. it is just too thin for our infamous tappets and i feel long term use with this oil could actually cause the tappets to fail completely.



Agreed.

what exactly do the numbers mean?

It has something to do with the amount of time it takes for a specified amount of brake fluid to completely drain through a specifically sized hole. I don't remember which numbers mean what exactly but I know that's how they come up with the numbers.

ALSO, I just remembered one of the main reasons to be using the 20W-50. It conditions the seals a lot better than a lesser viscosity / weight oil. The reason 20W-50 oil isn't used in all cars in that respect is because it requires higher compression (don't quote me on that but i'm pretty sure).

Okay, not to sound super ignorant or anything but BB, I'm using Mobil 1 10w-30 synthetic oil on my '94 SL. So if you say that's good, I'll just stick with it....so good or not? Hehe Thanks. :)



yes thats spot on as far as i can see regarding your climate out there at the moment. thats a good spec to use.

Hmm, never heard of or seen those here in US...learn something new everyday.



So isn't your braking system completely different from the US DOT fluid-based system, meaning the brake line/hose material, etc.?



Agreed.



no, our braking systems over here are the same as yours, using the dot system on our brake fluids, and the lines are the same too.

Ok, sticking to 10W30...thanks for the advice guys.

i thought 20W-50 would be too thick for our cars? since 1st & 2nd gen lifter holes are pretty small

I'm just going on what Mitsubishi told me, I thought it would be too thick too, but I've never had a problem with using it, just like no one has had a problem with 10W-30. Just wondering what would you use that 0W-30 in? And BB isn't the mineral based fluid better than the polyglycol based fluid in like every aspect that is measured for brakes? (temp range, hydroscopity, etc.) Just wondering why we don't use it here.

yes mineral or silicone based brake fluid is far better but for our systems we can only use the standard polyalkylene glycol fluid as our seals are not designed to take the synthetic formula.
it is commonly known that if you use silicone fluid in a system that doesnt require it, it can actually pass past the seals inside the cylinder and cause brake or clutch failiure due to its slippery viscocity.
special seals are used when this silicone fluid is required in modern sports applications which our cars do not have.if you want to upgrade your fluid,change your system completely over to dot 5.1 instead of dot 4. it has a much higher boiling point and wont fade any where near as quick.

0w-30 oil etc is used in the brand new vw and bmw diesels which is good for 30000 mile oil change intervals. quite remarkable really.thats a long time!!!