It's now time for an oil change on my '95 Civic. The owner's manual I downloaded recommends 5W-30, but here in the Philippines all I can find is 10W-40 and 10W-50. People look at me strange when I ask for
We're located very near the equator, very hot tropical climate and it never snows; is it safe to use the thicker viscosities? Will it affect mileage noticeably?
BTW: Does it even make sense to buy multigrade oils here?
Thanks.
That near the equator the 10W-40 should work fine.
Mike
"sharx333" wrote in news:1170200732.013650.206780 @j27g2000cwj.googlegroups.com:
Multigrade, yes. 5W-30, no. The manual you downloaded was almost certainly intended for US use and US climate.
Use either 10W-40 or 10W-50 and don't worry about it. 5W is too thin for tropical locales.
Plain 30W oil will work. The lower number isn't very important in a hot climate.
10W-40 probably works too but I've heard that it's more prone to burning than 10W-30 unless it's synthetic.
You certainly don't need 5W-30, but those wide viscosity range oils have a bad reputation for breaking down. 10W-30 would be acceptable. What is the lowest temperature you ever see? I am guessing that your teeth start chattering at 18C ;-) If that is the bottom you could even try 20W-40 as long as you don't hear any noise at start-up.
I doubt if you notice any drop in mileage. I guarantee you will get better mileage than running 5W-30 in Chicago next weekend when the temp hits -20 C.
Today it's a 'freezing' 26C (79F), people are already saying it's too cold :) Thanks for all the advice. After reading your replies, I went out and got a 10W-50 synthetic (Top1).
I've never tried synthetic before, but I know better than to start a thread about synth vs. dino.
Thanks again!
A truly wise man!
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