Cold-weather Stuff

I use 5w-30 year round, as I have with every car since 1984. I did switch my

1996 Ford Ranger to 5w-20 when Ford changed it's recommend oil. I have never had any excessive oil consumption or engine problems. On my motorcycles I have used their recommended oils of 20w-40 for Yamaha and 10w-40 for Suzuki as on the air cooled engines seem to be a lot harder on oil.

Going back to 5w-30 after using 10w-30 may cause more consumption. You will have to try it and see the result for your engine.

On your cars, I assume they are turning over ok? If not may need battery heaters for -10F weather. Their are block heaters but still need high power overnight.

Blair

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You don't have enought clearance in the wheel wells on the Outback Sport???? You must be joking, right? On my 2005 there's like 2-3 inches between the tire and the wheel well covers. Waaaay more than on Outback. I was surprised to see hardly any on the one I saw at work. Looks like about 1-1.5" or so.

I use 5W-30 in mine and I live in California.

10W30 in the other car that does not ever sees any snow. Just bit the bullet and went to walmart. $7-8 for 5qt of dino and $14-15 for supertech synthetic.

Can't comment on the heater but I think you need a cold weather package up there with heated windshield, mirrors, seats and just about anything else. Dunno if that is available on the cars sold in the US.

David, I would strongly recommend changing to synthetic oil. It does not thicken nearly as much when cold. This should ease strain on stater and allow it to spin faster when cold. This has worked well for me in 7 years in Montana. You can get 5w-50 and use it all year. Sparky

David Buchner wrote:

I don't blame you for missing it in my overlong post, but I did mention that I'm already using Castrol synthetic in the car -- have been since just after it was new. In my Toyota pickup, I actually went and had the trans oils replaced with synthetic too, which eliminated most of that gooey-gearshift feeling in cold weather (you know it's bad when the engine stalls when you let the clutch pedal up in neutral).

I've always been vaguely suspicious of those super-broad-range viscosities. If this oil is really okay at all temperature ranges, of 5W through 50 oil -- then why do they also make a 10W-30 and a 5W-30? Just for stubborn customers? What?

That's weird....it was 20 here this morning and the neighbors POS 1992 Ford Escort fired right up. My Ford truck fired right up, and the 'ol ladys Honda Civic fired right up..... Doesn't say much for Subaru's engineering does it? P.S. they ALL live outside, in the driveways and DO NOT have any accessory heaters installed.

Doesn't say much about your intelligence to draw a universal conclusion from a coupla' anecdotes.

But, please - keep posting. You are so entertaining!

Carl

snipped-for-privacy@wcta.net (David Buchner) wrote in news:1hrxlsw.1xh157s1pf09hxN% snipped-for-privacy@wcta.net:

It's my understanding that the auto manufacturer sets the lubricant specs based on what's right for the hardware they designed. Normally they design for commonly available consumables and people driving under average conditions. The owners manual will specify a different viscosity range or different type of lubricant under extreme conditions. Sometimes the engineers crowd the limits and it takes specialty lube to cover the error.

For a while I drove a '92 Nissan Sentra SE-R with a 2.0 engine. To get proper oil flow to the upper end and keep the valve train from rattling I had to run 0W-30 Synthetic year 'round. I've heard some Isuzu Troopers had similar problems.

The wide viscosity range is a feature of synthetics. With conventional oil you start with a base stock that comes closest to your specs, then use additives to extend its range. With synthetics you have in effect a "designer" base stock and can greatly extend its range with fewer additives. The whole field is an incredibly complex subject and I've probably over simplified it to a degree that would make a petroleum engineer cringe but the explanation matches my experience in the real world fairly well. :-)

If you enjoy anecdotal evidence so much, consider this: not one of the three Subarus I own/ed ever failed to start even in the coldest weather (-20F).

I did have one of the early SPFI models get into a "failure loop" around that temp. It was cranking slow and dumping a lot of raw gas into the intake. When it fired the o2 sensor got wet with fuel and the ECM leaned the mixture until it quit running. After two or three attempts I ran out of battery. Fortunately it was stick shift and after a bump start everything cleared out. It doens't get that cold here often enough to know if it would have been a recurring problem.

What's weird, is that you'd be bothering posting here if you're so annoyed by the group's subject. But anyway:

1. There's quite a difference between 20 and -10
2. Its battery was overdue for replacement anyway. I put in a new one and it will start. I just like pre-heating it a bit before starting when it's really cold, cuz I figure it's easier on the engine. What I'm doing for now is plugging in its accessory heater, plus one of those 300W or so magnetic ones stuck to the bottom of the oil pan.

Oh well. Shoes for industry.

the *meaning* of multi-viscosity oil weights is that they behave like the "w" part in the winter and the other part in the summer. so, for warm weather, 5w30 and 10w30 (and plain old 30) are all equivalent. but when it's colder, 5w is a lot "thinner" than 10w, making it easier to start (and more fuel efficient, which is probably why most manufacturers recommend it). so what you're doing makes no difference at all (except for your collection of half-bottles).

Not to start an argument, but my XT-6 manual specifically states, do not do continuous high speed driving with 5-30 oil, only with 10-30 or thicker. Must be a little more to the lower thickness parts of the oil than just winter temperatures?

~Brian