Oil, why not follow owner's manual recommendation?

Reno is hardly sierras. It's on the other end of the slopes. Thick oil makes sense for you unless you go skiing all the time.

Yeah, it took me like 30 minutes to warm my brother's car up while I was waiting for him to get off the slopes in Tahoe. I guess the oil shop poured 20w-something for him. I would imagine the engine was not doing so good despite the load until the coolant temp needle have finally moved.

Why there are so many subarus in palo alto? It makes no sense, the inhabitants are no longer in new england: old habits die hard or they want to get out of california hell back to the east coast. who knows

Maybe not downtown Reno, but western Reno is definetely Sierras. I am at 5000 feet above sea level, that is about 500 feet above downtown. There are plenty of houses several hundred feet higher, well into the Sierras. The city has grown.

I forgot to add that the car is garaged.

The Lake is at 6000 feet, but the water has a moderating effect on temps. Morning lows are not much cooler than in Reno, sometimes higher.

A lot of Asians buy Subarus. It is a fairly well regarded marque in Japan.

The thin/thicker oil debate is kind of over in the US as the public was convinced that thinner oil means better protection at start-up (this is not necessarily true). Now it is basically a race for the thinnest most watery fuel saving thing, ...oil, pardon me. Honda will soon introduce cars that run on 0w-10. If gas goes above 6$ who knows what else will come. Supposedly, a guy in Miami was denied warranty by Ford, because he was was using 15w-40 in his Lincoln.

In Miami, of all places. Weird, very weird.

Basia

Here in New Zealand the owners manual for my 02 GT Legacy (twin turbo) recommends SG 10W-30,SH 10W-30, SJ 5W-30 The car was built in Japan and the manual is a translation of the manual for a JDM.

I run Castrol Magnatec which is 10w 40.

They've been around and common since the late sixties - and poor quality ones have been a problem since day one. Many a lifter noise problem and overhead oiling problem has been directly contributed to by certain brands of filters that have been notorious for leaky drainback valves. A lot of them were orange

It IS true. When I was in Burkina a number of years back, NOTHING recommended anything thinner than 10W40 - but then again it was HOT over there. 15W40 and 20W50 were very common.

So you are disputing the competence of a fairly large and well reputed automaker? They could've licensed wenkel. Someone got to guzzle gas in these overly prius times.

Oh, and I know this does not apply to you specifically, since you run synthetic but here there is a lot of bitching from people who inherited their cars from americans and found their engines fairly sludged up, presumably because of the all american preference for dyno oil. Or lack of preferences (anything-will-do) resulting in the oil change chains pouring the cheapest low grade stuff.

Its not about competence it is about choice, and being informed,.

Car and oil manufacturers have a preference for fuel conservation these days. It comes at a cost! Diagrams like these (I forget what they are called-spider?) show specifics:

I actually wanted to buy a Prius, but it is bad in the mountains.

I think the American habit of using dino oil in low revving, push-rod or large displacement engines is very sensible. Sure there is a cost to it, some sludge in later engine life.

Basia

imho amsoil is expensive and would be wasted on a $20k car.

Speaking from experience? I don't like that car but I don't see why would it be bad on long steep overpasses of I-395 at two digit speeds. Automatic tranny could not shift down far enough?

I was not talking about large displacement engines. Most of the cars imported from the states are low displacement since tariffs are 1.5 less per cc under 2.5Liters where I live. I guess like you said it did not register with the majority of the populace these ain't the small block days anymore.

straight 40 as in 40 viscosity no mattter what the temps ? As in 40w-40? :-----------------------O

Yeah, cheap castrol 20w-50 is what I used in all of my cars and bikes while i lived in Norcal. If I were unfortunate enough to subject myself to that again I'd probably use 10w-40.

Considering that amsoil seems to make even less sense for most people who I assume are in the same boat with the machinery that eats up a quart or two in 2000 miles. my yamaha Gts1000A was gulping something like a quart to the tune of 300 miles or so. Not that I mind.

It seems that high revs go hand in hand with oil guzzling.

Basia, I hope you don't take this wrong, but it's so rare to see a woman in these tech news groups, especially one who knows as much as you do. Are you an engineer or something? Just wondering, not because I think women are not capable of such things. They just don't seem to have other interests.

Thanks Cameo, ...you flatter me, I invite you to visit my youtube page:

I sure could use a dash cam like that. But those SF streets seem to be almost deserted. That's not how I remember them.

The camera was actually roof mounted, in a box placed on thick rubber foam to dampen vibrations and bumps. The whole setup was attached to the roof with plenty of duct tape. The streets are empty cause it was a Sunday morning.

I remember not being able to keep up with a pictured Corvettes acceleration. These things are fast compared to a 2.2 L Subie.

Basia

Test driven only. It doesn't handle corners at higher speeds nearly as well as a my Subaru. AWD, and a boxer's low center of gravity make a difference. The heavy Prius battery sits fairly low, but still, it is not a very good car for handling.

During summer only.

Las Vegas can be beastly hot. 100+ temps, from early June till middle of September, all day long. There is a difference between 20w-50 and straight

Similarly here. GM's V6, both 3.8 and 2.8L, had almost no oil consumption.

Higher revs can make up for smaller size/displacement, but at a cost. Nothing is perfect.

Basia

Your car must have looked like a Google mapping car then. ;-)

Should have thought of that.

I wonder what the Corvette driver must have though of you chasing him/her. Could have been an interesting situation.

:)))))

The atmosphere is festive in SF and particularly Castro, during Pride week, ...mine wasn't the only car/Subie chasing them :))). It was a pair, Jane and Terry, celebrating their 26-th year together, and a poster couple for the gay community. The didn't mind.

Basia

Yes, Prius is not a driver's car. I knew that and that alone pushes it off my current and future shopping lists.

I was curious though about your claim that it does not have enough power in the mountains. When I was perusing I-395 there were no priuses in existence hence i never saw one in action on long steep upgrades.

Well, V6-8 coupled with an automatic are hardly even trying to make use of the power they are capable of providing. no surprise here.

ok, I want to clarify that I do not consider oil consumption to be a flaw.In my view it's merely a feature of relatively high revving 4 pot engines.

True - to a point.My Corolla and Tercel in the '80s never used more than a quart in 3000miles with over 200,000 miles on them. My 2.6 MitsuShitty in the 1985 LeBaron , after the rebuild that was absolutely required when I bought it, never went down 1/4" on the dipstick between changes in the 4 or 5 years we drove it. My PT Cruiser, at 150,000ish KM doesn't go down noticeably between changes, even though it does "mark it's territory" on the driveway.

My daughter's old Colt 200 never used oil with over 200,000km on the clock, while her '95 Neon ALWAYS used at least a quart between changes

- up to about a quart (or a liter) every 1500Km by the time she got rid of it at just under 200,000Km.